Autism is my superpower

okay uh so i guess there's nothing to it uh but to do it uh in 2016 i had a revelation about myself i realized that up until that point a couple years ago that i had been self-isolating my entire life that when i was a kid i didn't i didn't play with any other kids i spent all day in my own mind playing with legos going into the woods looking at bugs when i started growing up even through college i don't remember a single person's name from college i thought that was odd and i didn't go to any parties i sat at the front of every class kept my head down didn't really meet anybody just do what i needed to do and then around 2016 when i was working at a company called nerdist i was in what is called a bullpen an open space with a lot of people working in it and 10 of my close friends who became my close friends were working in that bullpen with me and i slowly started to realize up until that point that what i was doing my thoughts and my actions and my requests and what got me happy or annoyed it was not standard it was not normal and so i started talking to some of my colleagues like hey do you do this have you ever done that do you think this way and uh they started pointing me in some diagnostic directions for my brain so i went online i took the tests that i could find then i took the better tests that i could find from psychological associations and then eventually in 2016 i got a referral got professional help and then then in 2016 i was personally diagnosed with asperger's syndrome so i have autism and i'm coming to you today like this because i believe that autism is my superpower i wanted to learn this about myself mostly just for myself i wanted to understand me better uh how i thought and how i acted better i wanted to tell those very close to me so they could understand me better um and not get the wrong impression from things that i do or that i say um and let's be honest if you know me and you're watching this video it's probably pretty obvious that i was put on the autism spectrum or asd autism spectrum disorder but it was it was news to me um and i never said any of this publicly since 2016 because i wanted to do this this video what i'm doing right now in the right way i knew that if i came out so to speak that i would become an example um and that people who already like my my stuff that i do might think of me differently or not um so i've spent years literally i think about this almost every week how to do something like this and i'm happy to say that i am now feeling confident enough to come out and talk about my experiences because i have partnered with a professional organization so today i'm coming to you with my own story and with the support of aanne the autism aspers network it's a wonderful organization a small organization that works day and night tirelessly to help individuals with asd navigate their lives gives them resources educational material they're fantastic and before i even wrote down anything for this video i had a zoom call with a number of their professionals and their experts to make sure that i was doing this in the right way that i was saying the right things because the last thing that i would want to do is set a bad example and that being said i want to make very clear that i consider myself very lucky i'm very privileged i'm you know i i have a lot of things going fine in my life so i know that a lot of people in similar with similar neurology do not have similar experience to me so i recognize that i'm coming from a place of privilege here when i say what i'm about to say the whole point of me doing this well i wasn't sure i wanted to do this in the first place i wanted to do this because i feel like if i could be a help an inspiration an example a model for anyone and it might be helpful for them then i feel morally obligated that i should do so this is scary to me but the cost benefit here is that it might be scary to me but if i can help anyone or anyone who likes anything that i've ever done then it will be worth it so with the help and the guidance of aane this is about autism and how i feel like it's my superpower and how it makes me who i am and i wanted to share with you just my thoughts about it and then maybe some little tips and tricks to help you really uh understand me or if you're like me to navigate this uh a neurotypical world of ours so of course i'm not going to go through all my symptomology and how i think and how i feel and all that but um what i really get from understanding this about my own brain is that i can recognize that there are a number of distinct advantages or or behaviors that make me who i am and allow me to do the kind of thing that i do the first is focus and observation i kind of feel and this feels weird to say but kind of sherlockian with the way that i notice changes in the world and i'm able to single-mindedly focus down and obsess over little details become very passionate about you know numbers and changes in things and that helps me write my scripts that helps me know how best to focus on things and it really sharpens my mind when i know that i need my mind to do something important another superpower that i'd say aspergers can confer on an individual and you read this from going all the way back to hans asperger's and he he asper and he realized this in the children that he was studying that many of them were very science-minded they liked evidence they liked black and white situations they loved nature and observing things and that lent itself to them you know having more research science engineering based careers or interests later in life and that's the same exact thing that happened to me and i don't know why i was always fascinated with nature and engineering and physics but now i know that my brain has kind of been tuned towards that style of thinking and i literally would not be able to make the videos that i do for all of you without that kind of mindset it is this mindset that allows me to do it but of course any superhero is going to have some weaknesses and the main thrust of this is that if i can come out and be of any help sharing my advice that's what i want to do and when you're a superhero with asd as i guess i consider myself now um you have to identify your kryptonite identify your kryptonite know how people see you how you think and feel yourself and what you can do to better navigate the world the world is not going to change for you you have to change for it if you want to get through it efficiently and if you know me you know i love efficiency my first advice is use your past self to help your future self so me being who i am i know that i can be somewhat scatterbrained in my passions this that this that this that this and forget i forget very easily so one thing that i like to do is is very diligently write down journal calendar um interact with objects in such a way that will help my future self so if i know that i have a problem with locking the door before i leave or i have a problem with taking my food home from work for example i will put my car keys on top of my lunch in the refrigerator so i know i must interact with that object before leaving so i can't forget it it's my past self acknowledging what i'm going to be doing in the future and helping me out of that situation i'm sure there are many ways you can harness this what's helped me a lot is to not just create routines to help my future self but create helpful routines so it's natural to create a routine i love knowing exactly what i'm doing all the time i like being very scheduled um but if that schedule is just kind of haphazard like oh at this time of day i drink coffee and then this time of day i'm gonna do this kind of thing it's it's random it's not efficient it's not organized look in uh harness the organizational capabilities of your wonderful neurology and make it so that navigating a world that's somewhat foreign or alien or uncomfortable to you make that navigation easier another thing that has helped me greatly is for those that you interact with with on a daily basis be honest with them it might feel embarrassing and it was embarrassing to me to come out and say look this is who i am and this is how i interact with the world it's very revealing and you feel vulnerable but in the end i think again cost benefit you might be initially uncomfortable but i've gotten so much positive i've gotten so many positive results by telling my friends and family and they interact with me differently and in a way that helps both me and them so for example a close friend of mine adam you know i have associated misophonia so i i have incredible i'm incredibly sensitive to sound it will throw me into a rage hearing certain sounds literally um so it got to the point where i told the people that i was working closely with and they would you know they'd come to my office and they'd say hey i'm about to open a bag of chips and eat it so i'm going to close your door for you it's wonderful it's so thoughtful and so nice and that's only though those kind of behavioral changes are only possible if you're honest with yourself and with the people that you interact with the most you can't just avoid everything even though i want to all the time especially eye contact and that brings me to another piece of advice the world is not going to change for you like i said so once you identify and internalize who you are you need to know you need to recognize that not everyone's like you and there are certain societal expectations of human beings in a society and so if you're not good with eye contact or talking or that sort of social interaction at least identify the situations where you definitely need to try it so for example if i know that i'm going to a meeting or an audition or what have you i will literally say to myself internally or externally look this person you're about to meet is very important you need to be aware that try to make eye contact x amount of times make sure you shake their hand well maybe not anymore i don't think i'm going to shake anyone's hand ever again but identify the situations you're going to be putting yourself in and what you can do again to help your future self navigate the world easier well i know that i need to make eye contact with this important person because that's what they expect of me and so i'm going to try my best to try that at least a couple of times and finally most of us aren't in an ever-changing environment most of us are in our homes or our offices or working with other people try to make your environment more reflective of of you and what makes you most comfortable um i became twice as productive in 2016 after i got diagnosed i i talked to my close friends and i said look it would really really help me if i isolated myself in an office with a door and they were like you know do you need an office you know none of us have an office but once once they understood then once they put me in an office my output doubled my productivity doubled literally making because science because i was able to focus i knew myself now and i knew i get distracted easily and i wanna you know crack jokes and i and i want to focus on other things or um so by molding my environment around my neurology in a very specific way i was able to help myself be better at the kinds of things that i liked to do all these particulars come together to make me who i am i would not be the nerdy sciencey thor boy that you see today without my brain without acknowledging how i interact with other people and how i think and if any of you watching feel the same way or or just want to learn i think that the first step is trying to normalize your thoughts and feelings with those around you and being honest with yourself and knowing that there's a way forward here if you feel uncomfortable or trapped in your situation maybe most importantly by coming out like this again so to speak i want to show anyone who's ever watched my videos or liked anything that i've done you know i've gotten so many comments and and emails over the years from people who say they have you know they have brains like mine or maybe like yours and they they love what i do and thank you so much and i've never been able to tell them like hey i identify with that and i identify with you so above all i think i wanted to say all this because i want to show that people with autism people with asperger's people on the spectrum are not only what you see most popularized they're not big bang theory people all of the time it's not revenge of the nerds and i want to show that autism is a spectrum right and i'm sure you've heard that but it's a spectrum understand like the electromagnetic spectrum is you have radio waves all the way to gamma rays and in between only some of the electromagnetic forces in this universe are visible to us only visible light only a small portion of the spectrum is visible to us and similarly only a small spectrum of human neurology and behavior and thoughts and actions is most visible to us in society we have a we only see a small slice in our everyday lives of what people are like and so i wanted to by coming to you like this with aane again i wanted to make a different slice of the human spectrum more visible to bring it to light if any of this was helpful or illuminating please check out aane they're a wonderful organization they have many resources and this makes me feel very vulnerable but i've been wanting to do this for a long time so if it helps any of you or anybody you know i'd love to hear it until next time i don't think i'll do this again next bye

Channel: Kyle Hill

Views: 854,542

Rating: 4.9465199 out of 5

Keywords: because science, engineering, kyle hill, learning, math, physics, science, stem, the facility, AANE, autism, aspergers, ASD, autism awareness month, autism spectrum, is autism really a superpower, actually autistic

Id: bgV26ol51UM

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Jedimasterebub]

Kyle as always has my undying respect. He’s an amazing content creator and a genuine person. I will definitely look forward to everything he makes

[u/sonicdemonic]

The dude is insanely talented and genuine all the way around. It's top tier scientific content delivered with a fast paced comedic wit that reminds me of the Russel Brandt interviews on the Craig Ferguson's show, and you can particularly see it in his live streams.
He's wonderully effecient in communicating theories and studies broken down into easily digestible content for your average joe like me.
As a Scientific Communicator, there isn't one better. I keep waiting for him to break into bigger leagues somehow. Like a Hollywood Science Teacher Comedian in some way. Takes some guts to bare something so personal thats so easily attached with stigma, and it just shows this guy just kicks that much more ass

[u/Wobbar]

Been watching Kyle for so many years and was so surprised when I saw this video. Of course, I'm happy he shared it, I just didn't see it coming. I guess maybe he acts different on/off camera or I'm just not familiar with autism.

Anyway, again, happy he shared, happy he sees the positives and happy that he inspires others :)

[u/mikea81]

Really brave, and proud of him for posting this. Watched it earlier and made me cry.

Everything he puts out is brilliant. Lots of thought and attention goes into his work.

Keep it up bud. Xx