BBC to air documentary on presenter Chris Packham's autism

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Magna
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31 Jan 2019, 10:44 am

Also, when he traveled to the U.S. and witnessed ABA therapy, especially with the poor young girl, it was as uncomfortable for me to watch as it would be if I was watching footage of someone being abused. I thought it was awful.



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31 Jan 2019, 11:29 am

underwater wrote:
smudge wrote:
HighLlama wrote:
Quote:
She seems happy to keep working with me, and seems to have a better understanding of my issues, but she doesn't get at all how severe they are, and it's becoming clearer and clearer that she doesn't see my 'tells'. I see very well when Chris Packham is uncomfortable in the film, but I'm starting to understand that this is invisible to a lot of people.


That was certainly touching, and unfortunately it's hard to know how to make this more visible. I imagine to most people he looked disconnected or indifferent during some of the moments I'd say he was uncomfortable and probably feeling very strong emotions. Even with therapists, it is hard to relay the intensity of what we go through. I had one who suggested I listen to recordings of office noise to "desensitize" myself to the noises I hate, despite the fact that I'd worked in offices about 10 years and was not becoming less sensitive. His advice just made me more anxious and worn out. I don't mean to be hopeless, but I wonder if this is something most NTs will ever really get. I think they feel our needs are too selfish and demanding because it takes effort for them to adjust, and they don't realize how many adjust we have to make.

On a more positive note, I'll say I really envied his house in the woods.



I've only just noticed this part of the conversation. To me Chris looks quite obviously uncomfortable, it's interesting to think that NTs don't even notice this. They don't notice it when I'm uncomfortable, it's either that or I'm just ignored.

I've felt my emotions and feelings have been almost completely invisible for most of my life. I can't believe that other people can't see it, including in Chris Packham, unless I'm jumping to conclusions here. I did study body language in my teens which made it 10x easier to recognise when people got uncomfortable, like the shoulders hunching and being less animated. Would NTs really not see that Chris was uncomfortable in that film?


I suspect not. I recently was in a setting where a trained therapist completely missed an autistic person's reaction to something, but I noticed. I think some of our facial expressions and body language is extremely subtle, particularly when it comes to hiding pain, which is such an ingrained response in so many of us. I suspect also that it is a "theory of mind" issue on their part - that their experiences in life are so different from ours that they find it hard to imagine. In short, what they say about us.

Also, I think we sometimes have delayed reactions to things, so they don't connect the response and the stimuli because of the time frame.

I'd completely forgotten this conversation, but it was such a great discussion. I wonder where Birdie went to. I miss her.



That's the thing, my reactions are not subtle, like if I get nervous and start waving my arms a bit, I start stuttering and everyone completely ignores it. I think they ignore it on purpose because they don't know how to react. I've been told before though that when I get angry it comes out of nowhere. Maybe my expression is blank until then, but the stuttering, looking for an exit etc. are telltale signs for me, and for me they are very obvious.

It's interesting that that therapist didn't notice the uncomfortableness in that autistic person. I can't think how a trained person wouldn't pick up on it, but I think a lot of trained people aren't as well trained as they make themselves out to me. Still surprises me though.

It was interesting, I'm not sure if you saw the latest I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here with Anne Hegarty in it, but at some point Holly Willoughby asked Anne what it was like to be autistic, Anne explained a little bit and Holly said the same kind of "Hmm" in exactly the same, "OK OK" tone of voice I get. It feels as if that person wants to change topic ASAP, even if I barely say a word, like Anne did. She was being minimal about it unless people asked her about it, and even then, she kept her cool and didn't go on about anything. Exactly like me. I always get that type of "Hmm" that sounds dismissive and I hate it. I've never heard Holly use that type of "Hmm" before. My point is, even if we come across as normal, even the word autism seems to trip people up.


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31 Jan 2019, 11:31 am

underwater wrote:
I'd completely forgotten this conversation, but it was such a great discussion. I wonder where Birdie went to. I miss her.


Yeh, she was great.


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31 Jan 2019, 11:55 am

smudge wrote:
underwater wrote:
smudge wrote:
HighLlama wrote:
Quote:
She seems happy to keep working with me, and seems to have a better understanding of my issues, but she doesn't get at all how severe they are, and it's becoming clearer and clearer that she doesn't see my 'tells'. I see very well when Chris Packham is uncomfortable in the film, but I'm starting to understand that this is invisible to a lot of people.


That was certainly touching, and unfortunately it's hard to know how to make this more visible. I imagine to most people he looked disconnected or indifferent during some of the moments I'd say he was uncomfortable and probably feeling very strong emotions. Even with therapists, it is hard to relay the intensity of what we go through. I had one who suggested I listen to recordings of office noise to "desensitize" myself to the noises I hate, despite the fact that I'd worked in offices about 10 years and was not becoming less sensitive. His advice just made me more anxious and worn out. I don't mean to be hopeless, but I wonder if this is something most NTs will ever really get. I think they feel our needs are too selfish and demanding because it takes effort for them to adjust, and they don't realize how many adjust we have to make.

On a more positive note, I'll say I really envied his house in the woods.



I've only just noticed this part of the conversation. To me Chris looks quite obviously uncomfortable, it's interesting to think that NTs don't even notice this. They don't notice it when I'm uncomfortable, it's either that or I'm just ignored.

I've felt my emotions and feelings have been almost completely invisible for most of my life. I can't believe that other people can't see it, including in Chris Packham, unless I'm jumping to conclusions here. I did study body language in my teens which made it 10x easier to recognise when people got uncomfortable, like the shoulders hunching and being less animated. Would NTs really not see that Chris was uncomfortable in that film?


I suspect not. I recently was in a setting where a trained therapist completely missed an autistic person's reaction to something, but I noticed. I think some of our facial expressions and body language is extremely subtle, particularly when it comes to hiding pain, which is such an ingrained response in so many of us. I suspect also that it is a "theory of mind" issue on their part - that their experiences in life are so different from ours that they find it hard to imagine. In short, what they say about us.

Also, I think we sometimes have delayed reactions to things, so they don't connect the response and the stimuli because of the time frame.

I'd completely forgotten this conversation, but it was such a great discussion. I wonder where Birdie went to. I miss her.



That's the thing, my reactions are not subtle, like if I get nervous and start waving my arms a bit, I start stuttering and everyone completely ignores it. I think they ignore it on purpose because they don't know how to react. I've been told before though that when I get angry it comes out of nowhere. Maybe my expression is blank until then, but the stuttering, looking for an exit etc. are telltale signs for me, and for me they are very obvious.

It's interesting that that therapist didn't notice the uncomfortableness in that autistic person. I can't think how a trained person wouldn't pick up on it, but I think a lot of trained people aren't as well trained as they make themselves out to me. Still surprises me though.

It was interesting, I'm not sure if you saw the latest I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here with Anne Hegarty in it, but at some point Holly Willoughby asked Anne what it was like to be autistic, Anne explained a little bit and Holly said the same kind of "Hmm" in exactly the same, "OK OK" tone of voice I get. It feels as if that person wants to change topic ASAP, even if I barely say a word, like Anne did. She was being minimal about it unless people asked her about it, and even then, she kept her cool and didn't go on about anything. Exactly like me. I always get that type of "Hmm" that sounds dismissive and I hate it. I've never heard Holly use that type of "Hmm" before. My point is, even if we come across as normal, even the word autism seems to trip people up.


I'm not familiar with the tv program -if it's on Youtube, you might link to it?

About the autistic person, I was sorta familiar with their way of thinking, which is why I picked up on it. All it was was a slight narrowing of the eyes and a slight start, but I do that too, I'm so familiar with it. If you weren't familiar with autism you wouldn't have picked up on the physical signs, and if you didn't know the person you might not understand why. Most therapists here know sod all about autism, is the conclusion I've come to. They're able to identify it in a male child. Most of us are adults. If they don't know about masking, they won't know when it's happening.


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