Autism & Processing Information

Processing information is a skill that many people take for granted. What's it like to struggle in this area? Watch this video to find out the perspective of an autistic individual who takes longer to process information.

[haunted]

I always hated it when I would think about an answer for a minute and my mom and my sister would yell my name

[garotadejupiter]

Recently I noticed that walking makes me think better, processing information or ever solving problems. walking everyday is a Must for me.

- does anybody else share this feeling?

[ArtyAntics]

I connect with some of these things. Like open ended questions are horrid, unless they are my special interest topics and then expect me to info dump into bliss 😂 I learnt to talk very quickly and can process information extremely quickly, unless it is social cues like body language or emotions. Then 1 hrs social interaction takes me weeks to process and I can’t sleep properly with anxiety nightmares.

[AutomaticDuck]

Not gonna lie, the Henry 8th joke got me good. That’s great.

[Youtubefan]

I have always envied people who can just have normal conversations and the info just flows into their brain effortlessly. I feel thick, and my brain says ‘the person you’re talking to thinks you’re thick’ because it’s a real effort to keep up. I am 50 and thinking about seeking diagnosis.

[MrRocksW]

I've noticed this in myself just last weekend. I was at a boardgames session in a group, it was a competitive social game, and I found it very hard to follow the game and the other players motivations etc while playing whereas the others didn't seem to have the same problem.

[rhonddalesley]

I absolutely agree with open ended questions being really difficult. My first thought was about how much I struggled to answer the multiple choice questions in the online ADHD/autism tests I did (before raising my thoughts that I might have both to my mental health facilitator) and couldn’t grasp why they posed them that way considering.
I find those that I think of as being double negative types of questions especially hard, I’ve tried to think of an example but can’t but you see them in those long questionnaires when they ask you the same question repeatedly just in different ways so you have to figure out the question before you can even start to think about the answer if that makes sense.
Then there’s the CAT-Q for example that has 7 answer options to choose from which is a nightmare, then there’s the tests that ask you questions that are far too specific with answers that don’t seem to correlate, others that could really use examples for context and ones at the other end of the scale that have black or white answers and neither is the right option because you fall into a grey area.
🤯🤪

[quintessencenevermore]

Ever since I turned 18, I have encountered several people who have suspected I had autism. The first was brought up by someone else, and every time after was brought up because I mentioned it to them. One of these people actually had autism, and another had a son that was autistic and might have also had autism as well.
Because of this suspicion, I have become very interested in autism, and have started picking up on traits in other people (both real and fictional) as a result of my research.
I also started noticing some peculiarities in my own behavior as well. My mother always said there was something "wrong" with me, and I never really noticed until recently.
Here they are:
1. When ever I get stressed, I have noticed that I stop moving and just stare. The first time I noticed was when I was getting ready to eat. I didn't feel like eating, and instead, just layed down on the seat and stared at the ceiling and my hands for a period of time. I didn't move until I made up my mind to clean my room (it made me feel much better). It even happened at work once, when a coworker left me a lot of work to do when I was closing by myself. (I also lost my temper as well.) Everything went back to normal when I hid a bulk of the work (a cart filled with a bunch of dirty dishes) in the cooler and got it out of sight.
2: Though I have learned how to detect it over the years, I always double-check when I suspect someone is being sarcastic.
3: I don't feel sad when I hear about death (though I did feel sad being around my family when my grandfather died). When I was taken out of school when my grandfather was hospitalized, I was more upset about being taken out of school, not having access to the internet, and losing my perfect attendance.
3: I hate certain foods, and have difficulty understanding why people like them (eg. salami and bologna).
These are just a few examples. (I also almost always use a monotone that makes it difficult to tell when I am joking. Even when I think I have changed my tone of voice, I find out that it hasn't really changed.)

[joshsummers]

I'm in a fresh relationship with my beautiful girlfriend and her wonderful 7 year old boy and he is autistic. I care about them both very much and love him as my own which is sad because I'm the one he calls dad due to his dad's neglect he took to me very well too because I'm gentle at heart and he sees it and further he listens to me all the time and I unknowingly doing connection with him but I wanna understand on the deepest possible level so...long introduction out of the way...THANK YOU SO SO MUCH 😊
You are such a great man for doing so helping people who care enough to see the world through your eyes
I've subbed I'll like and be a continuing viewer of the content you provide I pray your channel thrives friend also would love to get in contact with you keep it up 👍

[SongBillong]

Thanks so much for this info. It's really interesting to hear someone else talk about how open-ended questions can be so difficult to process. Honestly, one of the worst things someone could ask me is, "How's your week been?" Unless that week has been incredibly good or staggeringly bad, I have no idea how to answer that! It's like my brain's been dunked into golden syrup... P.S. Love the Henry VIII joke!

[grittygoombah]

super relateable! thanks for making this video <3

[inkhexes]

Great video Alex, ty for talking about the topic. I tend to have this happen to me and people I know will get frustrated! But It's just me trying to process. :) Glad this came up in my recommended!

[Virtualme]

I used to have the same issues, but devouring philosophy books helped me enhance my working memory. Now, I’m much sharper and give quicker and rounder answers than my allistic peers.

[sori]

Thanks for this video, really helps with understanding what I’m experiencing. For me i struggle with understanding the meaning of information that’s deeper than the surface literal level. My brain doesn’t naturally make connections with existing knowledge or my life experiences, and trying to ‘manually’ do that can be like pulling teeth.

[KC-toxl]

Dude I've never related so much to someone as an Autistic individual. We also have the same stem! Hand flappers unite!

[paal]

Shalom brother

We could easily be twins. Thank you for sharing your experience. I may not be as uniquely quirky and as slow as I have been led to believe.

[cosmicaug]

I suppose i have an auditory processing delay:I end up asking the other to repeat the question and by the time I finish asking them to repeat I am usually just finishing processing the question.

Also, with multiple conversations I hear multiple conversations... or at least the words from multiple conversations. I won't necessarily be able filter out the words from the conversations that I am not engaged in so following the actual conversation that I am actually engaged in can be challenging.

[spookje]

I suspected I have autism since awhile now. My autistic friend brought it up but I didn't think they where serious untill I asked if they where years later after finding an autism vid on YT. I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was 8 and process language very slowly, but my processing speed is normal (from my dyslexic diagnostic report). It's these kind of things that make me doubt if I would get a diagnosis or not.

[AnmolSingh-drmi]

Yayy! Thankyou for taking my name.
Loved your video

[truthspeaks]

I am here to learn because my brothers gf has autism and she has slow processing speed. She is highly intelligent and its sad because she receives horrible stigma bc of this and I want to understand whats really going on so i can better communicate. Thank you!!