Is Monotropism the best theory of Autism? #actuallyautistic

Monotropism is one of the most related theories of autism, but how does it explain the variety of autistic experiences?

I'm Mike, and I'm a late diagnosed autistic person although I have had a lifetime of autistic experiences as an undiagnosed autistic person - I have always been autistic. On this channel, I hope to share with you my thoughts, advice, where appropriate, and evidence and research where needed, like in this video.

References:
1. "Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism" by D. Murray, Michael L. Lesser, and Wendy Lawson (2005)
2." The cost of interrupted work: More speed and stress" by Gloria Mark (2008)

As always, if you have met one autistic person, you have met one autistic person; although the diagnostic criteria are set, every individual is unique and of course, 'on a spectrum'.

Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist, or a diagnostician although, for many reasons, I believe like much of the autistic community that self-diagnosis is valid. If you are autistic, or questioning whether you may be on the spectrum, you are very welcome on this channel.

Mike :)

Chapter markers - thanks for the reminder in the comments section lol
0:00 Intro to monotropism
0:52 Hello
1:41 Paper 1
3:00 Superpower?
3:52 Downsides
5:10 Social Interactions
7:43 Passions
8:15 Perception
8:51 Attention Tunnelling
10:48 Flow States
11:28 Paper 2
12:02 Cafe example
13:46 Comorbidities?
14:00 Masking
14:27 Gaming/sports analogy
15:00 Tip 1: Use new routines
15:40 Tip 2: Set boundaries
16:05 Tip 3: Use timers
16:18 Tip 4: Create a transition ritual
16:39 Summary

[cday]

i did not realise this was your first vid! keep up the good work :-)

[markrichter]

“It’s like being on the verge of solving a complex puzzle and having someone scramble the pieces.”

[tippingPrint]

Tech nerd here! I've been using "my brain is all overclocked cores with absolutely no cache, stock fans. Everything feels rushed, I overheat, and I crash a lot" to describe a few specific aspects of my experience.

[BillNessworthyPhotography]

Every group social activity in my life has been "like watching four different TV channels at once" - so well said!

[_Adie]

When I was a kid and would do some garden work or whatever, my mother would come in in the middle and be like "I made lunch, aren't you hungry?" and I could be starving, but I wouldn't go eat until I was done with whatever I was doing. Partially because I knew that if I took a break I would have an incredibly hard time getting back to it, but mostly because like, I'm doing The Thing, if I can finish it today then why would I stop? I'll finish it and THEN I'll get to whatever else.

Anyway, I don't know if I'm autistic or not, I was told by a professional that I might be, but it wasn't a diagnosis. But Monotropism does make a lot of sense for me.

[HIGHLANDER_ONLY_ONE]

I get exceptionally ANNOYED, even ANGRY when I'm in the middle of something, and I'm interrupted... I try not to show anger, because to a polythropic focus person, that's crazy, so I think I hide it well...

[NotSoNormal]

I set a timer for 3-5 minutes when I need to switch tasks. Those few minutes can help me prepare to switch from what I am doing to something else. It's like using a dimming switch on a light rather than just flipping the switch off.

[spotterofgold]

Re-watching this several times, today, and taking more of it in with each pass. It is a delicious chocolate cake of helpfulness in understanding my late-diagnosed and self-diagnosed 72-year old autistic self. Many thanks once again!

[BlazeNStar]

Being monotropic and getting interrupted, (sometimes in my experience, ) is like having a really nice and detailed dream, you're in a deep sleep after days of barely sleeping at all, and then getting shaken awake suddenly to settle an argument. It's jarring, it can leave you confused and not remembering what you were doing in the dream after a few minutes, you might not even be sure why you now have to be awake, maybe you even feel stomach sick because you're still so tired. And you're probably really not happy because not only was your sleep interrupted, but you were having a very nice dream and now are having to do something else because people are arguing and dragged you into their disagreement. Even if it's something nice like what treats to buy, they decided to wake you up to do it so you still aren't happy about that, as you'd rather have finished your dream and finished sleeping and woken up on your own before dealing with them since you don't have the energy for this right now.

[dontreadthisplease]

My happiest time at work (taco bell) is when we have a rush and they realize I'm so useless on drive through that they send me back to do dishes for 3-4 hours straight. I lose track of time. Being asked to do dishes is like going to nap at 5 and waking up an hour before end of shift.

[Kelpies-boop]

Oh my goodness the “being interrupted disorientation”!!! Your analogies resonated so much with me. The house of cards that you have to start over. The marathon that you have to restart. This is so accurate

[ClaudiaGale-wvtz]

I have seen a plethora of videos on autism over the past 2 years and found your method of communication far more succinct and less about yourself than the others I have watched.
While I appreciate that you were officially diagnosed "late" in life...I am 69 to your 42 and have yet to be "officially" diagnosed. This is largely due to the focus on autism in the young. And once more, we elders are overlooked.
Anthony Hopkins was diagnosed at 72. But he had the resources to pay for testing, while I do not.
Might you, in the future, address the plight of autism diagnosis in the elderly?
I found you spot on and quite refreshing.
Thank you.

[kensears]

Your house-of-cards analogy really brought it home to me. When I have been in an utterly consuming, "atomic" flow of laser-like focus with a stream of creativity manifesting "with a life of its own"--which, for me, means writing something--and then for some reason the flow is broken, intruded on, lost, it feels so psycho-affectively catastrophic (especially if I've lost what I was producing) that it's a kind of meltdown, a kind of catatonia, my brain, and my gut, have simply frozen in inability to assimilate, process, what just happened. It's one of life's utterly most horrible feelings. And this horrible feeling is soon followed the natural, logical question, can I do it again, can I recreate what I lost? It's a question that hits my psyche lke the most mocking, cruel joke: "NOOOooo, that can never be reproduced; what just happened was destroyed, trying to reproduce it would be both a lie and sheer agony." Mind you, this is all feelings, and, yes, trauma. It doesn't really mean I can't start over and end up producing something that's even better than what I lost. I usually can. But the feeling of "catastrophic agony" is such a monumental barrier to overcome that sometimes I have simply given up rather than attempt it.

[higherground]

As a young adult I struggled in so many jobs that required me to juggle different demands on my attention at once: waiting tables, working as a cashier in busy retail settings, talking on the phone with other noise in the background... These were entry-level jobs which "anyone" was supposed to be able to do, but they were SO hard for me. I was let go from many of them for not being able to keep up. In my 30's I tried out a career as a real estate agent, thinking my mental health would improve if I could be my own boss. But I immediately crashed and burned because I could not manage the constant phone calls and messages from clients and the need to suddenly change viewing plans to suit clients' requests. These experiences left me with a lot of shame and confusion which I'm only now beginning to heal from. This year I've been assessed as autistic by a psychologist, and I find that the theory of monotropism in particular is spot on in describing how my mind works! It's been such a long road to get here, but finally I can forgive myself for my past mistakes and choose environments that suit me. ❤

[Ellen-mtob]

I am learning to let go of my fruitless attempts to be outgoing. If I need to attend a family gathering, I don't stay long, take breaks, and/or sit at an end of the table. When interrupted in tasks, I just say, "Sorry, I don't multi-task. Just a minute." And I am learning to prioritize the interests that put me in the "flow." It's not easy to let go of lifelong expectations to be like allistics, but I am determined to embrace who I am. Thanks, Mike, for another insightful video!

[barrielynn]

This explains a lot. Thank you for sharing. I relate 100%. I am a 53 year old female undiagnosed. I have no strategies or tips to share but am here because I am so mentally exhausted from forcing myself into social situations and not having enough alone time. I’ve masked and passed so well my entire life, people don’t want to believe me when I tell them I can’t do it anymore. The mental exhaustion is real and masking becomes more exhausting with age. Your description of how the one on one conversation was working so well and then went wrong after the other people joined in with shallow small talk describes my social struggles to the tee. I also cannot block out other tables’ conversations in a restaurant and focus on a conversation with the person I’m dining with. Thank you for sharing this content. It helps me feel validated.

[ollieashton]

What a fantastic video!!! I’m saving this to send to my support workers. They roll their eyes when I say “I can’t multitask”, but what I mean is “I have a mono tropic brain and can’t shift attention”.

[theJellyjoker]

I miss things many people tell me are obvious and intuitive and very often I notice and focus on things that, for me, are obvious to me and are important to my understanding but are almost always dismissed as unimportant and any further questions on it are usually met with hostility.😢

[tiredko-hi-]

My tip as an autistic person is to constantly reflect and improve every action you do. This should come semi-naturally already since while we are doing a task we usually don't spread our focus and have it at what we are currently doing.

At a certain age I decided to reflect on what I'm doing while doing "stuff" which wasn't my main interest. Thinking back to it, it might be because my main interest, gaming, is heavily related to skill improvement and pattern recognition. "What do I do next time to improve this motion/action?" is the main question I put into everything whilst gaming and then later anything that wasn't gaming as well. Whether it be learning algebra, washing ones hand whilst moving both hands, opening a cabinet, smiling whilst talking with someone, and so on.

By increasing your proficiency in everything substantially, you also decrease the workload of processing your surroundings by making everything easier to process.

[danieljackson]

I can definitely relate to the frustration of not being able to build the house of cards again after it’s been knocked down the first time.