Non-Verbal To Professional Autistic Speaker
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Publicado 2023-08-14
Paul Isaacs (@staypuft12) is an autistic public speaker who was late diagnosed with autism and OCD at the age of 24 in 2010. Paul was functionally non-verbal till the age of 11, suffering from a brain injury from cerebral hypoxia before birth. Within this podcast, Paul details his life with visual and speech disorders, and how others can better understand the experience.
My Links - linktr.ee/thomashenleyUK // Paul's Blog - theisaacs22.wordpress.com/
Dbud Noise Cancelling Adjustable Ear Buds (20% OFF with code: THOUGHTYAUTI) - dbud.io/thoughtyautipodcast
Chapters:
00:00 - 02:19 Introduction
02:19 - 07:04 Late Autism Diagnosis
07:04 - 13:57 The Life of Donna Williams (TW)
13:57 - 26:32 Struggles Of Autistic Employment
26:32 - 48:36 Visual and Speech Disorders
48:36 - 01:00:18 Alexithymia, Connection, Emotions
01:00:18 - 01:09:03 Processing, Dissociation and Mergence
01:09:03 - 01:17:09 Overthinking and OCD
01:17:09 - 01:19:57 Paul’s Dark Past
01:19:57 - 01:28:02 Internal VS External Validation
01:28:02 - 01:34:31 Autistic Selfishness and Individuality
01:34:31 - 01:41:08 Neurotypical Hatred
01:41:08 - 01:49:37 Low VS High Support Needs
01:49:37 - 01:53:57 Forgiveness And Victimhood
01:53:57 - 02:05:31 Advocacy For Visual Disorders
Kicking off the episode, Paul explains his history with Autism and OCD. Diagnosed at the late age of 24 he was gifted with a very positive experience, something not common to many.
Paul found a role model in a woman named Donna Williams, who shared many of his experiences in life, recounting her inspiring yet tragic life in great detail.
Starting work at 15 due to his parents increasing concern about Paul's isolation in his room, he had a very ego-centric approach to communication with many processing delays. The two bond over their shared confusion and difficulty identifying bullying, gossiping, and gaslighting within the school system and workplace.
Non-verbal until age 7, Paul describes the numerous visual and speech disorders he was afflicted with due to brain damage inflicted during a placental abruption and consequent cerebral hypoxia. Doctors originally believed he was blind, but eventually identified a few causes of his social, kinaesthetic, and sensory-sampling behaviours.
Paul is hemiplegic, which impacts his visual perception, language, proprioceptive awareness, and some of his motor functionality. His visual agnosia left him unable to register anything he wasn't directly focused on, like extreme tunnel vision... meaning his ability to create word associations to objects in childhood was difficult.
In terms of speech, Paul was 80% meaning deaf. The experience was described as perceiving large amounts of fragmented information, and couldn't interpret language as anything but meaningless phonics. His anomic aphasia made it difficult to find words to say, which resulted in him becoming highly echolalic.
Paul and Thomas describe their shared difficulty with Alexithymia in childhood and how their feelings manifested as physical illness. Paul describes the idea of mergence, something common in infants who are in a state of sensing, rather than interpretation... this mergence was remarked by Thomas as being eerily similar to goals of meditation and the experience of ego-death many chase.
Paul and Thomas do differ in some respects. Thomas describes his default mode network or baseline activity of his brain as being constant and often stressful; Paul doesn't tend to think at all unless baited by OCD or PTSD symptoms.
Briefly speaking on his dark past with auditory psychosis and mental illness symptoms, the two have a constructive conversation about internal vs external validation and why autistic people may be viewed as selfish.
The importance of forgiveness in its many forms seems to be a common thread between recent podcasts. The two highlight a worrying trend of identifying as a victim of the world and how this can lead to an intense hatred towards neurotypical individuals.
Paul ends the episode by giving some valuable and practical information on how to better understand and communicate with those with visual/speech disorders.
Song Of The Day (Listen Here) - open.spotify.com/playlist/5UDIyN5TSYN4zMcRoQPrG8?s…
Interview me, 1:1 Talk With Thomas, public speaking for events & workplace training - linktr.ee/thomashenleyUK
Todos los comentarios (11)
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I tasted everything as a kid, every plant especially. I heard a teacher say that autistic kids often drag their fingers across the wall when they are walking down the hall. I do this at the gym. It's like an extra piece of sensory information to orient myself. It's a comforting confirmation of where I am, even though I see perfectly well.
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I just found your channel today, Thomas! I really enjoyed your discussion with Paul, and I related to a lot of what your talked about. Wow, the struggles with employment as an autistic person, this really hits home for me big time! Also, the discussions about speech disorders, emotions, processing, dissociation, internal vs external validation, these were all very interesting and important topics. I was just diagnosed a few months ago at the age of 60, and finally finding out that I am autistic has explained so many of the difficulties and struggles I've had all my life. Suddenly so many things make sense! I always wondered why I struggled with so many aspects of daily life that most other people seemed to just do effortlessly. Now I know that I have struggled precisely because I'm not neurotypical, and the world just doesn't make sense to me most of the time. Now I can give myself some grace, and not be so hard on myself for "not being like everyone else", because I'm not, and that doesn't mean there's something wrong with me!
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I learned a lot from this speaker. Thank you to both of you. I'm glad you are accepting of neurotypicals. I want to understand everyone better
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I would cry and not want to go to school. When I got there they sat me on the stage in assembly in front of the whole school and just left me to cry
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What a fantastic video. Thomas, you are gifted at what you do.
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Always have the best! Arievail in the mine for the best mind
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I have never heard of musical ear syndrome but I have definitely had clips of songs stuck in my head for days. The way I get rid of it is to listen to the whole song so it resolves itself.
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I just looked up Musical Syndrome. I am not sure if that accurately describes what I experience. I wish there was more on this topic, specifically I tend to have an ongoing dialogue, soundtrack, or scenarios playing out in my mind. I don't always get to choose what is "playing." It can be random and not the same as a daydream. I have noticed that what is "playing in my mind" will often be determined by my mood or interactions with other people. I will send this via your email as well so I may cut down some of this as it started as a comment on your video "Non-Verbal To Professional Autistic Speaker."
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I very much appreciate Paul's statements about egocentrism, and his wise perspectives on life. Egocentric communication is not narcissism, but it is sometimes experienced in the same way by people who don't understand it. It is one of the most frustrating things, because it still leaves the listener feeling lonely and unseen, even when it isn't the intent at all. I on the other hand taught myself to over-correct through masking, and feel I can't share freely at all unless the whole floor is mine.
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