Autistic Youtuber has been accused of lying about his condition

Not all autistic people look the same  

Andy says: ‘Autism has many faces and appears in many different ways – and there are different severities – For myself I am considered to be high functioning.

‘I know general social norms and can act appropriately in social environments

‘Someone who’s low functioning may not have that social etiquette.’

Everyone is a little autistic 

He says: ‘It depends what context you mean. Mainly my understanding of this phrase is the social awkwardness and missing social cues.

‘But you have many other things that come with it like stimming, sensory issues, social communication issues.

‘I personally don’t find it offensive but I do think there’s a difference between someone being socially awkward and hardly making eye contact to someone who is autistic, who has real trouble making eye contact and communicating effectively.’

Andy Burns has his own YouTube channel where he regularly talks about his experiences of living with autism and posts videos that aim to debunk many misconceptions

Autistic people can’t feel empathy

He says: ‘A lot of us feel emotion harder than someone who doesn’t have autism and from my personal experience I have trouble being able to relate to someone’s situation.

‘This is just due to lack of experience with that situation in that time.

‘I can understand how people feel most of the time but for me, I struggle to put myself in their shoes because if I haven’t been in that situation then it’s hard to imagine it. I feel like people misinterpret that as not having empathy. 

You must be really high functioning

He says: ‘This upsets me – just because someone appears to be coping in a situation – like being in a nightclub say where there’s lots of flashing lights loud music etc – doesn’t mean they don’t find things difficult in other aspects.

‘Just because you see me in a situation doesn’t mean I don’t have struggles of my own and it’s likely I will have been in that situation many times before and that’s why I seem ok.’

Explaining how the condition affects him, he adds: ‘From becoming overwhelmed by small changes to feeling like no one understands me, it can be a struggle.

‘I still struggle with unexpected change to my routine and environment today. I really thrive on familiarity and things staying the same. 

You must be really good with maths, IT, numbers, binary code 

He says: ‘This is simply not the case. There are autistics who do love maths and are good with numbers and code, however not all autistics are the same.

‘Though we can have similarities in the way we show our symptoms, it is a very individual condition and the support that each of us may need will differ depending on the autistic in question.’

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