'Understanding Autism' explores the latest research in autism and how empathy and emotion can help autistic people live | dG1fQm1tSlBXbWtBTmM
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Short filmTranscript
00:00After I was diagnosed, I don't think I really understood what having autism meant.
00:05It was hard.
00:07I had, like, adults that would help me.
00:10I knew I was different and I knew that I needed them, but I didn't know why.
00:16My son more than ever wants to go to the military.
00:19All he does is train.
00:21You can't have autism.
00:23So how do we gear him into having a successful future
00:28without telling him that he can't do something because he was born different?
00:34By the time I was 23, I came across a trades list,
00:37and I just knew it was me, but I still wanted to seek a professional diagnosis.
00:41It costs $5,000 to $8,000 on average to get an autism diagnosis.
00:46A neurologist diagnosed Misha in about 20 minutes
00:49and then said that it's a lifelong condition.
00:51We don't know what the limits are.
00:52We don't know what the causes are.
00:53We have no cures.
00:54Have a nice day.
00:55The system is wrong, and it makes me very angry.
01:00He had blurted out in class that he wanted to kill himself.
01:03It scared me. It scared me so much.
01:05My son's a sweet, loving, kind, gentle being.
01:08I don't want you to ever feel like that.
01:10Do you understand me?
01:11Yes.
01:14Just doing my best trying to get through day by day.
01:17This is what we really need to communicate.
01:20I feel thirsty and tired.
01:22You're thirsty and tired.
01:23Okay, honey.
01:25I think one of the common misconceptions about autism
01:28is that you don't like people.
01:30A story on the front page of our local newspaper
01:33reported how the principal at my high school told a staff member,
01:36the retard can't be valedictorian.
01:41I love you.
01:42I love you, too.
01:43Once I really understood what autism meant,
01:45it was easier because then I could find my community.
01:47In your commencement address,
01:49you bring up Viktor Frankl's book,
01:52Man's Search for Meaning,
01:54about gratitude, about life.
01:57About sharing your last crust of bread.
02:00That's what it means to be human.
02:02Wow.
02:03Can I give you a hug?
02:06You are such a beautiful soul.
02:09This is about them tapping into their own inspiration,
02:13using art to make sense of their world.
02:15You can hear music and then you can just play it.
02:18And I can just play it, yes.
02:21How did you come to a place,
02:23a piece with me as your parent, being autistic?
02:28Oh, you haven't.
02:29Oh, I haven't.
02:31My message to any girl, any boy struggling with autism
02:35is that it is your superpower.
02:37Embrace it.
02:38Learning from all these autistic people on this journey
02:42has made me realize that I feel a part of something.