August 21, 2025 • 48 mins
He's a radio broadcaster, a news journalist, a podcaster and an author...and he has autism. Some 'experts' would tell you that isn't possible, but Blake "Crash" Priddle is proof that those on the autism spectrum have a wide range of talents and abilities that don't fit popular stereotypes. Liana talks to Blake about his experience growing up with autism and how in many ways it benefited his chosen career. And in talking about Blake's journey, a lot of myths about autism are cast aside.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Saga nine sixty am or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
If you're seeking social.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Services, please call or text two to one one or
go to two one one dot CA. Hello looseners around
the world on radio, streaming and podcast services. This is
It's not therapy. I'm Leanna Kersner, and I am not
a therapist, but I am your source for navigating the
madness of mental health using my top ten sayings for
(00:35):
going good crazy. This week, we're gonna meet an autistic person.
He's a very unique autistic person in that he, like me,
works in radio and this isn't an expected job for
an autistic person because it requires dealing with a lot
of change and a lot of people. But that's gonna
be the point of this entire show. If you've met
(00:59):
one person with all autism, you've met one person with autism.
Autistic people have a lot of other aspects of their personality,
and autism itself is a spectrum experience, meaning everyone who
is autistic has different challenges and different strengths. My guest
this week happens to have autism but or be autistic
(01:20):
and also has OCD. Radio announcer Blake Crash Prittle. Blake
can be heard on ninety five seven FM in Halifax,
and you'll be hearing from him here after the first break.
Like I said, Blake has autism and OCD, and he
wrote an incredibly charming book about his life so far
(01:40):
called Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay. Now,
where to begin describing autism?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
What the heck?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Let's go with Wikipedia just as a baseline, right quote. Autism,
also known as autism spectrum disorder, is a neuro developmental
condition characterized by differentferences or difficulties in social communication and interaction,
a preference for predictability and routine sensory processing, differences focus interests,
and repetitive behaviors. For a formal diagnosis, these characteristics much
(02:15):
must cause clinically significant challenges greater than what is typical
for a person's age and culture, and must affect several areas.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Of daily life.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Motor coordination difficulties are common, but not required. Now, what's
known as the autism spectrum was formally adopted the way
we understand it now in twenty thirteen. It includes what
used to be five separate conditions, you know, base autism,
(02:46):
childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, otherwise
known as PDDNOS, Asperger syndrome, and ret syndrome, which is
a condition almost exclusively seen in girls. What Yeah, that's
one of the mists about autism. Hold on to your butts,
(03:09):
will get there in a minute. If you're one of
those people who thinks that suddenly everyone has autism, every
kid has autism, consider that, first of all, it's just
more things are called autism now, but it's also no
longer surrounded by so much shame.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
If you know twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Percent of the population is not a divergent and forty
percent of the population is not a divergent. Who cares
as long as everybody you know gets the opportunity to
learn and work and feel accepted in ways that allow
them to learn and work and be accepted. Right, there's
a lot of stuff out there about autism that is
(03:50):
just flat wrong, even though it might be popular. Vaccines
don't cause autism, I repeat, vaccines don't cause autism. They
don't trigger autism. They don't do anything with autism that
is correlation, not causation. People tend to get vaccinated before
the age of two, which is right where autism symptoms
(04:13):
start showing up. It's just coincidence. Girls can be autistic
as well as boys, which is why ret syndrome is
significant being brought into the umbrella.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Autism is not a disease.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It's a neurodivergency. It's a neurodevelopmental difference. Okay, Autism isn't
caused by bad parenting.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And there's this.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Idea out there that autistic people have no empathy, which
is something I want to clearly address before we get
to Blake, because well, Blake's amazing. When some people say empathy,
what they're usually referring to is a specific type of empathy,
emotional empathy, or effective empathy, which means that you share
(04:56):
in the experience of the emotions of the people around you.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
When you're with someone who's sad, you feel a.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Little or a lot sad too, and it's easier to
be happy when others around you are happy. Autistic people
have fully intact, effective empathy. They care about other people's feelings.
They feel happy when they're happy, They feel sad when
they're sad. If people are scared, they get scared.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
In fact, some autistic people have heightened effective empathy and
can become enmeshed or overwhelmed by other people's emotions. In
simple terms, autistic people can and do care often very
much about other people.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Some autistic people also have antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic
personality disorder, and a personality trait known as machiavelianism.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
These conditions are.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Marked by a lack of affective empathy, caring about people
in real terms, right, not just an extension of your
own ego. So because autism can exist comorbidly. I'm doing
the air quotes here with my fingers even though you
can't see me, that doesn't mean the autism is the
(06:13):
reason they struggle with feelings. Struggling to name your feelings
and struggles feeling having empathy not the same thing. And
that's where many autistic people do struggle, not only naming
and being able to sort their own feelings, but understanding,
(06:37):
you know, exactly what someone is feeling why they might
be feeling that way. When they understand, they care they
just may need a little help with the sorting. That
sorting is called cognitive empathy. That it encompasses perspective taking,
you know, putting yourself in the other person's shoes, and
(06:57):
something called theory of mind, which is the understanding that
other people have their own intentions, beliefs, and desires which
may differ from our own but are still valid. Blake
gets into that stuff regarding politics in his book. It's
really quite interesting. So in short, a narcissist or somebody
(07:20):
with antisocial personality disorder understand why someone's upset, but yeah,
they may not really care, whereas an autistic person very
much cares that someone's upset. They just may not understand
why when someone lacks cognitive empathy. Again, this is not
(07:41):
something all autistic people struggle with, or struggle with two
different degrees, right, we're generalizing here. It's also called socio
emotional understanding, or understanding why other people do the things
they do, which, I mean, let's face it, that's a
mystery for the ages with some people. Right. The point
(08:03):
is that autistic people may struggle with cognitive empathy, and
yet they care very much when other people feel bad.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So the potential to be.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Overwhelmed by other people's emotions is extremely high. This is
one reason why autistic people may not respond big air
quotes normally to emotions, either their own or other peoples. Now,
I'll save some of this. They overwhelm the the idea
(08:37):
of normal. When I talk to Blake again, hold on
to your butts, it's gonna be awesome. Many autistic people
are also very reliant on routines and rituals to feel stable. Again,
though every autistic person is different, they all have their
own unique balance of personality traits as well as Russians
(09:00):
of autism. Uh So, for instance, you know, an extroverted
person like I assume Blake is based on his book,
He's going to respond very differently to social situations than
an introverted person like me. Not all autistic people are introverts.
(09:21):
Autistic people are people, and yet I've found that even
some therapists who are trained to understand things like you know,
personality traits, right, they have trouble recognizing that because autistic
people are people, everyone is different. I've been pretty shocked
(09:44):
at the way some people in the mental health profession
act like.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
You know, sometimes it's autism.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Is this very serious, life destroying things that need to
be corrected or else, you know. So they try to
force an autistic person to not just at act like
a neurotypical person, but also think like a neurotypical person,
and that's a great way to trigger a meltdown because
they can't, you know, hence the term neuro divergent. You know,
(10:14):
autistic people have brains that diverge from normal thinking patterns.
If you've heard last week's episode, So do I write?
And I found a lot of therapists tend to either
assume that having autism means a client just can't flat
out do some things, or they push autistic people too
(10:36):
hard to do things that they have a skills gap
in resulting from atypical brain development. And my sort of
pet theory is that's one of the problems with hiring, right, Oh,
you have autism, you just can't do this. So the
minute they hear autism, they're like, not good candidate.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
It's not true.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Autistic people can be real assets in every job just
like everybody else. They're gonna have strengths, they're gonna have weaknesses.
The point is that in a neurotypical person, you pick
the candidate whose strengths outweigh the weaknesses. You don't just
focus on the weaknesses, right, That's the problem with going, oh,
(11:16):
you're autistic, you just can't be expected to. In one case,
a therapist told me that a person with autism can't
be expected to follow simple, clear instructions, and that if
I expected them to follow simple, clear instructions, I was
completely unequipped to deal with people with autism. I have
(11:37):
a dozen clients with autism who prefer.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Exactly those simple, clear instructions. All autistic people are not
the same.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It's unbelievable, right, And I just happened to know a
lot of autistic people because I worked in video games.
I was a video game before this gig.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I love autistic people.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I get really weird looks from normies about that.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I'm I call myself Schrodinger's autist because I score a
seventy on what's called the RADS test. It's the standardized
autism test.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And so I have a lot of.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Symptoms of autism, but I'm you know, subclinical, right, It's
that impairments in your daily life part that I write
in the definition that you know doesn't have the formal diagnosis. Also,
I've never been you know, deep dive tested outside of
that test, so hey, I could be and don't know it.
(12:39):
I just know that as a pure counselor when I'm
working with an autistic.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Client, it is amazing to be there, to.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Be part of them finally getting a mental health concept
that they've been struggling with and they exclaim, well, why
has no one explained it that way before? And the
answer there is something referred to as the double empathy gap,
the idea that difficulties in social interaction are you know,
are or aren't entirely the fault of the autistic person. Right,
(13:10):
It's not all one person's fault in a communication when
it goes bad. It's a mismatch in how autistic and
neurotypical people express and process feelings and concepts. In order
to have good communication, both perspectives have to be valid,
and it drives me crazy that people forget that when
(13:34):
it comes to autistic people. If neurotypical people are supposed
to be these incredible communicators and autistic people are supposed
to understand try to understand why other people think the
way they do, well, then neurotypical people should also be
working to understand why the autistic people in their lives
(13:57):
feel and think what they do right.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
You know, it's it seems so simple when you put
it that way, but it's not, which is why I
like to have autistic people on from time to time.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I did an episode a.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
While back about regular, everyday autistic people. But after the break,
I'm going to introduce you to well, I'll call him
an exceptional person overall, Blake crash Prittle, radio announcer and
author of Good Morning Blake, Growing.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Up Autistic and Being Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
He'll be here after the break, and I'm gonna ask
him about some of this stuff because there are a
lot of great insights in that book. Do you have
a story you think would be good for the show?
Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Leanna at Notherapyshow
dot com is my email. Not Therapy Show dot com
is my website at Not Therapy Show on socials, Being
Autistic and Being Okay. Coming up on It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
No Radio, No Problem stream is live on SAGA ninety
sixty AM dot C.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot CA.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
We're back on as Therapy. I'm still Leanna Cursner. I'm
still not a therapist.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
We're still talking about growing up autistic and being okay.
And the man who inspired the title of this episode
is here with me. Now.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
To welcome Blake crash Prittle to the program. Blake is
He's done a lot of work in radios and he's
currently on ninety five to seven in Halifax as a
news anchor and reporter. And Blake has written a fantastic
book called Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay.
(15:50):
Blake welcomed to It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Thank you for having me, Leanna.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Now you say in the book, and I stole this
for the first segment, if you've met one person with autism,
you've met one person with autism.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And this is really, really critical.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So I want to say to everybody, Blake is just
speaking for himself. Anything he says is just his opinion
and his experience. It's not blanket for everybody with autism.
Where I want to start, Blake is, you have some
really interesting things to say about the term normal, and
I share a lot of your opinions about the idea
(16:26):
of normal and what the term normal does. This show
is a normal free zone. I actually try not to
use the word, but what what do you feel about
the idea of normal and how it affects development and
then adult issues like employment and socialization.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Well, I quote whoopee Goldberg, normal is just a setting
on a washing machine, right, there's uh. You know, we're
all people, and we all deserve to be treated with respect,
whether we're you know, neurotypical or neurodiversion. You know, it
shouldn't matter.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, And I mean you're not only you talk in
the book about the fact you're not only autistic, you
have OCD as well. And you ended up being very,
very successful in radio. So what kind of things did
you find the most challenging, because obviously radio isn't the
(17:19):
first career people think of for people with those you know,
situations and experiences.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
No, of course not. And one of the biggest issues
was learning how to kind of communicate. And I had
you know, speech therapy, you know, throughout my early childhood,
and the book mentions that I went from being nonverbal
to a radio announcer. And I want to clarify for
people that might be confused by the term nonverbal. Nonverbal
(17:46):
doesn't necessarily mean that a person can't talk at all.
It could mean that their vocabulary is severely limited. It
could mean that they repeat stuff only through echolalia, which
is just repeating words that they hear, not even knowing
what they mean. In my case, I was able to
repeat words, but I didn't know what they meant. You know,
in the book, when I was just a little baby,
(18:08):
you know, my mom said to be good morning, Blake,
and I said to her exactly what she just said.
And you know, that's considered a form of being nonverbal.
Like I said, it doesn't mean you're you know, can't
speak at all. It just means that you speak differently.
You can't have a conversation, only repeat the stuff that
you hear, say words that you don't know the meaning of,
(18:30):
and at the same time also not being able to
communicate your needs. So that's that's another way of describing nonverbal.
It's like, not everybody that's blind, you know, is completely blind.
Some people that are blind, you know that they can
only see yo shapes or they can tell when it's
light or when it's dark, but that's still considered being
legally blind. Same thing with being deaf. You know, my
(18:51):
grandpa can hear, but he has hearing aids, so he's
considered deaf even though he is not completely deaf. So
I just want to make that clear from.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
The get go.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, a lot of your childhood experiences you talked about
in the book sounded very familiar to me. The you know,
intense sensitivity to loud noises, the speaking in your own language.
My family said the same thing about me, and the
inclusion of your mom in the book is one of
my favorite parts. What was the thought about the format
(19:25):
of bringing other people's, you know, opinions and experiences into
the book.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
Well, I wanted to know what other people, you know,
thought about me when they first met me, and what
they perceived when they saw me doing things that were
considered unusual. And you know, that's what a news reporter
or a journalist does. They always try to get different perspectives,
and in this case, I was able to do just that,
(19:50):
and I was really surprised at all the responses and
none of them were negative either.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
You know, I learned.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
About things about myself from other people's perspectives that I
wouldn't have you know, I wouldn't have known otherwise because
normally we just don't talk about things like that. For example,
you know, one person you know said, you know, you
are a very sensitive guy, Blake, but you are also
very caring and it inspired me that you know, you
had such a big heart and and things like that.
(20:18):
That's another misconception, as we don't feel empathy like that
is that is nowhere near the truth. Sometimes we feel
too much of it, and when you had at ocd
into the next it can be.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
And drive you crazy.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I talked in the first segment about the difference between
cognitive empathy and effective empathy and the fact that you know,
the autistic people that I work with, they have so
much effective empathy. They're they're hyper feelers, right, They they
a mesh, but they don't necessarily understand why the big
(20:53):
emotion is there.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And that leads to, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
The dreaded meltdowns and you you talk about the meltdowns
and lashing out quite frankly in the book. Do you
do you want to let people know some of the
things you experienced, because I mean obviously working in the media,
things are going to get pretty tense. And how did
you learn to process? I won't say control, because it's
(21:17):
not really possible.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
Well, it just, you know, it was. It was a
long road ahead, you know, I had to you know,
I learned from an early age, you know, how to
how to manage overstimulation in in an effective way. And uh,
you know, I think I think exposure therapy really helped you.
(21:41):
My parents were not afraid to take me outside my
comfort zones. You know, a lot of parents with children
with autism are reluctant to do that because they're afraid
of what other people might think of them if their
kid has, you know, a tentrum, which, by the way,
is not the same thing as you know, a tantrum
that a kid throws in public because they didn't get
an ice cream or something. These kinds of tantrums, it's
(22:03):
like having a panic attack. Yeah, it only seems like
you know, it only seems like a temper tantrum from
the outside, because especially for little kids, you know, they
don't know how to deal with that overstimulation in a
mature way because they're just little. So that's why it's
best you know not to judge, And I think my
own mother had to learn that the hard way too.
(22:23):
Like before she became a mother, she used to go
to you know, stores, out in public, and she'd see
kids acting up, and she'd used to say things like,
oh my god, why are these parents letting their kids
walk all over them? Because, believe me, if I was
if I was that boy's mother, I would never allow that.
But as soon as as soon as she figured out
what it was like to have, you know, a child,
(22:46):
especially when that's neurodivergent, she's said, Okay, you know what,
maybe there's something more to this, Maybe I shouldn't be
so you know, judgmental. And that's that's another good example
of perspective taking, which was some thing that I struggled
to do, especially as a teenager. In perspective taking can
be something like, you know, if you see somebody at
(23:09):
the door, you know, you know, you should hold the
door for them, that kind of thing, you know, don't
ignore things like that. That's one perspective taking lesson that
I learned from from my parents.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, and we're talking. If you just joined us on
the radio, we're talking to Blake crash Prittle. He is
also a news anchor on the radio in Halifax. He's
the author of Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and
Being Okay, Now, what you just said made me want
to go about three different ways, so I'm just gonna
pick one.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
This.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know, back and forth about letting autistic people or
any kids, quite frankly try things and fail. Parents understandably
don't want their kids to be stressed, but a certain
amount of stress is a good thing. You talk about
this in the book, right that your parents let you
try things. You know you had to wear scratchy clothes sometimes,
(24:04):
but you know you didn't have to do it when
it wasn't necessary. What do you think based on your
experience is maybe too difficult a question to answer, but
we're gonna try. What's the the like good pain zone
for this.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
What's pushing someone.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Enough or what was pushing you enough? And what was
too much?
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Well?
Speaker 6 (24:27):
I think, you know, I think teachers and parents not
understanding that. You know, it's good one hundred percent to
challenge the autism and to put somebody outside their comfort zone.
But at the same time, it's also good, you know,
to know when enough is enough, especially if it gets
to the point where the kid could no longer function
effect or if they're stressed beyond reason, it's that's when
(24:51):
it's time to stop. And Temple Grandin one of my
heroes who I interviewed a long time ago, and that
interview is mentioned in the book. One thing talks about
a lot is giving what's called a loving push. It
means putting a kid outside their comfort zone, but making
sure that they're well prepared for it. When she was
when she was a teenager, you know, her mother said,
(25:13):
you know, you know, your aunt would like you to
spend the summer at her ranch. And she was hesitant
to do it at first, but her mother gave her
a choice, saying, yeah, I tell you what. You can
go there for a week and see you if you
like it, and if you don't, you know, then you
can come back early and if you do like it,
you can spend the whole summer. Not going wasn't going
to be an option, But knowing that she had, you know,
(25:34):
the option to leave and to not do it again
if she didn't like it, you know, that gave her
the motivation to try something new. I mean, you don't
want to throw, you know, a kid into the deep
water at a pool and then expect them to thrive.
It just doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
No, that just creates a lifelong fear of swimming, you know.
To use that metaphor. Part of this when I get
into it, is the language we use to describe autism.
You know, every so often the experts change everything on us.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
We went from high.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Functioning low functioning, which you know you self identify as
high functioning, but now we're in this needs based language
like high needs low needs. And for me, I found
it's just moving the problem around, right, because somebody can
be profoundly high needs in one area and need almost
nothing somewhere else. A blanket identifier on someone really doesn't
(26:36):
I think, what do you think really describe the complexities
of everybody's individual experience with autism?
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Well, everybody who has autism, their journey is going to
be is going to be different. And I do know that,
you know, the proper term for severe autism now is
called profound, and you know that's still I think that's
a good way to differentiate the difference between somebody that's
high functioning.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
You know.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
To be perfectly honest, I don't even know what the
proper term for high functioning.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Is these days.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
But but I think it's that terminology. Instead of using severe,
you're saying profound instead. It's a good way to describe
someone that may require, you know, profound needs, you know,
twenty four hour care. You know, is not able to
look after themselves the same way other people might. And
(27:29):
it's one of those things that it just changes with
the times. I mean it's like, you know, it's like
ten years ago, it was considered you know, appropriate to
use the term burden.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
You know, we're dealing with.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
People with autism, and now that is hugely frowned upon. Rightfully,
so people are saying, people are saying that any any
child can be, you know, a hassle to look after.
But no parent in their right mind would call their
neurotypical child a burden just because they're emotionally drained or frustrating.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
No, they would.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
They would say something less like, oh my god, my
kid is driving me crazy. It's emotionally exhausting. I mean,
if you say words like that to describe a person
of severe autism, I mean I feel like that's more acceptable.
More people would have, you know, sympathy. But if you're
using the term burden. Then inevitably people are going to
be offended and they're going to say, Yo, shame on you.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
You don't call people names like that.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, it's almost like all the language is about sucking
more and more money out of unwilling governments as opposed to,
you know, actually getting the services that we need. And
I'm getting political here. So we're going to take a break.
We're going to come back on It's not Therapy with
Blake crash Pruttle, the author of the amazing book Good
(28:42):
Morning Blake, Growing Up, Being, Growing Up Autistic, and Being Okay.
Blake is also a news anchor and reporter at ninety
five point seven Halifax, another radio guy.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So Blake, can you hang on over the break, We'll
be back.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
We're going to talk about like navigating social situations, including
political discussions I can deal with in the book.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Sure thing all right?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
If you have any questions, comments, concerns for me about
the show, my email is Leanna at not Therapyshow dot com.
Not therapyshow dot com is the website at Not Therapy
on Socials, not Therapy Show on Socials.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
I can't speak.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
We'll be back after this break. More with Blake crash
Prittle on It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Stream us live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
If you're seeking social.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Services, please call or text two to one one or
go to two one one dot CA. We're back in
a therapy. I'm still Leanna Kerzner. I'm still not a therapist.
We are still talking to the amazing Blake crash Prettle,
author of Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay.
(29:53):
Blake is another radio guy out of Halifax. He's a
news anchor and reporter for ninety five seven out in
Halifax and Blake. There's this interesting chapter in the book
of Good Morning Blake about talking to your friend about politics.
And this was a really interesting thing because it showed
(30:14):
sort of the the intensity that things can get right,
the how to perspective take, a lot of people struggle
with perspective taking when it comes to politics. Why did
you include this discussion with a conservative friend of yours
in the book? How does it inform people regarding understanding
(30:36):
what it's like to have autism.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Well, people with autism tend to see things in black
and white. It's hard to think the same way that
other people do. You know, everything you know is in
black and white. You know, they have a hard time
understanding opinions or different perspectives or or things like that.
I was talking to a friend about, you know, how
much I can't stand the Conservative Party, and he told me,
(31:00):
you know that he, you know, generally speaking, votes conservative.
And I thought, hold on a minute, you're conservative, But
how can that be. You're you're tolerant. You know, you're
not homophobic, you're not racist, you're not a social conservative.
But why do you vote conservative? That doesn't make sense
to me because I was under the impression that all conservatives,
you know, were social conservatives like Donald Trump or or
(31:23):
Stephen Harper or Derek Saloone or somebody. And it just
it just blew my mind that you know, that a
conservative could also be socially liberal. You know, they call
them red Tories or moderate conservatives, and it just I
was just flabbergasted, And you know, I was, you know,
I I learned something new and I realized, then, okay,
(31:45):
maybe uh, maybe this is my black and white thinking happening.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
You know, maybe not all.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Conservatives you know, are the same. You know, you can
be socially liberal and you can also be fiscally conservative,
meaning that you know, you may be opposed to socialism.
You know, you may less government interference on business or
lower taxes and stuff. Well at the same time also
supporting you know, lgbt Q rights and abortion rights and
other things that social conservatives might not you know, it
(32:13):
might not embrace. And boy did I learn. And I
got a funny story to tell you. Actually last winter
I went to see my friend in Calgary, and you know,
years ago I told him I would never vote conservative ever, Like,
even if they promised every single person with autism and
the country jobs, I still wouldn't vote for them. So
(32:35):
I went up to him. This was around the time
of my birthday. I went up to him and I said, hey, there,
my name is Blake Prittle. And in the last election
in Nova Scotia, I voted conservative. I confess. Oh, yes,
I voted for Tim Houston. You know, believe it or not,
I did. And there's a lot of reasons for that.
(32:55):
What is that his government is planning to I don't
know what the status of it is, but uh, you
know from what I understand they're planning to develop, you know,
a provincial autism strategy. I don't know all the details
about that, but I recall reading about a while I'm
not a quotable source, but I did read something along
(33:17):
the lines of the province implementing a you know, an
autism strategy, and it's it came out, you know, when
Tim Houston was still in still in office. So again,
I don't know what the status of that is, but uh,
that's one thing that's uh that got my attention. I
also like the fact that, uh, you know, he wanted
to lower the down payment percentage for your first time
(33:40):
home buyers.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
He's yeah, he's you know, he's a.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Fiscally responsible uh conservative and is socially liberal.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
You know, he's a Red Tory.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
And uh, it's just funny because I thought, you I
never thought, in my wildest dreams that I'd be voting
conservative because most of the time, you know, I voted
either liberal or NDP. And uh, you know, I you know,
I did something that I never I never thought whatever happened,
and it did.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, I mean, you're you're would you consider yourself an extrovert?
Speaker 4 (34:09):
I don't want to assume Oh, yeah, no, very much.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So yeah, And I mean you're clearly open to new experiences.
I mean, you couldn't do what you did if you
you wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
And yet in.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
The book you talk about those sort of fears about acceptance,
like people knowing you have autism and sort of judging
you for it. Have your views evolved over the years
about that? I know you talk about the back and
forth in the book. Where are you at now in
terms of how to handle integrating autistic people into the
(34:44):
greater community.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Well, we've we've come a long way, you know, from
where we were it's twenty years ago. You know, nowadays
we no longer suppressed hand flapping or harmless stemming as
long as you know it's not hurting anybody else. And uh,
you know, using certain tool like comfort tools in public
is no longer frowned upon. You know, I was able
to get through it. But sadly a lot of people
(35:06):
with autism back in the mid two thousands, you know,
they never fully recovered from you know, that kind of
you know, unacceptance, so to speak. And you know, my
parents even said that if they could turn the clock back,
you know, they would they would do some things differently.
They understand that maybe the way certain things were done
back then it wasn't quite right. And that's what Yeah,
(35:27):
that's what evolving and seeing past you know, seeing past
things is all about.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
How did you navigate in the two thousands, because I've
got a lot of clients who still bear those scars
of feeling like every time a social situation goes wrong,
it's their fault somehow because they're not normal. You know,
they've got this brand of being autistic instead of it
just being what is how do you navigate that the
(35:54):
idea of Okay, this was my responsibility, this thing over
here maybe not so much.
Speaker 6 (36:01):
Well, I can't say i've ever I've ever dealt with
that kind of you know, situation before. I'm going to
be honest with you, I've never really uh, I've never
really had to deal with that. But I think one
of the main reasons why you know, forced eye contact
and suppressing stemming you know, back then was common practice,
was because you know, they thought that they were doing
the right thing. You know, they wanted you know that
(36:23):
they wanted people to not you know, to not be
judgmental or you know, to judge somebody before really getting
to know them because they thought that if they didn't
make eye contact or if they stemmed, then you know,
they might not be able to get a job anywhere.
And fortunately that fortunately things like that are changing. You know,
people have a better understanding of stamming and uh, you know,
(36:44):
not making eye contact. So yeah, so so thankfully most
employers are not like that. They no longer you'll refuse
to hire somebody just because they're stemming or just because
they're not making eye contact, because there's other reasons why
somebody could be stemming uncontrollably. I mean, you wouldn't punish
somebody who's shaking their hands because they have Parkinson's, or
you wouldn't you know, you wouldn't penalize somebody from another culture.
(37:09):
We're making direct eye contact is considered your rude. So
like if you wouldn't do those things, then you know
the same thing shouldn't be done for people on the spectrum.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Right, And that goes back to that idea of normal, right,
I mean normal shifts what was considered some of the
normal fashion in the eighties and nineties. Wow, looking back
at those year books as difficult, and this is sort
of where we come into some of the divisions in
the autism advocacy community, and you talk about these you
(37:40):
and your mom both talk about these things in the book.
I cannot stress people listening how great the inclusion of
Blake's mom is and good morning Blake. Growing up autistic
and being okay, you've had run ins with the more
like i'll say, hardcore activists. Your mom has had some
(38:00):
issues with you know, her perspective not being seen as
valid as her perspective. I don't want to put words
in your mouth. So where are you at now? The
book came out in like what twenty twenty one, so
some stuff may have changed.
Speaker 6 (38:16):
Well, what I will say is that, you know, everybody's
autism journey, you know, is different. I mean some of
the people that we ran into, you know, they were
parents of you know, people that had autism that you know,
that required twenty four hour care, and even if we
were trying to give them some encouraging words, I mean, unfortunately,
it just didn't help them to feel better. It was
like giving somebody a rose even though they're choking on
(38:38):
a piece of steak. You know, that's just it's just
not going to help because they're so emotionally drained so
I think people, you know, they might appear to be mean,
or they might you know, appear to be throwing you know,
things in our face, but you got to understand that
they're dealing with a lot of stress, and you know
that they're they may be really nice people, they're just
not there themselves. I mean it's like, uh, it's like
(39:01):
there's a slogan for a famous chocolate bar. You know,
you aren't you when you're hungry. So maybe they're not
themselves when they're under a lot of stress. But so yeah,
that's one divide that we have is uh, you know,
is people that are you know, raising children or adults
that have severe, profound autism. And these are people that say, like,
(39:22):
if I could cure my you know, kid with autism,
I would, or you know like like autism is you know,
so bad, or I hate it. You know, they say
those things without understanding you know, just how much those
words hurt some people.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Myself.
Speaker 6 (39:35):
I mean, I don't think they mean to, but they
you know, they're they're just so stressed out that sometimes
you know, they don't think about how their words affect
other people. And I tell people that it's one thing
to have a bad experience with somebody that has profound autism.
But you know, but saying I hate autism or I
want to cure autism, you know, you can. You can
(39:57):
tell people that you really trust, you'll things like that,
but whatever you do, don't post it on social media
because if you do, inevitably you're going to be, you know,
hit with comments from self advocates like these are people
that are very proud to be autistic. They'll they'll just say,
you know, you're a very selfish person, you know, how
dare you talk about autism that way? And these are
(40:20):
and these are also coming from people that you know
that appear to be high functioning, but they weren't always
like that themselves. A lot of them used to have
autism that was considered profound, but they got better. That's
why I think, you know, everybody from the autism community,
we just can't be divided anymore. You know, we need
to come together and we need to take the time
to listen to each other's stories and hopefully one day
(40:43):
we can all understand each other without things getting turned
into a needless war.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
What do you think is.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
The first step, because obviously there's a lot of competing factors. Right, there's,
as you said, other other people's emotions, and they can
run really hot if say, somebody had a really bad
personal experience with ABA pit therapy.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
But there's also.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Money, I mean, the mindset of investing in autistic kids.
Politicians look at how much it costs and goes, Oh,
I don't know about that, but I mean it's the
difference between somebody being a you know, income earner and
paying taxes when they're older, as opposed to constantly needing
(41:26):
government supports versus spending you know, not spending the money
now and not making the money later.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
So what do you think is.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
A way for the various kind of political orientations and stakeholders,
if you will, to kind of come together and get
something done here.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
It needs to be treated just the same way that
that healthcare is in this country. It needs to be
it needs to be free. It's it's a human rights
you know, for things like that, full stop. You know,
I don't I'm going to be honest, I I don't
care how expensive it is.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
You.
Speaker 6 (42:03):
I would rather my tax dollars you go towards you know,
helping people that actually need it instead of your rich
CEOs you know, getting a tax break from the government,
you know, for for nothing. So we got to get
our priorities in order autism you know, support services and accommodations,
and that needs to be top priority. It needs to
(42:24):
be treated the same way that our free healthcare is
treated in this country.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Period.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Like I want to close with possibly my favorite quote
in your book. It was tough to pick, but it
was No one should ever say my life is ruined
when something bad happens. If you're still alive and still breathing,
your life is far from ruined. There will always be
a rainbow at the end of the storm. And then
you just quoted it me, what was your thought about
(42:51):
putting little things.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Like that in the book.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I wanted to inspire people, you know, I see you
know people all the time you're posting you just how
depressed they are, and you'll say, all my life is
ruined or you know, why do these things always happen
to be Listen, you are breathing, You are alive. That
is a blessing. Sometimes feeling those negative emotions, it doesn't
(43:16):
feel good, but it reminds you. When you feel these
negative emotions, you're a human. You're alive. Pain is good.
Pain is your friend. If you're feeling pain, it means
that you're still alive. And that's a blessing that you
should never take for granted. And I had to learn
that the hard way, and I want everyone to remember that.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
All right, great place to stop. Blake crash Prettle, author
of Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay.
In the book, you can also find the perspectives of
fifty of Blake's peers, family members, friends, teachers, and work
colleagues who demonstrate it takes a village to raise a child.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
That's from the back of the book.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
You can hear Blake. If you're out in the Halifax
area at ninety five point seven, Blake, how do other
people get in touch with you? You got some social
media that you respond to?
Speaker 6 (44:06):
Yeah, I have Blake crash Priddle on Facebook. I have Instagram,
which I don't use that much, and I have a
website Blake Crashpriddle dot com. And uh, yeah, I would
prefer that if you're going to contact me, you know,
please please make sure that you put something you know
(44:27):
very clear in the heading so that I know what
it is that you want to talk about, because I'm
going to give you all a fair warning. Any you
know junk mail or spam emails, I will not be
opening them. Just just FYI. Another thing is I host
a podcast called The Medley with Blake crash Priddle and
that's available wherever you get your podcasts as well. And
(44:47):
I interviewed Stephen Kurzner better known as Ed Thesock and
that was a lot of fun, So listen to that.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
What's the name of the podcast again.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
It's called The Medley So that's.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Blake Crashpriddle dot for all things Blake, Blake crash Prittle,
p R I D D l E dot com. Blake,
thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
It's not Therapy.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
Hey, my pleasure, I was.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
I had a lot of fun, all right.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
When we come back, quick wrap up on tonight show. Questions, comments,
any feedback. Leanna at Notntherapyshow dot com is my email.
Not Therapyshow dot com is the website, and at not
Therapy Show for social media. When we come back, growing
up autistic and being Okay, final thoughts and It's not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Stream us live at SAGA nine sixty am dot C.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two one one or
go to two one one dot CA. We're back in
It's Not Therapy. I'm still Aanna Cursner. I'm still not
a therapist. We are still talking growing up on tistic.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
And being okay.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
And I got about two and a half minutes left
because Blake was interesting and I went long. That's the
way we roll when we have interviews on It's Not Therapy.
I want to focus on one of my top ten
phrases for the final thoughts on this episode, and that
top ten phrases listen twice before you talk once. And
(46:23):
one of the things I feel so fortunate about working
with a lot of autistic people is that the perspectives
tend to be pretty amazing. I learn a lot about
people just listening to other people's stories. I think Blake
commented on that in his final thoughts. But I'll hear
(46:45):
something from one person and then instead of going, oh,
that can't be so just dismissing it, I'll go to
to the person who has sort of similar experiences and say, hey,
I heard this recently. What do you think think about that,
and they'll either say yeah, that's absolutely right, or it's
not quite like that, but it's more like this. And
(47:08):
being able to piece together this mosaic of humanity based
on individual stories is an amazing, amazing part of the
work I do, and I'm really really grateful to be
able to do it. Every story like Blake's, every story
like yours is really important. Again, Blake's book is Good Morning, Blake,
(47:33):
growing Up Autistic and Being Okay. It's Blake Crash Prittle
is the full author's name, and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
It's a super fun book.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It's good for not only people with autism, but also
the families of autistic people who might be trying to
figure out what the heck is going on. It's laid
out in really awesome, clear terms.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
So I'm super.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Grateful for Blake coming on and talking to this and
I am out of time. Questions, comments, concerns, any feedback.
Leanna at Nontherapyshow dot com. Not Therapy show dot com
is the website at non Therapy Show. Why do I
keep messing that up? I don't know, but hey, another
episode down. Thank you for listening, Thanks for Blake to
coming for coming on and remember you're crazy is only
(48:22):
a problem if it's hurting you.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
See you next time.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Stream us live at SAGA nine to six am dot CA.
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Saga nine sixty am or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
If you're seeking social.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Services, please call or text two to one one or
go to two one one dot CA. Hello looseners around
the world on radio, streaming and podcast services. This is
It's not therapy. I'm Leanna Kersner, and I am not
a therapist, but I am your source for navigating the
madness of mental health using my top ten sayings for
(00:35):
going good crazy. This week, we're gonna meet an autistic person.
He's a very unique autistic person in that he, like me,
works in radio and this isn't an expected job for
an autistic person because it requires dealing with a lot
of change and a lot of people. But that's gonna
be the point of this entire show. If you've met
(00:59):
one person with all autism, you've met one person with autism.
Autistic people have a lot of other aspects of their personality,
and autism itself is a spectrum experience, meaning everyone who
is autistic has different challenges and different strengths. My guest
this week happens to have autism but or be autistic
(01:20):
and also has OCD. Radio announcer Blake Crash Prittle. Blake
can be heard on ninety five seven FM in Halifax,
and you'll be hearing from him here after the first break.
Like I said, Blake has autism and OCD, and he
wrote an incredibly charming book about his life so far
(01:40):
called Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay. Now,
where to begin describing autism?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
What the heck?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Let's go with Wikipedia just as a baseline, right quote. Autism,
also known as autism spectrum disorder, is a neuro developmental
condition characterized by differentferences or difficulties in social communication and interaction,
a preference for predictability and routine sensory processing, differences focus interests,
and repetitive behaviors. For a formal diagnosis, these characteristics much
(02:15):
must cause clinically significant challenges greater than what is typical
for a person's age and culture, and must affect several areas.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Of daily life.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Motor coordination difficulties are common, but not required. Now, what's
known as the autism spectrum was formally adopted the way
we understand it now in twenty thirteen. It includes what
used to be five separate conditions, you know, base autism,
(02:46):
childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, otherwise
known as PDDNOS, Asperger syndrome, and ret syndrome, which is
a condition almost exclusively seen in girls. What Yeah, that's
one of the mists about autism. Hold on to your butts,
(03:09):
will get there in a minute. If you're one of
those people who thinks that suddenly everyone has autism, every
kid has autism, consider that, first of all, it's just
more things are called autism now, but it's also no
longer surrounded by so much shame.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
If you know twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Percent of the population is not a divergent and forty
percent of the population is not a divergent. Who cares
as long as everybody you know gets the opportunity to
learn and work and feel accepted in ways that allow
them to learn and work and be accepted. Right, there's
a lot of stuff out there about autism that is
(03:50):
just flat wrong, even though it might be popular. Vaccines
don't cause autism, I repeat, vaccines don't cause autism. They
don't trigger autism. They don't do anything with autism that
is correlation, not causation. People tend to get vaccinated before
the age of two, which is right where autism symptoms
(04:13):
start showing up. It's just coincidence. Girls can be autistic
as well as boys, which is why ret syndrome is
significant being brought into the umbrella.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Autism is not a disease.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It's a neurodivergency. It's a neurodevelopmental difference. Okay, Autism isn't
caused by bad parenting.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And there's this.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Idea out there that autistic people have no empathy, which
is something I want to clearly address before we get
to Blake, because well, Blake's amazing. When some people say empathy,
what they're usually referring to is a specific type of empathy,
emotional empathy, or effective empathy, which means that you share
(04:56):
in the experience of the emotions of the people around you.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
When you're with someone who's sad, you feel a.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Little or a lot sad too, and it's easier to
be happy when others around you are happy. Autistic people
have fully intact, effective empathy. They care about other people's feelings.
They feel happy when they're happy, They feel sad when
they're sad. If people are scared, they get scared.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
In fact, some autistic people have heightened effective empathy and
can become enmeshed or overwhelmed by other people's emotions. In
simple terms, autistic people can and do care often very
much about other people.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Some autistic people also have antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic
personality disorder, and a personality trait known as machiavelianism.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
These conditions are.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Marked by a lack of affective empathy, caring about people
in real terms, right, not just an extension of your
own ego. So because autism can exist comorbidly. I'm doing
the air quotes here with my fingers even though you
can't see me, that doesn't mean the autism is the
(06:13):
reason they struggle with feelings. Struggling to name your feelings
and struggles feeling having empathy not the same thing. And
that's where many autistic people do struggle, not only naming
and being able to sort their own feelings, but understanding,
(06:37):
you know, exactly what someone is feeling why they might
be feeling that way. When they understand, they care they
just may need a little help with the sorting. That
sorting is called cognitive empathy. That it encompasses perspective taking,
you know, putting yourself in the other person's shoes, and
(06:57):
something called theory of mind, which is the understanding that
other people have their own intentions, beliefs, and desires which
may differ from our own but are still valid. Blake
gets into that stuff regarding politics in his book. It's
really quite interesting. So in short, a narcissist or somebody
(07:20):
with antisocial personality disorder understand why someone's upset, but yeah,
they may not really care, whereas an autistic person very
much cares that someone's upset. They just may not understand
why when someone lacks cognitive empathy. Again, this is not
(07:41):
something all autistic people struggle with, or struggle with two
different degrees, right, we're generalizing here. It's also called socio
emotional understanding, or understanding why other people do the things
they do, which, I mean, let's face it, that's a
mystery for the ages with some people. Right. The point
(08:03):
is that autistic people may struggle with cognitive empathy, and
yet they care very much when other people feel bad.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So the potential to be.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Overwhelmed by other people's emotions is extremely high. This is
one reason why autistic people may not respond big air
quotes normally to emotions, either their own or other peoples. Now,
I'll save some of this. They overwhelm the the idea
(08:37):
of normal. When I talk to Blake again, hold on
to your butts, it's gonna be awesome. Many autistic people
are also very reliant on routines and rituals to feel stable. Again,
though every autistic person is different, they all have their
own unique balance of personality traits as well as Russians
(09:00):
of autism. Uh So, for instance, you know, an extroverted
person like I assume Blake is based on his book,
He's going to respond very differently to social situations than
an introverted person like me. Not all autistic people are introverts.
(09:21):
Autistic people are people, and yet I've found that even
some therapists who are trained to understand things like you know,
personality traits, right, they have trouble recognizing that because autistic
people are people, everyone is different. I've been pretty shocked
(09:44):
at the way some people in the mental health profession
act like.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
You know, sometimes it's autism.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Is this very serious, life destroying things that need to
be corrected or else, you know. So they try to
force an autistic person to not just at act like
a neurotypical person, but also think like a neurotypical person,
and that's a great way to trigger a meltdown because
they can't, you know, hence the term neuro divergent. You know,
(10:14):
autistic people have brains that diverge from normal thinking patterns.
If you've heard last week's episode, So do I write?
And I found a lot of therapists tend to either
assume that having autism means a client just can't flat
out do some things, or they push autistic people too
(10:36):
hard to do things that they have a skills gap
in resulting from atypical brain development. And my sort of
pet theory is that's one of the problems with hiring, right, Oh,
you have autism, you just can't do this. So the
minute they hear autism, they're like, not good candidate.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
It's not true.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Autistic people can be real assets in every job just
like everybody else. They're gonna have strengths, they're gonna have weaknesses.
The point is that in a neurotypical person, you pick
the candidate whose strengths outweigh the weaknesses. You don't just
focus on the weaknesses, right, That's the problem with going, oh,
(11:16):
you're autistic, you just can't be expected to. In one case,
a therapist told me that a person with autism can't
be expected to follow simple, clear instructions, and that if
I expected them to follow simple, clear instructions, I was
completely unequipped to deal with people with autism. I have
(11:37):
a dozen clients with autism who prefer.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Exactly those simple, clear instructions. All autistic people are not
the same.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It's unbelievable, right, And I just happened to know a
lot of autistic people because I worked in video games.
I was a video game before this gig.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I love autistic people.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I get really weird looks from normies about that.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I'm I call myself Schrodinger's autist because I score a
seventy on what's called the RADS test. It's the standardized
autism test.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And so I have a lot of.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Symptoms of autism, but I'm you know, subclinical, right, It's
that impairments in your daily life part that I write
in the definition that you know doesn't have the formal diagnosis. Also,
I've never been you know, deep dive tested outside of
that test, so hey, I could be and don't know it.
(12:39):
I just know that as a pure counselor when I'm
working with an autistic.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Client, it is amazing to be there, to.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Be part of them finally getting a mental health concept
that they've been struggling with and they exclaim, well, why
has no one explained it that way before? And the
answer there is something referred to as the double empathy gap,
the idea that difficulties in social interaction are you know,
are or aren't entirely the fault of the autistic person. Right,
(13:10):
It's not all one person's fault in a communication when
it goes bad. It's a mismatch in how autistic and
neurotypical people express and process feelings and concepts. In order
to have good communication, both perspectives have to be valid,
and it drives me crazy that people forget that when
(13:34):
it comes to autistic people. If neurotypical people are supposed
to be these incredible communicators and autistic people are supposed
to understand try to understand why other people think the
way they do, well, then neurotypical people should also be
working to understand why the autistic people in their lives
(13:57):
feel and think what they do right.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
You know, it's it seems so simple when you put
it that way, but it's not, which is why I
like to have autistic people on from time to time.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I did an episode a.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
While back about regular, everyday autistic people. But after the break,
I'm going to introduce you to well, I'll call him
an exceptional person overall, Blake crash Prittle, radio announcer and
author of Good Morning Blake, Growing.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Up Autistic and Being Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
He'll be here after the break, and I'm gonna ask
him about some of this stuff because there are a
lot of great insights in that book. Do you have
a story you think would be good for the show?
Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Leanna at Notherapyshow
dot com is my email. Not Therapy Show dot com
is my website at Not Therapy Show on socials, Being
Autistic and Being Okay. Coming up on It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
No Radio, No Problem stream is live on SAGA ninety
sixty AM dot C.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot CA.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
We're back on as Therapy. I'm still Leanna Cursner. I'm
still not a therapist.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
We're still talking about growing up autistic and being okay.
And the man who inspired the title of this episode
is here with me. Now.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
To welcome Blake crash Prittle to the program. Blake is
He's done a lot of work in radios and he's
currently on ninety five to seven in Halifax as a
news anchor and reporter. And Blake has written a fantastic
book called Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay.
(15:50):
Blake welcomed to It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Thank you for having me, Leanna.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Now you say in the book, and I stole this
for the first segment, if you've met one person with autism,
you've met one person with autism.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And this is really, really critical.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So I want to say to everybody, Blake is just
speaking for himself. Anything he says is just his opinion
and his experience. It's not blanket for everybody with autism.
Where I want to start, Blake is, you have some
really interesting things to say about the term normal, and
I share a lot of your opinions about the idea
(16:26):
of normal and what the term normal does. This show
is a normal free zone. I actually try not to
use the word, but what what do you feel about
the idea of normal and how it affects development and
then adult issues like employment and socialization.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Well, I quote whoopee Goldberg, normal is just a setting
on a washing machine, right, there's uh. You know, we're
all people, and we all deserve to be treated with respect,
whether we're you know, neurotypical or neurodiversion. You know, it
shouldn't matter.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, And I mean you're not only you talk in
the book about the fact you're not only autistic, you
have OCD as well. And you ended up being very,
very successful in radio. So what kind of things did
you find the most challenging, because obviously radio isn't the
(17:19):
first career people think of for people with those you know,
situations and experiences.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
No, of course not. And one of the biggest issues
was learning how to kind of communicate. And I had
you know, speech therapy, you know, throughout my early childhood,
and the book mentions that I went from being nonverbal
to a radio announcer. And I want to clarify for
people that might be confused by the term nonverbal. Nonverbal
(17:46):
doesn't necessarily mean that a person can't talk at all.
It could mean that their vocabulary is severely limited. It
could mean that they repeat stuff only through echolalia, which
is just repeating words that they hear, not even knowing
what they mean. In my case, I was able to
repeat words, but I didn't know what they meant. You know,
in the book, when I was just a little baby,
(18:08):
you know, my mom said to be good morning, Blake,
and I said to her exactly what she just said.
And you know, that's considered a form of being nonverbal.
Like I said, it doesn't mean you're you know, can't
speak at all. It just means that you speak differently.
You can't have a conversation, only repeat the stuff that
you hear, say words that you don't know the meaning of,
(18:30):
and at the same time also not being able to
communicate your needs. So that's that's another way of describing nonverbal.
It's like, not everybody that's blind, you know, is completely blind.
Some people that are blind, you know that they can
only see yo shapes or they can tell when it's
light or when it's dark, but that's still considered being
legally blind. Same thing with being deaf. You know, my
(18:51):
grandpa can hear, but he has hearing aids, so he's
considered deaf even though he is not completely deaf. So
I just want to make that clear from.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
The get go.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, a lot of your childhood experiences you talked about
in the book sounded very familiar to me. The you know,
intense sensitivity to loud noises, the speaking in your own language.
My family said the same thing about me, and the
inclusion of your mom in the book is one of
my favorite parts. What was the thought about the format
(19:25):
of bringing other people's, you know, opinions and experiences into
the book.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
Well, I wanted to know what other people, you know,
thought about me when they first met me, and what
they perceived when they saw me doing things that were
considered unusual. And you know, that's what a news reporter
or a journalist does. They always try to get different perspectives,
and in this case, I was able to do just that,
(19:50):
and I was really surprised at all the responses and
none of them were negative either.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
You know, I learned.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
About things about myself from other people's perspectives that I
wouldn't have you know, I wouldn't have known otherwise because
normally we just don't talk about things like that. For example,
you know, one person you know said, you know, you
are a very sensitive guy, Blake, but you are also
very caring and it inspired me that you know, you
had such a big heart and and things like that.
(20:18):
That's another misconception, as we don't feel empathy like that
is that is nowhere near the truth. Sometimes we feel
too much of it, and when you had at ocd
into the next it can be.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
And drive you crazy.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I talked in the first segment about the difference between
cognitive empathy and effective empathy and the fact that you know,
the autistic people that I work with, they have so
much effective empathy. They're they're hyper feelers, right, They they
a mesh, but they don't necessarily understand why the big
(20:53):
emotion is there.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And that leads to, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
The dreaded meltdowns and you you talk about the meltdowns
and lashing out quite frankly in the book. Do you
do you want to let people know some of the
things you experienced, because I mean obviously working in the media,
things are going to get pretty tense. And how did
you learn to process? I won't say control, because it's
(21:17):
not really possible.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
Well, it just, you know, it was. It was a
long road ahead, you know, I had to you know,
I learned from an early age, you know, how to
how to manage overstimulation in in an effective way. And uh,
you know, I think I think exposure therapy really helped you.
(21:41):
My parents were not afraid to take me outside my
comfort zones. You know, a lot of parents with children
with autism are reluctant to do that because they're afraid
of what other people might think of them if their
kid has, you know, a tentrum, which, by the way,
is not the same thing as you know, a tantrum
that a kid throws in public because they didn't get
an ice cream or something. These kinds of tantrums, it's
(22:03):
like having a panic attack. Yeah, it only seems like
you know, it only seems like a temper tantrum from
the outside, because especially for little kids, you know, they
don't know how to deal with that overstimulation in a
mature way because they're just little. So that's why it's
best you know not to judge, And I think my
own mother had to learn that the hard way too.
(22:23):
Like before she became a mother, she used to go
to you know, stores, out in public, and she'd see
kids acting up, and she'd used to say things like,
oh my god, why are these parents letting their kids
walk all over them? Because, believe me, if I was
if I was that boy's mother, I would never allow that.
But as soon as as soon as she figured out
what it was like to have, you know, a child,
(22:46):
especially when that's neurodivergent, she's said, Okay, you know what,
maybe there's something more to this, Maybe I shouldn't be
so you know, judgmental. And that's that's another good example
of perspective taking, which was some thing that I struggled
to do, especially as a teenager. In perspective taking can
be something like, you know, if you see somebody at
(23:09):
the door, you know, you know, you should hold the
door for them, that kind of thing, you know, don't
ignore things like that. That's one perspective taking lesson that
I learned from from my parents.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, and we're talking. If you just joined us on
the radio, we're talking to Blake crash Prittle. He is
also a news anchor on the radio in Halifax. He's
the author of Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and
Being Okay, Now, what you just said made me want
to go about three different ways, so I'm just gonna
pick one.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
This.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know, back and forth about letting autistic people or
any kids, quite frankly try things and fail. Parents understandably
don't want their kids to be stressed, but a certain
amount of stress is a good thing. You talk about
this in the book, right that your parents let you
try things. You know you had to wear scratchy clothes sometimes,
(24:04):
but you know you didn't have to do it when
it wasn't necessary. What do you think based on your
experience is maybe too difficult a question to answer, but
we're gonna try. What's the the like good pain zone
for this.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
What's pushing someone.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Enough or what was pushing you enough? And what was
too much?
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Well?
Speaker 6 (24:27):
I think, you know, I think teachers and parents not
understanding that. You know, it's good one hundred percent to
challenge the autism and to put somebody outside their comfort zone.
But at the same time, it's also good, you know,
to know when enough is enough, especially if it gets
to the point where the kid could no longer function
effect or if they're stressed beyond reason, it's that's when
(24:51):
it's time to stop. And Temple Grandin one of my
heroes who I interviewed a long time ago, and that
interview is mentioned in the book. One thing talks about
a lot is giving what's called a loving push. It
means putting a kid outside their comfort zone, but making
sure that they're well prepared for it. When she was
when she was a teenager, you know, her mother said,
(25:13):
you know, you know, your aunt would like you to
spend the summer at her ranch. And she was hesitant
to do it at first, but her mother gave her
a choice, saying, yeah, I tell you what. You can
go there for a week and see you if you
like it, and if you don't, you know, then you
can come back early and if you do like it,
you can spend the whole summer. Not going wasn't going
to be an option, But knowing that she had, you know,
(25:34):
the option to leave and to not do it again
if she didn't like it, you know, that gave her
the motivation to try something new. I mean, you don't
want to throw, you know, a kid into the deep
water at a pool and then expect them to thrive.
It just doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
No, that just creates a lifelong fear of swimming, you know.
To use that metaphor. Part of this when I get
into it, is the language we use to describe autism.
You know, every so often the experts change everything on us.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
We went from high.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Functioning low functioning, which you know you self identify as
high functioning, but now we're in this needs based language
like high needs low needs. And for me, I found
it's just moving the problem around, right, because somebody can
be profoundly high needs in one area and need almost
nothing somewhere else. A blanket identifier on someone really doesn't
(26:36):
I think, what do you think really describe the complexities
of everybody's individual experience with autism?
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Well, everybody who has autism, their journey is going to
be is going to be different. And I do know that,
you know, the proper term for severe autism now is
called profound, and you know that's still I think that's
a good way to differentiate the difference between somebody that's
high functioning.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
You know.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
To be perfectly honest, I don't even know what the
proper term for high functioning.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Is these days.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
But but I think it's that terminology. Instead of using severe,
you're saying profound instead. It's a good way to describe
someone that may require, you know, profound needs, you know,
twenty four hour care. You know, is not able to
look after themselves the same way other people might. And
(27:29):
it's one of those things that it just changes with
the times. I mean it's like, you know, it's like
ten years ago, it was considered you know, appropriate to
use the term burden.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
You know, we're dealing with.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
People with autism, and now that is hugely frowned upon. Rightfully,
so people are saying, people are saying that any any
child can be, you know, a hassle to look after.
But no parent in their right mind would call their
neurotypical child a burden just because they're emotionally drained or frustrating.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
No, they would.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
They would say something less like, oh my god, my
kid is driving me crazy. It's emotionally exhausting. I mean,
if you say words like that to describe a person
of severe autism, I mean I feel like that's more acceptable.
More people would have, you know, sympathy. But if you're
using the term burden. Then inevitably people are going to
be offended and they're going to say, Yo, shame on you.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
You don't call people names like that.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, it's almost like all the language is about sucking
more and more money out of unwilling governments as opposed to,
you know, actually getting the services that we need. And
I'm getting political here. So we're going to take a break.
We're going to come back on It's not Therapy with
Blake crash Pruttle, the author of the amazing book Good
(28:42):
Morning Blake, Growing Up, Being, Growing Up Autistic, and Being Okay.
Blake is also a news anchor and reporter at ninety
five point seven Halifax, another radio guy.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So Blake, can you hang on over the break, We'll
be back.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
We're going to talk about like navigating social situations, including
political discussions I can deal with in the book.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Sure thing all right?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
If you have any questions, comments, concerns for me about
the show, my email is Leanna at not Therapyshow dot com.
Not therapyshow dot com is the website at Not Therapy
on Socials, not Therapy Show on Socials.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
I can't speak.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
We'll be back after this break. More with Blake crash
Prittle on It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Stream us live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
If you're seeking social.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Services, please call or text two to one one or
go to two one one dot CA. We're back in
a therapy. I'm still Leanna Kerzner. I'm still not a therapist.
We are still talking to the amazing Blake crash Prettle,
author of Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay.
(29:53):
Blake is another radio guy out of Halifax. He's a
news anchor and reporter for ninety five seven out in
Halifax and Blake. There's this interesting chapter in the book
of Good Morning Blake about talking to your friend about politics.
And this was a really interesting thing because it showed
(30:14):
sort of the the intensity that things can get right,
the how to perspective take, a lot of people struggle
with perspective taking when it comes to politics. Why did
you include this discussion with a conservative friend of yours
in the book? How does it inform people regarding understanding
(30:36):
what it's like to have autism.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Well, people with autism tend to see things in black
and white. It's hard to think the same way that
other people do. You know, everything you know is in
black and white. You know, they have a hard time
understanding opinions or different perspectives or or things like that.
I was talking to a friend about, you know, how
much I can't stand the Conservative Party, and he told me,
(31:00):
you know that he, you know, generally speaking, votes conservative.
And I thought, hold on a minute, you're conservative, But
how can that be. You're you're tolerant. You know, you're
not homophobic, you're not racist, you're not a social conservative.
But why do you vote conservative? That doesn't make sense
to me because I was under the impression that all conservatives,
you know, were social conservatives like Donald Trump or or
(31:23):
Stephen Harper or Derek Saloone or somebody. And it just
it just blew my mind that you know, that a
conservative could also be socially liberal. You know, they call
them red Tories or moderate conservatives, and it just I
was just flabbergasted, And you know, I was, you know,
I I learned something new and I realized, then, okay,
(31:45):
maybe uh, maybe this is my black and white thinking happening.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
You know, maybe not all.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Conservatives you know, are the same. You know, you can
be socially liberal and you can also be fiscally conservative,
meaning that you know, you may be opposed to socialism.
You know, you may less government interference on business or
lower taxes and stuff. Well at the same time also
supporting you know, lgbt Q rights and abortion rights and
other things that social conservatives might not you know, it
(32:13):
might not embrace. And boy did I learn. And I
got a funny story to tell you. Actually last winter
I went to see my friend in Calgary, and you know,
years ago I told him I would never vote conservative ever, Like,
even if they promised every single person with autism and
the country jobs, I still wouldn't vote for them. So
(32:35):
I went up to him. This was around the time
of my birthday. I went up to him and I said, hey, there,
my name is Blake Prittle. And in the last election
in Nova Scotia, I voted conservative. I confess. Oh, yes,
I voted for Tim Houston. You know, believe it or not,
I did. And there's a lot of reasons for that.
(32:55):
What is that his government is planning to I don't
know what the status of it is, but uh, you
know from what I understand they're planning to develop, you know,
a provincial autism strategy. I don't know all the details
about that, but I recall reading about a while I'm
not a quotable source, but I did read something along
(33:17):
the lines of the province implementing a you know, an
autism strategy, and it's it came out, you know, when
Tim Houston was still in still in office. So again,
I don't know what the status of that is, but uh,
that's one thing that's uh that got my attention. I
also like the fact that, uh, you know, he wanted
to lower the down payment percentage for your first time
(33:40):
home buyers.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
He's yeah, he's you know, he's a.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Fiscally responsible uh conservative and is socially liberal.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
You know, he's a Red Tory.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
And uh, it's just funny because I thought, you I
never thought, in my wildest dreams that I'd be voting
conservative because most of the time, you know, I voted
either liberal or NDP. And uh, you know, I you know,
I did something that I never I never thought whatever happened,
and it did.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, I mean, you're you're would you consider yourself an extrovert?
Speaker 4 (34:09):
I don't want to assume Oh, yeah, no, very much.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So yeah, And I mean you're clearly open to new experiences.
I mean, you couldn't do what you did if you
you wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
And yet in.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
The book you talk about those sort of fears about acceptance,
like people knowing you have autism and sort of judging
you for it. Have your views evolved over the years
about that? I know you talk about the back and
forth in the book. Where are you at now in
terms of how to handle integrating autistic people into the
(34:44):
greater community.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Well, we've we've come a long way, you know, from
where we were it's twenty years ago. You know, nowadays
we no longer suppressed hand flapping or harmless stemming as
long as you know it's not hurting anybody else. And uh,
you know, using certain tool like comfort tools in public
is no longer frowned upon. You know, I was able
to get through it. But sadly a lot of people
(35:06):
with autism back in the mid two thousands, you know,
they never fully recovered from you know, that kind of
you know, unacceptance, so to speak. And you know, my
parents even said that if they could turn the clock back,
you know, they would they would do some things differently.
They understand that maybe the way certain things were done
back then it wasn't quite right. And that's what Yeah,
(35:27):
that's what evolving and seeing past you know, seeing past
things is all about.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
How did you navigate in the two thousands, because I've
got a lot of clients who still bear those scars
of feeling like every time a social situation goes wrong,
it's their fault somehow because they're not normal. You know,
they've got this brand of being autistic instead of it
just being what is how do you navigate that the
(35:54):
idea of Okay, this was my responsibility, this thing over
here maybe not so much.
Speaker 6 (36:01):
Well, I can't say i've ever I've ever dealt with
that kind of you know, situation before. I'm going to
be honest with you, I've never really uh, I've never
really had to deal with that. But I think one
of the main reasons why you know, forced eye contact
and suppressing stemming you know, back then was common practice,
was because you know, they thought that they were doing
the right thing. You know, they wanted you know that
(36:23):
they wanted people to not you know, to not be
judgmental or you know, to judge somebody before really getting
to know them because they thought that if they didn't
make eye contact or if they stemmed, then you know,
they might not be able to get a job anywhere.
And fortunately that fortunately things like that are changing. You know,
people have a better understanding of stamming and uh, you know,
(36:44):
not making eye contact. So yeah, so so thankfully most
employers are not like that. They no longer you'll refuse
to hire somebody just because they're stemming or just because
they're not making eye contact, because there's other reasons why
somebody could be stemming uncontrollably. I mean, you wouldn't punish
somebody who's shaking their hands because they have Parkinson's, or
you wouldn't you know, you wouldn't penalize somebody from another culture.
(37:09):
We're making direct eye contact is considered your rude. So
like if you wouldn't do those things, then you know
the same thing shouldn't be done for people on the spectrum.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Right, And that goes back to that idea of normal, right,
I mean normal shifts what was considered some of the
normal fashion in the eighties and nineties. Wow, looking back
at those year books as difficult, and this is sort
of where we come into some of the divisions in
the autism advocacy community, and you talk about these you
(37:40):
and your mom both talk about these things in the book.
I cannot stress people listening how great the inclusion of
Blake's mom is and good morning Blake. Growing up autistic
and being okay, you've had run ins with the more
like i'll say, hardcore activists. Your mom has had some
(38:00):
issues with you know, her perspective not being seen as
valid as her perspective. I don't want to put words
in your mouth. So where are you at now? The
book came out in like what twenty twenty one, so
some stuff may have changed.
Speaker 6 (38:16):
Well, what I will say is that, you know, everybody's
autism journey, you know, is different. I mean some of
the people that we ran into, you know, they were
parents of you know, people that had autism that you know,
that required twenty four hour care, and even if we
were trying to give them some encouraging words, I mean, unfortunately,
it just didn't help them to feel better. It was
like giving somebody a rose even though they're choking on
(38:38):
a piece of steak. You know, that's just it's just
not going to help because they're so emotionally drained so
I think people, you know, they might appear to be mean,
or they might you know, appear to be throwing you know,
things in our face, but you got to understand that
they're dealing with a lot of stress, and you know
that they're they may be really nice people, they're just
not there themselves. I mean it's like, uh, it's like
(39:01):
there's a slogan for a famous chocolate bar. You know,
you aren't you when you're hungry. So maybe they're not
themselves when they're under a lot of stress. But so yeah,
that's one divide that we have is uh, you know,
is people that are you know, raising children or adults
that have severe, profound autism. And these are people that say, like,
(39:22):
if I could cure my you know, kid with autism,
I would, or you know like like autism is you know,
so bad, or I hate it. You know, they say
those things without understanding you know, just how much those
words hurt some people.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Myself.
Speaker 6 (39:35):
I mean, I don't think they mean to, but they
you know, they're they're just so stressed out that sometimes
you know, they don't think about how their words affect
other people. And I tell people that it's one thing
to have a bad experience with somebody that has profound autism.
But you know, but saying I hate autism or I
want to cure autism, you know, you can. You can
(39:57):
tell people that you really trust, you'll things like that,
but whatever you do, don't post it on social media
because if you do, inevitably you're going to be, you know,
hit with comments from self advocates like these are people
that are very proud to be autistic. They'll they'll just say,
you know, you're a very selfish person, you know, how
dare you talk about autism that way? And these are
(40:20):
and these are also coming from people that you know
that appear to be high functioning, but they weren't always
like that themselves. A lot of them used to have
autism that was considered profound, but they got better. That's
why I think, you know, everybody from the autism community,
we just can't be divided anymore. You know, we need
to come together and we need to take the time
to listen to each other's stories and hopefully one day
(40:43):
we can all understand each other without things getting turned
into a needless war.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
What do you think is.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
The first step, because obviously there's a lot of competing factors. Right, there's,
as you said, other other people's emotions, and they can
run really hot if say, somebody had a really bad
personal experience with ABA pit therapy.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
But there's also.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Money, I mean, the mindset of investing in autistic kids.
Politicians look at how much it costs and goes, Oh,
I don't know about that, but I mean it's the
difference between somebody being a you know, income earner and
paying taxes when they're older, as opposed to constantly needing
(41:26):
government supports versus spending you know, not spending the money
now and not making the money later.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
So what do you think is.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
A way for the various kind of political orientations and stakeholders,
if you will, to kind of come together and get
something done here.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
It needs to be treated just the same way that
that healthcare is in this country. It needs to be
it needs to be free. It's it's a human rights
you know, for things like that, full stop. You know,
I don't I'm going to be honest, I I don't
care how expensive it is.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
You.
Speaker 6 (42:03):
I would rather my tax dollars you go towards you know,
helping people that actually need it instead of your rich
CEOs you know, getting a tax break from the government,
you know, for for nothing. So we got to get
our priorities in order autism you know, support services and accommodations,
and that needs to be top priority. It needs to
(42:24):
be treated the same way that our free healthcare is
treated in this country.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Period.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Like I want to close with possibly my favorite quote
in your book. It was tough to pick, but it
was No one should ever say my life is ruined
when something bad happens. If you're still alive and still breathing,
your life is far from ruined. There will always be
a rainbow at the end of the storm. And then
you just quoted it me, what was your thought about
(42:51):
putting little things.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Like that in the book.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I wanted to inspire people, you know, I see you
know people all the time you're posting you just how
depressed they are, and you'll say, all my life is
ruined or you know, why do these things always happen
to be Listen, you are breathing, You are alive. That
is a blessing. Sometimes feeling those negative emotions, it doesn't
(43:16):
feel good, but it reminds you. When you feel these
negative emotions, you're a human. You're alive. Pain is good.
Pain is your friend. If you're feeling pain, it means
that you're still alive. And that's a blessing that you
should never take for granted. And I had to learn
that the hard way, and I want everyone to remember that.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
All right, great place to stop. Blake crash Prettle, author
of Good Morning Blake, Growing Up Autistic and Being Okay.
In the book, you can also find the perspectives of
fifty of Blake's peers, family members, friends, teachers, and work
colleagues who demonstrate it takes a village to raise a child.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
That's from the back of the book.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
You can hear Blake. If you're out in the Halifax
area at ninety five point seven, Blake, how do other
people get in touch with you? You got some social
media that you respond to?
Speaker 6 (44:06):
Yeah, I have Blake crash Priddle on Facebook. I have Instagram,
which I don't use that much, and I have a
website Blake Crashpriddle dot com. And uh, yeah, I would
prefer that if you're going to contact me, you know,
please please make sure that you put something you know
(44:27):
very clear in the heading so that I know what
it is that you want to talk about, because I'm
going to give you all a fair warning. Any you
know junk mail or spam emails, I will not be
opening them. Just just FYI. Another thing is I host
a podcast called The Medley with Blake crash Priddle and
that's available wherever you get your podcasts as well. And
(44:47):
I interviewed Stephen Kurzner better known as Ed Thesock and
that was a lot of fun, So listen to that.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
What's the name of the podcast again.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
It's called The Medley So that's.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Blake Crashpriddle dot for all things Blake, Blake crash Prittle,
p R I D D l E dot com. Blake,
thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
It's not Therapy.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
Hey, my pleasure, I was.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
I had a lot of fun, all right.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
When we come back, quick wrap up on tonight show. Questions, comments,
any feedback. Leanna at Notntherapyshow dot com is my email.
Not Therapyshow dot com is the website, and at not
Therapy Show for social media. When we come back, growing
up autistic and being Okay, final thoughts and It's not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Stream us live at SAGA nine sixty am dot C.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two one one or
go to two one one dot CA. We're back in
It's Not Therapy. I'm still Aanna Cursner. I'm still not
a therapist. We are still talking growing up on tistic.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
And being okay.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
And I got about two and a half minutes left
because Blake was interesting and I went long. That's the
way we roll when we have interviews on It's Not Therapy.
I want to focus on one of my top ten
phrases for the final thoughts on this episode, and that
top ten phrases listen twice before you talk once. And
(46:23):
one of the things I feel so fortunate about working
with a lot of autistic people is that the perspectives
tend to be pretty amazing. I learn a lot about
people just listening to other people's stories. I think Blake
commented on that in his final thoughts. But I'll hear
(46:45):
something from one person and then instead of going, oh,
that can't be so just dismissing it, I'll go to
to the person who has sort of similar experiences and say, hey,
I heard this recently. What do you think think about that,
and they'll either say yeah, that's absolutely right, or it's
not quite like that, but it's more like this. And
(47:08):
being able to piece together this mosaic of humanity based
on individual stories is an amazing, amazing part of the
work I do, and I'm really really grateful to be
able to do it. Every story like Blake's, every story
like yours is really important. Again, Blake's book is Good Morning, Blake,
(47:33):
growing Up Autistic and Being Okay. It's Blake Crash Prittle
is the full author's name, and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
It's a super fun book.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It's good for not only people with autism, but also
the families of autistic people who might be trying to
figure out what the heck is going on. It's laid
out in really awesome, clear terms.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
So I'm super.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Grateful for Blake coming on and talking to this and
I am out of time. Questions, comments, concerns, any feedback.
Leanna at Nontherapyshow dot com. Not Therapy show dot com
is the website at non Therapy Show. Why do I
keep messing that up? I don't know, but hey, another
episode down. Thank you for listening, Thanks for Blake to
coming for coming on and remember you're crazy is only
(48:22):
a problem if it's hurting you.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
See you next time.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Stream us live at SAGA nine to six am dot CA.
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