Full PreFrontal Podcast Episode 144 - Professor Tony Attwood

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What do wigs, cookie jars, pizza dough, supermarket flyers, unpaid invoices, airplane menus, and a mummified human foot have in common? Those are some of the Andy Stuff found amongst 641 boxes left behind by the Pop Art legend Andy Warhol, which is now on display at the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburg. Truman Capote was once said to refer to Warhol as 'a sphinx without a riddle’; a callous jab at the artist whose quirks and idiosyncrasies accentuated his highly restrictive interests and extremely limited social-interactional interactions. Many individuals on the Autism Spectrum present with Warhol’s vulnerabilities and find social navigation difficult if and when the world around them is less than accepting.
For World Autism Awareness Month, our podcast guest, clinical psychologist, adjunct Professor at Griffith University in Queensland, and consultant psychologist at the Minds and Hearts Clinic, Professor Tony Attwood, discusses the nature of Asperger’s syndrome and the upside and downside of these individuals’ remarkable abilities in a chosen area of expertise. Improving Executive Function skills can positively impact social reciprocity skills allowing mutualized harmonious engagement with the world which has room for all of us.
About Professor Tony Attwood
Tony Attwood, PhD is a clinical psychologist, adjunct Professor at Griffith University in Queensland, and consultant psychologist at the Minds and Hearts Clinic, in Brisbane, Australia. Professor Attwood has over four decades of experience with individuals with ASD and has helped thousands of individuals across the autism spectrum. His books and videos on Asperger’s Syndrome and High-functioning Autism include The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome, Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals, and the Exploring Feelings program manuals.
Website: www.tonyattwood.com.au
Books:
- The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome
- Exploring Depression and Beating the Blues: A CBT Self-help guide to understanding and coping with depression in Asperger’s syndrome.
- Been There. Done That. Try This! An Aspie’s Guide to Life on Earth
About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ® (www.exqinfiniteknowhow.com). As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

[@gregoryburne5251]

One of the nicest, most compassionate humans on the Planet. What a Great man, Tony is. Thank God that so many kids have access to him. His exquisite understanding and conveyance of Autism( Aspergers) brings me to tears.

[@Dancestar1981]

The worst thing to do to us is accuse us of lying, being drama queen, exaggerating or being hypercondriacs

[@pugazhenthi6868]

Dear @Sucheta Kamath, many thanks for doing this episode with Dr. Tony Attwood. Could you please do an episode with Dr. Olga Bogdashina, a very insightful Occupational Therapist.

[@janinemills6732]

I love Tony- thank god for him and all the valuable work he continues to do

[@DanS8204]

This is a lovely interview with Tony Attwood, a gifted, compassionate, generous, wise, inspiring, and kind clinical psychologist who has done so much to transform the lives of so many so much for the better. Thank you so much for your wonderful work, and for sharing this!

[@srt.kellytapensativ4141]

imagine being asperger in Brazil? That's my case. It's like being a turtle in the midst of agitated animals like the dog. At school it's worse... A lot of mess. I loved meeting Professor Tony!

[@Adlerjunges83]

We need a new episode of this with "Saint Tony" and her. It's so good. Very refreshing uplifting humour.

[@Dancestar1981]

I’ve always said that my lifetime as a Neurodiverse individual is the essential training for being a professional actor

[@Bicyclechris]

Personally I had anxiety from 2 main sources: From trying to manage my behavior in everyday live as mentioned in the talk, but also from abusive parents who leveraged shame as a tool for behavior modification. This later developed into CPTSD, and disassociation, so really everything from my teenage years through my mid twenties is a blank.

[@joycebrewer4150]

I was very late to a diagnosis of Asperger's. I still am figuring out implications of that. Dr. Tony Attwood

[@iloverumi]

great conversation. thanks

[@Kotifilosofi]

I don't have diagnosis, but I've suspected since my early teens that I'm probably on the spectrum (in my thirties now). There was a lot of relatable things here on this video, but there's some points I want to share from my personal experience. First, not knowing "who you are". I had an identity crisis in my teens because I'd tried to be just the expected: a feminine, well-behaving and laborous girl, until then. And I thought that's what all the girls do; I thought we were all just pretending to meet the expectations. It was a great shock for me to realize at my teens that some girls actually love feminine style, makeup and all that. As a result of the realization, I turned to a tomboy literally overnight. It was like a coming out experience, many people thinking I'm (ironically, closeted) lesbian etc. I'm still questioning my gender to some extent, but the topic is not so important to me so I'm just ignoring it most of the time. The another point, about knowing yourself + alexithymia, is that I recall I was very irritated since I was a small kid, when my mum would name what I'm feeling right now "oh, you're nervous?", or she would describe me as a person to someone "she's very determined, but empathich". I didn't know any of these things about myself, so I was mad at my mum throwing "guesses" like that in the air. Because they could've as well been guesses to me. I could have never came up with those description of me by myself. And the point with factual vs. social discussions. I'm usually very bored when it comes to discussions about people, what they're up to, what're their plans for the weekend etc. I'm simply not interested in people like that, so I struggle to motivate myself to keep up with conversations like that. I know it probably doesn't give a very good picture of myself, but I just can't help it. On the other hand, Factual discussions are so very engaging to me. Even better if they're about a special interest of mine, but any factual discussion really is fine, and I'm more motivated to participate than to any person-driven discussion. I struggled with this a lot when I was younger. I used to consume nonfictional encyclopedias about animals as a kid, but I still could never have any discussion about animals with my peers, because they only wanted to talk about which one is the cutest. You can imagine how frustrating that was as a kid. So, conversations with NTs are very unsatisfying to me, whereas hardly anyone's eager to go as deep in discussion on any given factual subject as I'd like to. I struggle with this to this day when interacting with people irl. Luckily I've found some groups online where I can truly have great discussions from the bottom of my heart. It's just a pity that it's not a daily irl luxury to me. And last but not least, the connection between knowing who you are and fact-based interests. I think that the reason I'm so driven by the factual things, is probably because I never have had that very strong connection to any people - myself included. I literally never think of myself as an individual person - how I look to others etc. Most of the time, I don't exist to myself inside my head, and that's the same with all the other people. My focus is on things other than people as persons. As much as I might just not know how I'm feeling or what I'm like, may as well just be more interested in other (factual) subjects, so I never got the practice on emotional introspection, never really spent time building up my personal image like my peers did etc. I've just never been interested in myself and always been interested in other things. So it's impossible to say which one is the cause and which one is the consequence - or if there even is a causal correlation between the two.

[@daveanderson8776]

Yes school was very difficult for me and always felt on the outside of groups I am now 64 yrs and it has been exhausting at my work place with understanding people and what they mean when they are saying things . I thought to myself today what if I am normal and neurotypical people are abnormal , funny I know but actually it think things like this and I was a target at and during school especially when I hit puberty 😢 and it only got worse from that point on because I had a hard time why then and was very hurt as a young boy and adult.

[@tracik1277]

I know this sounds a bit uncharitable, but I think of neurotypicals like weeds: they grow and proliferate rapidly and take over whatever environment they find themselves in. Just because there is a lot of something doesn’t mean it is the best thing. Edit: I mean en masse. Any individual is a person in their own right and I take each person on their own individual merits.

[@Dancestar1981]

In response to the categories of strategies girls on the spectrum use to try and be accepted I can actually say that I wasn’t limited to only one group of those descriptions but actually used them all from the introvert to the extrovert depending on situations in my life on a day to day basis and even on a minute to minute basis

[@turtleanton6539]

I agree😊 i love odd carthters cuz I can relate

[@Dancestar1981]

Wasn’t diagnosed until 23 and diagnosed with ADHD at 40

[@gregoryburne5251]

Is it just me, or was the top of the windowsill in the interviewer's office( sorry, yr name escapes me) made to line up EXACTLY with that object in Tony's door frame,, and then, the branch outside the office lines up with another object in Tony's doorframe. THEN, the windowframe horizontal above the branch in her office lines up with the top of Tony's door frame. Huh? Was it a coincidence?

[@buddhafx5973]

Yeah, saw it, that is funny! Seing paterns!

[@giovannamoro8564]

Wow what an eye for details you have .

[@nnylasoR]

*Beautiful* coincidence. 😌

[@tracik1277]

Haven’t watched yet but I can’t help notice things like that and I like being able to do that.

[@daveanderson8776]

I have had a head injury in the pre frontal cortex and I have a dent in my forehead to prove it . But also have always had social anxiety and social queues since childhood any thought on this ?

[@joycebrewer4150]

I was chronically aware I was different than others in a bad way from a very young age. I even had problems relating well to the dogs and cats my family owned through my childhood.

[@allcalmsoothing9443]

Hi, I have autism, knew I was different from a young age, but fully realized I had autism later in life and through that believe it or not, have solved or completed the theory Albert Einstein was looking for - The theory of everything, in a philosophical way, after my book was rejected everywhere I have put it up on my channel. Thank you.

[@yoganature3598]

which video .. ?? Thanks! I feel I work on unification

[@nnylasoR]

@@yoganature3598- Did you click on their name? That should take you to their video list. 😊

[@RatsPicklesandMusic]

I was a victim of fundamental religion as a growing up autistic.

[@turtleanton6539]

And yes many People call me Sheldon

[@Dancestar1981]

Help me get into professional acting in Australia I’ll sort that rubbish out really fast. I’ve wanted to be a professional actress for nearly 40 years but have been denied opportunities due to inter generational poverty and disability. I’ll take the industry by Storm I have multiple skills in singing, dancing and drama

[@yoganature3598]

What a beautiful introductory ! 🥰❤️ Gratitude Empathic autistic ....? ......🤔 44:30..Black & white thinking NA If anything more like technicolour compassionate appreciation of limitations of thinking of the human avatar .. & fine being a loner if the only other choice is adjustment to a profoundly sick society ..... 😜 So yes solitude & nature helps 58:.. spirit animal wolf