Transcript

MAN:

I still can find it a bit tricky. Like at work recently, one of my colleagues told a joke to me, which was, "When is a door not a door?" which is a very-- when we've got people with autism like myself, we take that very literally like, when is a door not a door? And I just said, as the answer. when it's not a door. And the answer is when it's ajar. When I was told that, I was thinking, what? I don't understand this.

And I think the problem with people in the autistic spectrum is we want to be perfect, but we can't be. And I think that one of the problems with that, that leads to depression. When you can't do something, it bothers you. And when you can't understand something like that joke that I've just mentioned, it bothers you.

And then you get into the circle. You just feel low and you feel hopeless and it brings on anxiety, et cetera. And I think the best thing that has helped me is just doing it bit by bit, just getting more exposure to things like that.