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All right, hello everybody, thank you for being here. There's a lot to cover today. So my name is Taylor Heaton, this is my channel, Mom on the Spectrum. And there's a lot of that's affecting the autistic community and I am here to help report on that to offer some insight as to what's I have been researching a lot and I watched the entire, I watched RFA Junior's entire press conference that he gave for the first press conference as Secretary of Health. So I've got a lot of information here to share with you. We're gonna cover that press conference, we're also gonna cover, so this is all, let me pause for a This is all, a lot of it stemming from a study, a new study that the CDC just posted regarding autism statistics, RFK Junior then reported on in a press conference.
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And then on Monday, I believe the 21st, there was a Council of Council meetings, that Council of Councils meeting that we will talk about as well, where an autism database was where it's being talked about that there's gonna be a database collected that contains autistic individuals information so that we can be studied to treat and manage autism. So we're gonna talk about that. We're also gonna talk about things that actually help the autistic community and areas of research that are people whose opinions are really value on these topics. Yeah, but I've got a lot to share with you today, so you might wanna save this live stream to come back to later. I've got my notes here and I will be reading off of them sometimes because truth, facts, very important to me.
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And I like to think that I'm a really thorough researcher, but I am human. So please do your own research and don't take what I say as hard truth, like go figure it out for yourself as well, okay? But just know that I've done everything I can to make this as unbiased and truthful as possible. So I will be reading off of mynotes to make sure that I'm communicating this information responsibly. Here is something that this video is not about. I'm not here to fear monger. I'm not here to mudsling. I'm not here to call people names. I'm not here to create an us versus them thing because that's not gonna work. It's not, it's not I side with Taylor. It's not, that's not what we're doing here.
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We're all in this together and we all deserve equal representation. We all deserve privacy. We all deserve respect. We all deserve our information to be protected and only to be given with consent. So this is not just an autistic issue. This is an everyone issue. It's not us versus them. I also wanna say that I am in support of research for the autistic community. So this is not me coming out and saying like, don't research, don't fund, initiatives. It just, the approach matters very much and that's what I wanna talk about today. Okay, so first of all, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Here's our little history lesson. Most of us probably know this. He's an American environmental attorney, author and political figure.
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And he was recently appointed as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services in February of 25, February of 2025. Something I learned about RFK Jr. today is that he created the Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999. And basically this was an alliance created to protect clean water across at least 40 different countries. And the short of it is that it's a global movement for water justice founded on the idea that communities have a right to clean water and a voice in protecting it. So I thought that was interesting. I wanted to mention that, just saying me as an autistic adult, a late diagnosed autistic adult, this is my community and we have a right to consent. We have a right to respect.
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We have a right to be a part of conversations involving us and we have a right to have a say in research that affects us. And so I'm just asking that you let me use my voice and sharing my thoughts on this matter. RFK Jr. has also shared publicly that he's had several health conditions over the years. One of them is spasmodic dysphonia. It's a rare neurological disorder that affects the muscles of the voice box. He's also publicly disclosed his neurocysticercosis, which is a parasitic infection caused by a tapeworm in the caused memory loss and mental fog in 2010. It's awful. It's awful. I have compassion for these experiences that he's been through. And then also he hasdisclosed that he has had mercury poisoning.
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This is just a leap that I'm taking, but I could see how there is some connection there to the strong feelings that he has about vaccines. That's totally just a connection that I'm making on my own, not stating anything about what I personally believe about vaccines. By the way, there's gonna be a lot of buzzwords in this video. I'm not sure if YouTube's gonna keep it up, but we're gonna talk about vaccines. We're gonna talk about, in a little bit, we're gonna talk about World War II. We're gonna talk about some tougher topics. I don't even know if I can say, I guess now we say unaliving. We're gonna talk about that There's a lot that we're gonna cover today, so please just be And again, if you need to save thisvideo and come back later, can watch it on your own terms whenever you have the capacity to do so.
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So I just wanted to give RFK Jr. some credit for publicly disclosing these things. I know what it's like to share a diagnosis to the Hello, I'm openly autistic and ADHD and OCD. And there's a lot that comes with sharing that information with the world, so I have a lot of respect for that. And even just listening to his press conference, which I did in full today, it takes guts and bravery and courage to speak with the voice condition that he has. I'm sure that he's been made fun of a lot for that. So to be able to address anaudience for extended periods of time and communicate information, that's something that I respect him for. And I know that it takes courage to do that. So I wanna give him credit there.
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Again, please do your own research. Don't take everything, don't think what I'm saying as the end all be all, do your own And I have gone to pretty great extent, if you notice in the description, to include a lot of citations and also helpful websites where you can get more information about all of this. And then at the end of the description box, there are pre- drafted emails that you can copy andpaste with a subject line and the email address to which you can send them to contact representatives, to contact advocacy groups, if you are interested in raising your voice on any of these concerns. Hello to everyone in the comments. I'm not gonna take time to do shout outs today, but I so appreciate everyone being here.
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Okay, so on April 16th, last week, 2025, this was the first press conference since RFK Jr. was confirmed as the 26th secretary of the U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. This was to discuss thelatest Autism and Developmental Monitoring Network Survey. That's a mouthful. The AADM Network Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and the CDC, published the day before on April 15th. And there's a link to both of those initiatives, both to the CDC and the ADDM in the So like I said, I did go through and listen to the press conference, and I wrote down some quotes of his that I want to talk about. So I mentioned earlier, I'm not against funding research for the autistic community. We definitely need it.
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And there's a lot of help and support and accommodations that need to be made on our behalf. It matters very much the approach that you take with this research and the people who are doing the If you set out to prove certain things with research, it's like, if you're you have to look in the direction that you wanna go, right? And if you look off course, you're gonna veer off course. So if you set your intention of, we're gonna prove how environmental toxins cause autism, you're gonna gear your research efforts towards that, and you might miss out other stuff that you should be focusing on instead. So let's talk about some of the, I guess the reason that I wanna go through his, the press conference, is because it brought up a lot of concerns for me personally as an autistic person.
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And again, I'm not trying to target anyone or name call, but I feel like there needs to be a different person in charge of this initiative, or RFK Jr. needs to appoint more qualified people to run these initiatives, because there are a lot of concerning ways that RFK Jr. is talking about autism. So let's go through this. I'll try to remember to tell you when it's a direct quote. This is a direct quote. He said, autism is increasing inprevalence at an alarming rate. So first of all, we have the word alarming. Let's see, two years later, that should be.
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Okay, so he talks about updated real- time data in these studies.Oh Oh, sorry, let me catch my brain for a Okay, some other terminology that he's using is chronic disease. He's relating autism to chronic disease. He said,wesohesaid this is a direct quote, we don't wait two years to react to a measles epidemic or any kind of infectious disease. We shouldn't have to do that for diabetes or autism. That statement is problematic. So he's referring to waiting two years. So he's saying the CDC study that just came out on April 15th, this is, I believe it's information regarding numbers from 2022. So RFK Jr. is saying that the numbers we're seeing now from this study are two years late, and what he's wanting to do is provide real- time data so that we can analyze it and figure out what some of the causes for autism are.
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Okay, other words he used, extreme risk for boys. These are alarming words, risk, alarming rate,risk risk, chronic disease, infectious disease. These are words that he's using to talk about autism, which is not a This is how he started out the press conference. It's not a Are there things that we need help with? Absolutely. Are there things we need to better understand? Absolutely. Are there areas that we need to research heavily? Yes, absolutely. We don't need to talk about it as a Also, he said California has the best data collection. This is just a snippet of a but he's talking a lot about data collection, and that is concerning to me. He said, there's an unrelenting upward trend, and most cases of autism are now severe. That is a direct quote.
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Most cases of autism are now severe. That is just simply not true, and it actually is a lot of the reason why I'm doing the work that I'm doing on the channel is because a lot ofadults are being diagnosed with autism now, and they weren't diagnosed earlier because they're not severe cases. please understand that my use of the word severe, I'm just, I'm trying to cover a lot of ground here. I don't have time to unpack the word severe, okay? So autism is a You've heard me, if you've been around on the channel, you've heard me say, if you met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person. We're all different. We all have different experiences. So the fact that he says most cases now are severe, that is just not true.
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Again, that's where you're focusing the car. That's what you're looking at. I'm gonna drive to that store. So that's what I'm focusing. I'm gonna get to that store. But if you wanna go to a different direction, you've gotta look a different direction. You've gotta consider other perspectives and other routes. There are a lot of cases of autism that are, you know, we also have to acknowledge the self- diagnosis that's happening now, and is happening more frequently already because of talks like this where public figures with a lot of authority and power are talking about autism as a So I've already had messages coming in. Taylor, I don't wanna go get a diagnosis anymore. I've been saving up. I'm on the schedule. I'm actually supposed to get my diagnosis today.
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I'm canceling it because I'm People need these diagnoses to get services, and now they are putting this off because they're scared of being on a registry and being tracked. So we have to take into account, many people are self- diagnosed. So we're gonna get into this later because RFK Jr. talks about at the end, that's something that I really wanna focus on, how he doesn't see this in his age group. That is something we really need to talk about. And that's, again, at the end of the press conference. Okay, some of the, okay. He said 25% of kids diagnosed are nonverbal, non- toilet trained, and have other stereotypical features such as headbanging, stimming, toe walking, et He said, and this is a direct quote, one of the things that I think we need to move away from today is this ideology that the autism diagnosis, that the autism prevalence increases, the relentless increases are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition, or changing diagnostic criteria.
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He says that's what we need to move away from, the idea that it's due to better diagnoses, better recognition, changing diagnostic criteria. This is absolutely not a focus that we need to take. We are having better recognition, better diagnostic criteria, better diagnoses. We're gonna keep exploring this. He said, direct quote, if you accept the epidemic denier's you have to believe that thousands of profoundly disabled children were somehow invisible to doctors, teachers, parents, and even their own study. Absolutely, I believe that. Absolutely, I believe that thousands of profoundly disabled children were somehow invisible to doctors, teachers, parents, and even their own study. Absolutely, I believe this. And it really depends here how we define profoundly disabled, but one of the things about autism, and one thing that I talk about on the channel is that autistic people, especially, and again, I don't have time to unpack these I don't love these terms, but high- functioning autistic people, you could say with fewer support needs, we're like ducks on a And it's like, oh, they're fine.
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Why do you need a diagnosis now? You've been fine. Everything's smooth sailing. You're so graceful. Like, oh, you're a homecoming queen, because I was. Only sharing that to show how we can be socially successful. You graduated from TCU. Yes, I did. I have these honors and awards and all these things floating gracefully on the pond, but underneath the surface, my feet are working frantically, and I've got autoimmune diseases, anxiety, I have alopecia. My hair falls out. I've had to wear wigs because of the level of Literally, I've lost so much hair that I've worn wigs. So under the surface, I guess that is above the but let my brain catch up. Autistic people, especially those with lower support needs, we look like we are doing well, but under the surface, we are working frantically, and we are struggling.
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So absolutely, absolutely, there's thousands of profoundly disabled children that are somehow invisible to doctors, teachers, parents, and even their own study. Yes. RFK Jr. says doctors andtherapists in the past were not stupid. don't hear anybody saying that they were. don't hear that this is a concern that people are saying doctors used to be No, but it's 2025, and we know more. We've learned a lot more. There's a lot of things you can say about technology, but one incredible thing about technology is that more people are sharing their stories. More people are learning the intricacies of autism and how it So no, past doctors were not stupid. They're not just missing all of these things because they're stupid. They're missing these things because it's a lack of information. It's a lack of understanding.
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There's a fantastic book called Neurotribes by Steve Silberman, who passed away last year, but phenomenal and well- respected American scientist, journalist, researcher, author. Fantastic, probably the most comprehensive history on the origins of autism, the terminology, the diagnostic criteria, procedures. We're gonna talk more about that later, too. That's when we're gonna get into World War II stuff. Buckle up, you guys, and girls, and We got a lot to So, let me go back for a Oh, so I was talking about, so Steve Silberman in Neurotribes talks about how, you know, with the origins of the autism diagnosis, it was heavily geared towards boys. The research was geared towards boys for forever. And so, yes, a ton of boys were, comparatively, a ton of boys were diagnosed compared to because we weren't researching what it looks like in And you've gotta take into account, historically and societally, girls,women have a very different set of social standards.
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And women often mask, this is a generalization, we mask much more than boys or men because there are different societal expectations. And so, we learn how to mask in order to blend in, and we become invisible, which RFK Jr. said, surely thousands of people aren't invisible. Yes, we are invisible because we learned how to be invisible. RFK Jr. is citing studies with numbers and statistics about autism from 1987. He goes back to 1959 to 1965. He said, direct quote, a condition characterized by profound impairment in social communication and behavior would have stood out like a neon sign. No, it wouldn't. Sometimes, in some cases, in some cases. And we're gonna talk about this too. There's so much that autism is, and there's so much that autism isn't.
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I know that's vague, but autistic people, I need to check the numbers on this. I believe the last time I looked, a majority or a large percentage of us have multiple diagnoses. So, it's not just autism, but it's autism and OCD. It's autism and Ehlers- Danlos syndrome. There's complexities of this. So, a lot of times, the problematic ways, I'm problematic, excuse my language here, okay? The appearance, the presentation ofautism that upsets people a lot of times. Yes, sometimes it is autism- related. Maybe many times, but many times it's not. Many times it is in addition to These other neurological conditions that can cause self- injurious behaviors, yes, autism can cause that as well. But self- injurious behaviors, I've got more in my notes on this in just a bit, but there are other conditions that coincide, other co- occurring conditions that go alongside autism, that sometimes people say, that's autism and it's not.
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So, we have to keep that in mind as well. And again, I've got on here, I absolutely was invisible for a long time. When I was a child, I had a lot of anxiety. I had depression. I wore a heart monitor in elementary school because I had so much anxiety and I had heart palpitations and we couldn't figure out what was going on. And my parents, I'm in DFW, my parents sought out a very well- respected, I think neurologist in Dallas. He didn't know how to help me. He put a heart monitor on me. And autism was invisible to me until I was 31. I'm 36 now, and I was diagnosed at 31. So yeah, lots of invisibility here within the autism community. Okay, some other problematic language that he used.
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RFK Jr. says, there are many, many other studies that affirm this, this being his theme here, that there's environmental toxins, it's an epidemic, not genetics, et cetera, etcetera All you have to do is start reading a little science because the answer is very clear and this is catastrophic for our country. That's a direct quote. This is catastrophic for our country. Okay, direct quote. There's a recent study by Black Cell and a team of other researchers that said the cost of treating autism in this country by 2035, within 10 years, will be a trillion dollars a Here are some, end quote, here are some things to This is me talking now. Part of this cost has to be, and I don't have research to prove this, I have lived experience to prove this.
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Part of this is going in circles with multiple providers who don't have answers for years, sometimes decades. I have 70- year- olds messaging me on the channel saying that they've tried for decades to get adiagnosis and have been sent in all directions. Being treated for things we don't need to be treated for. Oftentimes, autistic people are diagnosed with bipolar or borderline. We're given medications that make symptoms and experiences worse. So these healthcare costs, I believe, are largely due to misinformation, to lack of education, to lack of understanding, to lack of accommodations make the diagnostic process for autistic people be years, decades longer than it needs to be. Yeah, again, a huge percentage of the autistic community was misdiagnosed with at least one condition before learning the true diagnosis was autism.
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The answer is better education. Better education will lead to spending less money on autism. And I stand by this. A huge number, I've done videos on this, a huge number of autistic accommodations are free. Not all of them, no. Some of them are expensive and we need money. We need money, we need funding, we need technology, especially for the nonverbal people in our community to help them communicate. We need money for that. But so many autistic accommodations are completely freaking free. And I talk more about that on my channel. So much of it is just understanding how to implement free resources. and empathy and trusting other people when they talk about their experiences and what they need. Also, separate point, autistic people in general are a tremendous asset to the workforce.
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We're creative, we can be single- minded focused, like we will just get the job done for you, we will do it well, we will become an expert on something, we're incredible researchers, we're, again, a generalization but one of the most loyal, trustworthy, honest group of people I've ever known in my entire life. Many of us feel like we will combust if we tell a Many of us just feel like the world will end if we lie about something or we're disloyal. We are extremely wonderful workers. We are an asset to society in so many ways. Even if we're not working, even if we're not working, there's a beauty, there's a naivete to To autistic people in a beautiful way of, we take people at their word, we believe what people say, we trust them, we believe, again, these are generalizations, but we believe that, I don't know, I don't wanna speak generally for all of us, but the autistic community is a beautiful group, tremendous asset,
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RFK Jr. quote, this is a preventable disease. Again, disease. No, it's not. It's not preventable and it's not a It's not preventable because it's largely genetic. Autistic people create autistic children sometimes. I have two autistic children. They are two of the most beautiful human beings in the Empathetic, kind, creative, is a definition of autism that I wanted to share with you all So this is more of kind of the direction that we're headed in terms of understanding autism. Autism is a naturally occurring neurodevelopmental variation that affects how a person experiences andinteracts with the world. It influences communication, sensory processing, social interaction, and patterns of thought and Autism exists across a wide spectrum, meaning each autistic person has a unique combination of strengths, challenges, and ways of processing information.
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Rather than being a disorder to be fixed, autism is increasingly understood as part of human neurodiversity, a term that recognizes neurological differences as valid and valuable forms of human diversity. Autistic people may use spoken language, alternative communication methods, or a mix of both. They may be highly sensitive to sensory input, have deep interest, and process emotions and relationships in ways that differ from non- autistic individuals. Respectful support for autistic people centers on acceptance, accessibility, that's a big one, and agency, not conformity. Inclusion means honoring each person's way of ensuring they have the tools, and relationships they need to So I mentioned earlier sometimes there's facets of autism are kind of autism- adjacent, maybe a secondary diagnosis or something can be upsetting to Sometimes it's not just autism, although sometimes it is.
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Here are some things that sometimes upset other people. These are autistic experiences. Okay, one of them is meltdowns or shutdowns. If you're autistic, you have meltdowns, you have shutdowns. Repetitive behaviors, such as stimming, social differences, needing more processing time, sensory sensitivities, having a reaction to strong sounds, lights, touch, need for routine or predictability, and then masking and unmasking. So with autistic people, some people might be frustrated because, oh, you were fine earlier, why are you not now? Oh, because I was masking earlier, and I can't wear the mask anymore, and so I have to let it go. Orion Kelly has a great video over this called The Coke Bottle Effect. And for myself, this is my experience at and also my daughter's experience, and my son's, but more so my daughter, and I think it's because it's more of the female experience, or it can be.
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During the day, everything's fine, but the Coke bottle's being shaken up, right? There's sensory sensitivities, there's sound, there's overwhelm, there's meltdowns, but you internalize them. The Coke bottle keeps shaking up, shaking up, shaking up. On the outside, it looks fine. Again, the duck swimming on the pond analogy. You get home, you're in a safe place, the lid comes off the Coke bottle, and it explodes. Why are you not okay now? Oh, because I've been trying to keep, I've been trying to keep it together all day. So these types of tendencies can be to the outside world, but they're not always a It's, again, learning why these things happen, learning how to accommodate ourselves, and finding safe ways to regulate and express ourselves.
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So again, just to reiterate, many of us do need a lot more support and we need research and we need more funding. And I'm going to share some areas where I feel like that would be really helpful for our community, but it depends on who is doing the research and what the research is trying to prove. So you've heard me quote now from RFK Jr. several many things about how he's talking about it as a disease, a chronic disease, preventable. haven't gotten to the environmental toxins yet. A catastrophic, catastrophic for, what do you say, catastrophic for the country, I it depends on who is running this greatly shapes the trajectory of the studies and the types of information you get from them. Okay. Direct quote, RFK Jr.
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says, studying genetic causes is a dead end. This is, excuse me, this is me talking now, not by a long shot. Okay. You're the secretary of health and you say that studying genetic causes is a dead end. this day and age, I feel old saying that, in this day and age, every day scientists are learning more about what our bodies are capable of and how we grow and evolve and change. And to say that studying genetics is a dead end is a very close- minded way, even as a lay person with no medical expertise, and do please take note of that, none of this is medical advice. This is lived experience and I'm a late diagnosed autistic person, but yeah, to say that it's a dead end, I feel like is a very close- minded thing to say as the secretary of health. But this is why, yeah, so it says that scientists are learning new things about our bodies every single day. This is why we need research programs across a broad spectrum of disciplines funded. And I'm going to, let me skip ahead to my notes real quick, so this is a good place to bring this up.
00:32:48
Research grant terminations, at least 900 research grants have been terminated, prompting lawsuits from scientists who argue that these actions undermine scientific progress and public health. These are things that have been done under RFK Jr.'s watch. We're gonna talk about more of those in a Okay, RFK Jr. goes on to say, again, this is a direct quote, study environmental factors, to study exposures, to study external factors, that's where we're going to find the Again, he's setting this research project up based on what he wants to find, what he wants to pin this on, and that is environmental factors, exposures, external factors. I'm all for studying environmental factors. I've got more to say on that. Okay, back to RFK Jr. direct quote, this is an individual tragedy as well. Autism destroys families.
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More importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which are our children. Goes on to say, these are kids who, many of them, maybe this is what most of you have heard in the lately this is the one that's being quoted the most. Back to the direct quote. These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they were two years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem, they'll never go out on a Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted, and we have to recognize we are doing this to our Again, pay attention to the language he's using. Is this somebody you want heading up research?
00:34:32
This is not an unbiased person. I mean, none of us are unbiased, but this is not an unbiased person in terms of what he thinks is behind all of this. But I wanna go back to his quote. These are kids who were fully functional and regressed. Okay, you're right, you're right here, RFK Jr. Autistic kids regress. This is actually now a known experience amongst autistic individuals, not just children, but adults as well. There are significant stages of regression where an autistic child will have a skill and then lose it. It's like, what happened? You knew how to do that and now it's like you've never done it before. This is actually, yes, that's actually autism. Regression is due to autistic factors. Okay, then in the press conference, RFK Jr. then brought Dr.
00:35:33
Walter Zahirodny on stage. He is a long- term autism researcher and a clinical psychologist with 20 plus years as the director of the New Jersey Autism Study, also the CDC- sponsored Autism Surveillance System. Do some research on your own about that. Dr. Zahirodny said, better awareness of cannot be driving a disability like autism to increase by 300% in 20 years. Yes, absolutely it can. Think about how quickly technology is growing, how quickly people can share their stories, how quickly something can go viral. TikTok has a lot to do with the ability for people to understand their place on the spectrum. Things will go viral and millions of people will have access to information immediately. Yes, absolutely, especially when numbers were so low because of lack of education and resources and testing and diagnostic criteria, numbers were so low and now we have technology, we have better resources, we have efficacy of communication, ease of communication.
00:36:43
Absolutely, those numbers can spike that much in two decades, yes. And I don't even think like personally, just my personal thought, I don't feel like the numbers from 20 years ago are accurate because we didn't know how to accurately test for So they're much lower than they actually were during that time. Okay, then Dr. Zahirodny said, the data provided in yesterday's report strongly suggests that not only is this a high point of autism prevalence, but in the future rates can only be higher, yes. This is accurate and this is positive, keep this in mind. goes on to say, so I would urge everyone to consider the likelihood that a real thing that we don't understand and it must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors.
00:37:35
Again, we've got another person, this is me talking now, we've got another person on this autism study initiative that is already attributing causes to environmental risk factors. Un Okay, then RFK Jr. takes the mic back at the press conference. Direct quote, he says, if the epidemic is an artifact, a better diagnostic criteria, excuse me, a better diagnostic criteria or better recognition, then why are we not seeing it in older people? And guys, this is the point of the video where I might tear up a little bit, okay? I had a hard time writing this. this is still RFK Jr. talking for this next quote. I'm already, sorry, I'm having, I'm gonna have a hard time with this. Okay, RFK Jr.
00:38:31
have you ever seen anybody our age, I'm 71 years old, with full- blown autism, headbanging, nonverbal, non- toilet trained, stimming, toe walking, these other stereotypical features, where are these people walking around the mall? You can't find them. They're not in There are no homes for There are no institutions for them. He said that, RFK Jr. said that, yes, you're right. You're right, there's not homes for There's not institutions for them. And I'm gonna share some statistics with you now. I've got citations in the description. I mentioned at the I don't know if this video will stay up because I am gonna share some statistics about suicide. So trigger warning for that if you can't, if it's not within your capacity to listen to that right now. This is me talking.
00:39:35
And these statistics, again, they're cited in the Autistic individuals face a significantly higher risk of suicide compared to the general population. Research indicates that autistic people are up to three times more likely to die by suicide than non- autistic individuals, with the risk increasing to more than five times for those without intellectual disabilities. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors often begin early in life for autistic individuals. A study found that over 35% of children aged eight or younger with autism spectrum disorder have experienced suicidal thoughts. Among autistic adults, approximately 66% have reported experiencing suicidal ideation, and 35% have made suicide plans or Globally, it's estimated that there were 13, 400 excess suicide deaths among autistic individuals in 2021, accounting for almost 2% of all suicide deaths that year. The elevated risks are influenced by various factors, including social isolation, co- occurring mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, and the challenges associated with masking autistic traits to fit societal norms, to become invisible, as RFK Jr. alluded to earlier. Addressing this crisis requires increased awareness, early intervention, and tailored mental health support for autistic individuals across all age groups and not just children.
00:41:19
Then, RFK Jr. said, direct quote, it's not good for the press to not be more inquisitive, to not be more skeptical. And I'm going to read that again. RFK Jr. said, it's not good for thepress to not be more inquisitive, to not be more skeptical. Again, it's not good for thepress to not be more inquisitive, to not be more skeptical.
00:41:53
He said, within three and probably we're hoping two weeks, we're going to announce a series of new studies to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing it. So again, back to environmental toxins. Okay, so let's talk about some concerning dismissals and resignations that have happened on RFK Jr.'s watch. So Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA's top vaccine official resigned in March of 2025. his resignation letter, Marks criticized Kennedy for promoting misinformation and lies about vaccines and stated that truth and transparency were not desired under Kennedy's leadership. Dr. Kevin Hall, a leading nutrition and metabolism scientist at the National Institutes of Health, announced his early retirement in April of 2025. Hall accused Kennedy's aides of censorship, stating that he was blocked from speaking to themedia about his research on ultra- processed food and faced interference in publishing his Excuse me.
00:42:55
don't want to keep sniffing with everybody. Sorry. Mass layoffs. Approximately 10, 000 employees across health agencies, including the FDA, CDC, and NIH have been laid off. then, like I mentioned earlier, research grant terminations, at least 900 research grants have been terminated, prompting lawsuits from scientists who argue that these actions undermine scientific progress and public health. Public health concerns. Public health groups, including the American Public Health Association, have called for Kennedy's resignation, citing a dangerous disregard forscience and the potential risk to public health. Okay. So that was the end of the press conference. Oh, that was the end of RFK Jr.'s statements, and then there were some questions from the first one was not picked up on microphone, and I did the best I could to piece together the question.
00:43:50
It was a fantastic question. And I'm really sad that I don't have the specific wording for you, but here, to the best of my I don't know who asked this question. It was someone in the This is what I gathered from what they asked. The person said, I was not diagnosed with autism, trailed off. It took me five years to get diagnosed later. So it seems like it kind of started the process, wasn't diagnosed, and then five years later was diagnosed. So he said, you, RFK Jr. talked about the fact that numbers have increased with black and Latino people. I don't know where RFK Jr. was talking about that. I haven't found that yet. Your own studies say it may indicate that improvements in ASD awareness and identification had improved.
00:44:38
And then, again, piecing together what his question was, are you denying that in the black, Latino, and AAPI people have not been diagnosed with they've been diagnosed with behavioral disorders, they've been incarcerated and are now finally getting the services that they need? Okay, this is an excellent question. So whoever asked this, first of all, thank you for is raising the point that, especially among minority communities, black, Latino, AAPI, oftentimes they're diagnosed not with but with a behavioral disorder that ends up getting them in or flagged in the system, and they end up incarcerated and disconnected from services and supports. And so now that we have access to more information, more education, we're realizing that many minority communities, they have been estranged from, they've been completely disconnected and wrongfully disconnected from rights, resources, understanding, and that has skewed the numbers as well, because there's people incarcerated who shouldn't be incarcerated because they have been incorrectly diagnosed.
00:45:53
I didn't write down his direct response here, but RFK Jr. basically responded by saying, this is just a small percentage of the studies and still points to an epidemic. Reporter Amanda Seats with the Associated Press asked a question next. She said, some of the CDC's own research has concluded that there's a genetic link at play with autism. Are you saying today that you don't trust that research or that it was wrong? Could you expand a little more on that? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, we have really good genetic markers now and they provide a vulnerability, but those genetic markers alone are not going to dictate your You need an environmental toxin. I just thought that wording was so questionable. You need an environmental toxin. He is set on this.
00:46:41
He has his mindset on this. Okay, then he goes on to say, people with the MTHFR gene, which dictates methylation are more vulnerable. People with high testosterone are more vulnerable. So there are a lot of genetic vulnerabilities. You need an environmental toxin. He said that again. But I want to point out, okay, the MTHFR gene, I'm so happy to hear that out of RFK Jr.'s mouth. That is an area of Please fund research on the MTHFR gene, which affects many autistic people. And it'd be really great to have a better understanding of that. He says, we're going to look at mold. We're going to look at food additives. We're going to look at We're going to look at air and water and medicines. Great, I'm all for that. Let's study food additives.
00:47:27
Let's study pesticides. Let's study air and water and Let's get all the crap out of them. Let's take the stuff out that's hurting us. And this is the thing. A lot of these initiatives that are going to help the autistic community are going to help everyone. Nobody needs pesticides in their food. Nobody needs food additives. One interesting thing to me is that ADHD medication, for example, Adderall, has red food coloring in it. This is the antithesis of what we know about ADHD. I mean, that's a dramatic statement, but red food dye frustrates your and we're putting it in medication to help ADHD people. So yeah, let's study these things, okay? I'm all for studying thesethings but we're not going to pin the cause of autism on it. Autism is not adisease that's caused by environmental toxins.
00:48:28
Okay, and then this is kind of where RFK Jr. is wrapping up. He says, in fact, Congress said to ordered EPA to tell us what year the autism epidemic began. The EPA scientists came back and said it happened in 1989. You have to find a toxin that became ubiquitous around that time period. We're going to find potential exposures that increased during that time period, and we're gonna see if there's a, excuse me, a link to this Again, please, I suggest reading Neurotribes by Steve Silberman, the most extensive, exhaustive research on the history of It did not, it didn't start surging in 1989. I mean, maybe we had more understanding that time period and numbers looked like they were inflating, but this isn't like when autism became an It just, it sounds like RFK Jr.'s got this focus on where he thinks we're gonna find everything, and we're missing this huge field ofresearch because he's very focused in, as you can hopefully tell with these on environmental toxins and like a short time period.
00:49:40
But, okay, here's what he says. There are some things he said in closing that I can get behind. He says, we're going to follow thescience no matter what it He said, we're going to follow thescience no matter what it says. RFK Jr. please take that into account considering the people who have resigned or left under your leadership. RFK Jr. says, we're going to remove the taboo. People will know they can research and they can follow the science no matter what itsays without any kind of fear that they're going to be censored, that they're going to be gaslighted, that they're going to be that they're going to be defunded, de- licensed, and we're going to give them permission to do this research and then we're going to open it up to the research community we're going to task them with certain outcomes and we're going to have them come andbid on how to do the research.
00:50:29
There's a lot of jargon there. I like what he said at thebeginning about removing the taboo, giving people the jurisdiction toresearch wherever they feel led. So that kind of seems in juxtaposition to what he's saying about this narrow focus on environmental toxins. So I hope that thathappens I hope that the researchers on this project feel that they can have that to open the research up and explore other avenues. I hope that they don't feel censored or silenced. But then the end of this, when he says we're going to task them with certain outcomes, I mean, that's a direct quote. We're going to task them with certain outcomes and we're going to have them come andbid on how to do the research.
00:51:20
So lots of questions there, lots of And then the very last thing he closed with on his press conference, he said direct quote, I'm very grateful to President Trump because he tasked me on day one of this job with making this a priority of finding out what's causing the autism epidemic and we're going to do it for him. That makes me feel sick. As an autistic person, it makes me feel sick because, and if you've been around on the channel for a I stay out of politics, okay, but this is my community. And I can't sleep at night without talking about this. This makes me scared because the has their bulldozers and they don't see much forrules or respect and dignity.
00:52:25
And I'm concerned about how the state is going to be used because I don't have a whole lot of hope that it will be used ethically. And again, I'm not here to create fear. There's more that we need to talk about, but I thought that closing, that was very chilling to me. We're going to do it for him. Finding out what's causing the autism epidemic, we're going to do it for him. Okay, that was April 16th, the day after the CDC released the new autism statistics on April 15th. April 21st, that was Monday. There was a Council of Councils meeting. I just learned about the Council of Councils meeting. It's a Council of 27 professionals, various disciplines, various credentials to advise the put a link to the meeting agenda their meeting on Monday in the description.
00:53:33
I put a link to the slideshow that the director, is it the director of the Yeah, Dr. Bhattacharya, I believe he's thedirector of the NIH, I'll get there in a put a link to the presentation that he used during that meeting. It's very vague, there's not a lot of information on it. I just saw in the chat before I started, that it seems like the video of this meeting was posted. It had to have been within the last hour because I've been trying to watch this video. So it seems like the NIH posts the video content from these meetings, but it takes a while like after the meeting happens from the post it. So I have not watched that, but that is something that I wanna do for this community is watch that when that comes out and give an update about the content of thatmeeting That's what people have been reporting on.
00:54:38
Limited reporting has been available on the content of that meeting on the Council of Councils meeting, where they gave more concrete details about how they're gonna go about studying autism. The limited information I've found sources, CBS, The Guardian, right before I started this video, NPR just came out with an article on this. So people are starting to report on the meeting onMonday And I think now that the video footage is available, we're gonna start seeing more headlines about what actually happened in that meeting. So check the links in the I do have the link to the video there. It just hadn't been uploaded yet whenever I started this live stream. Okay, so the following information that I'm gonna share is from a combination of CBS and The sources cited in the The National Institutes of Health is amassing private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
00:55:36
Kennedy Jr.'s new effort to study autism. Medication, sorry, yes. Medication records from pharmacy chains. Let me try that again. Medication records from pharmacy chains, lab testing, and genomics data from patients treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, claims from private insurers, and data from smartwatches and fitness trackers will all be linked together, he said. So personable wearable devices are included in this. The new data will allow external researchers picked for Kennedy's autism studies to study comprehensive patient data with broad coverage of the U. S. population for the first time, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said. The study also plans to link medication records. Yes, I mentioned that. And then between 10 and 20 outside research teams will be selected and given grants to study the data. Dr.
00:56:37
Bhattacharya said that compiling this data could also potentially give health agencies a window into real- time health monitoring on Americans for studying other health problems beyond autism, other health problems. Again, you notice the language that people are using to talk about autism, other health problems. In addition, a new disease registry is being launched to track Americans with autism, will be integrated into the data. Disease registry. Disease registry, remember, RFK Jr. said this is catastrophic for the country. These people don't pay taxes. What we're proposing, this is Dr. Bhattacharya again. What we're proposing is a transformative real- world data initiative, which aims to provide a and secure computational data platform for chronic disease and autism research. Chronic disease and autism lumped together. He promised state- of- the- art protections to protect confidentiality.
00:57:40
So with that we don't know specifically what data they're taking. And that's concerning, right? We don't know where this is coming from. We've heard smartwatches. Okay, that's concerning because that's on my body. How are you getting that? We don't know specifically what information they're taking, from whom they're taking it, how it's gonna be used. It's important to know our Under HIPAA policy, our medical information is protected. And even if it is, and don't quote me on this, I made a video about this yesterday, but I didn't write this in my Even if the information is de- so if it's decoupled, like with your name identifying information, still really strict rules for how your medical information can be used. So are they going to follow the guidelines?
00:58:35
That's where the concern is coming from the again, I struggle to make these types of political commentaries, but trying to speak for some in our community, there's concern because the administration has not followed things respectfully and according to rules that have been set forth for decades. So why would we trust that this information is gonna be handled with care and compassion and We don't have anything to go off of here. And even then it's like just trusting. Okay, am I just gonna trust this information is being handled well? Um, here's the concern and again, okay.
00:59:37
This is important to talk about but some of you are going to say that it's alarmist and that's okay. I'm losing my voice a little bit here. I'm not saying that this is what is happening. I'm not saying that this is going to but I'm saying that we need to have this conversation, okay? is trigger warning. Trigger warning for World War II and I'm going to try to like kind of censor my language. Again, I don't know what I can say on YouTube without this being taken down. Okay, there was an initiative in World War II Germany called Aktion T49. No, T4. Sorry, Aktion T4. Okay, under World War II Germany, people with disabilities including those who were likely autistic were targeted, catalogued, and murdered as part of this Aktion T4 program.
01:00:53
This was a systematic effort to eliminate individuals deemed unworthy of life and this is something, you know, I've been doing a lot of research today but again, that NeuroTribes book on the history of autism, there is a lot in there on this particular event in history that I had never heard about before. Before we even had the word autism when it was very new, children who were different, we didn't have words for them, they were different. They were catalogued in World War II Germany, they were sent to and many of them were euthanized. This is when doctors were studying autism and they thought, these people are just taking up space, that we don't understand them. Can you see our concerns? RFK Jr. doesn't understand us. The language he's using about us, he does not understand us.
01:01:55
He doesn't. It's not that we don't want to be researched, it needs to be on our terms and we need to be part of the conversation. He doesn't understand us. Can you see our concern? People who weren't understood in the past were targeted, catalogued, euthanized children. This was a state- sponsored program that aimed to get rid of people with physical,intellectual or psychiatric disabilities or differences. No formal autism diagnosis existed at the time. This is when Leo Conner and Hans Asperger's early work on autism didn't emerge until the 1940s. People we would recognize today as autistic were likely among the victims. The government leadership in Germany during World War II compiled lists of institutionalized individuals and assessed them based on perceived productivity, communication ability and behavior. Those who did not meet the regime's criteria were marked for sterilization or death. Again, I'm not saying that this is what's happening. I'm not trying to be alarmist. I'm not trying to fearmonger. But again, when RFK Jr. uses terms like people that never pay taxes, catastrophic for our country, disease, preventable disease, like it's concerning. It's very concerning. And when we feel like protocols are not being respected and in government systems currently, it's terrifying. Honestly, it's terrifying.
01:03:54
During this program, the Axiom T4, many children and adults who exhibited traits now associated with autism, such as nonverbal communication, repetitive behaviors, or difficulties with social interaction were labeled as mentally deficient or imbecilic. And just to note here for anybody, if you've been curious about the word Asperger's, maybe you've heard that there's some tension and controversy around it. Hans Asperger was an Austrian pediatrician. name was later associated with Asperger's syndrome. He worked in World War II era Vienna. He was once believed to have protected autistic children. And more recent research shows he may have referred some children, excuse me, I don't know how to pronounce this, the Spiegelgrund Clinic, where many were killed. And this has led, this is part of what has led many to retire the term Asperger's syndrome because it has troubling historical associations.
01:04:54
For the fifth time, I'll mention the NeuroTribes book. There's more on this in that book. There's not a lot of definitive research, to the best of my knowledge, to confirm this about Hans Asperger, but it's still troubling. And so if you meet someone that doesn't want to use that term, just please respect their desire to not use that term because it's upsetting. So why this matters. Understanding this history is crucial, not just for historical accuracy, but foracknowledging the very real dangers of ableism, eugenics, and how diagnostic labels have been used and abused over time. It's also a stark reminder of why autistic advocacy and neurodiversity rights are amatter of human rights. Autistic advocacy and neurodiversity rights are a matter of human rights. Something that I learned while researching all of this, seven U.
01:05:53
S. states already have some sort of autism registries. I did not know this. The seven states are Delaware, Indiana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah, and West Virginia. I included the Newsweek link in the You can click on that and find out more about what each of these registries reports on. So seven U. S. states already have some sort of autism registries. So, we're going to wrap up here with some actually helpful things, okay? So this all might seem really scary, and it's okay to be scared. It's okay to be fearful. It's okay to be like, what is actually happening? I'm that way too, but this is not the time to shirk away and hide and be scared. And this is the time to speak up and to use our voice. And I made a video yesterday on some practical steps we can take security- wise and someof people are saying, well, what difference is that going to make? What's the alternative? Is the alternative doing nothing? Because I'm not doing that. So, check out my video from yesterday for some practical steps on data privacy management, speaking up, using your voice.
01:07:08
Okay, two points that I made here following the ADHD side of my brain right now. Autism has always been here. It's just a different neurotype, okay? So it's not like it just appeared and we need to figure out how it got here. It's always been here. I've heard somebody, I don't know where this came from, but I mean, autistic people were not the ones sitting around the campfire telling stories, you know, our ancestors. We were the ones like back in the bushes, like making weird stuff with sticks and like creating a way to stay, you know, to wear something new that would keep us warmer or a better way to hunt or fish. Generalization, don't come at me, but autistic people have always been around. It's a different type of neurotype.
01:07:49
Another thing that I wanted to point out is we were just recently able to, diagnosticians, mental health providers were just recently able to diagnose both ADHD and autism together in 2013. So before 2013, you could either have autism or ADHD, but you couldn't be diagnosed with both. So that affects the numbers greatly as well. The prevalence of ADHD and autism together, the numbers are very high. Okay, here's what would actually be helpful to fund research on, and you can add yours in the comments. Like, please comment with things that would be helpful for research, to fund research for the autistic community. Connective tissue disorders. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that connective tissue functions differently for autistic people, and this can lead to a whole host ofissues I mentioned Ehlers- Danlos syndrome.
01:08:42
That'd be another great area of Stemming, nervous system regulation, distinct anxiety. This is a new term I've seen popping up that refers to a specific form of anxiety that affects autistic people. Let's do more research on that. The effect of trauma and bullying on autistic individuals, which can exacerbate symptoms like stemming. The polyvagal theory and the role of the vagus nerve and nervous system regulation. Let's research that. The MTHFR gene that RFK Jr. actually mentioned. Yes, let's research that. PANDAS, which stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections. I know that's wild. That was so many words. PANDAS is a very important area of research that affects children, affects all people, but shows up for children and is still widely misunderstood, misdiagnosed, Very important area of As well as the gut- brain connection.
01:09:41
So autistic people, let's study diet. Yes, RFK Jr. let's study diet. Let's study environmental self because our immune system functions a lot differently. Let's study immune system. The gut, autistic people a lot of times have food allergies. Many of us have trouble with A bunch of us have Crohn's disease, which affects digestion and all of that. Diet, dairy allergies, gluten allergies, soy, inflammation of the stomach. That is a huge issue for autistic people. So let's study the gut- brain connection because when our gut is inflamed and sick, then it messes with our And scientists are starting to call the gut our second brain because of how closely they're So if we can start understanding gut health, that can help us learn more about brain health.
01:10:31
That would be a tremendous area, maybe where these worlds could converge and collide. Yeah, let's study food. Let's study the American food system and the stuff that we are allowed to put in food and Let's study that and how it affects our gut, And then autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease is super prevalent in autistic people, especially women. I think the last time I checked, 80% of autoimmune disease is in women. I have a lot more to say about those numbers, but yeah, let's study autoimmune disease. Here are people whose voices I respect, who I'd love to see in this conversation, people that are in the autistic community, who know us, who love us, who spend time learning about us, who know our tendencies, who have credible backgrounds, research areas of expertise.
01:11:29
also put their information in the description here. Dr. Jennifer Williams at Spectra Psychological. Dr. Stephanie Womack at Spectra Psychological. Dr. Laura Sanders at Northern Colorado Assessment Center. Dr. Rebecca Evenko at Wilderwood. And Wilderwood is a phenomenal organization that is making autism diagnoses more easily available, and they're also developing their own diagnostic criteria to help, especially women and minorities, get more accurate diagnoses at more affordable costs. So if you are interested in investing in organizations that are doing the work, check out Wilderwood, link in the description. Dr. Megan Neff, link in the So it matters which people are conducting the studies and what their focus is. I can get on board for some of this with the research that Rav K. Jr.
01:12:24
is wanting to do, but let's put the right people at the helm, and let's have the right approach, and let's include autistic people. We do need to speak up and use our voice about this. We need to be loud. And I know there's so many in our community who are already disenfranchised. We struggle to make a The numbers for unemployment and underemployment in our community are very high. I've tried to take as much of the work out as possible for us because I know we're exhausted, and I know we're already trying to advocate for ourselves every day just to be able to do normal things. In the description, you'll find pre- written emails that I have created that you can send to your representatives.
01:13:08
There's a link, so you can easily find your representative just by typing in your zip code, and it will give you an email address immediately. Copy and paste. There are advocacy networks that I've listed in the description. One of them is the Autistic Self- Advocacy Network. I want to make sure my brain is tired. I want to make sure I'm saying this. Autistic Self- Advocacy Network. And then I can't remember the other one that I put in the But there are separate messages that I've drafted that you can copy and paste and send to those different organizations to ask for their help and to just share your concern. Even taking those little steps, which took me, I sent those emails yesterday, took me like three minutes. I just copy and pasted them.
01:13:55
It gave me just a little bit more of a feeling of And some of you might be thinking this isn't going to change anything. Again, what is the alternative? I'm not sitting on my I'm not shutting up. I'm not going to quit talking about this. I'm not going to quit trying to advocate for us. What's the alternative? Reach out. Let's make a fuss. Let's use our voices. We can use this as an opportunity for And if anybody, honestly, if anybody can change the world, it's the freaking autistic community. OK? You guys, we are, and girls, and humans, we are strong. We're creative. We're empathetic. We're kind. We're very strategic and honest. And there's so many incredible assets that we have. If anybody can change the world, we can.
01:14:42
So we're not going to stop using our voice. We're not going to let fear get the best of us. Yes, be afraid. Not be afraid, but feel the Don't pretend like it's not there. Feel the fear. Feel the Feel the injustice. That's another thing. Hey, that's like our battle cry, right? This is injustice. And if you've been around on the channel, you know autistic people, if there's injustice, you better watch out, because we will not sleep until we address the injustice. So this is injustice for our community. This is my perspective, my experience. We're not going to rest until we speak up. So we're going to use this as an opportunity for growth, for unity, to come together. Again, let me reiterate, this is not us versus them.
01:15:27
When it becomes us versus them, it's a losing battle, OK? We're not villainizing people. not out to target people and name call and be derisive and tell people that they're dumb because they think a certain way. That is not progress. Deal with that and call your bestie and vent. Call them and say all the cuss words that you need to say. Scream into your Don't put it on social media. I'm not saying you can't be angry on social media, but let's not do it in a divisive way. Be angry. Create positive change. it fuel you to create positive change. If you are intimidated by speaking out, create art. If you're an artist, write, paint, draw, I saw an art exhibit in Anchorage, Alaska last week, and there was a World War II exhibit and there was a war exhibit.
01:16:24
It was talking about how many of the artists addressed politics without ever using words. So let's be creative. Hello, that's one of our fortes as a generalization, but be creative and now use your voice. There's hope and it's OK to be frustrated and angry, but there's hope and we have to let this unite us and make us stronger. So thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you for your support. If you could help get this message out, that's super important. So if you could, I don't like asking for this stuff, but like if you like the if you could share it, if it was helpful to you. I tried to make this as informed as possible to cover the real- time events that are happening and affecting our community. I tried to make it as factual as I could, fact- based as I could. So I hope that was helpful to you. And to my community, I love you and I will not. I always get teary when I talk about my community. I love you. I will always fight for you and because you're worth it. And we haven't been stood up for enough, but I'm here and I'm with you and we can do it together. OK.
01:17:48
Let's do this. If you're still with me, this is something I like to do in some of the classes that I've run. You know, when was the last time that you were still and you actually paid attention to how your body is feeling? I know that's terrifying, right? If you're open to it, I'm just gonna invite you to take three breaths with me. And I actually think, in addition to the autistic people changing the that nervous system regulation is actually how we change the world. Sitting with our emotions, processing them, learning how to manage them without inflicting our pain on other people, that's how we change the world. So here's step one, getting quiet enough to listen to your body. It's scary, but it's okay.
01:18:31
If I can do it, if I can do it, you can. So what I like to do is I'm gonna put both my feet flat on the just kind of a way to ground. And then if you're sitting down, you can either do palms face down or palms face up. If you're feeling more open- minded and generous, you can open your hands, but if you're feeling more protective and you need to keep yourself safe, you can do palms down. I've been palms down for a couple of years now. And then it helps to sit up straight if you can, just because when you elongate your it can help the breath kind of travel through your And then I'm gonna inhale through my It's always weird to do this on camera. Inhale through my then exhale through my mouth like I'm blowing out a birthday candle. Okay, so I'm gonna do that three times. And I just invite, if you'd like to do that with me, you're welcome to do it with me. So I'm gonna stop talking. I'm gonna inhale through my then I'm gonna exhale through my mouth three times.
01:20:11
And then if you want to take that a step further, repeat that process. But when you inhale, just become aware of where you might be holding tension in your body. So oftentimes for me, it's in the back of my throat because I've been clenching, just being like feeling tight. And when you inhale, imagine your breath traveling to that spot in your body. And then when you exhale, imagine the weight of your body sinking into the ground. And then inhale again and see if you can notice another point of Inhale that air to that point oftension and then release everything. So a lot of times, I think we look for a shortcut to change. Like if only I had this information, if only I knew this, if only I could do this, if only I had this skill.
01:21:03
Let me just ask you, when was the last time that you got quiet listened to your body? That is how to enact change. Sounds simplistic, but think about if the leaders at the top how to emotionally regulate, knew how to regulate their nervous system. if the people in power took three breaths they made big decisions and connected to themselves and their intuition their soul? What would happen if, would happen if? Okay. Sending my love to you. I'm gonna go now. Thank you for Check the description for helpful links and please send those emails to the support groups and your representatives. I'm here with you.