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The Bullying Doctor

Autistic psychologist Emily Lovegrove studied bullying to PHD level and now arms young people with strategies to cope if they are being targeted.

Autistic psychologist Emily Lovegrove says that when her children left home, she "needed something else to obsess about". So she studied bullying to PHD level and now arms young people with strategies to cope if they are being targeted.

Ignoring it, telling someone and fighting back are, she says, logical strategies for an emotional subject. Instead, Lovegrove suggests working on your self-esteem, learning grounding exercises, practising meditation and keeping a bunch of written down self-care options to hand.

It's a tough subject but this is a joyful episode full of Robyn and Jamie's trademark humour and fascinating insight.

Presented by Robyn Steward and Henry, Jamie Knight and Lion. Produced by Emma Tracey.

Listen via your smart speaker by saying "Ask the 麻豆约拍 for 1800 Seconds on Autism" and subscribe on 麻豆约拍 Sounds. email stim@bbc.co.uk

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31 minutes

Transcript

This is a full transcript of 1800 Seconds on Autism published on 26th November 2020 and presented by Jamie Knight and Robyn Steward.

ROBYN - I never found a way out of bullying as a teenager, it was just this constant thing. I got bullied at home by kids in the village. I got bullied at school. And it would be even worse now because then I鈥檇 be bullied on social media.

JAMIE - Push them up on to their long end. You stamp on the bottom bit and kick it shut and you put your arm up, you thump it up with the palm of your hand and then you slam it down as your hand comes down. And I learnt how to do it with these three swift, sharp movements, and it sounded as like you鈥檇 fired a canon.

EMILY - I鈥檝e always looked different. I hate the clothes that most people like. So I鈥檝e often been met with gasps or sniggers or weird.

ROBYN - Hello, and welcome to 1800 Seconds on Autism, the podcast that makes you think about how you think. I鈥檓 Robyn Steward.

JAMIE - And I鈥檓 Jamie Knight. This is Season Three, Episode Two, and we鈥檙e with you monthly, right round to the middle of spring next year. Well, if you鈥檙e in the northern hemisphere.

ROBYN - Recently one of our listeners, Abbie, asked us to do an episode about bullying. We thought that that鈥檚 a fantastic idea, so we鈥檝e invited autistic psychologist, Dr Emily Lovegrove, aka The Bullying Doctor, to join us. She鈥檒l be here shortly.

JAMIE - We鈥檒l be sharing some pretty tough experiences, so if that鈥檚 not what you want to hear today we鈥檒l be giving you a warning a bit later so you can switch off before we get to that bit.

ROBYN - First things first, let鈥檚 read some of your emails.

JAMIE - The first one is from Bix, who was diagnosed five years ago at 46 years old. The subject line is spoon counts. Bix has obviously been listening to us saying things like, 鈥淚鈥檝e got five spoons left today,鈥 or, 鈥淚 woke up with ten spoons,鈥 and doesn鈥檛 get how we can calculate it. Bix says, 鈥淚鈥檝e never been able to wake up to anything other than a general sense of exhaustion versus alertness, and a vague impression of how much I think I can slate to get done in the coming day.鈥 So, Robyn, how do we it? How do we measure our spoons?

ROBYN - I think you鈥檙e probably the person to answer this one.

JAMIE - Yeah, I guess so. I guess I started off by keeping it really simple, it was either a day with energy or a day that I was tired. Then it kind of went to three things: I鈥檝e got lots of energy, a bit of energy, not a lot of energy, I鈥檓 tired. So that was kind of four things, and then as I got more used to my body and more used to asking myself I got better at estimating it. I would say that it is an estimation rather than a calculation though, it鈥檚 not all that precise. And some days I do surprise myself. I wake up and go I feel great, I鈥檝e got, like, ten spoons, and then I鈥檒l go and make a bit of breakfast and discover, no, no, Jamie, you鈥檝e got four spoons. It鈥檚 more often right than it鈥檚 wrong, and that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 useful, but it鈥檚 not terribly precise.

ROBYN - We鈥檝e had an email from Guillaume, who says a few nice things about our producer, Emma. Yay!

EMMA - Ah!

ROBYN - Whose voice you hear chiming in from time to time. Guillaume says, 鈥淭he questions Emma asks are good, especially when you then tell her they don鈥檛 make any sense to you because they are neurotypical. It is a good way of showing how different people think or experience stuff.鈥

EMMA - Hmm-hmm.

ROBYN - It says in the script, 鈥淚s Emma a bit too neurotypical?鈥 No! We need all kinds of neuro types in the world and we are glad that we have Emma.

JAMIE - Emma鈥檚 a great second voice. She鈥檚, I guess, the voice of the neurotypical people listening. It鈥檚 a little bit weird because normally if you had a piece of media you would have five neurotypical people and maybe one autistic person, but we have it the other way around. So, you know, we have our token neurotypical to ask the neurotypical questions and then, you know, half ignore.

EMMA - Well, that鈥檚 very kind, Guillaume. I鈥檓 a bit embarrassed because last time I kind of threw my toys out of the pram didn鈥檛 I? And now Robyn鈥檚 thinking of me throwing toys out of a pram.

ROBYN - That鈥檚 exactly what I was thinking! [laughter]

JAMIE - Me too. I was also trying to work out what toys you鈥檇 have, because in case people don鈥檛 know, Emma鈥檚 blind, so I鈥檓 wondering if you鈥檇 have, like, texture toys or would it be, like, Lego? Or would it be something that lights up?

ROBYN - Things that make sounds?

JAMIE - The little balls with bells in?

ROBYN - Cuddly toys?

EMMA - Or smelly things.

JAMIE - Smelly things?

EMMA - Or things you can taste. They鈥檇 probably be my tech toys and I really wouldn鈥檛 want to throw those. So thanks, Guillaume, I鈥檓 a little embarrassed because it鈥檚 probably related to what I said last time. But I鈥檓 pleased to be here and I only chime in when I think it might work.

ROBYN - [singsong voice] Ding Dong.

EMMA - I really love all these literal interpretations of things going on today. I know last time we called them Robyn-isms, but I can see now that Jamie also does them as well and I love it.

ROBYN - Jamie-isms.

JAMIE - That鈥檚 what other people in my life call them, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a Jamie-ism.鈥 Shall we move on?

EMMA - Hmm-hmm.

JAMIE - We said earlier that we鈥檒l tell you when we鈥檙e about to talk about bullying, and we鈥檒l be doing that very soon during our conversation with Emily. So if you don鈥檛 want to hear that, goodbye, we hope you download the next episode, and it鈥檚 been great to have you with us. We鈥檒l be back sometime in December.

ROBYN - Oh look, Emily has just appeared on our podcast. Hi, Emily.

EMILY - Hi.

JAMIE - So, Dr Emily Lovegrove is an autistic psychologist known as The Bullying Doctor. She gives autistic young people strategies to use if they鈥檙e being bullied. What more should we know about you, Emily?

EMILY - Oh, I don鈥檛 know. [laughs] Yeah, I guess that鈥檚 what I do. I mean, I went to university late on in life. Bear in mind I鈥檓 now 74. I absolutely loved bringing up kids. I鈥檓 not sure I was a brilliant mum, but I did enjoy it, and I did hate it when they all left home. So I needed another passion, another thing to obsess about, so I went off to university and did psychology and health science, then got offered a PhD to kind of choose my topic, and I was looking into how the way we look affects how other people view us with teenagers. And it was clear that the main emphasis, their main fear, was getting picked on, teased and bullied about the way they looked or sounded or behaved.

So we worked really, really hard to come up with strategies that helped with that. I mean, what kids said was, it was really nice to have lots of things to be confident about, rather than what happens now, which is just ignore bullying, which you can鈥檛 do. Just tell somebody. Well you can get into awful trouble for telling about things, or just hit back, which can also be effective, but we鈥檙e not allowed to do that. You know, kids who hit back can end up with a police record; in primary school I鈥檝e known it happen. So all those blanket logical strategies are not much use, because it鈥檚 a very emotional subject.

So I鈥檝e worked with mainstream schools and teachers with kids who have severe learning difficulties who also struggle with lots of bullying issues. I鈥檝e done loads of work and research with kids who are visibly very different and feel bullied by all the negative attention they get, and autistic kids who also feel they don鈥檛 quite fit in and they attract a lot of negative attention.

JAMIE - So before we get any deeper into this programme I want to say that if you鈥檙e being bullied or have been bullied, it鈥檚 not your fault. So when I was a kid the school turned round to my parents and basically went, 鈥淲ell, Jamie鈥檚 just the sort of kid that鈥檚 going to get bullied,鈥 and that was wrong of them. And if people are telling you that you鈥檙e being bullied by what you鈥檙e doing, or that it鈥檚 your own fault, those grown-ups in your听 life are letting you down, because we don鈥檛 want people to listen to this podcast and go, well, why didn鈥檛 I just do that 20 years ago or whenever it was. So, Emily鈥檚 got great strategies, but you鈥檙e not a bad person if you didn鈥檛 know about them.

EMILY - I think hardly anybody does. If you look at the curriculum for teacher training colleges you rarely find anything for dealing with bullying issues. Teachers are not trained to deal with it, parents don鈥檛 know how to deal with it.

JAMIE - But it feels like that鈥檚 a good place to start there. Could you give us a definition of what bullying is or how you know if you鈥檙e being bullied?

EMILY - Yeah. There are lots of legal definitions. Schools are legally obliged to have an anti-bullying policy which states exactly what they won鈥檛 put up with, but the reality is, if you feel humiliated and put down and out of control you feel bullied. So it doesn鈥檛 matter whether it follows that exact criteria of is this constant, is it deliberate, if you feel bullied you have exactly the same reaction to it, so emotionally you feel devastated, socially you withdraw, and you just behave in a different way. You don鈥檛 want to do things, you don鈥檛 join in, you don鈥檛 tell your mates what鈥檚 happening. So it doesn鈥檛 matter to me what the definition is, if you feel bullied that鈥檚 where we need to start.

[Jingle: 1800 Seconds on Autism. With Robyn Steward and Jamie

Knight.]

EMILY - I鈥檝e got the mic facing the wrong way. [laughs] What an idiot.

ROBYN - So, why is it that people pick on autistic people?

EMILY - Because human beings are herd animals. Actually, we鈥檙e always checking to see if any other living being is safe: Will that hurt me? And therefore, anything which looks or behaves in a way that鈥檚 slightly different to what we are expecting, that excites our interest.

ROBYN - So it鈥檚 not actually about the person that鈥檚 being bullied?

EMILY - No, absolutely. I always say to kids, 鈥淚f you get picked on it鈥檚 not actually personal, it鈥檚 not you, it鈥檚 what you represent, and the more confident you are of yourself as a person the less interest you will excite.鈥 So it鈥檚 about giving our kids confidence, it鈥檚 not about getting them to fit in and act as if they were part of the main stream.

JAMIE - Can I paraphrase that as confidence acts as armour?

EMILY - Absolutely.

JAMIE - So I got bullied at my first secondary school and I reacted incredibly violently. I got to the point where other kids were scared of me because, after doing nothing for years of being bullied and being very passive, if I saw the bully that bullied me in the classroom I鈥檇 pick up a chair and run at them, every time I saw them, which as you say, has consequences. But I tell you what, it made me really confident and I unsurprisingly got thrown out of that school pretty quickly. I moved across the country anyway, so it wasn鈥檛 a huge problem. By being bullied and reacting to it I knew that I could, if not control it or prevent it, I could feel less vulnerable, and once I could feel less vulnerable I felt more confident which meant that I got bullied less. Does that make sense?

EMILY - Total sense. [laughs] Yeah. I mean, to be honest, you know, we鈥檙e not allowed to hit back, but we still have endless films and video games in which that鈥檚 the aim, you fight hardest and you win. You know, if we were still stuck in caves you鈥檇 be absolutely brilliant, we鈥檇 all be falling behind you going, yeah, here鈥檚 somebody who鈥檚 really courageous. Puts the chair where their mouth is. [laughter]

JAMIE - Well, I鈥檓 not sure it was wise at the time, but what are the other strategies that people can employ to build confidence, short of grabbing a chair and hitting everybody over the head with it? Because I tell you what, 麻豆约拍 moment, don鈥檛 do that, bad idea.

ROBYN - Doing martial arts.

JAMIE - Well, martial arts is something that I did at my second school, and part of the reason how I avoided the bullies is that I spent the whole of lunchtime doing martial arts in the gym. And I tell you what, nobody picks on you if you鈥檙e stood in your martial arts equipment in the gym.

EMILY - The thing is, if you feel confident then your facial expression and your body language changes, and other people pick up on that really quickly. Yeah, martial arts are brilliant, they give you that confidence of having control over your body. So find something that you love, that you鈥檙e passionate about. And we鈥檙e really good at that. Find ways of engaging with people. Find other autistics, because that鈥檚 an enormous confidence boost, that there are other people out there who are like you. It鈥檚 not to say that bullying doesn鈥檛 go on in the autistic community, because it can, but what we know so far is that finding people who are autistic in the way you are means you鈥檙e quite likely to have a brilliant relationship.

JAMIE - When I was at primary school the staying out of the playground thing was a big thing, so I ended up helping the lunch people put away the tables at the end of lunch. And I got paid a Wispa once a week. Every Friday I got given a Wispa chocolate bar, and it was the highlight of my week sometimes. The tables had to start being put away by the ones on the furthest at five to 12, and at five to 12 I was stood there to say to people, 鈥淵ou can keep eating but you have to do it on a table. Go all the way down to the far end, I need to put these away.鈥 And it was one time in my life where the clock actually meant something, where there was a little bit of control and certainty.

ROBYN - Did the canteen鈥 was it noisy? Because I remember the canteen as being really echoey and the tables and chairs noisy.

JAMIE - It was, and I learnt how to slam the tables as hard and as loud as I could so then I was controlling the noise, to the point where I would break myself doing it, but actually it could feel quite satisfying. There are these folding tables, and the way you fold them is you push them up on to their long end. You stamp on the bottom bit and kick it shut and you put your arm up, you thump it up with the palm of your hand and then you slam it down as your hand comes down. And I learnt how to do it with these three swift, sharp movements, and it sounded as like you鈥檇 fired a canon. It was brilliant. And often I鈥檇 have to stand there for two seconds, dazed at my own noise, but it felt good.

EMILY - I鈥檓 dazed just listening. I can feel myself kind of pushing myself back against the chair in horror. [laughs]

[Jingle: Email stim@bbc.co.uk]

ROBYN - I never found a way out of bullying as a teenager, it was just this constant thing. I got bullied at home by kids in the village. I got bullied at school. And it would be even worse now because then I鈥檇 be bullied on social media. And I remember the whole time all I really wanted was to have some friends and just, you know, sort of bump along and it was very miserable and I never really found any solution, apart from I used to hang out with the IT teacher and that gave me some protection, because no one was going to bully me in front of a teacher, and especially one who鈥 Like, I don鈥檛 think even people whispered things that were horrible to me in the IT room. It felt like a safe space and that was really important I had somewhere I could go that I felt safe. Sometimes I just felt that life was really unfair, and also I felt really trapped. And I suspect a lot of young people probably feel really trapped. People used to call me names like freak and retard and stuff, so what advice would you give to a young person who鈥檚 being verbally bullied?

EMILY - It is really hard. I鈥檝e always looked different. I hate the clothes that most people like. So I鈥檝e often been met with gasps or sniggers or weird, but the thing is I couldn鈥檛 change that, I would rather die than look the way most other people seem to look. So just having that confidence of thinking, actually, I鈥檓 happy with who I am is enormous. And it鈥檚 quite hard work, you know, working that up. What I do with, mainly young people, is it鈥檚 not a quick fix, you do have to work on yourself. You know, I give kids grounding exercises.

JAMIE - What鈥檚 a grounding exercise?

EMILY - When you鈥檙e stressed your heart pounds, all your oxygen is diverted to your feet to run or your hands to punch or all of your muscles to freeze up, so then you can鈥檛 think of a strategy and you鈥檙e just there like a deer in the headlights. So I do a breathing exercise whereby you breathe deeply into your stomach. You have a phrase that means something to you or a colour that you like. So imagine purple is your favourite colour, you breathe purple in and then you breathe it out, down through your legs, through the floor, as if you were growing roots. And you keep growing those roots until you run out of breath. So you鈥檙e completely airless and then your biology, your body will take over. You take in a huge gasp of air and at that point it goes up to your brain so you can start to think logically about what you鈥檙e going to do. And obviously it鈥檚 no good doing that under stress the first time, you need to practice it so that you go into a situation where you might be picked on, already grounded, already having your brain in gear for just going, whatever, smiling.

[Jingle: 1800 Seconds on Autism. With Robyn Steward and Jamie

Knight.]

ROBYN - Henry would like to say that support animals can be really helpful at helping you calm down.

EMILY - Oh, they can. Confession time here. I have a teddy obsession, and when we moved to our current house I did feel quite bad about the number of teddies that we had and I got rid of some of them and I鈥檓 now heartbroken, and I鈥檓 afraid I鈥檓 now replacing them. They have to be a particular texture and just having it there and sometimes, I鈥檝e got a small teddy that is tucked in my pocket鈥

JAMIE - I go everywhere with Lion in a big backpack so he鈥檚 not very subtle.

ROBYN - And Lion鈥檚 really big isn鈥檛 he?

JAMIE - Lion鈥檚 huge. He鈥檚 four foot long.

EMILY - He is huge. He鈥檚 beautiful.

JAMIE - There is this running joke that Lion鈥檚 overriding personality trait is that he鈥檚 incredibly ferocious, but you never see him be ferocious, he just says he鈥檚 ferocious. I wasn鈥檛 being bullied, but I was in a situation with a bunch of mountain bikers who were being quite unfriendly, and I kind of withdrew a bit, but I had Lion with me, and part of the thing that I was thinking was, they don鈥檛 know Lion鈥檚 there, he could drop out at any minute and surprise them all. But we鈥檒l decide not to eat them today because, you know, it would make all the insides of the bus messy. That comic thought of any minute now Lion could jump out, he鈥檇 pounce on that one, eat that one, and then they鈥檇 all run away. It would be lions on a bus rather than snakes on a plane. That made me giggle and smile and suddenly that anxiety bled away.

ROBYN - Henry growls at people occasionally.

JAMIE - I went to a dentist that was really good a couple of days ago. I went to a dentist that wasn鈥檛 so great the other day, and apparently I growled at them when they were doing dental things without my permission, and it was a proper growl and they stopped. So yay for growling.

EMMA - Do you not even know you鈥檝e done it?

JAMIE - No, it鈥檚 a noise that comes out.

EMILY - If I meltdown, which is really, really rare I scream. You know when you get actresses who just scream on demand, I can鈥檛 do that, I cannot make a sound like that, but when pushed way beyond what I can cope with then I know afterwards, because I have the most appalling sore throat.

ROBYN - Yeah, I think I鈥檓 the same. Jamie, did Lion go to school with you in your backpack?

JAMIE - No, not by the time I got into secondary school. So I wanted to but nobody let me, but by the time I got to college and stuff like that, then yeah, Lion was in my bag all the time. And people knew Lion, in fact there鈥檚 a little bit of a friendship bonding experience which was one of the first times I ever felt part of a friendship group, which is I鈥檇 met a bunch of nerds in the school library sort of thing, and the way that I made friends with them was by showing them how to go past the internet filter. Which probably wasn鈥檛 the right thing to do, but you know, I needed to download some JavaScript files so, you know, things had to be done. And every break I鈥檇 be in there and we鈥檇 chat and get to know each other, and they met Lion.

And then one day there was a nasty, quite a grumpy person, who threatened to steal Lion and set him on fire. And the entire group bristled as if they were about to hit the guy, and I felt protected and I didn鈥檛 feel as vulnerable. So yeah, that was probably my first experience of feeling protected by friends. Previously to all of that, because of the way the bullying and stuff happened I鈥檇 have friends who鈥檇 only be friends with me outside of school, or only be friends with me in secret, which, you know, way to demolish somebody鈥檚 confidence.

ROBYN - That鈥檚 not really a friend.

JAMIE - Well, they were friends, they were well meaning, but they were also vulnerable themselves. And in the calculus of necessity they had to protect themselves over me. Whilst that was not the right thing for them to do I can understand why they do it.

ROBYN - So what are the next strategies, Emily?

EMILY - Well, I use meditation. When people talk about therapies to help, often they talk about using CBT behavioural therapy, and that relies on you knowing how you feel at any given moment, and I think a lot of us are quite bad at that.

ROBYN - It鈥檚 called alexithymia.

EMILY - Yeah. So the only literature I can find that鈥檚 really extensive on alexithymia is found in the work on PTSD, and the therapies that you use for that are very different, they are body based therapies so that you get in touch with and gain some control over your body feelings and then it鈥檚 easier to know how you feel emotionally. So I use a form of meditation which is just that you set your timer for two minutes. You lie there, you clench everything up, you let it go. You take a couple of deep breaths. If you can think of something nice that鈥檚 lovely. By that stage your timer has probably gone off.

Again, it鈥檚 another way of getting back in control of what can feel just totally overwhelming feelings. And I get families to do it together and often parents feel really awkward about doing it, but once they鈥檝e done it then they see the point and they see the point of doing this in the morning before school. You know, quite often if you鈥檙e somebody who struggles with time and you have a rigid routine and something goes amiss, then having a couple of minutes to just calm down again can be really helpful for a whole family.

JAMIE - Don鈥檛 arrive at school backwards and on fire and full of stress because that鈥檚 a bad way to start the day.

EMILY - That鈥檚 the one. Yeah, because I think if one family member is really stressed, actually the others will all pick up on it. If it鈥檚 the autistic person who鈥檚 really stressed, often other people are in a panic thinking, oh no, no, not now, please, please don鈥檛 have a meltdown just now, you know, I鈥檝e got to get to work for nine o鈥檆lock, I鈥檝e got to drop you off at school. Or if the parent is stressing. We do know that autistics are very sensitive to other people鈥檚 stress, they might not know what they鈥檙e feeling, but they pick up on other people鈥檚 energies. It鈥檚 just a way of calming down a whole family and perhaps doing it at bedtime as well, particularly with younger kids, just that time taken to calm down and go, it鈥檚 okay.

ROBYN - So what comes after that?

EMILY - I think a lot of it is to do with self-care. So often one can feel quite low spirited because it is always hard living in a world that is not designed to accommodate who you are. There鈥檚 a lot of room there for misunderstanding. That applies across the board to teenagers who are really struggling because you will know your whole brain rewires whilst you鈥檙e a teenager, so it鈥檚 as active as it is when you are a toddler and all those links are being made. When you鈥檙e a teenager anything that鈥檚 not useful is being chucked out and new synapses forming and joining up.

So being a teenager is a particularly difficult time for not just autistics, but also neurotypicals. So when you鈥檙e in a good mood think of things you like doing that are easy to do. It can be as simple as, you know, I just go and talk to the dog or I go and have a bubble bath or there are certain pieces of music that I know will make me feel better. A bit of Stevie Wonder usually puts the world right. So having a list of those things just kind of in a jar so that when you feel low you can pick one of them out and go, oh, yeah I could do that, that would be good.

JAMIE - We have one of those which is one that I learnt鈥 When I was homeless I lived in a hotel for a while and one of the things I found really effective for me if I was feeling really, really, really bad was to go and do one nice, unexpected thing for somebody else. And I used to force myself to do it when I was in these terrible, terrible moods. And it could be as simple as, we had this shared bathroom, and over the course of about a week it would fill with washing stuff, other people鈥檚 shampoo, other people鈥檚 gel and stuff, and you鈥檙e not technically allowed to leave it in there but, you know, you want it to feel a little bit homely. So what I鈥檇 do is I鈥檇 know whose was whose because I knew what they smelt like and then I鈥檇 go and drop them all outside their doors. And the very act of doing it became one of the ways that I kind of got my emotions back under control.

EMILY - Right.

JAMIE - So having little things like that. So things I do like that at the moment is I always buy my flatmate a bar of chocolate when we go shopping. I don鈥檛 necessarily give it to him straight away, so that if I need to do a nice thing for someone to help me get back in control of my brain I know that there鈥檚 a pending nice thing that I can go and do. Although there are situations where sometimes it鈥檚 so driven by the environment and so driven by things outside of my control that that sort of trick isn鈥檛 going to work and I just need to bunker down, sleep, and let the spoons recharge before I can do anything.

EMILY - Yeah. Am I allowed to do a book plug here?

ROBYN - Yeah, absolutely, go ahead.

JAMIE - Yeah, yeah, plug away, plug away.

EMILY - Okay. Well, the book is called 鈥楢utism, Bullying and Me鈥. A lot of kids think when I leave school bullying will stop, you know, and all of us who鈥檝e left school know that鈥檚 an absolute nonsense, but they鈥檙e still encouraged to think that, and that鈥檚 why I think tackling bullying when you鈥檙e a kid is so important because it鈥檚 a life skill. It鈥檚 written in a language that鈥檚 easy to understand, because I think what people need is something that鈥檚 easy to read, has kind of got common sense in it and that you can go, okay, I鈥檓 going to use that strategy first thing tomorrow morning. It鈥檚 having things that you can do so you feel back in power. I am all right. I鈥檓 okay as I am. You know, my experience of autistic people so far has been the vast majority are incredibly generous spirited, but not necessarily very good at being nice about themselves.

ROBYN - Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much, Emily. It鈥檚 been fantastic speaking to you, we鈥檝e really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for your time and I hope you have a lovely rest of the day.

EMILY - Thank you. Thank you for having me. I was in a really grotty mood when it started and I feel so much better now talking to you two, you three, it鈥檚 been lovely. Thank you.

JAMIE - Wonderful. That鈥檚 it for this episode of 1800 Seconds on Autism. stim@bbc.co.uk is our email address for any comments or questions. We love hearing from you. If you don鈥檛 want it read out on the podcast please let us know in the email.

ROBYN - Please subscribe to the podcast on 麻豆约拍 Sounds and tell your friends about us. Thanks for listening. Bye.

JAMIE - Bye.

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