Scott: Dr. Gwynette has done the world of great for me. I am thankful for two great parents that have supported me through this journey. We have joined the Autism News NetWORK. I’m also part of the PEERS group and I also receive private counseling from Dr. Gwynette. I probably would not be in as good a shape as I am now if I had continued on the path I was on eight months ago. I was a depressed train wreck. Life wasn’t looking up. There was no chance for me to get a job. I had gone through in New York, probably close to 40 plus jobs. I have been fired from every single job I had due to some relation with my autism. Whether it be just a normal meltdown or it being just, “Oh, you’re different. You don’t fit our character personality, so we don’t want you here.”

Scott: It was really a shame, but I tried my hardest at every job I went to and fought to try and keep them. But the longest I had a job was a total of five years and I ended up being let go for a bunch of little nonsense. To say the least, I’m really blown away though because Autism News NetWORK has taught me that people need to understand what autism is about. We as the public don’t understand what it takes for Dr. Gwynette to do his job and that’s one of the things I’m working with Dr. Gwynette on, is we’re working on putting together a video to go up on the Autism News NetWORK to give the public a better view of what it takes to diagnose somebody and say, this is what autism is. I can’t tell you.

Scott: I’m on Facebook every day and part of so many Facebook groups and I see them on a lot of the autism pages, “Oh, my child has autism because they do one specific trait.” It’s not just one trait. There is many, many parts that go into an autism diagnosis and I don’t think many parents have their understanding. It is been a great honor to be a part of this. I’ve gone through the PEERS group as well. What that is for is to help me become more of a social person because prior to that, my only form of socialization was Facebook. I am not going to lie. I’m a Facebook addict. My mom will tell you I spend a lot of time on my phone. Other than that, my socialization was text message and I didn’t get out much at all. I kind of stayed either in my garage or in my own home. I am a huge car guy. I can’t thank you guys enough for having me here today. Dr. Gwynette?

Offscreen: [inaudible 00:04:23]

Scott: I actually want discuss a little more on the Autism News NetWORK with Dr. Gwynette.

Dr. Gwynette: Sure.

Scott: I’d like to share with you, this program is actually a great program. We’re a group of autistics. Can you give us a little more detail?

Dr. Gwynette: Yeah, absolutely. Scott, thanks for being here first of all. This young man… I was embarrassed that he kept saying my name and all the stuff I’ve done, I wish I could tell you all this stuff he’s done to inspire me and the other people in the group. He’s been very honest with me about how challenging it is to be in groups and to get himself out there and be on camera and he’s just been incredibly successful and this is just a product of his hard work being here today. I remember when I reached out to him not long ago to do this, he jumped at the chance and it’s an amazing step for him to be up here today. You did a great job.

Dr. Gwynette: And I love that scripture verse today about faith being about things that we don’t see. I remember Jesus said to Thomas, doubting Thomas, you believe because you’ve seen, but blessed are those who believe but have not seen. Really, I think that’s what the Autism News NetWORK is, is because we’re, like Scott mentioned, people have not seen what it’s like to live with autism from the viewpoint of somebody on the spectrum. And so we’ve been thinking for a while, that we will see about making an Autism News NetWORK where people could learn more about autism and get some good information about autism. Not garbage information because there’s a lot of junk out there to be honest. And then we’re thinking we could put some good medical information out there but really when it all clicked, and hopefully this is where God comes in, where it all clicked, is when he said I want the people who write, produce and direct at the Autism News NetWORK to all have autism.

Dr. Gwynette: And there it was, because a lot of individuals in their twenties and their thirties, they have so much talent, so much skill, so bright and yet for whatever reason they’re not able to work a job consistently or have a meaningful career or have friends. And when you don’t get out of the house to work, you become increasingly socially isolated so it really can have a snowball effect. And so we really felt like the Autism News NetWORK can be a great thing for getting information out there. And I’m going to show you today some videos that Scott made, but it’s also more about the people who work at the network because we want it to be a vocational opportunity. We had our business meeting yesterday, every Thursday at 11, we talked about, okay, we’ve gotten through the first phase of working together and learning to get things out to the world, generating content. But now we want to change it from people coming in for treatment every Thursday to they’re coming into work.

Dr. Gwynette: And so our Autism News NetWORK, the last four letters work are all caps because it really wanted… I would love to hire Scott and pay him and he has salary and benefits for doing all this amazing work. We’re slowly building up. But Scott’s been a great encouragement and he keeps our group together. He has an awesome attitude. It’s really amazing. So Scott, thank you for doing this.

Scott: Thank you.