Stories from the Spectrum: Thomas Henley
We caught up with the talented Thomas Henley, autistic YouTuber, creator of the Thoughty Auti podcast, and a Taekwondo champion. Thomas first fought his way to an impressive martial arts victory at the Commonwealth Championships in 2014, where he took home the gold medal and the coveted ‘Best Male Fighter’ trophy.
Thomas has recently created a documentary film, Aspergers in Society, as part of his final year university project. The film highlights life on the spectrum and explores the connection between autism and mental health.
We talked to Thomas about his documentary, how his martial arts career kick-started, and why raising awareness of autism and mental health is so important for society.
When were you diagnosed as autistic?
I was diagnosed when I was ten. I was quite bubbly as a little kid. I was always going up to people and talking to them. Around that age I also started to notice I was a bit different from other people, which was a little bit difficult to deal with.
I remember my mum took me to an autism assessment. Afterwards, she sat me down in the McDonald’s nearby, got me some chicken nuggets and chips, and explained to me that I was autistic. I remember crying tears of joy, because it was obviously such a big deal for me. I finally understood why I felt so different to other people.
What is being autistic like for you?
I guess I’m a little bit different. I’ve got a mixed bag of personality traits.
I spent about three to four years of my life reading about sociology and psychology to try and understand autism and to build up my social skills. Right now, I think my social skills are quite good. However, I’m very hypersensitive to basically everything. I find bright lights and loud noises very anxiety-provoking.
Non-autistic people are often quite surprised to find out I have quite frequent spikes of anxiety, panic attacks and meltdowns. I usually get them around night-time. The anxiety sort of builds up throughout the day, and then becomes difficult to deal with at night.
I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression when I was 14. Both are quite severe and something I have to deal with daily, although it does fluctuate. I’m on quite a few medications to try and deal with it. One of the ways I cope is having a goal in mind that I want to achieve or something I can focus on – like my Taekwondo for instance.
When did you first start doing Taekwondo and how did you get into it?
When I was a teenager my depression was a lot more difficult to deal with. I wasn’t on the correct medication and I was down pretty much all the time. I was quite vulnerable.
At the time I was watching a lot of Japanese anime and decided I wanted to be a martial artist. I tried out several different martial arts. Some of them were a bit ‘tame’ for me, and some were a bit too hands on. I didn’t like touching people!
Taekwondo primarily involves kicking, which suited me as I didn’t really have to touch people! I went to a club in Harrogate (where I’m from) for a couple of years and then decided to move on to a sports class at Horizon Taekwondo. I ended up travelling for about two hours after school each day to various Taekwondo classes around the country as I started to improve. I got into the sport quite late in comparison to other people, which was difficult. Some of the other fighters I came up against in national competitions had been doing it since they were about six.
How does it feel to be a Taekwondo gold medalist and what is your proudest martial art moment?
I think the achievement I’m most proud of was winning the Commonwealth gold medal. I remember they merged the heavy-weight category with mine, so I ended up having to fight someone who was about ten kilograms heavier and a few inches taller than me! It was the end of the day, so there was a massive crowd gathered around the ring. There was so much noise and it was all very surreal. It was probably the closest match I’ve ever had. It was like a scene from a Rocky movie.
When I walked away with the gold medal I felt really elated. I was ready to go home after a long day, but then heard they were announcing awards for people. I was just about to leave when they called out my name. I darted back across the stadium and they gave me the award for ‘Best Male Fighter of the Commonwealth.’ It was a surreal experience.
At the time I didn’t think of myself as a very competent fighter and I never thought I’d get a medal, let alone a gold medal at the Commonwealth Championships. It was really weird. For a few days after I just thought, ‘did that happen?’.
Do you think being autistic has an impact on your approach to Taekwondo?
One of the staff at the University of Manchester (where I studied) does research around autism, eye-sight and coordination. She found it quite unusual that I had gotten so far in a sport that requires a lot of coordination.
The funny thing is that I’m actually a really clumsy person! I always injure myself. I’ll be that person who walks into a lamp-post or goes round a corner and shoulder-barges a wall! I’m not very coordinated at all.
