Chris Packham: Inside our Minds, Sunday BBC2

No but I did seeing advertised and texted a friend I thought would find it helpful. It's on my to-do list, honestly.

On my list to watch also as DS’s partner suffers with it I’m sure though has never said explicitly. I try and be understanding but she can be a nightmare to deal with.

I watched Chris Packham's previous series and will watch this too.

I have 2 autistic grandchildren. Neither of them have ADHD but have friends who do. I find it interesting to get an insight into how the world appears to them and how we neurotypicals can better understand and support them.

I’ll try - but this is another ‘national treasure’ I personally struggle to watch. (Along with Monty Don.) There, I’ve said it publicly now! I find them just both too self important.

Watched his first set of docus on Autism as my grandson is exactly same as Ken Bruce’s son who was featured on it. Thought is was well done and gave great insight and saw the adhd one last week and felt same- well done Chris Packham

Lahlah65

I’ll try - but this is another ‘national treasure’ I personally struggle to watch. (Along with Monty Don.) There, I’ve said it publicly now! I find them just both too self important.

Maybe both treasures along with Joe Swash are male and like the sound of their own voices.

He must have one hell of a good agent.

Lahlah65

I’ll try - but this is another ‘national treasure’ I personally struggle to watch. (Along with Monty Don.) There, I’ve said it publicly now! I find them just both too self important.

Not on your own Lahlah. I feel as if no one one else can comment on these issues except Chris Packham...? He isn't my cup of tea either.

Never have enjoyed watching Chris Packham, doubt I'll catch up with this series.

Chris Packham is autistic and that may be why it is hard to connect warmly with him - he hopes to help others who also struggle with relationships.

Yes I watched it on my iPlayer and thought it was brilliant as I did as well with the first series about Autism
Chris Packham with his own diagnosis is perfect to host this programme
4allweknow you ll be missing a very insightful and good programme because of a closed mind

Applegran

Chris Packham is autistic and that may be why it is hard to connect warmly with him - he hopes to help others who also struggle with relationships.

We went to a talk given by Chris years ago and had no idea, back then, that he was autistic.

I am not keen on him, it is nothing to do with his autism, dh is autistic, I generally am able to connect with him.

Having the appendage of “national treasure” doesn’t stop them from being decent individuals, and I can think of a lot worse.

keepingquiet

Lahlah65

I’ll try - but this is another ‘national treasure’ I personally struggle to watch. (Along with Monty Don.) There, I’ve said it publicly now! I find them just both too self important.

Not on your own Lahlah. I feel as if no one one else can comment on these issues except Chris Packham...? He isn't my cup of tea either.

I think that's a bit uncalled-for. If you watched, he was at pains to get it across that everyone with autism is different, & to give an un-mediated voice to the featured people who were both very different from him.

Anyone who loves dogs and the natural world as these two do gets my vote

I find Chris Packham quite a humble man he knows himself and isn’t ashamed of who he is why should he be ?
he’s a clever man and not afraid to speak out against things he finds wrong
No one suits everyone though

He's also anti blood sports and likes punk too so he's a winner for me on lots of counts.

I've always liked Chris. He must have encouraged thousands of children to be interested in and take care of the natural world. His book Fingers in the Sparkle Jar is a great read and an insight into the mind of a man who is very much not self important.

BlueBelle

Yes I watched it on my iPlayer and thought it was brilliant as I did as well with the first series about Autism
Chris Packham with his own diagnosis is perfect to host this programme
4allweknow you ll be missing a very insightful and good programme because of a closed mind

Until recently I worked with kids with autism and ADHD- not closed mind at all.

I am sure there are lots of people out there with autism who would make equally good presenters but he seems to have cornered that particular market that's all I'm saying...

Well I was answering 4allweknow.post but I ll now answer yours keepingquiet making two series hardly makes him ‘cornering all the market’
Hopefully someone else will come along too,but in their absence lets be glad he’s making the effort to help people understand these differences which many people, including some teachers don’t understand at all

I saw the programme and was close to tears more than once. I would almost certainly have been diagnosed with ADD (not the hyperactive bit) if they had known how it presented in girls when I was young. As it was, I was called lazy and disorganised, despite being a relatively high achiever and managing to run a home, a full-time job and bring up two children with a husband who (although helpful when he was there) worked long and irregular hours. Women find strategies to cope, but some understanding would have made such a difference.

People talk about 'bandwagons' and 'overdiagnosis' (both were mentioned on the programme) but the new awareness of ADD has allowed me to be kinder to myself, and to understand why I do things the way I do. I don't behave worse than others, just a bit differently from many.

I particularly liked the analogy given by the young man - of a tombola machine in his brain, with all the things he could do written on different balls, and finding them pop up at random times - tidy the house, watch a boxset, cook a meal, ring mum, get dressed etc etc. Sometimes they pop up once an hour, but often I am not finished doing one thing when another interrupts. I always have several bits of knitting on the needles, as I'm not finished one project before another is demanding to be cast on, and the same applies to many other areas of life.

I am better at dealing with it now, and I won't join the queue for diagnosis as I'd rather leave a place for younger people who would benefit more - at my age I'll just continue to muddle through - but I absolutely support putting time and money into helping those who suffer from it. I'm happy enough with life as it is, but it would have been an easier road if there had been awareness when I was younger. I don't drive, which is a big inconvenience, but it wouldn't be safe for others if I did, as my concentration isn't great. Other than that, I've managed to find ways to make things work, and now I'm able to accept things for what they are, and not blame myself any more.

I don't, and have never, expected others to make allowances - I have limited patience with people who use conditions such as anxiety (from which I have suffered as a result of ADD - they go hand in hand) or whatever to opt out of things in ways that inconvenience others or expect them to do their jobs for them. Maybe if I had realised why that behaviour upset me so much (the fact that sometimes it was extremely difficult for me to meet deadlines, but I stayed up all night to do it, only to find that the day before the deadline someone was off sick with stress and I had to do her work before the deadline too) I would have spoken up against it and refused. Better awareness might make that easier for people in a similar position now.

Anyway, I will watch the others in the series, in the hope that I can learn to understand other conditions and be more understanding about those who live with them, and able to think about ways to allow everyone, however their brains work, to coexist without some ways being given priority over others.

I found Chris Packhams programmes very useful and fascinating. Helps you understand peaople who are neurodivergant.

I enjoyed Chris's programmes about autism and I enjoyed this one as well. I've got two grandsons with ASD and ADH so I recognised a lot of their problems. I've always liked Chris, ever since he was on the Really Wild Show.I started reading his book, but I had to stop before I reached the story of his kestrel because I knew that would be upsetting.

Paddy and Christine McGuinness and Anna Richardson, Georgia Harper and Sam Ahern have also made high profile TV documentaries on the subject of Autism.

I can't imagine Chris Packham is trying to corner any 'market' on autism.

Chris Packham is the perfect person to make this kind of programme. He’s calm. He listens carefully. He asks intelligent questions and understands the answers. And unlike the stereotypical view of someone with autism, he has great empathy for other people who are also neurodiverse.

Search on BBC iPlayer alone for ADHD and seven programmes come up so he’s hardly cornering the market.

What is special about this series is the personal film-making process so that, in this third episode, Henry and Jo could have the difficult conversations they wanted to have with their loved ones but couldn’t necessarily find the words.

This process was put to excellent use in the first programme of this series. Ken Bruce’s non-verbal but brilliant son Murray was given a voice to speak to his family and friends and a wider world that fails to understand that he has a lot of important things to say. As Murray pointed out, non-verbal people are often deep thinkers simply because they aren’t talking all the time.

In that respect, it reminded me of Susan Cain’s book Quiet The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking about how the creative ideas of introverts are often overlooked in the clamour of the corporate world.

In this latest episode, Henry’s Tombola Man was an inspired choice of analogy. This grey, shadowy man pelting Henry with a hundred different balls every day, overwhelming him with all the small tasks he needs to do, but not in any logical order.

In Jo’s film, she repeated the phrase that her father called her a butterfly because she could never settle to anything. I like that this butterfly imagery was given a positive and empathetic interpretation by Chris. Butterflies are beautiful things, therefore Jo is a beautiful butterfly.

I recommend reading Fingers in the Sparkle Jar to gain an insight into the struggles Chris had had to face to cope with his own neurodiversity. That he is acting as an ambassador for others is to be applauded.