Chris Packham: Inside our Minds, Sunday BBC2

I like dusting. It’s something I can do whilst still listening to music or watching box sets! Ironing is a different matter. Can’t remember the last time I used an iron?

Perhaps dusting is just boring? ( only joking)

A lot of this rings very true for me.

I’m beginning to wonder if I have ADHD which is why my house is such a mess. I just flit from one thing to another. I’ll start dusting a room and, part way through, will start something else. The duster will remain where I left if for ages. I’ll even look at it, wonder why I just left it there but still do nothing about it. Will trash the kitchen just making a sandwich. I can concentrate on things, though, and was very studious as a child. I’m also very ocd too. I can’t remember car journey routes, no matter how many times I go that way. Can’t read maps unless the road I’m travelling on is going the same way as I am. I’ll be obsessed about a subject and then suddenly become obsessed with something else.

shysal

I found last night's Dyslexia episode very informative. I had thought it was only reading that was affected, but several other every day functions are difficult for sufferers too.

This applies to several aspects of neural divergence, they interlink.

I have dyspraxia, 'clumsy child' syndrome. I only recently discovered that problems I have with sequencing, are another sign of it. Most people will have noticed how I often type letters in the wrong order, As Eric Morecambe said - all the right notes, just in the wrong order, or in my case all the right letters/numbers - just the wrong order. Also these mistakes get through because my proof reading can be faulty the result of my dyspraxia. I also have ADHD and again the tow problems interlink.

I often think the idea that neural diversity can be neatly divided up into neat packages labled dyslexia, ADHD, autism, is a mistake. I always think neural diversity is like the hexagonal colour chart you find in Excel, if you click on 'more colours'. A spread and blend of colours where yellow merges into green at one point, blue somewhere else and red elsewhere, and that applies to all colours.

I do not have autism, but I can recognise traits in me that fall within that range, but are also associated with ADHD, which again overlaps with dyspraxia.

grandMattie

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.

I’m so glad someone else feels the same! I find Packham insufferable.
An awful lot of my family are dyslexic and neurodivergent including my late son and one DGD, so it would have been interesting to watch. But the presenter puts me right off.

If you think the programme subject would interest you, I can tell you that Chris Packham took a back seat and was not the cocky person you may have seen at other times.

I found last night's Dyslexia episode very informative. I had thought it was only reading that was affected, but several other every day functions are difficult for sufferers too.

Excellent and informative series.

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.

I’m so glad someone else feels the same! I find Packham insufferable.
An awful lot of my family are dyslexic and neurodivergent including my late son and one DGD, so it would have been interesting to watch. But the presenter puts me right off.

Overthemoongran Your story reminds me of my grandson. He was about 9 and was beginning to have problems at school, but at that point he hadn't been diagnosed and we weren't sure what was going on. He had a nice teacher who was very young and admitted that he hadn't come across a child like this before. I used to collect him from school and, everyday, I would be greeted with a list of all the things he had done wrong, and how they had talked about it and he wouldn't do them tomorrow. It was so pointless because I knew he didn't understand why he was wrong and he would do exactly the same things tomorrow. Fortunately the following year he got a diagnosis and a new teacher who understood him.

I watched through tears streaming down my face, I felt SO guilty for always telling my daughter to ‘use her quiet voice’, or to report back to her that her teachers thought that she could work harder at school. She left school with no qualifications but I always knew she was highly intelligent. She now has a very high flying career but was mystified as to why she always felt ‘different’. Last year, in her early 40s she was diagnosed as having ADHD. Suddenly her life long struggles make sense.

It was a wonderful programme. My GC has ADHD - now a young adult. Chris has given me a greater understanding of the condition. A must watch for those with ADHD and those without it! Well done Chris.

On Thursday, I was at a family gathering, a gathering of first ccousins, my granfather had 11 chidlren, so there are quite a lot of us.

By mentioning that DS and DGS are waiting for ADHD diagnoses. I broke the constraints. Several then said that they too had children or grandchildren with ADHD. One of these children is a hospital consultant. I suspect, that two of my second cousins are autistic, but nothing is said. DS and I also have dyspraxia.

Doodledog's post rang so true with me. My dyspraxia probably caused me more problems because it meant I had such atrocious hand writing and was an underchiever in school because I always lost so many marks for bad handwriting. When it came to exams, I always did well. When DS starting to have the same problems were what led me to search for help.

When I think back to my childhood, the overwhelming memory is of feeling constantly utterly bereft and on my own, with no one having any idea who or what I was. This despite having loving caring parents. We were on different planets.

As for driving. I do, but my dyspraxia made passing the test difficult. I deal wth my wandering mind by having the radio on all the time, playing music quietly.

I always compare my brain with the sun and the sun spots that keep flaring up, the music quietens them. I also like to have the radio on when I work, until I suddenly go into hyper-focus, when I promptly turn it off.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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...

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.