I flat out laughed at the successful happy adult phrase.  ‘Successful’ unhappy, depressed, mentally ill adult on their way to complete burnout more like.

I don't think you need to "rewire" or "make the condition less obvious", what you SHOULD be focusing on is making their lives meaningfully better, even if they're slightly different than what you'd expect of a neurotypical person.

Autist here, being neurodivergent dosn't mean you're a badly behaved child, and it's not an illness. It's literally just our brain operating differently, not wrong! It's like extroverts vs. introverts.

I was a very well behaved child, knew I couldn't get everything I wanted, only good grades in school, never smoked, been drunk or done drugs, I barely even drink alcohol. And as I'm nearly 40 years old, my childhood was not on screens, we were out playing, we ate proper food etc. aswell. And there were a lot of others my age who was diagnosed as kids/diagnosed as adults. There's always been many neurodivergents, but we were deemed r*tards/troublemakers and such.
This feels like the old "Being gay is an illness" era, smdh...

ADHD and Autism are struggles I really wish I didn’t have and something I would never even wish on my enemies. I knew I had ADHD because, since I was a child, I did terrible in school, I was bullied a lot, and even as an adult, I always struggled at every job I’ve had because I just cannot focus and always failed to follow instructions. I hate having to keep asking the same questions over and over again. It wasn’t until later in life I found out that I was autistic, which also explains a lot why I am the way I am. I was always that weird kid that everybody avoided. I remember people always telling each other to stay away from me. And I wondered why nobody wanted to be my friend. I have always struggled with loneliness and isolation for pretty much my whole life. I had to figure a lot of things out on my own. My mother has been very supportive and she explained to me that during pregnancy she was under some intense stress and was also exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke. My father was abusive and narcissistic, and it made her pregnancy really hard. It kind of connected some dots for me, especially around the health and emotional struggles I’ve had since I was a kid. I also thought that I might be a narcissist because, I learned that with autism, I can be bad a picking up social cues and oftentimes I tend to come off as cold and uncaring, but really I’m not. As a result I have had so many failed relationships as I could never maintain one, which makes it dating very difficult for me. Hearing from my therapist that I am on the spectrum was more of a relief for me. Because my whole life, I thought I was broken. I wish I knew all of this a lot sooner, but better late than never. I know now I have a lot to work on.

I was one of those undiagnosed children, growing up in the 80’s.  I had all the ‘resilience training’ of that era, supposed to ‘rewire’ my brain.  I spent half a century thinking I was broken.  I got very good at FAKING resilience.  I learned some but is was always SO HARD.  Why couldn’t I do the basics easily like everyone else?  Because you CAN’T TRAIN AWAY AUTISM/ OR ADHD, YOU CAN ONLY TRAIN PEOPLE TO HIDE IT.  You talk about environmental changes.  It’s not just things like pollution.  Think about how society has changed at the same time.  Life is so much faster, more crowded, more busy, more target driven.  Not good for autistic people.  Makes it harder for us to fake it or learn to fake it.  Dr Karan, you have always made such sensible content, but this woman appears to practice ABA, which has been shown to be abusive.  I sincerely hope you will talk also to medical people who are actually neurodivergent themselves.  This is straight misinformation, as bad as I’ve ever heard and you are always so against that.  This is not you!

when my child was born I knew they were different, they didn't cry, they never wet the bed, they never woke up in the night, they didn't crawl they just went straight to trying to sit up and walk,  they had one very fixed interest and didn't care about anything else,  they didn't watch cartoons etc, talking came late with the exception of the word no which came very early, they had a strange stare, they didn't have the physical dexterity of other kids etc.  it took years to get anyone to pay any attention, they only got flagged up when they went to school I was ignored by GPs until then and then it was onto the CAMHS  waiting list until their age was in double figures, then they just got diagnosed and discharged from CAMHS thats it, no advice no help nothing.

I'm so happy to see you again. Nevermind who I am . You look great. I remember your videos especially of the lettuce wrapped in whatever delicious food that was on your trip. How's the black horse?(Dog)

The opener puts me off as an autistic person. It implies that neurodivergence is curable in many cases and puts way too much emphasis on environment when this is a genetic and developmental problem. And plus a lot of autistic and neurodivergent people already have to be forced into “resilience” by having to do more work to fit into and understand neurotypical spaces and situations while no one has to try to understand us.

Oh, and plus adding in the microplastics thing pisses me off to bring up without evidence, it’s almost as bad as saying vaccines cause autism.

Ok, only half way through and I am very unhappy with the direction this has taken. I know it’s only implied but it is heavily implied that you can treat autism by improving a child’s diet, exercise and their parent’s knowledge base. You will certainly improve their health, both physical and mental, which will make it so much easier for them to cope, however they will remain autistic. If they don’t, then it wasn’t autism to start with. Autistic like traits are seen in cptsd, other trauma and as the result of poor parenting for whatever reason, amongst other things. How does excess screen time and all the other modern day problems apply to mature autistic adults who grew up without tvs let alone all the other devices? If it’s very rare for one of a set of monozygotic twins (presumably brought up separately as in studies on schizophrenia etc) not to develop autism if the other one does, then we are looking almost solely at pre natal. How about common comorbid conditions such as EDS? This appears to be 2 people discussing their personal opinions but because they are health care professionals it will be taken as factual. I love what the woman is doing to try and help families but an autistic brain will remain an autistic brain, even though the individual now feels much happier and more able to cope. And I love Dr Karan, but this vid feeds into the idea that autistic people don’t need to be autistic and maybe just aren’t trying hard enough.

*edit

So I’m glad I went back to it and watched the 2nd half as it became clearer that they were really only talking about young, white boys with ADHD and that made more sense. However that did only become apparent well into the 2nd half and very little of it related to autism without many ADHD traits. (Mental health professional with personal experience working with mainly neurodivergent girls)

I am really disappointed! I have 2 children with adhd and autism. You can not rewire their brain! They are born that way! The only thing you can teach them is to mask. Hiding autism doesn't make them functioning better and is not helpful. Autism has nothing to do with parenting, screens, etc. Some people are higher on the spectrum, other lower. My younger is higher and I had so many difficulties with her. I have zero support, and she didn't get the ASD diagnosis until she developed epilepsy! The school, GP, everyone ignored my plea for help just because she didn't look autistic. And she struggles a lot!

Neurodivergent vs neurotypical should be viewed the same way we think about being introverted vs extroverted and the work needs to be in having a society that works for both grouos since right now its not designed for the neurodivergent. (I also think ADHD and autism should be rolled into the same spectrum)

If you want to have any chance of reprogramming autism and ADHD, comfort must be prioritized. Without it, focus and communication will collapse sooner or later.

I believe my comment was held back for length, character limit, or similar restrictions. I guess I have to do a workaround.
Now, I am by no means a professional, so I can talk only on an anecdotal level, supported by what I read leisurely and what I experienced myself as a gifted, late-diagnosed, high-masking AFAB autistic person.

02:24
“Is there a possibility that they can regress naturally or things you can do to essentially rewire the brain so ADHD, other neurodivergent conditions can regress to a degree they’re almost non-existent anymore or they don’t manifest as obviously?“
“Yes, you can make a big difference with early intervention. So, neuroplasticity describes the idea that the brain in young children, it changes with time. And again, as I mentioned, it changes based on opportunities, practicing behaviors, there’s rewiring and strengthening of different neural networks. And this is present for all children, including children with ASD and ADHD“
While this is, of course, only the opener, and I consider the rest of the video to be quite well done, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that it was left standing like this for now right in the beginning. I don’t dare to speak for autistics in general, but as I’ve lived and heard it, for most of us, learning certain behaviors – the majority of them social – and being expected to always execute them well, adds burdens which are wildly harmful, since one is made to feel like the authentic self is somehow wrong.
Compulsive masking is an enormous threat to mental wellbeing. All the micro-components of social interaction which often are processed passively and intuitively in allistics have to be filtered and modeled manually by autistics, and it’s a whole lot of invisible cognitive labor nobody thanks you for. All of this may (and often does) lead to a type of burnout that is devastating to the masking individual, and it makes one prone to develop cPTSD.
I’d like to drop the double empathy problem as a keyword here – autistics are expected to communicate in the allistic way, but many allistics wouldn’t even think about trying to adapt to the autistic communication style, although it’s necessary to make it a bridge that goes both ways, if it is to be fair at all. Making autistics (or other neurodivergents, for that matter) be the only ones to carry the communicational burden is decidedly not inclusionary nor helpful.

15:05
“It’s like a domino effect. […] And it’s this vicious cycle where you keep getting all these external pressures which mold you – or mold your brain, I should say – in towards that, you know, ADHD neurodivergent pattern.“
Sutcliffe’s multi-pillared approach, where medicine is not the #1 go-to, is good here. It shows how a supportive environment can make a huge difference in how much psychological stress the child suffers, which would exacerbate behaviors that are seen as symptomatic for those with neurodivergent development.
It is important to note, however, that the difficulties a child still experiences may just become invisbile that way, maybe even to themselves. Coping does not mean doing well. I learned this the hard way.

22:56
Necessary clarification of a correlation, not proven causation, between screentime (and its dosage) and severity of ADHD.
As Sutcliffe said, ADHDers seek stimulation, the dopamine hit, and – as is my personal experience with very few ADHDers, take it with a grain of salt – novelty. If they get enough stimulation via other ways, such as social or physical stimulation, I believe screentime becomes less of a problem. Higher screentime might simply be a symptom of the times, where families and friends are increasingly disconnected in daily life due to economical requirements, as well as for the reasons Sutcliffe mentioned (high percentage of time being spent in the digital realm, be it professionally, educationally, recreationally).
Her approach to encourage kids to do things outside the digital realm that are good for their development is correct and beneficial. As she says, it’s crucial that parents practice all these things too, optimally with the child, not just telling them they should do that. Children learn by example too, and if there’s a community to do that with, it gets easier. Her argument that you can not start teaching these behaviors too young is spot-on.
I personally was always baffled as a kid that parents put these restrictions on screen time while they were in front of the TV all evening once they came home. They worked hard, sure. But the kids did too, school is no laughing matter nowadays (as Sutcliffe later mentions as well). It needs effort from both parents and kids to make these healthier behaviors a reality.
And, as she later says, how teachers treat these kids and the way education is organized and carried out is highly important as well, although still under-applied in a beneficial manner.

[continued in the replies]

My eldest was midly diagnosed with lots of behavioural n learning issues...I was told he'd never go to a normal school etc this was before it was so widely "popular" on social media..
I worked with all the therapists resigned from my job became a stay at home mum insisted we have a sibling for him and now he is finishing yr 12 with good grades  in a regular school has a part time job a whole group of great friends and having his baby brother really helped him to take control of his behaviour he still had mild qualities like little eccentricities but we all have a quirkiness to our personalities so yes early intervention intensive therapies and doing it at home so u can bring ur child up to speed and if u I tell people now he had a diagnosed they're blown  away because he is such a well balanced young person...this is just my personal experience

Im 26 and I do not normally recommend supplements but Roxelirum Ultra actually surprised me.

I'm finding this very difficult to watch.

I really don't like the pathologising of neurodivergence as we're just wired differently.   I also don't like the way that we're expected to confirm to neurotypical standards.  Also, anything to do with behaviourism isn't a good idea.  It's like expecting a left handed person to use their right hand.

The idea that failure makes children resilient is flawed.  Often children have to  invent strategies and techniques just to fit in and avoid criticism and punishment, that's not learning problem solving.   So what often happens, particularly with neurodivergent children is that they learn to subdue their natural instincts and adopt an essentially false impression of being able to cope......this is masking.  

I was undiagnosed till age 67 but I had a lot of misdiagnoses and gaslighting throughout my life because no medical professionals recognised my high masking.  I didn't even know I masked.....67 years of just reacting to life formed my mask, in order to protect me.  Unfortunately masking takes its toll. I also discovered I have CPTSD due to unresolved trauma, ineffective medication and poor support for my poor mental health.  

As a member of the ND community I'm dismayed to still see children like I was being missed and their ND unrecognised.  Those with diagnoses are too often unsupported because ND training in teachers is so lacking.

ND children are expected to try so much harder than NT children 😢

We're all wonderfully unique individuals with our own sets of challenges but often our natural skills aren't often recognised 😢 Although I learned recently that MI5 are looking for ND recruits.  The sad thing is that in order to achieve success we're expected to confirm to conventional neurotypical standards in teaching and qualifications.   Many ND children can't cope with school and miss out  😔

Disability is a social construct. 100 years ago people weren't confined to four walls, a car, and isolated in a "family home". There was 'simple John' who was really good at fixing watches, or looking after sheep, or a farm hand. Or chaotic Jack who was always getting into trouble but was good at labour or working in risky environments. Kids also died a LOT. Disease, illness, injury: many didn't live to be diagnosed. They also thought women were hysterical and needed to be locked away. Now, people live through childhood. We don't lock people up who don't fit societies mould. We understand mental illness and neurological disorders. It's not all medical model. It's societal and cultural.

Such a good topic

Even when I want to give up Jesus gives me strength. I suffer from lupus and heart disease. Please God hear my prayers! My husband passed away, I’m a single mother. with two autistic children. I’m so overwhelmed. I’m constantly in fear of losing my home. I struggle with supporting my two sons. I’m so ashamed. Please pray for me. I don’t want ANYTHING, but prayers. I’m holding fast to my faith! I know God will provide. Amen 🙏🏾

Yes!