ADHD & Autism Support That Fits How Your Brain Actually Works

Understood, not broken.

Thriive is the support app for ADHD and autistic brains — and the whole household behind them. Track your patterns, find strategies that actually fit, and walk into every appointment with evidence. For yourself, or for your child.

What changes with Thriive

Without Thriive

With Thriive

How Thriive supports ADHD and autistic people

One app for the whole neurodivergent household

For adults

Understand your own brain. Build evidence for assessments and workplace adjustments. Stop feeling like you're figuring it out alone.

For parents

Spot the patterns behind the hard days. Advocate with confidence at school and with doctors. Strategies matched to your child, not a textbook.

For children

Feel seen. Understand how your own brain works. Build a profile that's yours.

Neurodivergent conditions Thriive supports

Parent Guides

Glossary

Daily Challenges

Strategy Categories

Community

Understanding and Unmasking

Your child is masking: hiding their true needs, suppressing stims, and performing neurotypicality. The toll is making everything worse at home

Steps

  1. Learn what masking actually looks like: performing eye contact, suppressing stims, copying peers' behaviour, saying 'I'm fine' when they're not, laughing at jokes they don't understand, and holding in meltdowns until they're safe at home
  2. Watch for the signs your child is masking: they're 'perfect' at school but fall apart at home, they seem exhausted after social situations, they mirror other children's behaviour rather than being themselves, or they've developed anxiety or low mood
  3. Create explicit permission to unmask at home. Say it out loud: 'You don't have to pretend here. You can stim, you can be quiet, you can be yourself'
  4. Reduce demands at home after high-masking situations (school, parties, family events). Their energy is spent, so don't add to the load
  5. Talk to them about masking in age-appropriate terms: 'Some people feel like they have to hide the things that make them different. You don't have to do that with us'
  6. Communicate with school about the masking toll. Share what you see at home and ask what they can do to reduce the pressure to conform during the school day

What you need

Understanding of what masking is, explicit verbal permission, reduced demands at home, school communication

Why it works

Masking uses enormous cognitive and emotional energy. Children who mask all day at school arrive home with nothing left, leading to meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnout that parents often mistake for bad behaviour. Creating a home where masking isn't necessary reduces the total energy cost of the day and protects long-term mental health. Research shows that sustained masking in autistic people is linked to anxiety, depression, and burnout.

Age guidance

Relevant from age 4 onwards. Younger children may mask instinctively without understanding what they're doing. Older children and teenagers can be involved in conversations about masking and may find it validating to have the concept named.

Real-world example

A parent noticed their daughter was 'perfect' at school (polite, quiet, compliant) but came home and screamed for an hour every day. The school insisted nothing was wrong. When the parent started saying 'You don't have to be perfect here. You can just be you,' the after-school meltdowns gradually reduced. She started stimming openly at home, something she'd been hiding for years, and her anxiety dropped noticeably within two months.

Troubleshooting

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