Trigger warning: This episode discusses suicide, self-harm, and mental health crises.

In this powerful and compassionate conversation, Jeff Noble sits down with Dr. Carly McMorris — clinical psychologist, associate professor at the University of Calgary, and leading FASD researcher — to talk about one of the hardest and most important topics in the FASD community: mental health.

They break down how to recognize the signs of crisis, why individuals with FASD experience such high rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality, and how caregivers can respond with calm, informed strategies instead of fear.

You’ll learn:
 • Why up to 90% of individuals with FASD experience mental health challenges
 • How to tell the difference between a bad day and a mental health crisis
 • Why “go low and go slow” works — for your loved one and for you
 • How to use the FASD Mental Health Toolkit in real life
 • What caregivers can do when the system doesn’t respond
 • The hope behind new research on mental health and suicidality in FASD

If you’ve ever felt scared, unsure, or alone in supporting your loved one’s mental health, this episode will give you knowledge, validation, and tools to move from fear to understanding.

Resources & Links
🔗 Mental Health Toolkit: canfasd.ca/mental-health-toolkit

🎧 Episode 141 with Emma Jewell: fasdsuccess.com/blog/141-discover-a-new-mental-health-tool-with-emma-jewell

🎧 Episode with Dr. Jacqueline Pei: fasdsuccess.com/blog/FetalAlcoholSyndromementalhealth

Join Our Community
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/FASDforever

Follow Jeff
Instagram: instagram.com/FASDSuccess

Facebook: facebook.com/FASDSuccess

YouTube: youtube.com/@FASDSuccess

Listen or Watch
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Support the show

Episode 184: Laurie Anderson The Power of Showing Up

What if success as a caregiver wasn’t about getting everything right, but about showing up again and again?

In this heartfelt episode of The FASD Success Show, Jeff Noble sits down with long time community leader and coach Laurie Anderson to talk about what it really means to keep going through the hardest seasons of caregiving with compassion, connection, and calm.

Laurie shares her journey from confusion to confidence, what she’s learned from years of moderating our 5,000 member FASD community, and how she’s redefining success after retirement and decades of advocacy.

In This Episode You’ll Hear
 • Why consistency and connection regulate the brain better than perfection
 • How Polyvagal Theory explains why community calms the nervous system
 • What success looks like when you measure by regulation, not results
 • Why rest and recovery are just as important as advocacy and action
 • How Laurie’s story can help you see your own progress even on the hard days

This conversation is part science, part story, and full of heart. A reminder that you don’t have to fix it all. You just have to keep showing up

 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FASDSuccess

Join our Free Caregiver Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FASDFOREVER

Follow Jeff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FASDSuccess

Full Show Notes: https://www.fasdsuccess.com/podcast

Support the show

What really happens as people with FASD grow into adulthood and beyond?

In this episode of The FASD Success Show, Jeff Noble sits down with Dr. Valerie Temple to talk about brand-new Canadian research exploring how the FASD brain and body change with age — and what families, caregivers, and professionals need to know to support lifelong success.

Dr. Temple and her team analyzed data from over 400 adults across Canada to compare younger adults (18–24) with older adults (35+). What they found challenges a lot of assumptions about FASD, aging, and the brain.

In This Episode You’ll Learn
• Why older adults with FASD aren’t “less affected,” but show different patterns of strengths and challenges
• How executive function and attention improve for many adults, while memory and physical health issues increase
• Why substance use and mental health struggles remain high across adulthood — and what helps most
• How diagnosis and support systems can evolve to meet changing needs over time
• What this research means for caregivers, families, and self-advocates navigating adulthood

Why It Matters
For years, most FASD research has focused on children and youth. Dr. Temple’s 2025 study is one of the first to look closely at aging in FASD, providing real data on what support looks like across a lifetime.

The big takeaway: the FASD brain doesn’t stop changing. It adapts, learns, and keeps building new pathways. With the right support, growth and connection are possible at every age.

Watch the Full Interview
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpjr6YGxH8

Listen to the Episode
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-fasd-success-show/id1492499195

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ntB51glqYnRPmXCh6lOGq?si=f006bfa2966d4972

Resources & Links
• Read the full study: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD): Comparing profiles of younger versus older adults

• Join our free Parent & Caregiver Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FASDFOREVER

• Follow Jeff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FASDSuccess

• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FASDSuccess

• Visit our website for show notes and articles: https://www.fasdsuccess.com/blog/new-research-on-fasd-and-aging-what-families-need-to-know

Support the show

What happens after the diagnosis?

In this episode of The FASD Success Show, Jeff Noble sits down with Joseph Munn, an adult with FASD who’s building a life that works, not one that’s defined by expectations.

Joseph opens up about what it felt like to finally understand his brain, how interdependence and technology help him stay regulated, and what community really means in adulthood. From gaming and advocacy to the one-dollar house that changed his life, Joseph’s story reminds us that success isn’t about doing it all, it’s about doing what works.

You’ll hear
 • What finally made sense after Joseph’s FASD diagnosis
 • How he manages overwhelm, anxiety, and independence
 • Why interdependence, not isolation, builds true stability
 • How gaming, technology, and VR became tools for connection
 • What parents can take away about hope, adaptation, and acceptance

Why It Matters

This episode is a real look at life after diagnosis, the challenges, the wins, and the ongoing process of building a future shaped by possibility, not perfection.

Resources and Links

Join our FASD Success Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/FASDForever

Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@FASDSuccess

Follow Jeff on Instagram: instagram.com/FASDSuccess

Full show notes: fasdsuccess.com/podcast

Support the show

What if healing isn’t about fixing what’s broken but finally seeing it clearly?

In this episode of The FASD Success Show, Jeff sits down with Dr. Debbie Michaud, a researcher, advocate, and storyteller whose groundbreaking dissertation Hitchhiking With Mama: Living With FASD, A Collection of Truths explores what happens when we stop trying to fix the past and start understanding it.

Debbie shares her journey of growing up in a family shaped by trauma, addiction, and undiagnosed FASD, and how retracing her childhood with her mother became the key to forgiveness, understanding, and healing. Together, she and Jeff explore what it means to break generational cycles, redefine success, and create peace even when others can’t change.

In This Episode You’ll Hear

• How understanding intersectionality helped Debbie see her mother’s story with       “new eyes”
 • Why healing doesn’t erase the past, it reframes it
 • The road trip that transformed resentment into compassion
 • What Debbie learned about executive functioning, survival, and doing the best        you can with what you have
 • Why you can’t change others, only your role in the story
 • The neuroscience of guilt and why understanding replaces shame with empathy
 • How redefining success can close the gap between expectations and your                family’s capacity

Why It Matters

You can’t fix or change the past, but you can move toward healing and more good days at home.

Dr. Michaud’s story shows that reconciliation doesn’t always mean resolution. It means seeing the people you love, and yourself, through a brain-based, compassionate lens. Because healing isn’t about perfection, it’s about presence, regulation, and connection that lasts.

Find FASD Success: Website: https://www.fasdsuccess.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FASDSuccess
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FASDSuccess
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FASDforever
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-fasd-success-show/id1492499195
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ntB51glqYnRPmXCh6lOGq

Support the show

In this episode of The FASD Success Show, Jeff Noble sits down with Sophie Harrington, CEO of NOFASD Australia, to talk about what happens when caregivers stop chasing perfection and start building holidays  and lives that actually fit their families’ nervous systems.

Sophie is a mom, advocate, and birth parent who’s turned her personal story into national leadership. Together, Jeff and Sophie dig into the power of reframing guilt, setting boundaries, and parenting differently without apology.

They unpack how shame and expectations weigh on caregivers, and how understanding the brain  not just behavior  can lift that load for good.

In This Episode You’ll Learn

• Why the holidays feel so emotionally heavy — and how neuroscience explains it
• What happens in the brain when guilt turns chronic and how to stop the cycle
• The difference between connection and performance in caregiving
• Why “doing less” is not giving up — it’s giving your brain a chance to recover
• How Sophie’s journey from birth mom to CEO became a model of what advocacy can really look like

Why It Matters

Caregivers often measure success by what they do, not how they feel — but the brain science says the opposite.
 A regulated caregiver leads to a regulated child.
 When we stop apologizing for doing things differently, we stop surviving the holidays and start shaping them to work for us.

Watch or Listen to the Full Episode

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEko0ghA4iw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-fasd-success-show/id1492499195

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ntB51glqYnRPmXCh6lOGq?si=f006bfa2966d4972

Resources and Links

Join our Free Caregiver Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FASDFOREVER

Follow Jeff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FASDSuccess

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FASDSUCCESS

Full Show Notes and Resources: https://www.fasdsuccess.com/podcast

Support the show

The holidays are here, and for a lot of caregivers raising individuals with FASD, this isn’t the season of calm and cozy.
It’s the season where routines explode, nerves fray, school schedules flip, people show up unannounced, and you’re trying to keep everyone safe while the world tells you to “make memories.”

That’s why all month long, The FASD Success Show is bringing you the Holiday Sanity Series — conversations that unpack the science, the stress, and the strategies that actually make life work for families like ours.

And to kick things off, I’m joined by Melissa Dobson, caregiver, mom of three teens, and Co-Chair of the Family Advisory Committee at CanFASD.

Melissa’s story is one that every caregiver will recognize. She’s been through the system fights, the school meetings, the sleepless nights, and the constant rebuilding that happens after everything falls apart.
But instead of letting it break her, she’s learned how to take the hard stuff, the setbacks, the overwhelm, the sh*t life throws at you, and turn it into rocket fuel.

In This Episode You’ll Hear

Why you can’t fight every battle and why that’s not weakness.
Chronic advocacy keeps your body in survival mode. The brain doesn’t know the difference between emotional stress and physical danger. It releases cortisol and adrenaline either way. Melissa shares how she learned to pause, recover, and fight from a place of regulation instead of burnout.

How rebuilding routines repairs the brain.
For individuals with FASD, predictability equals safety. Every time you rebuild after chaos, you’re helping the brain re-establish order, calm the amygdala, and bring the thinking brain back online.

Connection isn’t a luxury. It’s co-regulation.
When we connect with someone who feels safe, our brains release oxytocin, the chemical that quiets the stress response. Melissa explains how community and shared experience have helped her stay grounded and steady her kids through hard seasons.

Letting things fall apart isn’t failure. It’s flexibility.
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is stop holding everything together. Letting go of old routines and traditions that don’t fit your child’s needs isn’t giving up. It’s creating space for the brain to adapt and grow in new ways.

Advocacy works best when you’re regulated.
When your nervous system is calm, your prefrontal cortex — the part responsible for reasoning, empathy, and problem-solving — stays engaged. Melissa shows how advocacy rooted in regulation creates real change instead of constant exhaustion.

Why It Matters

This season isn’t about perfection. It’s about protection.
When you build your holidays around regulation instead of expectation, your family’s nervous systems can actually handle the joy.

Regulated brains learn better, connect better, and recover faster.
And that includes yours.

Melissa’s story reminds us that you can’t control everything that comes your way, but you can decide what to do with it.

You can turn frustration into focus.
You can turn chaos into clarity.
And yes, you can turn sh*t into rocket fuel.

Because regulation isn’t the reward you get for surviving the season.
It’s the foundation that makes everything else possible.

That’s your one good thing this week.

Resources & Links

Connect with Melissa Dobson
Co-Chair, Family Advisory Committee — CanFASD.ca

Join Our Community
Free Caregiver Group: facebook.com/groups/FASDforever

Watch & Lis

Support the show

The scans are in, and they tell a different story.

Dr. Catherine Lebel, Canada’s leading FASD brain imaging researcher, joins Jeff Noble to share what MRI research reveals about how the brain develops after prenatal alcohol exposure and why the story is far more hopeful than most people think.

Through years of ground breaking studies, Dr. Lebel and her team have shown that the FASD brain doesn’t stop growing. It just grows differently and on its own timeline. Her work connects science and lived experience, giving caregivers something we all need more of: evidence-based hope.

In this conversation, Jeff and Dr. Lebel talk about:
 • How brain development continues well into adulthood
 • Why stable, loving environments can support brain growth
 • What slower development really means in everyday life
 • Why interventions are never wasted, even when progress feels slow
 • How families can join the PEACH Study to help move FASD research forward

Dr. Lebel’s message is simple but powerful. The brain is still growing, still learning, and still capable of change. Different doesn’t mean broken. It means still developing.

Watch the full episode
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FASDSuccess

Listen on
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-fasd-success-show/id1492499195

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ntB51glqYnRPmXCh6lOGq?si=f006bfa2966d4972

Connect with Jeff
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/FASDforever
YouTube: @FASDSuccess
Instagram: @FASDSuccess
Full show notes: fasdsuccess.com/podcast

Support the show

What if your loved one with FASD’s brain wasn’t misfiring — it was miss-messaging?

In this powerful episode, Jeff sits down with Dr. Long from the University of Calgary’s Developmental Neuroimaging Lab, one of the key researchers on Dr. Catherine Lebel’s team, to uncover what really happens inside the brain after prenatal alcohol exposure.

Dr. Long explains how the brain’s network — the system that keeps messages moving between regions — changes after prenatal alcohol exposure, and what that means for learning, behavior, and everyday regulation. Together, they unpack how the brain adapts, reroutes, and finds new ways to communicate, even when signals get jammed.

In This Episode You’ll Hear

• Why FASD is less about “broken” wiring and more about “busy” messaging systems
 • How even low levels of prenatal alcohol exposure can alter brain development
 • What “compensation” means — and how the brain finds detours to keep working
 • Why fatigue, frustration, and “I won’t” moments are signs of overload, not defiance
 • How supportive environments and calm routines help the brain stabilize and grow
 • The resilience behind the science — and why hope is more than just a feeling

Why It Matters

This episode is a reminder that behaviors aren’t failures  they’re feedback. Dr. Long’s work helps caregivers, teachers, and professionals see FASD through a brain-based lens, turning frustration into understanding and burnout into compassion.

Different doesn’t mean broken  it means we need to look deeper, respond smarter, and keep believing that change is possible.

Resources & Links

Join our FASD Success Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/FASDforever
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@FASDSuccess
Follow Jeff on Instagram: instagram.com/FASDSuccess
Full show notes: fasdsuccess.com/podcast

Support the show

What if mental health and behavior weren’t just about the brain, but also about the body? In this fascinating conversation, Jeff sits down with Dr. Tamara Bodnar, a biological scientist and researcher at the University of Calgary, whose work is changing how we understand FASD from the inside out.

Dr. Bodnar studies the gut–brain axis — the constant communication between our digestive system and our brain — and how prenatal alcohol exposure can disrupt that balance for life. Her groundbreaking research reveals how gut health, inflammation, and stress all shape behavior, mood, and regulation in ways caregivers see every day.

Together, Jeff and Dr. Bodnar explore how small, realistic shifts like balanced meals, hydration, and consistent routines can support both body and brain. They also talk about what’s next in FASD science, including probiotics, personalized medicine, and new collaborations that bring caregivers and researchers together.

In this episode you’ll learn how prenatal alcohol exposure affects gut health and stress regulation, why inflammation can amplify mood and behavior, and how to make simple, guilt-free choices that help create calm from the inside out.

This episode reminds us that behavior isn’t just communication — it’s biology. When we understand how the body and brain talk to each other, we can replace frustration with compassion and find hope in small, steady changes. Dr. Bodnar’s work validates what families have always known in their gut: small steps matter, and progress starts from the inside out.

You’re not alone. You’re doing better than you think.

Resources and Links

Join our FASD Success Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/FASDforever

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: @FASDSuccess

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Follow Jeff on Instagram: @FASDSuccess

Full show notes: fasdsuccess.com/podcast

Support the show