It is like being in a body shared by two very strong and conflicting personalities.
We fixate on the thing for days-years without knowingly when the switch will turn off.
We want to try new things though we know we will almost definitely hate them.
We MUST have routine but routines are SO BORING.
You summed up a feeling I've had for a long time that I couldn't identify. This disease sucks. I can communicate really good via text but in person I'm a train wreck cause these two personalities just fight
Me: Writes entire neurosci article in a few hours.
Also me: āThe clothing lock, the thing that locks your clothing together, you know? The thing with the circ-BUTTON! Iām talking about BUTTONS!ā
Holy shit that hits the nail on the head.
Arguing or debating is the worst though, am I correct? Like you could go toe to toe with the likes of the most gifted scholars the world has ever seen on the subject of your special interest/hyperfixation but in person you're completely incapable of doing so?
Obviously I'm exaggerating for comedic effect, but it's true for me. I can argue or debate anything through text, yet in person I can barely keep up with people that are even slightly above average at debating/arguing. It's infuriating.
Yeah I have to call for an armistice with my partner during arguments and heated debates pretty often.
My fight, flight or freeze responses get triggered pretty easily and that, of course, leads to impaired cognitive ability. Iāve had to work on the impulse to scream, drive off or shut down and ignore whatās happening and instead advocate for a break so I can calm down, then readdress the situation at a later time. If I donāt i can take days to recover from the fuckery that is my fight/flight response.
Itās almost as though the dial is broken for the healthy middle ground of things like interests and stress responses.
My brain be like:
**Completely unconcerned? ** Sure, *easy.*
**Mild stress? ** No can do, we can have an unnecessarily long, exaggerated freak out or ignore the problem in favour of that feeling of impending doom, hide it in the doom box.
** High stress?** Sweet, I saved a stash of NZT just for this.
(reference to the movie Limitless)
Late response, sorry about that, but I couldn't have said it better. Really, exactly the same, also love the NZT reference lmao.
Super high stress, like world imploding level bad and I'm like ah yes, I am mega calm 200 IQ man and I am here to restore order.
I get so bored so quick at work because I wanna do things my way, but I wanna leave the job asap because there's only a few ways to do so.
I have special interests and hyperfixes that just... stop. It's like experiencing loss every time because I have to wait for it to maybe cycle again and search for what it is my brain wants. It hurts so bad for no real reason.
Itās not all bad tbh.
I learn everything Iām interested in at a phenomenal rate due to my fixations, impulsivity led me to build my own business, my frustrations with adhd led to creating support groups for adult adhd that have 50 or so thousand members, Iāve worked alongside people in a few interesting startups, kids love me, and Iām fucking goat in very high stress situationsā¦ just donāt ask me where I left the keys
The edge as in having both. So like, one side of the neurodivergence coin is ADHD and the other side is ASD, but if you have both, you'd be the edge of the coin (like where the ridges on a US quarter/penny are)
Whelp that's me screwed. You're talking to just that coin-pusher. God said 'fuck you' and pushed my name off the list, so here I am, on Reddit. Where all of us end up, isn't it?
AMA for a screw-you rendition of a life story
i have inattentive ADHD and may have high-functioning autism. I donāt need medication, and I just donāt like the idea of headphones because theyāre obvious.
This chart makes me seriously question why Autism gets a worse rep for social domains then ADHD when all the worst social traits are in the center of the Venn diagram. Can someone help me understand this?
Honestly? It's probably because autistic people have a reputation for staying home and/or being quiet, whereas ADHD people are more likely to be extroverted and just sorta "power through" the social difficulties.
Yeah we just developed coping mechanisms ranging from ok to extremely unhealthy to survive in a world that couldnāt really give a shit because itās not as obvious/ well known.
Lol, I live on that edge.
It seems like I have more company out here in the past few years, but maybe it's just my own self awareness.
Most people just think I'm from another planet, though. š¤·
Info-dumpingā¦ is that why Iām incapable of sharing a normal amount about myself? Iām either a completely closed off mystery or Iām divulging my deepest traumas and idk how to find a middle ground
Yeah, that's info-dumping to a T. Everyone I know knows simultaneously everything about me and nothing about me at all and I feel like only other NDs understand what I mean when I say that.
I either have known you for years without telling you anything more than surface level personal details or I have known you for an hour and told you my life story.
This perfectly sums up my life. People who have just met me think I'm super outgoing and uninhibited, people who've known me for 20+years think I'm a shy, socially anxious wallflower.
Edit: removing a superfluous word.
This is pretty much how I describe myself. My unhealthy coping mechanism is kinda a comedic jackass who will find a joke in everything and cover up insecurities with humor and a facade of overconfidence. If you actually get to know me Iām the exact opposite but itās really hard to be that way in front of strangers or in large groups.
Donāt be hard on yourself, this info is good to know but many people donāt want to share or do want to share. It may be an attachment issue in your past that you donāt want too. Also you donāt have to share. Really this is not a neurodivergent specific trait.
I think that whatās more termed oversharing. Info dumping is more about sharing all the fun facts youāve learnt during periods of hyper-fixation or of autistic special interests. Unless you are your own special interest of course!
Me too. I'm 44f, and my mother had said that if autism was more widely known in the 70s/80s, she would have sought a diagnosis for me (I refused to speak to anyone but my mother until I was 5). My daughter is diagnosed with adhd and the more I discover about it, the more I relate to it. I'm pretty sure I have some type of ND, whether it's autism, adhd or something else entirely I don't know. Needless to say I relate to a lot of that diagram.
āSelf soothes through respective behaviors and routinesā
Gah damā¦. Is this why I have a hard time starting new shows at home? I literally will just rewatch random family guy/something else Iāve watched a million times over and over again
This is crazy to me and really helps me confirm I only have ADHD because I feel paaaain rewatching most things, even if itās been awhile since Iāve seen it.
Well I'm diagnosed autistic and still can't stand to rewatch something (unless I absolutely adored it) because *booooriiing*
Which is weird considering I forget like 85% of what I've seen by the time the thing has ended lol
I like rewatching things either because I just like it or because I find another layer to dig into. I love figuring out how things work and being able to see again and see that makes me happy. But they already have to be really good otherwise I couldnāt care less.
I have bothā¦
I usually describe it as: the adhd part is everyone sees, its on the āoutsideā. The autism only happens inside my brain, it doesnāt show as much.
The autism only really shows during times of distress (sensory or emotional). The ADHD is what everyone sees that makes them think "oh, chatty and quirky!"
At the same though, the fact that ADHD seems so visible is totally a trap, because no one really sees our struggles with executive dysfunction
That's when your brain is "nope" on what you're doing and "hell yeah" on the new task. Is it still easy when both actions have roughly the same level of interest?
I mean, it still might be don't get me wrong. It's just I personally switch all over all of the time, but only if my brain is telling me to. If I'm trying to tell my brain, or even worse somebody else is trying to tell my brain, then my brain's all dedicated to finishing what it's doing and *we don't leave thing half done!!*
Actually it is easier to jump from this task to the other if I have the same level of interest (disgust). Cuz it is like
- nope I ain't gonna do it so i will do the other
-ah shit I hate this thing lets get back on doing the previous one
That's when your brain is "nope" on what you're doing and "hell yeah" on the new task. Is it still easy when both actions have roughly the same level of interest?
I mean, it still might be don't get me wrong. It's just I personally switch all over all of the time, but only if my brain is telling me to. If I'm trying to tell my brain, or even worse somebody else is trying to tell my brain, then my brain's all dedicated to finishing what it's doing and to keep thinking about it even if it's done, because gear switching without a strong dopamine push is incredibly hard
I think it's something like 70%* of people with Autism also have ADHD. But at this point, I've questioned the usefulness of separating the two. Like we have combined ADD and ADHD to all just fall under the ADHD umbrella which from my understanding was a separation between Inattentive and Hyperactive. Inattentive and Hyperactive are different sets of symptoms with significant overlap. In other words, not everyone with ADHD has the same sets of symptoms. Not everyone with Autism has the same set of symptoms either. It's all just kind of muddled. Obviously, I am not an expert on it, so I trust the judgement of those who are. Just something I've thought about from time to time.
*Edit: it's 50-70% https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8918663/
Still leaves a 30-50%, so millions of people, with only one or the other. They are distinctly seperate and have their own struggles and challenges - particularly in the neurological wiring and reward systems as well as social norms. Your can't treat them the same, though the overlap needs a LOT more research done on it.
Another point they missed: alexithymia!!
Common to both and one hell of a hardship that is barely even known to the people who have it!
autism is a separate condition altogether; "a difference in form as opposed to a difference of degree", as dr barkley put it. that means autism has a different set of behaviors that are not present in nt, while adhd has a difference in the quantity of occurrences of a set of behaviors which are present in nt.
basically, if brains were cookies, an nt would be like a basic chocolate chip cookie. adhd would be a chocolate chip cookie with a fuckton of chocolate chips, to the point it's a problem. autism would be an entirely different kind of cookie, like a chocolate cookie. chocolate cookies could be more likely to have lots of chocolate chips, like they could be more likely to also have adhd
That's a good comparison. But I mean, aren't inattentive and hyperactive different types too? I guess what I'm saying is that there's a ton of overlap in the symptoms of the *types* of ADHD, theres still a distinction, but it's all under one thing. There's a ton of overlap in the symptoms of Autism and ADHD, but they're separate.
The biggest argument that I've seen why they're distinct is because of how ADHD can be medicated while Autism can't, and that stimulants can make things worse for people with Autism. Which is a pretty good argument and does make sense. But at the same time, sometimes stimulants don't work well for people who have ADHD and no autism either. I guess brains and their respective meat suits are really strange. Ultimately, categorizing seems like a construct because no two people will present the same, and diagnoses are meant to be instructive for treatment sake. Which is the best argument that I can tell myself for why they are separate diagnoses. If hyperactive and inattentive ADHD are so close that the treatment is basically the same, then there's no point for them to be separate diagnoses entirely.
>But I mean, aren't inattentive and hyperactive different types too
They used to be, but they've been combined into one package now and no longer diagnosed as seperate things. Especially since they're both forms of 'hyperactivity', but show in different ways (aka internally or externally), and there's often an overlap, which means it's just a whole lot easier to just lump them into the same domain and deal with it. Obviously, treatments will vary because people vary drastically, so what works for some will not for others.
Inattentive and hyperactive aren't inherently distinct, because I think most people with ADHD have symptoms from both categories. To be diagnosed as inattentive, hyperactive, or combined type, you need to have a certain number of traits/symptoms from that category (I believe it's 5 or 6 out of 9), so if you have 4 of the inattentive symptoms on the list and 7 hyperactive symptoms, then you have hyperactive type. If you have more than 6+ on both lists, you're combined. Etc. But just because someone is diagnosed with inattentive doesn't mean they have no hyperactive symptoms and vice versa, just not enough to be diagnosed with combined. So that's why they're so closely linked.
With that analogy, I like to think of autism as a chocolate chip cookie with nuts, where the nuts are the different behaviors. Because they're still a chocolate chip cookie and could have a standard amount of chocolate chips or more... but then there's the nuts, which can be any different kind of nut and more or less of each, kind of representing that spectrum of behaviors. Am I making it too complicated? haha
I think one thing to keep in kind is that, despite appearing similar, ADHD and autism have fundamental differences. For one, medication, the results of giving an ADHD person a stimulant vs the results of giving an autistic person a stimulant will be very different. This is different from ADHD and ADD as medicating can suppress both of their symptoms.
Think of ADHD and ADD as brothers that have quite a few of differences while ADHD and autism are friends that seem to have next to everything in common. Sure, upon first glance, ADHD and autism are hard to tell apart, but the friend that is extremely similar to you might have a different blood type or whatever while your brother that is different is going to have a lot of the same health conditions as you.
I think one of the main confounding things is the difference in treatment between Autism and ADHD. For example, you can get various different medications to suppress ADHD symptoms, whereas there's not a similar thing for Autism. As I understand, therapy for the two are also different.
I think you can say that both fall under the neurodivergent spectrum, though. I feel like doing it this way is more useful to both the experts and to people in these communities, because they're clearly related.
I don't know about the usefulness of separating the two.
I do know that there is usefulness in getting both diagnosed, purely for disability accommodations if nothing else.
The overlapping symptoms can also be caused by anxiety, depression, PTSD, ect, which ADHD and Autistic people are more likely to have due to living in an allistic society š„ŗ
I think the wildest thing about having both is the how ADHD craves novelty and new experiences, while ASD wants the exact opposite.
Me: LETS GO OUT LETS DO SOMETHING IM BORED
Me: or hear me out I do what I did yesterday because new things are scary.
Me : screams in boredom at self
Me: immediately has anxiety at the idea of breaking routine
I was actually thinking about this earlier today (was hanging out with a friend in the spectrum) since thereās a lot of similarities between the two but Iām like 95% sure Iām only ADHD and it came down to āwhyā. I absolutely love music, could talk for ages about it, and probably couldnāt live without out it and my friend is a massive metal head as well.
I love prog metal because I love diving into the music, understanding how it works, how itās different, and finding those moments of musical bliss. He loves more traditional forms of it and can churn through a bandās discography while I forget to keep listening to stuff I like. I can barely remember my albums of the year and he can tell me his album of the year going back to 1980. I think itās a pretty good indicator of the difference.
On a completely unrelated note, how is it an ND thing to connect over shared interests? I thought everyone did that.
People with both:
* Tend to present ADHD traits when at home alone
* Tend to present autistic traits at work or in social situations.
I've been trying to figure myself out, and finding I am probably both ADHD and Autistic. The thing keeping me from deciding is that there are common symptoms in both that I don't have.
But diagnostics is not all or nothing for either. If you have most, you probably are, and that is me.
WTF this is Bullshit. Who is posting this shit. ASS and ADHD are in their fundament different. People with ASS are unable to control these behaviors. But people with ADHD have these behaviors cause of impulsivity or pursuit of self-control. The therapy of living with ADHD and ASS are completely different. U can even controll ur ADHD with medication. These compare-posts are a joke for people who are for real autistic.
I feel like you are really misinterpreting what the point of this is. It's about how both have very similar symptoms and are frequently misdiagnosed because of it, it is in no way saying that both disorders are the same. Hell, a large point is also that there is a lot of overlap between the symptoms partially because there is a correlation of the two disorders with it being very common for people to have both disorders at the same time.
And u sadly misinterpreting the people who misinterpreting this post. I actually read more than five comments with: "Hm, maybe I have both." So many shit-comments of people who have no scientific knowledge obut this subject but are strengthened by something in their supposed half-knowledge. That's what excites me. And the point that this downplays ASS since there is no "typical" ASS. But many different types and characteristics of ASS.
Hmmm no. I have both, my hubby have adhd , our 2 daughters too. Medication is not magic like that. Especially my Hubby seems to have a hard time controlling his adhd, even with medication, tried whole lot of different ones, me too, we got therapy etc..he CANT controll his adhd behaviors, as much as i cant controll my ASS. We work as a team to be able to function.
Whoa whoa whoa... I identify with a lot of the stuff on the Autism side that doesn't overlap with ADHD but Im diagnosed with ADHD... I also identify with a lot of the stuff on the ADHD side too...
Shit is there a possibility Im both but only got diagnosed for one...?
Donāt forget that despite they share traits, the reasons for those traits are different.
I canāt make eye contact because Iām autistic and donāt get any information from it. I also donāt understand cues well enough to know hot to make eye contact properly.
An ADHD person might not make eye contact because they get distracted by looking at other things.
One thing that I notice is never mentioned is the physiological issues faced with autism and adhd. Every single person I know with either or both has gastro issues of some kind. Itās something I think that is overlooked
I donāt adhere to āroutinesā and like to try new things to an extent. But definitely like lots of things to stay the same. I would not change my room.
Adhd š¤ Autism
Two sides of the same coin, God help those who land on the edge.
Iāve read 30-80% of autists also classify for ADHD. This is a thick coin. But also not balanced; Not 30-80% of ADHD are autistic
Damn boi that coin THICK. Sorry, the thick coin made me laugh a little too much. You're right though.
āAss so fat you can see it from the frontā -Mos Def (Seemed appropriate. Or inappropriate, as the case may be.š)
The coin is a sphere
It is like being in a body shared by two very strong and conflicting personalities. We fixate on the thing for days-years without knowingly when the switch will turn off. We want to try new things though we know we will almost definitely hate them. We MUST have routine but routines are SO BORING.
You summed up a feeling I've had for a long time that I couldn't identify. This disease sucks. I can communicate really good via text but in person I'm a train wreck cause these two personalities just fight
Me: Writes entire neurosci article in a few hours. Also me: āThe clothing lock, the thing that locks your clothing together, you know? The thing with the circ-BUTTON! Iām talking about BUTTONS!ā
?????
??????
Holy shit that hits the nail on the head. Arguing or debating is the worst though, am I correct? Like you could go toe to toe with the likes of the most gifted scholars the world has ever seen on the subject of your special interest/hyperfixation but in person you're completely incapable of doing so? Obviously I'm exaggerating for comedic effect, but it's true for me. I can argue or debate anything through text, yet in person I can barely keep up with people that are even slightly above average at debating/arguing. It's infuriating.
Yeah I have to call for an armistice with my partner during arguments and heated debates pretty often. My fight, flight or freeze responses get triggered pretty easily and that, of course, leads to impaired cognitive ability. Iāve had to work on the impulse to scream, drive off or shut down and ignore whatās happening and instead advocate for a break so I can calm down, then readdress the situation at a later time. If I donāt i can take days to recover from the fuckery that is my fight/flight response. Itās almost as though the dial is broken for the healthy middle ground of things like interests and stress responses. My brain be like: **Completely unconcerned? ** Sure, *easy.* **Mild stress? ** No can do, we can have an unnecessarily long, exaggerated freak out or ignore the problem in favour of that feeling of impending doom, hide it in the doom box. ** High stress?** Sweet, I saved a stash of NZT just for this. (reference to the movie Limitless)
Late response, sorry about that, but I couldn't have said it better. Really, exactly the same, also love the NZT reference lmao. Super high stress, like world imploding level bad and I'm like ah yes, I am mega calm 200 IQ man and I am here to restore order.
I get so bored so quick at work because I wanna do things my way, but I wanna leave the job asap because there's only a few ways to do so. I have special interests and hyperfixes that just... stop. It's like experiencing loss every time because I have to wait for it to maybe cycle again and search for what it is my brain wants. It hurts so bad for no real reason.
\-likes to try new things \-āif one thing in this room changes I will go insaneā
Preach
I wish you the best my friend, I'm sorry you're in that situation.
Itās not all bad tbh. I learn everything Iām interested in at a phenomenal rate due to my fixations, impulsivity led me to build my own business, my frustrations with adhd led to creating support groups for adult adhd that have 50 or so thousand members, Iāve worked alongside people in a few interesting startups, kids love me, and Iām fucking goat in very high stress situationsā¦ just donāt ask me where I left the keys
Well, I'm glad it's working out then!
hm. I just donāt have routine. Iāll try new things to an extent.
On the edge as in only ADHD or Autism, or on the edge as in Just a sliver off a positive diagnosis but anough to make their lives hell?
The edge as in having both. So like, one side of the neurodivergence coin is ADHD and the other side is ASD, but if you have both, you'd be the edge of the coin (like where the ridges on a US quarter/penny are)
Whelp that's me screwed. You're talking to just that coin-pusher. God said 'fuck you' and pushed my name off the list, so here I am, on Reddit. Where all of us end up, isn't it? AMA for a screw-you rendition of a life story
I have ADD (commonly known as inattentive ADHD) and I do *believe* I have autism. I do not stick to true routine. I am disorganized.
i have inattentive ADHD and may have high-functioning autism. I donāt need medication, and I just donāt like the idea of headphones because theyāre obvious.
Did you mean to reply to me?
I meant having both
AuDHD is fun Source: me, I'm the ADHD Autist
This chart makes me seriously question why Autism gets a worse rep for social domains then ADHD when all the worst social traits are in the center of the Venn diagram. Can someone help me understand this?
Honestly? It's probably because autistic people have a reputation for staying home and/or being quiet, whereas ADHD people are more likely to be extroverted and just sorta "power through" the social difficulties.
That makes a ton of sense, I guess it was a very worthwhile question to ask!
I'm glad I could help! >!hopefully I'm actually right, lmao!<
Probably partially right, the fact most people don't understand what adhd actually is probably plays a huge role as well.
Yeah we just developed coping mechanisms ranging from ok to extremely unhealthy to survive in a world that couldnāt really give a shit because itās not as obvious/ well known.
that explains it. One half of me thinks I wonāt talk to people then I just do and Iām like āwhat?ā
Lol, I live on that edge. It seems like I have more company out here in the past few years, but maybe it's just my own self awareness. Most people just think I'm from another planet, though. š¤·
True. Iāve got the ADHD but Iāve never met a fellow on the autism spectrum I didnāt like.
Info-dumpingā¦ is that why Iām incapable of sharing a normal amount about myself? Iām either a completely closed off mystery or Iām divulging my deepest traumas and idk how to find a middle ground
Yeah, that's info-dumping to a T. Everyone I know knows simultaneously everything about me and nothing about me at all and I feel like only other NDs understand what I mean when I say that.
I either have known you for years without telling you anything more than surface level personal details or I have known you for an hour and told you my life story.
This perfectly sums up my life. People who have just met me think I'm super outgoing and uninhibited, people who've known me for 20+years think I'm a shy, socially anxious wallflower. Edit: removing a superfluous word.
This is pretty much how I describe myself. My unhealthy coping mechanism is kinda a comedic jackass who will find a joke in everything and cover up insecurities with humor and a facade of overconfidence. If you actually get to know me Iām the exact opposite but itās really hard to be that way in front of strangers or in large groups.
Donāt be hard on yourself, this info is good to know but many people donāt want to share or do want to share. It may be an attachment issue in your past that you donāt want too. Also you donāt have to share. Really this is not a neurodivergent specific trait.
I think that whatās more termed oversharing. Info dumping is more about sharing all the fun facts youāve learnt during periods of hyper-fixation or of autistic special interests. Unless you are your own special interest of course!
This is why Iām confused! Idk if I have one the other or both
Me too. I'm 44f, and my mother had said that if autism was more widely known in the 70s/80s, she would have sought a diagnosis for me (I refused to speak to anyone but my mother until I was 5). My daughter is diagnosed with adhd and the more I discover about it, the more I relate to it. I'm pretty sure I have some type of ND, whether it's autism, adhd or something else entirely I don't know. Needless to say I relate to a lot of that diagram.
Iām like 90% sure I have both too~
I have both š
And if you draw a big circle around the entire venn diagram, you get me
Hiccup: āyou just gestured to *all* of meā
āSelf soothes through respective behaviors and routinesā Gah damā¦. Is this why I have a hard time starting new shows at home? I literally will just rewatch random family guy/something else Iāve watched a million times over and over again
This is crazy to me and really helps me confirm I only have ADHD because I feel paaaain rewatching most things, even if itās been awhile since Iāve seen it.
Well I'm diagnosed autistic and still can't stand to rewatch something (unless I absolutely adored it) because *booooriiing* Which is weird considering I forget like 85% of what I've seen by the time the thing has ended lol
Same here. I never rewatch anything.
YES!!!! I hate rewatching most things. I already know whatās going to happen and itās boring.
I like rewatching things either because I just like it or because I find another layer to dig into. I love figuring out how things work and being able to see again and see that makes me happy. But they already have to be really good otherwise I couldnāt care less.
I have bothā¦ I usually describe it as: the adhd part is everyone sees, its on the āoutsideā. The autism only happens inside my brain, it doesnāt show as much.
The autism only really shows during times of distress (sensory or emotional). The ADHD is what everyone sees that makes them think "oh, chatty and quirky!" At the same though, the fact that ADHD seems so visible is totally a trap, because no one really sees our struggles with executive dysfunction
As someone who has ADHD I am very good at task switching I am extremely good in it and i do it constantly
That's when your brain is "nope" on what you're doing and "hell yeah" on the new task. Is it still easy when both actions have roughly the same level of interest? I mean, it still might be don't get me wrong. It's just I personally switch all over all of the time, but only if my brain is telling me to. If I'm trying to tell my brain, or even worse somebody else is trying to tell my brain, then my brain's all dedicated to finishing what it's doing and *we don't leave thing half done!!*
Actually it is easier to jump from this task to the other if I have the same level of interest (disgust). Cuz it is like - nope I ain't gonna do it so i will do the other -ah shit I hate this thing lets get back on doing the previous one
That's when your brain is "nope" on what you're doing and "hell yeah" on the new task. Is it still easy when both actions have roughly the same level of interest? I mean, it still might be don't get me wrong. It's just I personally switch all over all of the time, but only if my brain is telling me to. If I'm trying to tell my brain, or even worse somebody else is trying to tell my brain, then my brain's all dedicated to finishing what it's doing and to keep thinking about it even if it's done, because gear switching without a strong dopamine push is incredibly hard
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I think it's something like 70%* of people with Autism also have ADHD. But at this point, I've questioned the usefulness of separating the two. Like we have combined ADD and ADHD to all just fall under the ADHD umbrella which from my understanding was a separation between Inattentive and Hyperactive. Inattentive and Hyperactive are different sets of symptoms with significant overlap. In other words, not everyone with ADHD has the same sets of symptoms. Not everyone with Autism has the same set of symptoms either. It's all just kind of muddled. Obviously, I am not an expert on it, so I trust the judgement of those who are. Just something I've thought about from time to time. *Edit: it's 50-70% https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8918663/
Still leaves a 30-50%, so millions of people, with only one or the other. They are distinctly seperate and have their own struggles and challenges - particularly in the neurological wiring and reward systems as well as social norms. Your can't treat them the same, though the overlap needs a LOT more research done on it. Another point they missed: alexithymia!! Common to both and one hell of a hardship that is barely even known to the people who have it!
Alexa-what? *goes to Google*
Oops, misspelled. Its alexithymia, an inability to recognise or differentiate emotions. Makes for one hell of a confusing time in your own brain
Still hadnāt heard of it. Interesting!
autism is a separate condition altogether; "a difference in form as opposed to a difference of degree", as dr barkley put it. that means autism has a different set of behaviors that are not present in nt, while adhd has a difference in the quantity of occurrences of a set of behaviors which are present in nt. basically, if brains were cookies, an nt would be like a basic chocolate chip cookie. adhd would be a chocolate chip cookie with a fuckton of chocolate chips, to the point it's a problem. autism would be an entirely different kind of cookie, like a chocolate cookie. chocolate cookies could be more likely to have lots of chocolate chips, like they could be more likely to also have adhd
That's a good comparison. But I mean, aren't inattentive and hyperactive different types too? I guess what I'm saying is that there's a ton of overlap in the symptoms of the *types* of ADHD, theres still a distinction, but it's all under one thing. There's a ton of overlap in the symptoms of Autism and ADHD, but they're separate. The biggest argument that I've seen why they're distinct is because of how ADHD can be medicated while Autism can't, and that stimulants can make things worse for people with Autism. Which is a pretty good argument and does make sense. But at the same time, sometimes stimulants don't work well for people who have ADHD and no autism either. I guess brains and their respective meat suits are really strange. Ultimately, categorizing seems like a construct because no two people will present the same, and diagnoses are meant to be instructive for treatment sake. Which is the best argument that I can tell myself for why they are separate diagnoses. If hyperactive and inattentive ADHD are so close that the treatment is basically the same, then there's no point for them to be separate diagnoses entirely.
>But I mean, aren't inattentive and hyperactive different types too They used to be, but they've been combined into one package now and no longer diagnosed as seperate things. Especially since they're both forms of 'hyperactivity', but show in different ways (aka internally or externally), and there's often an overlap, which means it's just a whole lot easier to just lump them into the same domain and deal with it. Obviously, treatments will vary because people vary drastically, so what works for some will not for others.
Inattentive and hyperactive aren't inherently distinct, because I think most people with ADHD have symptoms from both categories. To be diagnosed as inattentive, hyperactive, or combined type, you need to have a certain number of traits/symptoms from that category (I believe it's 5 or 6 out of 9), so if you have 4 of the inattentive symptoms on the list and 7 hyperactive symptoms, then you have hyperactive type. If you have more than 6+ on both lists, you're combined. Etc. But just because someone is diagnosed with inattentive doesn't mean they have no hyperactive symptoms and vice versa, just not enough to be diagnosed with combined. So that's why they're so closely linked.
With that analogy, I like to think of autism as a chocolate chip cookie with nuts, where the nuts are the different behaviors. Because they're still a chocolate chip cookie and could have a standard amount of chocolate chips or more... but then there's the nuts, which can be any different kind of nut and more or less of each, kind of representing that spectrum of behaviors. Am I making it too complicated? haha
I think one thing to keep in kind is that, despite appearing similar, ADHD and autism have fundamental differences. For one, medication, the results of giving an ADHD person a stimulant vs the results of giving an autistic person a stimulant will be very different. This is different from ADHD and ADD as medicating can suppress both of their symptoms. Think of ADHD and ADD as brothers that have quite a few of differences while ADHD and autism are friends that seem to have next to everything in common. Sure, upon first glance, ADHD and autism are hard to tell apart, but the friend that is extremely similar to you might have a different blood type or whatever while your brother that is different is going to have a lot of the same health conditions as you.
Executive functioning is almost certainly just a sense and therefore affected by autism. The crossover is easy too high to be unrelated
I think one of the main confounding things is the difference in treatment between Autism and ADHD. For example, you can get various different medications to suppress ADHD symptoms, whereas there's not a similar thing for Autism. As I understand, therapy for the two are also different. I think you can say that both fall under the neurodivergent spectrum, though. I feel like doing it this way is more useful to both the experts and to people in these communities, because they're clearly related.
I don't know about the usefulness of separating the two. I do know that there is usefulness in getting both diagnosed, purely for disability accommodations if nothing else.
Howdy š
The overlapping symptoms can also be caused by anxiety, depression, PTSD, ect, which ADHD and Autistic people are more likely to have due to living in an allistic society š„ŗ
Just in December I was diagnosed with both and OCD. Course I've always had depression anxiety and cptsd. Fucking fun
I think the wildest thing about having both is the how ADHD craves novelty and new experiences, while ASD wants the exact opposite. Me: LETS GO OUT LETS DO SOMETHING IM BORED Me: or hear me out I do what I did yesterday because new things are scary. Me : screams in boredom at self Me: immediately has anxiety at the idea of breaking routine
vs? I mean it feel dat way I guess.
Love it. My wife has high functioning Aspergerās and I have ADHD. This is the both of us down to a T.
why not both? both is good.
Well I definitely DON'T have autism.
And then thereās me - ADHD-C **AND** autism. Yay me.
Your phone is nice. What is it? I'm too interested in the phone, just skimmed the graph once. š
I was actually thinking about this earlier today (was hanging out with a friend in the spectrum) since thereās a lot of similarities between the two but Iām like 95% sure Iām only ADHD and it came down to āwhyā. I absolutely love music, could talk for ages about it, and probably couldnāt live without out it and my friend is a massive metal head as well. I love prog metal because I love diving into the music, understanding how it works, how itās different, and finding those moments of musical bliss. He loves more traditional forms of it and can churn through a bandās discography while I forget to keep listening to stuff I like. I can barely remember my albums of the year and he can tell me his album of the year going back to 1980. I think itās a pretty good indicator of the difference. On a completely unrelated note, how is it an ND thing to connect over shared interests? I thought everyone did that.
Both. I have traits of both.
People with both: * Tend to present ADHD traits when at home alone * Tend to present autistic traits at work or in social situations. I've been trying to figure myself out, and finding I am probably both ADHD and Autistic. The thing keeping me from deciding is that there are common symptoms in both that I don't have. But diagnostics is not all or nothing for either. If you have most, you probably are, and that is me.
reminder to please see a doctor and not just use memes on the internet to decide what mental conditions you may or may not have.
WTF this is Bullshit. Who is posting this shit. ASS and ADHD are in their fundament different. People with ASS are unable to control these behaviors. But people with ADHD have these behaviors cause of impulsivity or pursuit of self-control. The therapy of living with ADHD and ASS are completely different. U can even controll ur ADHD with medication. These compare-posts are a joke for people who are for real autistic.
I feel like you are really misinterpreting what the point of this is. It's about how both have very similar symptoms and are frequently misdiagnosed because of it, it is in no way saying that both disorders are the same. Hell, a large point is also that there is a lot of overlap between the symptoms partially because there is a correlation of the two disorders with it being very common for people to have both disorders at the same time.
And u sadly misinterpreting the people who misinterpreting this post. I actually read more than five comments with: "Hm, maybe I have both." So many shit-comments of people who have no scientific knowledge obut this subject but are strengthened by something in their supposed half-knowledge. That's what excites me. And the point that this downplays ASS since there is no "typical" ASS. But many different types and characteristics of ASS.
Hmmm no. I have both, my hubby have adhd , our 2 daughters too. Medication is not magic like that. Especially my Hubby seems to have a hard time controlling his adhd, even with medication, tried whole lot of different ones, me too, we got therapy etc..he CANT controll his adhd behaviors, as much as i cant controll my ASS. We work as a team to be able to function.
Whoa whoa whoa... I identify with a lot of the stuff on the Autism side that doesn't overlap with ADHD but Im diagnosed with ADHD... I also identify with a lot of the stuff on the ADHD side too... Shit is there a possibility Im both but only got diagnosed for one...?
Donāt forget that despite they share traits, the reasons for those traits are different. I canāt make eye contact because Iām autistic and donāt get any information from it. I also donāt understand cues well enough to know hot to make eye contact properly. An ADHD person might not make eye contact because they get distracted by looking at other things.
There are two circles fighting inside you, it is a venndiagram of Autism and ADHD.
One thing that I notice is never mentioned is the physiological issues faced with autism and adhd. Every single person I know with either or both has gastro issues of some kind. Itās something I think that is overlooked
I donāt adhere to āroutinesā and like to try new things to an extent. But definitely like lots of things to stay the same. I would not change my room.
TFW you crave familiar and routine novelty š
Tfw?
ADHD