Hey everyone. Amid all of my recent research on ADD I stumbled into the world of high-functioning/mild ASD, or Asperger's syndrome. I was surprised to see how common it is for some people to go through life, sometimes very successfully, and not receive an ASD diagnosis until their 20's, 30's, or beyond.
I thought that ADD described me pretty accurately since I was diagnosed 5 years ago, although it never provided an explanation for some of my idiosyncrasies and internal experiences. From what I've gathered, there appears to be a crossover with many ADD and ASD symptoms, some even say that they are part of the same spectrum. However, the ASD description of symptoms seems to fill in a lot of the gaps, or explain what I always just considered to be my personality. This includes things like sensory sensitivity, hyper-focus, fidgeting or 'stimming' habits, flat affect, social/communication challenges, masking, burnout, special interests, difficulty transitioning... the list goes on.
Although I see these things in myself to a degree, I see them big time in my younger, adult sibling. I'm starting to think that I've uncovered something big. It had never occurred to me that ASD would have been a possible explanation, probably due to my ignorance and assumptions about what ASD really is.
So here are my questions:
Has anyone else had a similar experience of re-discovering ASD like this? Or have you had a dual-diagnosis in the past? Can you recommend any resources for further research? Is this setting off any alarms for you, perhaps?
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inbetween
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Yes, I have a similar experience to yours. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and treating it has made a big difference for me. The same prescriber who suggested that I have ADHD also mentioned that hyperfocus can be a symptom of "mild autism." That sent me down a youtube rabbit hole for a while taking a deep dive on the question. I had decided I don't have autism until the psychologist who officially diagnosed my ADHD noted that ADHD does not account for all of my symptoms, and said that my issues with social communication sound more like someone on the spectrum.
I highly recommend this talk on Autism Diagnosis in Adulthood:
The problem is that the DSM criteria for autism are intended for children and so it can be difficult to get an accurate diagnosis. Dr. Baal goes through these things. You will have to decide whether you want to self-diagnose or to find a psychiatrist or psychologist who is comfortable diagnosing adults. And they are hard to find.
I was able to find a psychologist whom I felt will be able to give an accurate diagnosis. It is expensive and will take a long time, but I feel it will be helpful to have an explanation for some of what I thought, as you say, was just my personality. For me it's important not to just get a yes/no answer, but also to understand the nuance of my diagnosis. And if the answer is no, to get some idea of what else might explain my autistic traits.
I also recommend any talk by Tony Atwood (he's all over youtube). His talks have given me a good deal of information about what Asperger's really looks like.
Hi in-between. I would say from my experience personally and that of my son that you are onto something. My husband and I are pretty sure this a the case for our son and based upon conversations with learning specialists, psychologists, and a psychiatrist, they agree. He is a genius. I know lot of parents think that about their kids but I have two children, one is ADHD with Asperger's like traits and brilliant and the other is smart but more neuro-typically 'normal'. More testing may give a better understanding of what is happening to you. This can be expensive and time-consuming, but may provide you with some insight about what your experiencing. We are in the process of discussing the same thing with our son who is an adult, along with the help of a psychologist who specializes in ADHD at the suggestion of his psychiatrist. Our son read Delivered From Distraction as a teenager and it gave him a lot of comfort and a feeling of, "hey look there are other people like me!" Wish you all the best.
I found out I had ADHD when I was 38. It blew me away. I fought the diagnosis bc I had chronic iron deficiency which seemed to make everything worse and easy more evident. I have never been able to get back to my pre-iron deficiency state and I know after stacks of books and pages of scientific journal articles that I can no longer dispute the ADHD. I started working with a Functional Med doctor in 2017 who, upon meeting me, told me I seemed more PDD-NOS than ADD and after researching that, my mind was blown. I didn't want to spend thousands I don't have trying to be evaluated for ASD but I have easy worse Sensory issues than I used to since the iron and other nutritional debacles bit I did genetic testing thru 23&Me and then dumped my gene download into Prometheuse and discovered I have 2 genes with High Magnetude for being triggered for ADHD and another 2 for Autism (again of high magnitude) in addition to many others not as likely to be triggered but there's no guarantee they weren't. Good luck on your journey. I wish this had been discovered when I was younger and could have got more help understanding other people. I can't stand how others run around like lemmings. Lol.
Hi! There is some overlap (which is part of the concerns about the DSM-5, aka the big official book of diagnoses). I personally conceptualize ADHD and ASD as being like cousin disorders - some similarities, but different enough to be from another branch of the family. Social/communication challenges, stimming and hyperfocus can be due to ASD, but they are all pretty common with ADHD as well (social issues in particular, but it's under researched). There's also a high rate of people who fit both ASD and ADHD diagnoses - with comorbidities, it's not an "either/or" thing, it's more of an "and" thing. As far as figuring out official diagnoses - more testing is helpful if you can swing it.
It may also be helpful to look at the function/symptoms behind difficulties. As an example - social/communication difficulties may be because one isn't able to sustain attention in a conversation, because they impulsively interrupt, etc. OR it may be because they have a hard time figuring out nonverbals and be overwhelmed. There's symptom overlap (social difficulty), but that symptom may look - or internally feel - very different based on underlying factors/features of a diagnosis.
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