Found this article and it helped me understand myself better than I ever have!!
ASD vs ADHD vs Combo
ADHD specific:
- [ ] Seeks novelty -wants new and shiny
- [ ] motivated by new exciting experiences
- [ ] trouble focusing unless its something you’re very interested in
- [ ] often misses social cues unless person is direct
- [ ] motivation is usually only driven by personal interests
- [ ] difficulty regulating impulses
- [ ] interrupting people to share your similar story
- [ ] constantly chasing dopamine
- [ ] intrusive thoughts (things like picturing jumping off a balcony, knowing you “could” stab someone with the pencil in your hand, having your brain say ‘just do it’, even though you have no actual interest in doing so)
- [ ] “risky” sexual behaviour (yeah, LS stuff)
ASD specific:
- [ ] seeks familiarity -needs routine, can’t handle change
- [ ] stimming (tapping fingers, bouncing knee, constantly humming, replying to people with movie quotes or song lyrics)
- [ ] predictibility is needed to function
- [ ] tends to focus on only one thing at a time
- [ ] requires verbal context with clear, detailed explanation and context
- [ ] overwhelm that can lead to anger
- [ ] sensory overload with textures (clothes not feeling ok on your skin, avoiding foods because of the texture, not wanting to touch paper bags or boxes etc)
ASD and ADHD overlap
- [ ] impulse control difficulties
- [ ] emotional regulation difficulty
- [ ] higher rate of substance abuse (weed, alcohol, drugs)
- [ ] often misdiagnosed anxiety, bipolar, OCD
- [ ] executive dysfunction
- [ ] higher risk of victimisation
- [ ] task switching difficulties
- [ ] time blindness (can’t budget time properly)
- [ ] hyper focus
- [ ] Hyper-fixation
- [ ] Emotional Regulation
- [ ] Due to various factors such as brain circuitry (more sensitive amygdalas), interoception issues, more rigid nervous systems, and sensory processing, both ADHDers and Autistics can struggle with regulating and soothing intense emotions, sleep usually breaks the cycle
- [ ] extreme overwhelm where you just shut down completely
- [ ] Rejection sensitivity dysphoria
- [ ] More likely to be genderqueer
- [ ] mania and crashing (mimics bipolar, diff is you know better, just don’t care, true bipolar can’t tell they’re being manic). Mania and Lows are usually situational and come on after something that is disruptive to the person that was out of their control.
- [ ] lacking sympathy while simultaniously having a great deal of empathy -usually only if you share a similar experience
Things that help:
- [ ] find and surround yourself with “our people” that truly get it
- [ ] body doubling -helpful if you need to complete a task but can’t find the motivation. Just having someone there will help keep your focus, even if you’re not talking to eachother
- [ ] executive dysfunction at home -if you need to be productive, put your shoes on and keep them on until you’re finished everything, or, run water in the sink
- [ ] executive dysfunction out of the home-make a list with realistic timelines where you OVERESTIMATE the time it will take for each task -ask for body double to come with
- [ ] ask your friends, family and coworkers to tell you meetings and events start earlier than they really do
- [ ] learn new coping skills by asking someone that goes through it
- [ ] conner dewolf, etc fb/tiktok/insta
- [ ] make a WAYWOT list at night for the next day
