Studies show that anywhere between 30 and 80 percent of autistic people also have ADHD. And the number seems slightly lower for the number of adhders who are also autistic but that's still a pretty hefty chunk of overlap. The disparity between the two probably just means that ADHD is slightly more prevalent or maybe slightly more diagnosed on a population level.
Weirdly enough the DSM, which is the diagnostic manual for use by psychologists, doesn't actually talk about this at all. And the criteria for autism and ADHD within it do not overlap, despite the fact that there is a great deal of overlap between the two conditions. Especially when it comes to things like, executive functioning issues.
Up until recently you couldn't even get a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD, if you had one you couldn't be diagnosed with the other. Consequently there is very little in professional literature about what it actually looks like when someone has both. How do they present?
Luckily we have the internet now and people from all over the world can share their lived experiences relatively easily. "Uhuul! !
" So you clicked on this video maybe you have one diagnosis but we're always kind of wondering about the other one. Maybe you don't have any but you think both of them kind of apply to you, so that's what we're going to talk about today. Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, I do have a psychology degree but if you want real clarification, you probably should find a professional and not an internet person.
Just think of this video as kind of like a starting point in your journey. Let's go. (music) Hello everyone, for those of you who are new, I'm Sam and I make videos about Autism and neurodiversity related things right here on YouTube.
After I was diagnosed with autism in my early 30s. I now know that I also have ADHD and the overlap is a really interesting topic because there's very little out there about what it's actually like having both. Because we don't really look like what people expect from one side or from the other side.
So today I'm going to go through five signs that you may, (may! ) have both. Number one: a constant conflict between apparently contradictory traits.
You might feel inconstant inner conflict with yourself which often results in becoming frequently frustrated with yourself. You may crave order and routine but be unable to maintain it; You might get overstimulated as much as you get under stimulated, and sometimes this might even happen at the same time or in a very short space of time, which can be confusing and frustrating for yourself and probably also for others around you. So these two sides of me are both there they're both part of me but sometimes they have completely opposite desires and needs and I think this can result in what looks like apparently hypocritical behavior from the outside, although it makes perfect sense when you know what you're dealing with.
Like, for example, needing everyone around you to be completely quiet and then making a lot of noise yourself. Number two: Your traits might appear to balance each other out at times. I think that what can happen sometimes, not for everyone but for many people, is that the opposing actions of autistic and ADHD traits can seem to balance each other out or maybe even conceal each other.
My struggles weren't always obvious growing up. I only was diagnosed closed in my 30s because, for example, the social awkwardness aspect of my autism often kind of gave in to the chattiness and sociability of my ADHD, so from the outside I kind of just appeared as if I was shy at first and then took a little bit of time to warm up to people. But that wasn't what was happening inside, both of those people were me.
The person who does not want to talk at all in a crowd but also the one who can't stop talking sometimes. Luckily now I have a YouTube channel which means I can talk at many many people at once and never actually get over stimulated (ish). And while my brain is plenty chaotic on the inside because of my autistic need for order and routine and everything being correct and right I try really really hard to maintain a tidy house clear of clutter because of the visual stimulation that loads of clutter brings me it.
Stresses me out to have a house that naturally if left to my own devices I would make. So I may not look like a typical chaotic ADHDer, because my autistic needs dictate that I need to create order and calmness. Yeah right!
Number three: a larger variety than typical of special interests and/or hyperfixations. Now special interest is a topic that really varies from person to person, even within the autistic spectrum itself. But if you're also an ADHDer, you may be more likely to have more intense special interests for a shorter time.
You know, to use up the dopamine before switching to another one. Possibly, alongside longer running special interests kind of throughout your life. That are more stable and less prone to being suddenly bored with it.
There is a stereotype that autistic people can only be into one obscure or weird topic their whole lives but this isn't exactly true. I found myself becoming extremely obsessed with many different things throughout my life so far, while maintaining, I guess, an ongoing intense special interest in, for example, psychology. That's one of my ongoing special interests, I did a degree in it.
But I also have these occasional micro fixations, which I guess is more like the ADHD hobby "Merry-Go-Round". You know, I'll get really into dressmaking for a few weeks and that's a really intense period of obsession. I remember when that actually happened, I struggled to sleep because of it!
Because my mind was so busy creating patterns and constructing them and figuring out how to put the dress together and stuff like that. I was sitting there awake at night and my brain would just not turn off, because I was so into this particular topic. The intensity of that didn't last long and now it's kind of something that's, well actually it's in the cupboard behind me.
So special interest is something that varies so much from person to person, but you may relate more to having lots of different ones or a mixture of lots of different ones and some ongoing ones than just one or many. I feel like as I've got older, or maybe just because I have kids, like I don't really have the energy left for that kind of those intense bursts but it still happens occasionally. Number four: different versions of yourself come out at different times and in different places.
When I'm out of the house or when I was at school or working in an office. I believe that my autistic traits became a lot more noticeable. Out of the house I'm getting some kind of novelty and stimulation so the ADHD monster within is pretty satisfied because "hey we're doing something new, we're getting out, we're seeing things we're seeing people".
But the things that I can't control out of the house is the sensory environment and it's a less predictable social environment too and those are the things that my autistic self starts to struggle with. When I'm at home, in the environment that I have set up to be as comfortable for me as possible, my ADHD traits are far more dominant. Within the house I control the sensory aspect as much as I can, so my autistic side is more or less appeased.
But it's a familiar environment, it's pretty predictable. Dare I say, sometimes boring. So that's when the ADHD traits become way more noticeable to me.
When I'm struggling to manage daily life, keep things organized or struggling to find that kind of novelty in a really familiar place. And number five: you relate to people who also have both. This is something that is often really missed by the professionals, is relating to other people.
And relating to other people is a really important aspect of our humanity and it's not very easily measurable. But is something less real because it can't be quantified? At a point after my autism diagnosis I felt a little bit of kind of imposter syndrome because I was meeting more autistic people and I was a bit like, "well, I'm not really like, completely like them.
I'm a bit different from them". And I feel like I am often, dare I say, a little bit too much for autistic people. I talk a lot and I get excited and when I'm being social I want to be really really social.
So I do actually tend to have more friends who are just adhders. The irony is that these people are often too much for me. So I tend to find myself needing more downtime from socializing and more social recovery time than they do.
What I'm trying to say is if you have a couple of friends who have a dual diagnosis and if you just find yourself clicking with them or if you think you have one diagnosis but you don't completely. . .
It doesn't explain everything. You feel it's correct but it's not everything. Maybe that's a sign that you have both as well.
And you know, neurodivergent people do tend to run in packs, we do tend to kind of seek each other out, consciously or unconsciously. So you know, it's not so unlikely. So that was it, five signs that you may have both ADHD and be autistic.
Let me know if any of this resonates with you. If you have these similar experiences of being kind of in inner conflict with yourselves. Tell me about your inner conflict in the comments!
Take care and I will see you next time. Bye!
