Published on 12, July, 2020
I was diagnosed with Asperger's about 17 years ago. Sometimes I notice ADD traits in myself.
I've got 4 books on the go at once, it's rare for me to focus on one thing.
When I'm online I'll have about 25 tabs open at the same time. I struggle to remember what I'm interested in or doing because I keep thinking of something else I want to do. That's why all the tabs are open, to remind me of things I've been doing or reading about.
Would this indicate I should seek a diagnosis of ADD or is it a standard overlap that many people experience?
It’s interesting that you’ve mentioned this as I often pick up on ASD traits in people with an ADHD diagnosis. I think that it’s relatively common for the two to occur together.
It might be worth researching how ASD and ADD present together in the same person and see if that describes how you are.
I think in the old DSM-4, it prohibited the simultaneous diagnosis of both disorders. But because they discovered that there could be significant comorbidity among different disorders, DSM-5 allowed simultaneous diagnoses of multiple disorders.While I acknowledge that it's possible to have both ASD and ADHD, I personally can't relate to ADHD, as I think the ability to focus is kind of the exact opposite to ASD. With ASD, I could be engaged in a topic I enjoy for many hours continuously, but ADHD struggle to maintain an attention for that long. I suppose people with ASD could have trouble focusing when they are asked to do things they don't like or not being able to focus when there is overwhelming information, but it seems different to the general inattentiveness in ADHD?