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Specific routines/need for routine in those who are comorbid? (ASD and ADHD)

April :)

Hi there, (PLEASE SKIP TO THE BOTTOM IF YOU JUST WANT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION)

I'm currently undergoing assessment for ADHD and ASD at the age of 22 as a female who is learning.a HELL of a lot about herself since realising she almost definitely has had undiagnosed ADHD her entire life. However, I have a couple of questions for those who have both ASD and ADHD, as I feel like some of my ADHD symptoms work directly against the traits of autism that I do display. In summary, after 2 years of solid research whilst waiting for assessment, I'm pretty certain I've had ADHD my whole life, but my GP wanted me to be referred for an autism assessment as a result of scoring highly on the AQ. I have no idea if I am autistic or not, but I know that I've heavily masked certain behaviours my entire life, I have high sensory needs (to the point where my depression and anxiety have been mostly eradicated as a result of allowing myself to stim more), I'm definitely sensory avoidant in a lot of ways too, and I have subjects that definitely meet definition of being special interests. HOWEVER, I feel like a lot of my ADHD traits work in opposition to the autism traits that I do display:

I have had a lot of hyperfixations throughout my life, some of which recur throughout my life multiple times. This can make it hard to know which of my hobbies are possibly special interests, because I do not engage with them extremely regularly, despite maintaining a deep interest and passion for them. I'm prone to jumping from one thing to another but do have hyperfixations that I come back to over and over.

I love impulsive plans but only when it's my idea and normally when I'm what I think is understimulated? Typically when I do plan things, I tend to plan every detail and need to know what we're doing, when it's happening and who is going to be there. If somebody is late or only gives me a rough time, I get extremely anxious because I end up in a kind of state of paralysis where I can't function until they arrive? Yet I myself am CONSTANTLY late or misremembering when I was meant to be somewhere.

I love routine but cannot for the life of me stick to it - maintaining routines is incredibly hard for me but I'm forever trying to form a morning and bedtime routine, or meticulously plan out my day and never manage to stick to it, causing me a lot of anxiety when this happens. I thrive on routine when I do manage to get into some form of it, but I'm impulsive and lose track of time/am easily distracted.


From my understanding of myself, there's a LOT of internal conflict and it makes it quite hard to know what is potential ASD and what isn't. ANYWAY, my main question after ALL OF THAT explanation is - for those of you out there who have both ADHD and ASD, what do your routines/rituals look like for you? Could you please tell me about how your ADHD interracts with this symptom? I do have certain behaviours that I feel like might come under this bracket but I honestly have no idea. I'm still trying to unlearn the stereotypes of ASD from society and the many different ways it can present or be hidden, especially in women who have gone their whole life struggling and having no idea why.

Any of your experiences would be greatly appreciated

Parents

  • This is a really interesting question, I’d like to follow the answers given as this is something I’m wondering about myself. My husband is waiting for ADHD assessment as he is showing traits and struggling with just antidepressants and can fall asleep right after drinking caffeine, and he’s scored borderline on the AQ-50, wondering if he is comorbid or whether it’s a false positive on the AQ because of an overlap of traits? Do you have an Instagram account? I find quite a lot of useful graphics /Venn diagrams etc on there, I have a phone album where I save ones I identify with along with results from online tests. Have you looked at the “aspie quiz” that gives quite an interesting graph. Also IDR Labs tests which give charts. My husband’s friends wife took one as a control as we were all scoring moderate-high and she was so low there was almost nothing coloured in so they don’t seem to be a gimmick. I think from what you’ve written about the conflict is is quite likely you may have both, you would think they would kinda cancel each other out but of course not that would make things too easy!

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  • This is a really interesting question, I’d like to follow the answers given as this is something I’m wondering about myself. My husband is waiting for ADHD assessment as he is showing traits and struggling with just antidepressants and can fall asleep right after drinking caffeine, and he’s scored borderline on the AQ-50, wondering if he is comorbid or whether it’s a false positive on the AQ because of an overlap of traits? Do you have an Instagram account? I find quite a lot of useful graphics /Venn diagrams etc on there, I have a phone album where I save ones I identify with along with results from online tests. Have you looked at the “aspie quiz” that gives quite an interesting graph. Also IDR Labs tests which give charts. My husband’s friends wife took one as a control as we were all scoring moderate-high and she was so low there was almost nothing coloured in so they don’t seem to be a gimmick. I think from what you’ve written about the conflict is is quite likely you may have both, you would think they would kinda cancel each other out but of course not that would make things too easy!

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