Autism and ADHD

I haven't read it all but you may find this article interesting. I generally trust the info on this website.

https://embrace-autism.com/audhd-and-stimulant-medication/

They also have a few recent posts on AuDHD.

Hello, Sweetie. 
is it wrong to reply to this because of your username?!
I imagine there are many whovians here but I just thought I’d say “hi”! YANA

Oh, also, should have said! (Demonstration of my ADHD!) 

When my ADHD is medicated effectively, it exposes my autistic traits more. They didn’t want assess me for autism until this was achieved.

Other people don’t always like this change because the hyperactivity can sometimes seem like “happiness” and can mean I put tons of energy into entertain other people out of anxiety to please/mask. 

Still trying to work this out myself. 
diagnosed ADHD 2021, autistic 2023. 
I’m struggling with ADHD meds. They help with executive functions and awareness but increase sensory overload and for a few hours after I take it everything is just too much and I have to rest in quiet. 
When you say meds, I assume you don’t mean ADHD meds? 
id say the thing about my dual diagnosis is I need stimulation to turn my ADHD brain on to function in all ways (physical co-ordination, interception, pain as well as expected cognitive executive functions) but my autism is very sensory hypersensitive so often the things my ADHD needs, contributes to sensory overload. :/ Like with the medication. 
positive of both is things like, im good in a crisis, my ADHD kicks in and my autism means I’m guided but rational/logical thought. 

LOL 

Very entertaining! And well done on the piloting skills!

But this deserves a bellowing wow:

I Sperg said:

Did I mention the sensory input of it being 46 DEGREES at 10:30 that evening??   

I think I've travelled enough to move to the top of Scotland and never leave. This is how I feel about warm-ish weather!

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

Now there's something I need to look up!

I think that people "spark up" rather than "look up" Devil's Lettuce.

Thanks!! I just happen to like philosophy and physics and pretty much anything that helps me understand seemingly invisible systems. :) 

Devils Lettuce!! Now there's something I need to look up!

Deleted User said:

Same here, although with retirement no longer looking a lifetime away I am thinking this may not be a good thing.

I have no inclination to ever retire.  Whilst I can still work, that is what I will want to do with the bulk of my time!  I think this is because I am lucky enough to do something that I love.  Rare.

Thanks for your vote of "reasonableness" above too.  Appreciated.

Unknown said:

I think I am the most placid and reasonable chap on the planet

That is certainly how you appear on here 

Unknown said:

 [To be clear.....irl = my work......because my life is my work.....to a huge extent....I like it that way.....my special interest is always my work !]

Same here, although with retirement no longer looking a lifetime away I am thinking this may not be a good thing.

Unknown said:

I suspect, Amerantin, that you are highly competent in your role.....and I know you to be a very reasonable human........I think this combination can be terribly "confronting" to many NT's....hence they think we are "senior and scary"? ( to use your staff's descriptor.)

Many years ago I deliberately changed my communication style to be less precise and more colloquial so that I would appear “softer”. Perhaps I wasn’t as successful as I thought. Thank you though!

Oh dude.......I get this sort of nonsense all the time !!  I think I am the most placid and reasonable chap on the planet most of the time....and yet people perceive me as overly confident, bullish and opinionated irl.....in my work.  [To be clear.....irl = my work......because my life is my work.....to a huge extent....I like it that way.....my special interest is always my work !]

I suspect, Amerantin, that you are highly competent in your role.....and I know you to be a very reasonable human........I think this combination can be terribly "confronting" to many NT's....hence they think we are "senior and scary"? ( to use your staff's descriptor.)

One of my “work friends” who’s known me for 20+ years recently told me that other staff see me as “senior and scary” and he keeps having to tell them I’m not scary at all. I’m still not sure what to make of that.

I'm totally crazy, I frightened myself during unmasking, now I'm working out which ones are useful and which arn't, of course when I need one is another consideration.

Whilst I don't actively seek out confrontation, it rarely frightens me, some people do find me confrontational because I speak my mind, but I rarely hide my views about things. I'm not easily intimidated either which can make for some interesting times, telling people who are shouting at me in the belief that volume makes something more true get a bit offended when I tell them I'm not deaf, I just disagree with them.

I’d probably be very professorial and info dump a lot.

Kinda made me think a lot that has, massive food for thought!

I suppose then, when I'm thinking "I wonder what I'm like without my mask?" What I really need to think is "what would that mask be like if I'd been more selfish and not evolved my personality to hide my behaviour and views?"

Perhaps my age perception is off, but I don’t think she’s a kid. Obviously an immortal timelord may have a different perspective 

I rather liked what she said about masking as it’s something I’ve struggled with since diagnosis: what is the “real” me, because she’s right, we’ve spent decades building personas based on what makes other people comfortable instead of being ourselves. I realise this is true of everyone to some degree, but much more so for neurodivergent types.

I also liked her discussion of the interaction of autism and ADHD inside one brain.

I get the same comforting feeling from your posts that I get when visiting my favourite purveyor of the "devils Lettuce" you do seem to know your stuff, and have the stuff I like...

In this case you actually seem to have the stuff I NEED also AND am providing it free of charge, just by (presumably) being yourself. 

Now I try to do that on my better days, but you seem to be much further along a road I hope I am travelling...

Thank you for being in the world. 

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

Put an ADHDr there, and they might work well so long as they're not expected to handle too much paperwork

100% me. 

"Useful in an emergency" in my case mean that occasionally this sort of thing happens.

You might be standing in Dharhan International airport at 03:40 in the morning having just learned that your 450Km flight to Rhyad has been cancelled, along with all other flights and be shouting away at the staff along with everyone else in your own language. 

Suddenly a little man speaking a foriegn language gets your attention 'cos he's pointing at you and giibbering in his language but you hear him saying Rhyad? Rhyad? As you nod, he points at another guy, says "Ryhad!", points at himself, says "Rhyad", draws a circle in the air after pointing at each of us and says "TAXI!". After a bit of negotiation, (the odd little foreign bloke even haggles the price down) you are in a huge old cheverolet taxi heading towards Rhyad, whilst everyone else is still probably shouting at the airport staff at a cost of 40$. 

The little bloke who was useful in that "emergency" turned out to be two years away from getting his ADD diagnosis an 19 years off his Autism diagnosis, completely out of his depth, stranded in a foreign country with no functioning contacts, and 450 KM and 8 hours late for his next connection, but he got you out of the airport and on the way to Rhyad "ahead of the crush" whilst solving his own problems, on the fly. Then pretty much never spoke or communicated again during the whole 450 Km drive to Rhyad...      

MY client had sent me out on one of their holiest bank holidays! B.A. got me to Dharhan late, which screwed up my connecting flight, and the given phone number just rang out.. By the time I'd turned dolalrs into a functiong phone card at 10:30 at night in a seemingly derelict airport in a foreign country where every so often soem wailing happened over the tannoy and people LITERALLY stopped to perform a "Quirkafleeg" on a mat on the floor for a while.

Did I mention the sensory input of it being 46 DEGREES at 10:30 that evening??   

I finally got to my company accomodation at around 11:00, and the guy hearing of my previous 27 hours of travelling and surmounted disasters expressed his sympathy that I'd be needing a rest, as they were planning to go quad biking in the desert after lunch... Later that afternoon I had my forst ever digital photo taken of me in the desert on a quadbike.NOTE to readers, quadbikes are uniquely dangerous!

Ask Rik Mayall or the off duty nurse who broke her arm hitting a burried part of a culvert that day in the desert. OR for that matter me, becuas ein that picture I look happy but my chest is aching form that moenet earlier where the sand dropped way unexpectedly and when I landed my chest hit the effing handlebars.

OH and of course I, and most of the other contractors were sent home after two weeks, due to some corproate shenanegans. Everyone else seemed pannicked and the one "friend" I seemed to have made said "you seem to be taking this very well" with the subtext being "not like the rest of us".  In truth, I was already adapting to my new situation and already working out to get upgraded to the promised business class...

And perhaps another example of "Good in an emrgency" is that on the way home, when I was awoken frm my slumber (in my very nice business class seat. my client failed to deliver the promised upgrade, so I MADE the poor B.A. people at Rhyad give it to me at the airprort instead, to compensate me for my previously botched journey) with everyone around me screaming, I calmly evaluated my situation in a few milliseconds, and decided I prefered sleeping to whatever was going on with the aeroplane, and went back to sleep...

I later found out we'd plummetted violently throwing people around the aeroplane, and presumably I'd been awoken by being thrown against my straps. As a passenger In a moving vehicle if I can find a way. I always sleep strapped or wedged in place.  

In the same situation now, of course, I'd have elected to stay awake as I have since aquired some aircraft engineering and piloting skills, and thus could possibly take useful action, but back then I had no good options except to (potentially) die in fear or in my sleep, so I made a quick judgement call and went straight back to sleep...

I hope that's as entertaining to read, as it was to experience. 

I tend to tread carefully receiving advice from kids! :) 

There's a lot here which is just so slightly misinformed. "The Mask" Is a concept already taken in psychoanalysis for The Neurotic Self (Typical). No one can just unmask as there is no real self behind it, just the Collective Unconscious. And this is what makes Autism REALLY unique, as we haven't tapped into that.

Black and White thinking in Autistics is simply immature thinking, maturing slower due to communication differences, we grow out of it. ADHD can have an appearance of B&W due to brain wiring in out of control auto-mode "firing off" for no reason. Both can appear intense with response, and context is key when working out nuance.

Also, the Left brain perceives linear time and Right brain perceives the moment-eternal time. In physics, Light is outside of / not subject to Time. 

I tried pro-plus around age 18-20 and found that by the time I had 'em "working right" I also felt quite ill.

Like Amerantin, coffee seems ineffective. I currenllty need 2 cigarettes and two cups of coffee in the morning to get going and it's always been really hard to leave the house within 2 hours of arising.