Autism and ADHD

Neither did I much since my late twenties, but having seen "supervised" medical drugs ruin several of my friends lives, to the extent that I even got involved, forced a review and subsequent lowering of my friends drug burden.

I question how much supervision can be excercised in one few minutes worth of appointment every six months, esecially when it became obvious that no one read my friends notes not excercised any joined up thinking.

I'm trapped between a rock and a hard place, BUT at least as a "self prescriber" I know I am doing the best I can FOR ME.

I generally need less than the recommended dose of most medications, or for that matter "receational drugs" than the average person. Sometimes substantially less.

The proof is in the pudding of course, and for the last twenty years since I left mainstream medicine and took responsibilty for my own health I have had little cause to complain and some cause to feel quite smug. 

MY family seem to have had upper GI tract issues a lot. When my dad's got too much he went to the doctor and was given a medicine that sorted it out very well indeed. I read the label and see it's a known carcinogen and should only be used for short periods not year upon year like his doctor prescribed. (IIRC it was five years into his treatment that I, having just acquired a BNF, learn this).

I can't say r even suggest reasonably that was where he got his fatal cancer from, but I can say I don't think it was as useful or safe a strategy as the one I took, which was to find out which foods gave me those symptoms, and avoid eating them at certain times. I manage my stomach and it rewards me with trouble free operation providing I do my bit, no medication except two rennies and two cups of tea, every once in a while if I push my luck and wake up with heartburn or extreme cases a burning throat from reflux. I've dones about three boxes of rennies in the approximately twenty five years so not only has it been an effectve strategy, it's also been very cheap compared to "Go and see your doctor".

People have stopped saying that to me now, as at 64 I'm starting to look pretty damn good compared to most of my previous critics, I take take no meds regularly, and when I do the minimum dose to get the job done or I might need to reduce  (but not obliterate) any pain. 

For the sake of honesty of course, I need to disclose the times when this strategy has failed me, or I made a blunder with my self medicating/diagnostics. 

That would be, "not yet". 

I think GPs have a shelf life of about ten years, after which they become jaded and don’t care any more.

I had a rare good experience recently though with a newer GP when coming off my meds so I’ll see if I can talk to her.

I don’t fancy messing about with drugs unsupervised though.

I was informmally diagnosed wth ADHD in my forties off the back of my kids diagnosis by her trickcylist.

After my formal Autism Diagnosis I requested ADD meds, and was told I needed a formal diagnosis which I then asked for, and received no reply.

My doctor was quite unhelpful & dismissive when I went for the Autism diagnosis and I had to PUSH for the test.. 

It seems I can either PUSH for the formal ADD test, and when eventually I get a formal diagnosis after many months pay full prescription charges for a drug someone else who isn't me guesses will aleviate my symptoms and will argue black is blue if I get any poor reaction (AS ALWAYS HAPPENS) or go my own way...

I now have been given some samples of both ritalin and amfexa, and will determne the medication that works best for me by myself, adn referrring to teh peopel who know me to report what they see, and the minimum dose I need to achieve the result that I am looking for.

With the amfexa of course, by means of a mortar and pestle and subsequent insufflation (wonderful word that is!) rather than oral administration, I can titrate the dose carefully, so I'll do that first, as the prescribing guidelines are ridiiculusly wide (1-8 5mg tablets per-day). I've tried amphetamine twice before in my life in a recreational setting and found that it seemed to make me much more clear headed and productive,using (compared to others) tiny amounts of the stuff. But I was put off further experimentation out of an abundance of caution, and believing the anti-drugs propaganda which is of course pushed by the very people who hand out fluoxetine like smarties and refuse to believe that for some of us that stuff is VERY BAD INDEED.

My experience of "medicine" and "Doctors" over the years has been very inconsistent, in terms of obtainig a prompt and accurate diagnosis followed by effective treatments, which made me start to ask questions and look at how effectvely other people get treated for their maladies. 

I've found that sometiimes modern medicine is really efficacious if you get a doctor who's in it for the "sucess" but more and more it seems like man are more interested in making the payments on the mercedes, actually helping the patients, which process leads to shorter consulting times and a "take two of these daily, NEXT PATIENT PLEASE!!" quality of service in the NHS and the resultant four tier structre of health care. (you thought there were only two? There is NHS, then BUPA style private, then harley street style private, and finally D.I.Y. / alternative medicine)  

I remember Dr McCoy in Star Trek shuddering as he described "20th century medicine" and I've come to agree with that poimt fo view based on my own adn family and friends experience of it... 

Modern medicine "treast illness" rather than focussing on curing it.

One shining example being the problems I had with fungal infections in my feet  Ive asked many doctros about it over the tried many anfungal creams which seemed to be almost competely ineffective at best winning me a brief pause before the rot resumed, THEN I went alternative, and discovered an off label use for a readily available substance in our medicine cabinet that has finally eradicated the problem and given me back healthy looking pink feet with clean looking nails after nearly FIFTY YEARS of the medical approach wasting my tiem and considerable sums of money on the over priced "prescribed" rubbish that didn't ever really work.  

As for Cancer, the thing that pre 2011 one in three of us (according to the cancer research people, back then) were likely to suffer from (then  post 2011 it suddenly morphed into 1 in 2 of us will get it) one has to wonder how despiet everyon who dies of it seemingly mking  big donation adn them having a shop in every shopping centre cancer ressearch hasn't advanced very far has it? 

They tell us that cancer is 100 different diseases with a 1000 different causes, but only seemed to have idenfied tobacco and fried bacon as a cause so far... (O.K. I'm allowig my cycnicism a bit too much rein, they did also identify a few household chemicals, "pollution" and radioactivity as causes, so at least tehy know fiev out of their "thousands of causes".. 

Sure they can "treat" your cancer and do most enthusiastically, but cure it? Not so much. Worse, treatments like B17, RSO, RIFE, which are used in some places sucessfully across the world are rubbished out of hand, and in defiance of the evidence presented. RSO I KNOW works, but there are no clinical trials.

Not that I trust cliical trials so much anymore after the lancet hydrocloquine clinical trial fiasco, where it was shown so clearly and unequivocably that the trial had been configured to achieve a political rather than medical objective, that they eventually had to publically retract it...   

I notice that the MRNA jabs are fianlly being discreditted to the extent that some countires and states are banning them, now. Not that it makes the MSM news of course...

Doctors have their place but I'd prefer that they were my servant rather than my master. 

My I.T.career taught me very well that "qualifications" are ten a penny, finding people that can actually DO THE JOB WELL, was much, much, harder than finding someone with a "qualification".

Curenlty we seem to be stuck in a pradim that suggest that what you say is more important than what you do.

Virtue signalling gets much more traction than actually living a virtuous life.

Failure is only punished at the level most of us live at, and never at the level where the people who seek to direct and micro-manage  our lives live...

I note this week that far from learning from the Covid-19 experience the Chines bio labs recently made a new verison of ebola that is "super-killy"! Mmmm.

Yet our western society squashed people who promoted Ivermectin a (viable cure for covid) whilst contrinuing to fund the "gain of function" experiments that gave it to us in the first place!!

I started researching ADHD diagnosis options and came across this recent BBC news article which basically says that a lot of most well known companies in this field are a scam and many GPs won't accept their diagnosis if medication is required

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65534448

Related to life in general but I think it affects our "sort" heavily - digital clutter as well as physical clutter. In my job, I have a lot of papers around. This is hard enough. As they are shuffled from one place to another. There's also the added joy of copious logins, passwords,  computer files and documents saved in various places. This is just in my job. It's getting more and more with life admin as well.  In this day and age it's a double whammy.

I feel the same way ian and I always want things put away a certain way and your not the only one and that  way being austic don,t worry ok

Now this I relate to

Made me right chuckle, did that...

My autism wants me to have everything neatly put away in order. My ADHD says I will do it tomorrow ... maybe.

I think  I’m probably going to have to go ahead and investigate getting an assessment myself. 

Have you tried any ADHD medications and if so have they helped you?

I was diagnosed as autistic last year and as an ADHDer four months ago. I'm always anxious, as I'm always speculating what might happen, so it makes sense that I crave predictability and hate surprises. However...I'm so easily bored by so many aspects of 'normal' life. I love daydreaming about making songs and films, and I spend hours editing YouTube videos about my autistic experiences. Basically, I love peace but I hate boredom. 

I think there's things at play like inertia, procrastination but also/or not being able to prioritise where to start and/or different motivation and attention from the norm to get things done. The motivation side of things is something I have discussed with a friend who is formally adhd and another person who is very neurotypical. 

It isn't without trying. A lot of it, effort is being put in, big time, but the results do not happen in the way we or others want/need.

I too prefer order and tidiness. Of my belongings, my work desk, my environment,  my thoughts, my time management. However the execution of this leaves something to be desired.

An example for me is that I crave order and tidiness. A messy room is like a psychological weight pressing down me.

But I really, really struggle to build the motivation to actually tidy. It’s not just laziness, it’s like my brain locks up at the thought of doing it. This is a problem with any task that I don’t particularly enjoy, which is very problematic at work.

The problem I have is not being able to rest properly. My mind needs stimulation but the brain can't cope with it. 

Also, I think being both, or whatever it actually is regardless of a name, presents itself with its own challenges which either on their own do not. I'm not saying one is better or worse, just different. I have struggled in the past to find information on both together,  rather than separate conditions. There's a near constant internal push and pull but this is just my experience.

I heard, that ADHD people often experience racing thoughts. I experience repetitive deep thoughts, that sometimes even torture my brain. It may be some scenario (not necessarily bad one) and it plays over and over and over again and it makes me angry, I don’t want it anymore but it stays there in my head. And I have no issues with executive actions- I plan everything step by step and follow the plan. But I have sometimes restless legs especially if stressed or deeply concentrated and I can’t  control it. I was told many times at school to stop shaking my legs. So it seems to not be normal for NTs but I’m not sure if it was just a stem or some ADHD trait. 

This is a great topic. I am on a referral currently for an ADHD diagnosis. I am already identified as Autistic via the NHS, but some tiny bits just don't click. But its all so very confusing with the overlap of traits. My husband has ADHD and we often talk about how my traits he also experiences and vice versa. I've gone back and forward in my mind several times saying to myself why did I get referred I don't have ADHD, then I think I do and so on. 

Hi I have a diagnosis of both autism and ADHD late in life in my late 50’s. I don’t take any meds for ADHD as basically I don’t think taking speed would be good for me. 

the main problems I have are I find it very difficult to relax and get bored very easily. So engaging in a special interest to regulate and calm myself doesn’t always work and the result is I have bouts of loneliness, boredom and frustration with life.