Published on 12, July, 2020
I have recently started taking ADHD medication after being diagnosed in recent years. Only to find out that I may have ASD.
Has anybody else been in the same situation whether the medication has affected them differently so it has flagged up the autism as well?
Just add I am woman with ADHD so ASD has always been more hidden, I guess.
NAS93578 said:I have recently started taking ADHD medication after being diagnosed in recent years. Only to find out that I may have ASD.
I did a little digging into this and the results were startling. From the link:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-to-know-about-comorbid-autism-and-adhd-6944530
While approximately 10% of the population has ADHD, some research has shown that 40% of autistic people have ADHD, with other studies suggesting that the rate may be closer to 70%
This does make diagnosis much more of a challenge, especially as once the doctors find a diagnosis of ADHD they are happy to mark it as case closed and send you on your way. I does look as if they should be testing for both by standard.
If you find you have symptoms that are in the ADHD category only then medication is possibly a good solution if you need it, but if you find the symptoms are in the overlap area then it is worth checking in case it is just autism, in which case the medication is unlikely to be beneficial.
Before making any changes to your medication I would strongly recommend consulting with a psychiatrist who is well versed in these areas - therapists tend to be less well informed on the medicine side of things while psychiatrists are required to know their stuff.