Attention problems (not ADHD)

Inah said:

I have so many things I’d like to do (including now hanging out here!) that it’s hard to keep up

Haha! That’s me too! 

I’m diagnosed autistic and on a waiting list for an ADHD assessment. I saw an article about AuDHD months ago in the NAS magazine and I recognised so many aspects of having a mix. Most of the time I work away happily on my long term interests but if I stop to do things like replying to an email, and then for instance, might read something online about something else I’m interested in, I can start investigating that and other things, and then I am working at several things together and start making mistakes or missing things. Many of the things that distract me from my long term interests end up being brief interests.  It causes me distress because my autistic perfectionist brain means I desire one thing, but my ADHD brain created chaos and makes me do things badly. 

Thanks __Pathfinder__  it’s tricky isn’t it, I struggled with the “that’s what I do” vs “that is what’s going on in my head to make that work”, the assessor asked something like “do you get things done?” and I tried to explain to her the effort and sidetracking etc and then she was like “ok but do you get this done?” so I said yes, and that was it. Felt a bit strange afterwards. 

Re energy drinks: I don’t know, I stay away from ii because coffee can already make me feel on edge. I had a brief period as a teen when I drank energy drinks and I think I neither got crazy hyper nor calm from it. Now, I find them way too sweet and fear it makes me stay awake (I struggle with sleep so rather not risk it)

I can relate to this. I have so many things I’d like to do (including now hanging out here!) that it’s hard to keep up. I think for me, since I am only recently diagnosed, it’s part of finding what I like. My therapist encouraged me to try different things, so that’s me trying different things… Are you autistic and/ or ADHD/ AuDHD?

An assessment is not a given.  i had an ADHD assessment and realised I sold myself short on several questions.  Like I got asked how many energy drinks I had a day.  I force myself to have no more than half a can a day.  The reality is I could have 2-3 easily in a day.  I drink 10+ cups of coffee a day.  My friend is a shrink and he says I definitely am and should seek a second opinion.  My assessment doctor said it was my ASD, but that doesn't tally with how a can of monster gives me perfect concentration for maybe 2 hours and I can drink them back to back and don't get hyper or tremors. Ok not definitive, but I have zero concentration normally.  Redbull got me through University.

One question to you is what happens if you drink a can of Monster?  Do you get hyper, shake all over, does it make your concentration worse or better?  People with ADHD tend to have the inverse reaction to stimulants, so less to none of the hyperactivity end of things, but superior concentration.  

I also have some of the other traits, like boring tasks make me want to act out.  If I do a task, I will start something else, then something else, then go back to the first task and then everything goes to hell.  Then I generally give up.

I am holding off on a second opinion / reassessment until I get back to work, then i will get it done privately.

That may well be why then. Even on the inattentive symptoms list, there are criteria that are not specifically attention. Losing things etc can be linked to attention but if you are just having interest based attention issues in a specific area e.g. getting tasks done, the assessor may have decided that isn't enough to warrant an ADHD diagnosis. There is so much overlap between conditions, I think it can be very hard for assessors to distinguish between symptoms at times even if they are experts.

profdanger said:

AuDHDer here. You can have ADHD and Autism and not be able to focus on special interests

That’s my problem a lot of the time. I have so many interests going on at the moment that I’m not able to focus on the things that I want to do and I loathe inaccuracy, yet that’s the way I’m going at the moment if I don’t get this under control.  Having said that, some interests are less intense but two interests have occupied most of my free time for many years. Autistic individuals and AuDHDers experience their interests in differing ways. 

Yeah I really only struggle with the attention issue, I rarely lose things or act impulsively (and if so, it’s a thing that was a possibility on my list, so kinda an planned unplanned thing haha) 

Intrinsic motivation is certainly a part of autism and it may be that your symptoms somewhat mirror ADHD because of this.

But ADHDers definitely struggle with tasks they find boring. 

Do you also find yourself struggling with other aspects such as losing things?

The things you describe would definitely ring true with a lot of people with ADHD so I'm intrigued. If it is purely attention then I can perhaps see why he would conclude that it is autism rather than ADHD.

I question it as the answer he has given you is very similar to the one given in my original assessment. But I do fit the criteria of both hyperactive and inattentive ADHD, just not in the classic "young boy" way.

Your report may be useful in seeing how they came to their decision and whether it is worth a second opinion.

Hi Expecto_Patronum , thanks for that. In all fairness, I am still waiting for the full report (I was told it’s a non-diagnosis though), reading this might help with understanding their reasoning better and if it’s worth it going for another assessment, although they seem to have understanding of AuDHD so not sure if another one might result in a different result. Also, I don't identify with the hyperactive element of ADHD, only the attentive one, so I am actually not too surprised but was thinking it could be AuDHD (also because I struggle to find resources that deal with autism and attention that isn’t ADHD/ AuDHD)

In terms of the actual problems, it’s a mix of not focusing very well if it’s something I find boring, thoughts that creep up about other things I want to do or are going on (like I had a lot of troubles with my landlord lately which threw my work focus off completely), and also being pulled away by thoughts or stuff I’d rather do (the wash!) when I am facing something hard or challenging (like a complex analysis at work or I am learning about something I like but it turns out to be much more/ complex than I thought). At the moment, I have 2 audiobooks open, a game not finished, videos I wanna watch, or - at work- reading emails, doing the wash (WFH) rather than reading up on something or doing analysis (it’s worse at work because even though I know in theory it’s meaningful or important, it’s not self-relevant for me, so I automatically care less). The assessor during the ADHD assessment actually pointed out that I seem to be better if I am intrinsically motivated (which was found to be an autism thing instead).

Thanks profdanger I think that’s really helpful and reassuring!

AuDHDer here. You can have ADHD and Autism and not be able to focus on special interests. I do have some special interests, like greyhounds, and I get anxiety talking about them because everyone expects the Autistic guy to know EVERYTHING about his special interest lol. I don’t know everything, and for some things I don’t want to know everything yet. It’s also very common to have short bursts of interest that fly from one thing to another. I recently obsessed over the Seattle Sounders soccer team and quickly switched interest again to something else. It happens.

It’s not a bad idea to consider a second opinion.

Could you give a bit more detail about what your attention difficulties are and any other difficulties that made you think ADHD? And also about your ADHD assessment and why they ruled it definitely not?

I ask because I am now diagnosed with autism and ADHD but when I originally went for my autism assessment, I queried ADHD and he fully ruled it out. After much research, I discovered that his reasoning was very outdated and so persued a specifically ADHD assessment and this time got a resounding yes. I think there was only criteria I didn't score for. 

Attention problems are only one aspect of ADHD so it may have been that you didn't meet any other criteria. Hyperfocus is certainly an aspect of autism and ADHD but you wouldn't need to have both to hyperfocus so it could be that you don't have interest based focus. I'm not sure hyperfocus is a necessity with ADHD though, just common. It could be that your ADHD assessment was outdated.

Switching routines, obsessions and interests. Does fit in with ADHD more so than autism though.