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Newly diagnosed - Confused, upset, and desperate to get a handle on this.

Hester Starling

Isn't it strange shouting out to bunch of total strangers that you need help?

I am thirty-four years old and female. I have been treated for depression and anxiety since I was 18. In September I suffered a nervous breakdown. My husband suffers from ADHD and had been pushing me to be assessed for a while, and following the breakdown I agreed, because quite frankly I was non-functional and something had to change.

In November (I live in Oldham which finally has provision for this sort of thing on the NHS) I was diagnosed with ADHD (Hyperactive type). The curve ball was that my assessor asked me to see her colleague as well to be assessed for ASD.

I was surprised, but thinking nothing would come of it, didn't read up on it. As such, when I was told yesterday that I had do also have ASD I was knocked sideways. The assessor said that I'm very high functioning and mask well due to high intelligence but she was confident in her diagnosis. She said I have the variant that they used to refer to as Asperger's Syndrome.

I'm so confused and a bit in denial still.

I need help with figuring out strategies. I'm self employed, but my way of working around the ADHD and the ASD is clearly flawed, as I had a nervous breakdown last year.

I am a costumier, and work around a three and a half year old boy. I have no local childcare support. My husband has inattentive type ADHD and can't help me either.

I am very easily distracted and my brain is very "noisy" due to the ADHD. I find distraction to my trains of thought distressing. Can anyone suggest good working strategies, in that sort of environment, so that I don't end up curled up in a foetal ball in A&E again?

Parents

  • The issue here is having both ADHD and ASD - quite common for them to occur together, but they might outwardly appear to contradict. So it isn't a simple matter of reading up on one or the other. You will find you appear to be doing the opposite of what one source suggests. There may be other things in the mix like OCD and Tourettes (facial tics rather than vocalisations).

    I have a book by Dr Christopher Green "Understanding A.D.H.D., which I bought when I was doing disability support in a university. It briefly mentions autism in a chapter on comorbidities, but mostly talks about the other things. Attwood's Complete Guide, mentioned above, has just two mentions of ADHD p16 and p268, the former is the greater - three little paragraphs - but not a lot that helps.

    Yet people with ADHD and ASD or Aspergers are quite common. I don't have ADHD but I've met people who have both and I know it is hard getting good advice. Am rather astonished how difficult it is to advise. But there must be others with both on the forum who can give you that advice.

    It seems crazy if you have to read up on both as separate conditions and somehow draw conclusions.

Reply

  • The issue here is having both ADHD and ASD - quite common for them to occur together, but they might outwardly appear to contradict. So it isn't a simple matter of reading up on one or the other. You will find you appear to be doing the opposite of what one source suggests. There may be other things in the mix like OCD and Tourettes (facial tics rather than vocalisations).

    I have a book by Dr Christopher Green "Understanding A.D.H.D., which I bought when I was doing disability support in a university. It briefly mentions autism in a chapter on comorbidities, but mostly talks about the other things. Attwood's Complete Guide, mentioned above, has just two mentions of ADHD p16 and p268, the former is the greater - three little paragraphs - but not a lot that helps.

    Yet people with ADHD and ASD or Aspergers are quite common. I don't have ADHD but I've met people who have both and I know it is hard getting good advice. Am rather astonished how difficult it is to advise. But there must be others with both on the forum who can give you that advice.

    It seems crazy if you have to read up on both as separate conditions and somehow draw conclusions.

Children
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