Autism and adhd

does anyone has ADHD in this forum? if yes can you share some story please if you want to? 

Parents
  • A really good question. I am new even to Asperger's syndrome (diagnosed just 2 months ago at age 64), so I haven't given thought to ADHD. I am honestly not sure where the boundary lies between my Asperger's and ADHD. I certainly find that if I HAVE to do something (such as practise some music) it immediately becomes a burden, and I am easily distracted. But if it is something I simply want to do, I will be coming back to the music as often as I can throughout the day. So I do try to make every task seem like a 'want to' rather than a 'have to'. But I put all that down to my being an Aspie rather than thinking that ADHD was an issue. I am more than happy to be advised otherwise.

    But in fact my son was prescribed Ritalin as a boy (he is now 31). My feeling was that, at the time, Ritalin tended to be prescribed to combat normal boyish behaviour in many cases. In the old days, boys would be boys, but now the ethos has changed, and nobody seems to want that any more. Just a personal impression, and while over-prescribing might be a trend, it cannot cover every case, I am sure. Again, I would be happy to be corrected.

    Best wishes.

  • (63 myself, diagnosed at 61, self-identified at 59. Resident abroad.) I don't really have any strong opinions on the use of medications such as Ritalin. However, I  note some positive comments about them on this forum. I believe you are correct about a current ethos shifting. its far too late to be at all practical in my case, though. ;-) But I'm confident I can deal with it, more or less alone.

    Hyperactivity has really only been an occasional thing with me; it was usually away from the public gaze, and completely unnoticed. My diagnostician declined  to list any comorbidities, saying that a specialist in another country might pick up on just one or  two items from a list of comorbidities; items he/she might feel they were experienced enough with to attempt treatment. (Expertise with adulthood ASD etc seems to be very limited in this country.) We did discuss what I would call my attention deficit (occasional h), but I agree with her that some doctors in this country might well try to treat comorbidities they already had experience with, but perhaps ignore the overarching diagnosis. (They might even be dismissive of a diagnosis that is rarely even talked about here.)  In any case, I do not desire any local 'treatment'. And so will probably not mention my diagnosis to any further local medical professionals. Local F2F support from others with a similar diagnosis seems to be my best bet. But adulthood ASD is an almost entirely hidden issue here. And i expect it's much the same with AD(H)D.

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  • (63 myself, diagnosed at 61, self-identified at 59. Resident abroad.) I don't really have any strong opinions on the use of medications such as Ritalin. However, I  note some positive comments about them on this forum. I believe you are correct about a current ethos shifting. its far too late to be at all practical in my case, though. ;-) But I'm confident I can deal with it, more or less alone.

    Hyperactivity has really only been an occasional thing with me; it was usually away from the public gaze, and completely unnoticed. My diagnostician declined  to list any comorbidities, saying that a specialist in another country might pick up on just one or  two items from a list of comorbidities; items he/she might feel they were experienced enough with to attempt treatment. (Expertise with adulthood ASD etc seems to be very limited in this country.) We did discuss what I would call my attention deficit (occasional h), but I agree with her that some doctors in this country might well try to treat comorbidities they already had experience with, but perhaps ignore the overarching diagnosis. (They might even be dismissive of a diagnosis that is rarely even talked about here.)  In any case, I do not desire any local 'treatment'. And so will probably not mention my diagnosis to any further local medical professionals. Local F2F support from others with a similar diagnosis seems to be my best bet. But adulthood ASD is an almost entirely hidden issue here. And i expect it's much the same with AD(H)D.

Children
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