Hi! Dual diagnosis- Adhd and autism

Hi everyone!

I'm so excited to have found this community, can't wait to hyper focus on it and read through as many posts as possible! I only just got diagnosed with autism so there's a lot I'm hoping to learn.

Just wondering if anyone else has a dual diagnosis of ADHD and autism, and if so, if you feel like one of them affects you more on a daily basis/forms a larger part of your self-identity?

Parents
  • Hello, welcome to your autistic community!

    I am autistic but not ADHD. I am sure you will find lots of other AuDHDer’s to chat to here.

    I don’t have a wealth of knowledge about the ADHD experience. One thing I do know though is autistic people who are ADHD sometimes feel that their needs are conflicting. It must be difficult sometimes to balance all of those needs. 

    It’s great that you are so glad you have found this forum, it’s always brilliant and validating to share experiences with our neurokin. The great thing about the autistic/ADHD community is the way we learn lots from each other.

    In the meantime, if you really want to hyper focus for ages then I would definitely recommend Aucademy:

    https://youtube.com/channel/UCLsMY1ZY9-8IReQfGX-CvBQ

    There is also a brilliant video on this channel about autistic people who are also ADHD:

    https://youtu.be/V_tF88-YUDk

    We are here to help you on autistic/ADHD discovery journey. I hope you enjoy your time here!

  • Hi! Thank you so much, I really appreciate the welcome and the recommendations. I'll get to watching!

Reply Children
  • You are very welcome. I am glad the links I have provided are useful.

    This is yet another reason why the autistic/ADHD community is great- we can collaborate and compliment each other’s strengths and challenges! For example the creativity and passion for  writing that stems from your neurodivergence and the monotropic focus and efficiency that stems from my autistic brain! I love how our community can work together to provide knowledge and solutions like this! 

    Maybe you just need more dopamine for your ADHD brain!

     I am glad you agree about the beauty of our autistic experience. It’s our community, culture and space.  I absolutely love it (if that wasn’t already obvious!). I feel really passionate about this and I feel that our community has a lot of power (knowledge from lived experience) to one day completely change the narrative about our neurodivergent lives.

    I am so glad that you feel so positive too. It’s really important and freeing to be proud of our autistic/ADHD identities.

    Your writing sounds cool. What storyline or project are you working on currently? Where do you get ideas from?

    I was thinking of getting The Neurodiversity Reader book. I completed an essay on the subject of autistic experience and neurodiversity. It’s really cool!


    I hope you enjoy the autistic book club or creative writing group if you decide to join.

  • Honestly, thank you so much, that's so helpful, and also encouraging! It would be great to gauge interest in a neurodivergent creative writing group. As a distractible ADHDer I'm very impressed by your efficiency- you've already developed my idea further than I had over a much longer time! I also like reading and writing about neurodiversity (as well as fantasy and dystopia), and definitely agree on the beauty of the autistic experience.

  • Cool. I like creative writing too, namely writing poetry. I think my creativity and non linear thinking stems from my autistic brain.

    That’s a great idea, very interesting. I think many of us in this autistic community would enjoy a group like that. The NAS run an online book club and you can probably share your creative writing projects with other autistics:

    https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/branches/online

    You can also set up your own creative writing club for our autistic community if you want to via this email address:

    online-branches@nas.org.uk

    You can also publish your own creative writing in the magazine Spectrum which is led by autistics for autistics:

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/the-spectrum


    Your dream sounds very much achievable, within this autistic community we could share ideas about what the neurodivergent creative writing group could look like.

    What do you like to write about? 

    My main dedicated interest is autistic experience (because in my very biased autistic  opinion) it is beautiful. I love writing and reading about our autistic experience, and especially connecting with other autistics.

     I hope the links I have posted are what you were looking for!

  • I'm sure I will! My main special interest is creative writing- the dream is to find a good neurodivergent writers group because executive dysfunction does trip me up a lot with long form projects, so if you know of any, I'm all ears! 

    How about you, what are your dedicated interests?

  • Hello again 

    You are very welcome. This online autistic community is very friendly.

    I hope enjoy Aucademy as much as I do! It’s a very useful and positive platform for learning about your own autistic identity  from other autistics.

    What are your dedicated interests?