Okay, so a bit of a saga, hopefully this is the right place for it.
I'm kinda looking for a little perspective, especially from those of you who have both Autism and ADHD.
So I'm a girl, I got diagnosed with ADHD at age six, then later got officially diagnosed with Autism at twenty-one. (Yay! For me, at least. It was very encouraging to know I'm not just socially incompetent sometimes.
My sister also has ADHD. Once I got into late teens, I found I didn't really struggle with any of the cliche things that ADHD people struggle with, and after my autism diagnosis, my sister raised the question of whether I actually had ADHD in the first place. To be honest, I'm not really sure. Possibly an argument could be made for early intervention making a lot of difference? I was on Concerta (long acting Ritalin) for years and it did make a difference to my focus until maybe late teens.
In hindsight, I was definitely pretty hyperactive when I was little and I still tend to get lost in my own head quite a bit. Up until about mid-Year 7, I would lose stuff all the time, but then that kind of abruptly stopped and I have no clue why? On the whole, once I got past primary school, I never really struggled with deadlines or time management, I'm pretty organised (I always know where everything is, even if no one else can figure out my system), I don't tend to end up yak-shaving that often (doing something and somehow ending up doing something super different from what you were originally doing), and I'm terrible in a crisis.
I definitely do have the whole loads of hobbies thing, but I tend to like finishing what I start before moving on, it's more that I get into something heaps, finish up what I was doing, and then move on for six months and maybe come back later. When I start focussing on something I can concentrate for hours, but I don't really struggle with general focus and procrastination.
Edit: Upon further reflection, I also really tend to lose track of time when concentrating, but I don't tend to get to places late cos rushing stresses me out, so I get everywhere like half an hour early. I also frequently do that thing where you lose track of what you were thinking and need to stare inside the freezer for ten seconds to remind yourself to make a sandwich.
Any thoughts anyone wanted to contribute would be super appreciated! I mean, in practice this won't really change a lot in my life at this point, but ADHD's kind of formed a solid part of my identity for a lot of my life so it's definitely going to bug me if I don't at least think this out.
I'm kinda looking for a little perspective, especially from those of you who have both Autism and ADHD.
So I'm a girl, I got diagnosed with ADHD at age six, then later got officially diagnosed with Autism at twenty-one. (Yay! For me, at least. It was very encouraging to know I'm not just socially incompetent sometimes.
My sister also has ADHD. Once I got into late teens, I found I didn't really struggle with any of the cliche things that ADHD people struggle with, and after my autism diagnosis, my sister raised the question of whether I actually had ADHD in the first place. To be honest, I'm not really sure. Possibly an argument could be made for early intervention making a lot of difference? I was on Concerta (long acting Ritalin) for years and it did make a difference to my focus until maybe late teens.
In hindsight, I was definitely pretty hyperactive when I was little and I still tend to get lost in my own head quite a bit. Up until about mid-Year 7, I would lose stuff all the time, but then that kind of abruptly stopped and I have no clue why? On the whole, once I got past primary school, I never really struggled with deadlines or time management, I'm pretty organised (I always know where everything is, even if no one else can figure out my system), I don't tend to end up yak-shaving that often (doing something and somehow ending up doing something super different from what you were originally doing), and I'm terrible in a crisis.
I definitely do have the whole loads of hobbies thing, but I tend to like finishing what I start before moving on, it's more that I get into something heaps, finish up what I was doing, and then move on for six months and maybe come back later. When I start focussing on something I can concentrate for hours, but I don't really struggle with general focus and procrastination.
Edit: Upon further reflection, I also really tend to lose track of time when concentrating, but I don't tend to get to places late cos rushing stresses me out, so I get everywhere like half an hour early. I also frequently do that thing where you lose track of what you were thinking and need to stare inside the freezer for ten seconds to remind yourself to make a sandwich.
Any thoughts anyone wanted to contribute would be super appreciated! I mean, in practice this won't really change a lot in my life at this point, but ADHD's kind of formed a solid part of my identity for a lot of my life so it's definitely going to bug me if I don't at least think this out.
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