24 year old Aussie guy with ADHD diagnosis. Hi everyone!

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Hi all

I'm new to the forums, having just been diagnosed with ADHD. I was hoping to join an autism community as opposed to a ADHD community as i have found in the past that i get along much better with people with Aspergers, because I actually find their conversations more stimulating than others. My strongest crush was also on a girl with asperges. We stayed friends for a long time and always got along perfectly with an ability to talk for hours on a range of subjects. Since then, aspie girls have always been the most interesting . I know a reasonable amount about Aspergers as somebody who works with young people, some who have been diagnosed with high functioning Autism (because this is of course the new label that is used, but i'll continue using the term Aspergers for convenience).

I just had an introductory question about the spectrum for everyone. I kept on hearing from people here and there that ADHD is on the autism spectrum, but the most information i can find that supports this in google is the idea that both ADHD and Autism can walk hand in hand or that someone with one condition can often exhibit traits of the other. Obviously Dr. Google can only tell me so much and i will definitely seek further info from workmates and clinicians i work with in future, but i want to know now haha!

Is it not well established whether ADHD is on the spectrum or is it not that simple? Am I neurotypical?

Perhaps i'll share my history with you briefly?

To give you further information about myself, i've always been a bit nerdy through high, school, however i would give credit to my primary school for that. It was a place with no bullying and everyone turning out a bit of a 'nerd'.

I've always been into art and acting, getting right into it through high school, finishing year 12 in 2007. I then had a gap year in 2008 and went to university for 6 months in 2009 and got bored of it. I joined the police force after that, graduating in December of 2010, however, didn't last as i was probably a little too easygoing and smiley for the job and location, that being a particular station in the ghettos of Central Sydney i won't mention.

Afterwards i drifted into a couple of public service jobs, before finally settling into a Case Management position working for youth. I also recently have gotten back into drama, joining the local theatre and have started writing a play. I dropped fairly heavy video gaming obsessiveness, got a personal trainer and become fairly fit and bought and learnt to ride a motorbike on a whim (that was one of the signals I started thinking of ADHD).

The thing is though, whilst all of that may look colourful, i've always found it difficult to do things such as make friends and have sometimes had confidence issues with maintaining friendships. I feel like people get a first impression of me like an explosion of something new and then they get bored or sick of me. I notice with conscious effort, the more of an interest i take them, the longer i can maintain a decent friendship, but i don't know, they always seem to die off at about 6 months max.

Again, my longest lasting friend is an aspie and my greatest ever crush was on a girl who was an aspie. So intelligent, slightly cynical, with such a peculiar sense of humour, she was charming. The only other traits i can think to add, though this can correspond as i understand it with either Asperges or ADHD include the following:

- I can't stand the touch of really fluffy tea towels and really fluffy pyjamas and cotton balls. The nausea is like imagining the fabric rubbed over my eyeball, except it applies to any part of my body (slightly damp tea towels are fine). I think it's overwhelming dryness specifically.
- Secondly, i can have obsessions that can last for hours on end and i can forget to eat and drink etc, namely when i read or write on subjects i'm passionate about.

Whew....

So once again, hello everyone! Hope you didn't mind my rant, just trying to work out if i belong in these forums! I guess you may be able to help me with the answers.

This was meant to go in general discussion... Sorry.... I do things like this all the time.

moved to getting to know each other

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