Hi Everyone/Am I ASD/ADHD?

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So hi people. Saw this forum now and again, but may as well join seeing that I'm certain I'm not neuotypical. However.. the "condition" is in question, so I wanted to get the unbiased experiances and thoughts of those here.


As of now, I'm under going diagnosis for conditions, due to me having to push my doctors to do it, as since I was 18 (I'm 25 now) I have been having several difficulties in life and have been unable to work through them. My short story is that I was at college but left when I was 18 due to a crippling anxiety disorder which later developed into agoraphobia which has affected me to this day.

As of last year I developed OCD (The "Pure O" varient) and struggle with it pretty much daily, having all sorts of intrusive thoughts and obsessions.

Over the last few previous years I've been through therapry, counciling and so on, but I never felt these people understood me, nor adressed the "core issue", my anxiety I was sure was but a symptom of the underyling problem, I had no actual issues in life or trauma behind my anxious condition, it was simply very sudden in my life, and has robbed me of my normal life.

Through me making a strong case and convincing doctors and therapists of my certainty of a condition, I've been back and forth with assessments but not getting anywhere. There has been debate over whether I have ADHD or ASD. Right now I have finally been moved on to get a proper ASD assessment. However I have a few questions as I find this puzzling somewhat and I want to clear up some things and any potential misconceptions I have.


I know ADHD and ASD are similar, and I've always had the leaning toward ADHD, mainly because of the fact that I've never had sensory issues or social issues. It was infact these very things which has caused confusion on part of my various psychiatrists. Is it possible to have ASD without social issues or sensory issues? I'm quirky, but, self aware. It's more of my personality than me being socially oblivious, and I;ve never had issues or misunderstandings with people in my life, nor have I ever had an "ASD meltdown".

I've had sensitive hearing since childhood, certain noises would hurt my ears and that was it. My anxiety since my teens I believe was started from an initial stressor which formed into a cycle of anxiety disorder, and eventually obsessions, as I've always been prone to "special interests" as they are known as in the ASD community, so I figure the ugly side of such a persona would be having anxious obsessions.

The only other childhood issues I'd like to bring up is potential stimming behaviours. I used to jump up and down and swing my arms around as I was unable to contain excitment, but I did not want to do these actions, and I tried to supress them or do it in private until sated. It was never done as a stress coping mechanism or sensory coping behaviour. These actions were often acompanied by maladaptive daydreaming and fantasizing. Similar stims are making certain silly noises on my own, but I can resist those much more easily. To this say I still get little arm jerks from fantasy daydreaming or from other mental stimulation.


Other issues I have are handwrtiing (dysgraphia), slowness in math, chronic procrastinating (unintentionally), distractablity (unless hyperfocused on something) and as a result I'm a terrible multi-tasker, you can call me names when I'm that focused and literally I won't hear you, you have to repeat yourself to get my attention. I also have terribly erractic sleep patterns which I cannot control or predict. I'm terrible when it comes to routine and dislike routines, I prefer to be free and struggle with keeping to a timetable or schedule.


As you can see my leaning to a form of ADHD would be for good reason, but there are little ASD things in there too. So my question is.. "what am I?"


Thanks for your time everyone.

(Also, side note. Why is my username showing as "ElPresidente208" when it's EccentricM?)

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thanks ^^

Welcome EccentricM!

Hope you will find the answers you are looking for. Sounds to me like you may have both ADHD and ASD. Most, if not all people with ASD have sensory issues and communication problems though. That is a big part of it.

Enjoy the forum!

Welcome to WP EccentricM!

ADHD and ASD do indeed have things in common, and it is quite possible to have both (I do). You are correct that based on what you have listed, it does seem to primarily be ADHD symptoms, but you should definitely have a specialist make that determination! Just remember, you don't have to fit all the criteria to have autism spectrum, and there can be signs in your behavior that you just aren't aware of. For example, you might think that you have no social issues, but maybe the anxiety is being caused by the effort it takes you to maintain it.

Welcome!

The members of this website are not appropriately-trained and licensed mental health professionals. Therefore, none of us is equipped to give a diagnosis based on what you described. You will be better off to seek out an appropriately-trained and licensed mental health professional.

That said, what you described may correlate to ASD, ADD, ADHD, Bipolar Depressive Disorder, Clinical Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia, or something as simple as adverse reactions to foods or medications -- we just don't know.

Good luck with your quest.

Without social issues or sensory issues, I really doubt that you have autism.

It doesn't mean it's inappropriate for you to be a member of WP. Welcome!

But...you never know...I could be wrong.

Uh- this is not me. Who has access to my account?

I was just about to say the same thing to this comment? Has something gone wrong on the system? I made an account called "EccentricM" but I have this... er, username on my posts, but it's... your account? That's a new one!

well, i believe ADHD and ASD have a lot of overlaps. I relate to both in many ways and you probably do too. if you think you may have both speaking to a professional is the best course of action

there is a glitch n you've met your parallel self

Yeah there was a a server change recently and multiple new users seem to have gotten their accounts swapped .

(Edit, sorry in advance for the long post)


I've had this mentioned by someone who I know who has ASD, however I feel this does not apply to me, mainly because I do not feel I have to "act" when I'm out or maintain any normality, I put on no masks or charade and I'm open about who I am.

My anxiety first triggered seemingly from nowhere when I was in college when I used to walk down the hallway, I'd get panic symptoms. It was locationally based and became a cognitive habit. I feel in those years I had some social anxiety somewhat mind you (my father is very socially anxious and overly self concious), but that critera changed and eventually it evolved into agoraphobia (fear of going outside) as I get the anxiety when I'm alone, not just around people, and all based upon leaving my house.


However I did deal with that rather well over the years with some therapy and mainly with self help, and I still do manage now when it comes to just plain anxiety, but it was replaced with another form anxiety, Pure OCD, with the obssesions and such, only last year. That was first triggered from a therapsit phonecall asking me "what stops you from killing yourself?" Now of course the simple answer is, I don't want to die! But at the time my mind went blank and I didnt know how to answer, even though I was never suicidal. After the phonecall it worried me, and I fell into a period of major existential depression for a couple of weeks where I found it hard to eat, move, get up, even walk due to feeling so low. It eventually shifted, and that's when my Pure O started, the intrusive thoughts, philosophical obsessions and other things, and I "had to solve them". Of course I've gotten better with this, but still have a few of these issues of intrusive thoughts and anxieties, and still revolving around the fact of them making it hard for me to go outside. No matter what type of anxieity I get.. it all revolves around the same.. core outcome, a fear of going out.

The annoying part to all this is that I was dealing with my anxiety very well and it felt like it had almost cleared up, then that day, that whole thing hit me like a truck and put me back down again to where I am now. I find all my anxieties now come from intrusive thoughts or images of scary ideas.. phobias and so on, and I find it hard to focus on the present reality. I've always been prone to daydreaming as I already said though, so.. combine that trait with a deep, imaginative and analytical mind, along with anxiety.. it's very ugly.

It seems that no matter what I do to overcome my anxious issues my brain "wants" to be anxious about going outdoors and finds some way to achieve it. I have no "concious" anxiety in my mind, other than the fact that I'm focused on the anxiety and intrusive thoughts themselves. But slowly dealing with that too. It's currently involved getting over the fear of my thoughts and phobias.

My greatest challange at the moment since last summer has been my fear of blood. I overcame my other obsessions with logical reasoning combined with acceptance therapy which can be applied to other anxiety disorders. But I developed an obsession of blood in my own body. Since childhood I had the general phobia of blood, which caused me to pass out upon sight of it. Since last year, I developed obsession and intrusive thoughts of blood after I had a bad experiance where I passed out in the night from somebody talking about blood or gory imagery in the body on a radio. Every time I go out now, my mind is flooded with images in my head of blood, injury or the blood inside myself and I go over and over and over in my head trying to reason with it, or trying to ignore/accept it, with the constant fear that I'm going to pass out and wake up in some ditch due to this mental obsession of blood I get when going out. And this also happens at home too, but less severe.

When I get over one obsession, or begin to, it's replaced with another. When I'm not anxious at all, I feel full of energy, like a battery, hyperactive or creative, but not wild or outragous (aka mania). I find that I have high energy, and simply whether that is good or bad, depends on how it's "filtered" in my brain.


When it comes to talking with people I get on very well and make friends easily, and I'm confident in myself, I have no "social anxiety" at all. Though in my conversations I could easily have the tendancy to "over talk" about something, but being self aware I stop myself before I keep on rambling forever as I know simply by social observation and cues that people are not really into a topic.

I also made sure to ask my own family as well, because I wanted to make sure I wasnt being "oblivious". And they honestly said "no, you don't come off socially annoying or strange in anyway" and others have also stated the same, that I "don't come across Autistic". At least, "socially". My anxiety comes from other places.


- EccentricM

I am thinking, even more, that you’re more “eccentric” than autistic.

Have you read about the Broad Autism Phenotype?

I sense you will be a delight in the Forum, nevertheless.

I havent heard of that, but it sounds interesting! And thanks, I imagine I will enjoy it here as I'm very much interested in the mind in general.

-EM