can you have adhd and autism?

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Agree.

And a person with ADD/ADHD would find it hard to play games, write code or watch movies for 12 hours - or more, since from what i understand, patience isn't a trait they have too much of.

quite the opposite, actually. at least in my case. the part about "lack of patience" is true, yes. but patience is something you only need for things you're not good at or don't want to do

inattentive adhd (aka add) and coding, yeah, doesn't sound like a match to me. but with hyperactivity, it's a different story. it means lots of ideas running in your head when you're really engaged in what you're doing. creative analytical problem-solving is definitely one of my strengths. and video games are probably the "non-chemical drug" of choice of a large percentage of the hyperactive population. i don't play video games very often, but when i start playing something, it's not surprising if i forget to eat or shower, and it's practically guaranteed that i won't be going to sleep when i should

the problem though is staying consistent. 12 hours straight (12, 15, 20 hours...) doing one thing and nothing else is not necessarily a problem if i'm really drawn to it. it can often be just as hard to stop doing something as it is to start it. but then there's no guarantee that i'll be interested enough to stay focused after i go to sleep or after i shift my attention to something else. i went to college, i studied computer science, and i did great when it came to interesting projects. but unsurprisingly, i never graduated (i only found out i had adhd by the time i was already about to drop out)

I still struggle with both inattentiveness as well as aspieness. can't seem to be both relaxed yet alert. one or the other.

I met a guy at a security conference once who i talked to about my Aspergers and he revealed he had ADHD, for him it was doing a lot of things he liked fast during a short period of time or he wouldn't be able to hold down a job, another guy i've talked to is unable to do things he finds no interest in for any periods of time.

If you want, you can take up that CS course again and apply for special help if you have a diagnosis documented on paper.

Can be a problem finding work if you are limited to doing only the fun projects unless you are willing to run your own business.

I've always been in school for autistic children and have known of many who have it. It's like the number two thing behind autism there. But then again that's what my school specializes in.

i don't think those diagnoses make any difference in my country, and there's no special help that could actually make any difference to me anyway. the formal adhd diagnosis only mattered to me because i wanted access to medication, and the asd diagnosis was mostly to get my parents to stop bugging me about certain things. either way, school is fortunately in the past for me

you're right, getting a job (and keeping it) is a problem. i don't think i'm fit for employment, with or without a degree, which is why i don't even think about formal education anymore. but i've been self-employed for a while, and i've been doing fine for the most part

I wonder why people who had ADHD both kids and adult are so combative, even when i end wrong for them

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I don't know how they differentiate between real ADHD and the Aspie trait of being unable to focus on boring stuff, if the client is an Aspie. AFAIK I don't have ADHD or ADD, at least I see no reason to believe I have either of those, as my attention difficulties have nearly always been about stuff that doesn't really interest me. School and college subjects imposed on me with no explanation of why I should bother to learn them, poorly taught, and movies that had too many characters and the dialogue was moving too fast. If I'm interested enough in a thing, I can usually pay very good attention to it. And hyperactive I'm not.

But that's just me. If there is such a thing as ADHD, I suppose an Aspie could have it, though I wonder what would happen to their hyperfocus? I would be wary of such a DX for an Aspie, I'm not saying it can't happen, I just know what diagnosticians are like for getting things wrong, and how subjective some of these psych conditions can be. If it were me I'd want to see some very strong evidence.

Absolutely.
Autism, ADHD and Tourette forms a little cluster, where things might overlap. A mix of Autism and ADHD is probably the most common.

Personally I have an Asperger dx, but react rather ADHD´ish in stressfull periods, so....

I was diagnosed with ADD when I was a child and I never had a problem with playing games or watching movies and who watches movies for 12 hours? That is pretty excessive. I rarely got to sit in front of the screen that long only because my mother didn't allow it. But if it was anything I was interested in and wanted to do, I had no problem but it was making me watch something I had no interest in or having to listen to something I have no interest in and learn things I have no interest in was when I had troubles focusing and paying attention. It was so boring it was very difficult to do it and to even learn. I remember being in the 3rd grade, my school decided we needed to learn about the Titanic, I had no interest in it so I learned nothing from the subject. Only thing that fascinated me was seeing a black and white film they showed that was made in 1929 based on the disaster and I saw the whole ship go down and I felt sorry for the ship and that was it. Then when I got to 5th grade, I heard about it again from my speech therapist and that time it caught my interest because she said it was the first luxury ship ever built and it was supposed to still float while it had a hole in it but it had failed. So I went to the school library and checked out a book on it. Then in 6th grade, I saw they had made a movie based on it so I went and saw it in theaters. That time I learned when before I has not because it didn't interest me. I sometimes do wonder if this problem I had was more autism than ADD. Even ADHD kids can sit still for hours if they are doing something they like such as playing computer games or watching youtube because it's a stimulation for them. My son does this.

Who? I do. And my mom have nothing to say about it since i'm 42 and live by myself.

The notion that ADHD is overdiagnosed is controversial:
http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy ... rdiagnosed
http://www.healthcentral.com/adhd/just- ... 797-5.html
Must be a very difficult decision to make in some cases.

I don't think not being able to watch movies for 12 hours is ADHD though because that is excessive. Now if they couldn't sit through a TV show or a movie, then that I will agree with.

I have ADD, and I can spend hours on end coding. Now, after a few days of heavy coding, I have to take a break from it, but I have no problem with it.

Kids who grow out of it, I find that questionable because I wonder if that meant they ever had it to begin with. Some kids are more active, some are more impulsive, some have shorter attention spans and sometimes schools are not set up for their learning style and their personality and because the learning environment isn't equipped for their personality and their brains, they get labeled. So thus the reason why to have ADHD, symptoms have to happen in more than one setting, at least two. It is possible they do learn to manage their symptoms so it's not a problem for them in their adulthood and it's possible they have found a career that suits them and their needs because as adults, we have the option to pick our own environment and we tend to pick a job that suits us. But a kid doesn't have that choice so they are more easily labeled. Depending on the doctor you take your kid to. Not all doctors do labels because they don't believe every child with problems has a disorder even if it's putting a strain on their peers and social skills and their families and in their learning environment you know impacting their life causing them impairments. But unfortunately I don't think doctors always have a choice but to label the child because it's the only way the kid can get help through school. The support they need, what they need to help them learn and get through the day. But what I am against is parents telling their kids they have a disorder when they clearly don't. They are just different.

^
Yes I think your post makes a lot of sense.

I'm very uncomfortable with the thought of all those tablets they get kids to take, and I wonder whether it's really beyond the establishment's wit to make adjustments for them rather than making the kids adjust themselves by taking psych meds that could be damaging their health in other ways. It's not just that we should be very reluctant to medicate children, there's a further reason to not medicate them if they're also on the spectrum - I've heard that Aspies are generally excluded from drug safety trials, which means an Aspie child with ADHD is playing Russian roulette twice over if they accept the drugs. I used to feel slightly abused if I even had to take a pain killer to prop myself up so I could get through a day at work. I guess I'm a die-hard utopian.