Why is ADHD here?I have it: Whats the connection with Aspies

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ADHD definitely exists, as does ADD. Both run throughout my family, both up and down the generations. (Also one of my grand nephews has HFA, but he is the only one.) At one time my wife and I were looking into Asperger's with regard to our son because both she an his psychiatrist suspected it. But it wasn't so. He has the social aspects, but not the rest.

But BOY, does he have ADHD, as do I. He maxed the scale on Conners. A young doctor friend commented that he had learned about an seen all the various symptoms of ADHD, but never in one child, until now (referring to our son.)

During our investigations we learned that a lot (all?) of the symptoms of ADHD (or at least ADD; it's been a while on that one) are included in Asperger's. I believe that one reason Asperger's tends to be misdiagnosed as ADHD is that the doctor doesn't know enough to to dig deeper. They see ADHD symptoms, and that's as far as they go.

My wife (SLP) works with handicapped birth to three children. With 20 years of clinical experience she, along with virtually all of her coworkers, firmly believe that ADHD/ADD is on Autism Spectrum.

Before the 1990's, when AS first appeared as a diagnosis (in the US at least), a lot of aspies were diagnosed with ADD, especially the inattentive type. I was diagnosed with ADD - Inattentive Type (that means without hyperactivity) in the 80s. Apparently, the main issues were that I played by myself and didn't pay attention when people were talking to me. That sounds more like ASD than ADD, but my parents were told that I could not be autistic because I started talking at a normal age.

That pretty much fits me as well (I was Dx'd with ADD-I in 1992 (when I was 6), 2 years before AS was recognized in the US.

The two are connected,for what I have read on the subject. People DX AHAD are sometimes AS.

That's something! I was diagnosed with ADD when I was around 6, but AS wasn't recognized in this country until I was almost 20! ADD never fit, NOW, I think AS fits WELL. It even explains things I never seemed to be able to describe, like the hypersensitivity to sound/light, and hyposensitivity to cold.

I've been diagnosed with inattentive ADD but now I'm noticing traits that fit AS but not ADD. Psychiatry has all these neat little definitions but in the real world there is this huge continuum of traits that can be combined in any which way. I just finished reading a book on this very subject. It is called 'Reweaving the autistic tapestry: autism, Asperger's syndrome and ADHD' by Lisa Blakemore-Brown.

YOU PEOPLE ARE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE TO MESS WITH ME!

...aren't you?

I was diagnosed with ADD/HD twice in my adult life.

Here... I find people I am quite comfortable with and topics that I can relate to without any problem.

I will now allow myself to be indoctrinated into the "Ways of the Aspie" and assume full identity as such!

... where's my robe, chanting music, and stim string????


Since coming here to WP, I have been pretty careful not to assume the identity of AS just because I find similarities between myself and many others here.
I don't know if it would really matter anymore to me since I went through the whole ADD/HD thing.
It would be just another label...

...I'd still be dealing with my own peculiarities no matter what umbrella I stand under...