differences between ASD and ADHD and those with just ADHD

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state which ASD you have, what type of ADHD and severity plus age range if you wish.
curious as to how they interact.

High functioning (mild) Aspergers Syndrome
Probably moderate(?) ADD (inattentive ADHD)

I was diagnosed with AS at a much younger age, and only recently had the ADD diagnosis fully confirmed, so it's hard to know the exact severity as it lessens a bit once you mature, and I was also on ritalin for a few years which changed my brain structure somewhat. But I'm pretty sure it was moderate at least.

Somewhat mild Aspergers (I did fine in school and I'm able to hold a job). Not diagnosed, although there is no question.
Moderate ADD / ADHD (primarily inattentive). Diagnosed. Not on medication for it.

Age: 27

I was diagnosed ADD early on, before Aspergers was even a diagnosis. My take: it sometimes results in "double stimming", one stim for the AS and another for the ADD. Other times, one stim covers both. Other than that, I can't really say. Though the typical inability to sit still that comes from ADHD may tend to exacerbate certain quirks and make them more obvious.

Last edited by WardenWolf on 05 Jul 2009, 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm diagnosed with ADD (I think.) I'm on medication for it; I very clearly have attention problems. There was no official testing or anything, though.
AS is not an official diagnosis; I'm not really sure how to go about that, since I don't think there's a such thing as an expert in AS in adult women.
I don't know how exactly they connect, or if the attention problems are more a function of the AS.

I meet the DSM-IV criteria for AS and all the online tests indicate that I have it, as does my history. I don't know what more somebody making an official diagnosis would do.

I haven't gotten a diagnosis, but I would say I am very mild Aperger's, with Inattentive ADD, OCD, and possibly mild Bi-Polar. I am kinda all over the place at times. Sometimes, I can hyperfocus, while other times I am constantly pacing, when I'm bored or stressed out.

I would say a person with just ADHD, wouldn't have the main characteristics of Asperger's, like poor eye contact, interest in parts of objects, lack of empathy, inability to pick up social cues, etc...

Mild-ish Aspergers and relatively severe combined-type ADD Not prescribed meds but wish I was...
Age 33

I am wired to constantly want to multi-task, but lack the capability to do so.

Aspergers, mild autism mixed with ADD most likely because I am multiply disabled

Moderate Asperger's (well, I don't know how severe and moderate differ but I know if I were mild I'd be in school so it isn't that)
No ADD/ADHD.

EDIT: Forgot to add I'm 16.

Mild AS and I think my ADD is mild. I was diagnosed with it in 1995 but my mom said the treatment I was getting for it wasn't helping so she knew I had another thing.

I was very impulsive, hyper, had a short attention span (still do) and I got distracted easily and had troubles staying focused and even sounds bothered me. Sometimes I question if I don't actually have ADD and I was one of those kids misdiagnosed. My mom says I was misdiagnosed and I've asked her "so that means I never had ADD" and she said I did. I have even asked her if it truely meant I didn't have it and she says I did have it. The misdiagnoses was saying that was my main problem, my main disability, the core of my problems.
I outgrew the bad ADD like being unable to stay focused and getting distracted easily.

Now someone can come in the room as I am working and it won't bother me or distract me but it sure distracts other people and I'm like "and I'm the one with ADD?" Sure I look up to see who came in and then I go back to what I'm doing.


Seriously it seems like I sometimes switch places with people. It seems like they have the ADD and I'm the normal one and some other times I'm the normal one and they are the aspies. Makes me wonder what the difference is. Today at the gathering I went to, everyone had ADD except me because they couldn't stay focused on UNO so they kept getting confused about who's turn it is and who had to draw cards from the pile and I was the one directing the game telling them who goes because I was the only one who stayed focused and watching the game while everyone else wouldn't look and kept on talking. One of the people there actually did have ADD but undiagnosed of course but I found it hard to believe that he has every single illness when he said he did. Then I won the game and everyone kept on playing and I decided I wasn't going to play again because I got sick and tired of everyone not paying attention. But they didn't play again anyway after they were done.

^ Sounds like me, I have a tendency to keep forgetting when it's my turn when playing card games

The problem was we had all these skip cards and reverse cards and cards that make your opponents draw cards from the pile and people who saw the top card in the pile thought they had to draw or their turn was skipped or not realize the direction of the players going had gone the other way because of the reverse card someone played. It was very annoying they wouldn't even watch the darn game and they would have seen who the top card was directed at and would see when the turns got reversed. They all said the game is very confusing and I said it is not because they just have to pay attention. It be very funny if everyone there actually had ADD and I didn't even know it.

I am 44 years old, and have Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD. To give you an indication of severity (or lack thereof): I typically take 10mg Ritalin when I need to perform work; that lasts me 4 hours. For a full day's work, I may sometimes decide not to take a second one, but other days I may take up to (not all at once).

I generally don't take Ritalin on weekends unless I have to work on a weekend or if I have a busy day planned and don't feel focused.

I expect that I will eventually be able to go off Ritalin except for when I have to perform tedious sequential administrative tasks. I only started this year, a few months after I was diagnosed. In previous years, I could go into hyperfocus when writing a proposal or developing a database, but this year I fell apart and couldn't even do things I was good at before (and that led to my diagnosis).

I have a colleague who has ADHD only and it is very severe, so she is on a higher dose of Concerta, and she is married to an Aspie who does not have severe ADHD. I differ from her in that I am very hyperactive, whereas she is more inattentave (spaced out). Compare Tigger to Pooh and you'll understand the difference!