I'm confused by ADHD in relation to AS

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I keep hearing people act like most people with AS have ADHD, or it gets misdiagnosed or whatever.

What's confusing to me though is that to me it seems like ADHD is really different, and in some ways almost the opposite of AS. I certainly seem to have many symptoms of AS, but don't even slightly fit with ADHD, and never have. I'm not remotely impulsive (quite the opposite, sometimes agonizing for weeks or months over a decision), I hate being interrupted, but I'm not "distractable"-I mean I focus in on something for hours at a time easily.

Just wondering if someone can explain how these relate, and why/how so many people with AS supposedly have ADHD.

I definitely agree with you - I believe us on the autistic spectrum always deal with attention problems outside our special interests, but not much else of the ADHD condition. ADHD can pretty much be seen as a catch-all diagnosis for attention and/or hyperactivity diagnosis even if there probably is a homogenous condition at the core. An ADHD diagnosis is basically your school or whoever diagnosed you telling you that your behaviour in the classroom is problematic and that you would probably benefit from stimulants. Schools get additional funds for each child with the diagnosis, parents do as well, and the stimulants will probably help the pupil in the schoolwork, even though drugs are bad in the long run of course.

I think the confusion stems from several things:

1) There are 3 different types of ADHD. This list is in oder from most common to least common:

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder - Predominantly Hyperactive (characterized by hyperactivity)
Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder - Mixed (has characteristics of both)
Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder - Predominantly Inattentive (characterized by daydreaming)

2) There have been significant changes in these areas in the past 20 years:

The word "Hyperactive" was added to Attention Deficit Disorder in the late 80s.
AS was not diagnosed until the early 90s.
A lot of kids who had been diagnosed with ADD-PI became ADHD-PI and then were later diagnosed with AS instead once that diagnostic category became available.
ADD-PI was used to describe kids with symptoms of AS before AS was well-known.
Some kids simply remained misdiagnosed with ADD-PI or ADHD-PI.

3) These disorders share several common comorbids such as:

Auditory Processing Disorder
Anxiety Disorders

In addition, some people really do have AS and one of the forms of ADHD. Misdiagnosis is still common because the symptoms can look similar to an observer, especially is other co-morbids are involved.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for those explanations! I guess that makes sense to me. I could see how that third version of ADHD could get be diagnosed for some people in place of AS-particularly before they knew about AS.

(I think I was diagnosed with something completely ludicrous that m y mom didn't even bother telling me until recently. Can't remember what, but I don't even remotely fit the symptoms.) They probably misdiagnosed a ton of people over the years with various things.

I'm saving this thread for future reference, because I've never heard anyone explain it so well and clearly before!

Come to think of it maybe I have the tiniest part of ADHD as well as AS too... I obviously have AS no doubt... but I can be a bit mad sometimes. For the fun of it.

My previous therapist thought I had ADHD as well as AS, while my shrink (oops - let me use the proper word - psychiatrist ) was rather sure I only had AS and no ADHD. I may be a borderline case. I definitely have some ADHD symptoms but then those few symptoms I most definitely have may be caused by my AS rather than by a seperate disorder. I should try to find out though as IF I would have ADHD it would probably mean I need a different type of medication. I now take medication based on the diagnosis I have: OCD and AS. Imagine there'd be a third disorder within me then it would mean I need additional or adapted medication maybe. So I may try to find out in the near future and see an ADHD specialist.

Out of curiosity, what do you take? I assume it's just for the OCD-does it actually help?

I was put on something years ago, but it didn't really help my OCD I don't think.

I take Xanax, Seroxat, Frenactil and Seroquel. Most are either against OCD and against depression. Those disorders still bother me but at least less dominantly than they used to do.

Tony Attwood has reported at least 75% of children with Asperger’s syndrome also have a profile indicative of Attention Deficit Disorder.

The four components of attention include:
• The ability to sustain attention
• Pay attention to relevant information
• Shift attention when needed
• Encode attention – to remember what was attended to

I got this information from a seminar of his I attended in June this year.

Helen

I've got AS, OCD & ADD (the inattentive type).
I felt a bit weird when I 1st came to WP because I thought I was the only one who was not a great specialist in something mathmatical, scientific or computer wizz, as my ADD renders me a professional dreamer with little interest or ability to formally construct things.

Hence my movement into the spiritual and artistic worlds I move in.

Snap. Same here.

the only relation i can see is that its being overdiagnosed much how ADD/ADHD was back in the 1990s, and suddenly everyone has it

Hmm...I don't think I have any of those, aside from having some difficulty changing what I'm focusing on-but I think that's an AS thing.

And I need to write down stuff someone's saying or I won't remember (at least not more than one or two things at a time). I just feel weird thinking I have AS, but not ADHD.

---

ADHD

Inattention
Hyperactivity
Impulsivity

There is a small group of persons, both children and adults, who respond (not a cure) to the central nervous system stimulants - alerting agents (example: Coffee, caffeine compounds, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall and so on). That's really what ADHD is about (my view).

The right medicine really does work a little (not a cure) for a few of those with ADHD. Recall reading a How To (understand) Hyperactivity book about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild which explains exactly why the right medicine allows a person to temporarily pay attention and use short-term memory a little better (not a cure).

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/adhd/adhd.htm
http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-5/auditory.htm
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/aspe ... perger.htm

ADHD:

ASD equivalent:


It comes down to interpretation. Many of the signs would seem similar to observers, whereas the reasons behind the activities are considerably different.

Me too except that I am ADHD-I, and I am great at math although I really don't like it. My psychiatrist is open to considering HFA because of my history and certain traits, but he didnt feel the AS diagnosis was as important as treating the ADHD. He also stated that AS and other ASDs are very similar to ADHD, especially in women, due to overlapping traits. I cannot remember which ones exactly except for "hyper-focus".