Aspergers and ADD

Post Reply New Topic

I'm wondering how common ADD is with Aspergers?

I definitely have Aspergers...diagnosed with it...but I would say that ADD is the bigger of the two problems...at least when it applies to jobs and the like.

I don't have a big attention span, even when I'm enjoying something. When I'm at a concert, even of a band I like, I get bored after the first hour or so. If I'm watching a movie...I have to really like it and usually it has to be 2 hours or under.

I remember I was working a job in the summer after high school and would walk around talking to other co-workers and my boss nicknamed me "the delegate."

Another job a few years ago (my last job) I was doing shipping and receiving at a department store at the mall and I'd take bathroom breaks just to get away...sometimes even walk into the mall when I was on the clock.

I was in a band last year, and the wife of the guitar player asked my brother (also in the band) if i had ADD because I'd stand up and walk around and pace all the time.

I do that at home too...just pace around in deep thought.

I like to read suspense books...but unless it's at the part of the book where all the things are being revealed, I pace myself. It's taken me a month to read 200 pages of a 500 page paperback...not because I'm not enjoying it, but because I'm easily distracted.

It seems really that doing anything, even band rehearsals when I was in a band (and music is my passion) that after 2-3 hours I'm bored and either want to recuperate and lay down or move onto something else.

I'm wondering if other Aspies on here have this same problem or if I just have ADD but was never diagnosed?

The numbers I've seen indicate that 50-75% of people diagnosed with an ASD also fit the criteria for some form of ADHD.

My perception is that those figures are about right. Very common.

I was diagnosed with it when I was ten but I am not as badly effected by it as you are. I also get bored easily and I have a hard time reading about stuff I am interested in and it's so frustrating. I also pace too and I get distracted easily but I am able to get back on task. I also want to do other things when I am doing something like watching a movie and I just feel bored.

Then other times I can just focus.

But ADD never explained all my problems so my mother knew I had something else and the treatment I was getting for it wasn't working. Plus my attention span has gotten better.