Is ADHD Linked With Autism?

Post Reply New Topic

Is ADHD Linked With Autism? Some people say it is, other say its not! :S

_________________
17, Diagnosed with Atypical Autism, Male

I think so. My fellow guitarist in my band has ADHD, and he is very similar to me(im autistic...aspie to be exact) I hear that some think ADHD is an asd.

Although the symptoms are fairly similar in some ways, they are not actually related in the sense that ADHD is not on the autistic spectrum. ADHD is a common co-morbid condition with autistic spectrum conditions though. In my case I have Tourettes so there was a 80% chance of having ADHD with that anyway.

_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

Hard to say. Likely comorbidity in many instances. Some similar impairments in executive function as well.

Anecdotally speaking, I was originally misdiagnosed as ADHD before Asperger's was later determined, and still take Ritalin for ADHD-like symptoms.

Like people have said asperger, ad(h)d, ocd and tourette are co-morbid. Which means if you have one you'll probably have traits of the other.

Just how pervasive is it, is the ASD criterion, e.g. sensory processing, social imaginations- aka theory of mind-- or reading body language are some.

And any thing less pervasive: So far, AHDH is a "developmental disorder." As many know on the board, there are many similarities in behavior, but technically you don't get the full boat , as the saying goes.

But, I believe it is more "pervasive" than that. Imaging studies show many domains being affected, and it is more than working memory in the executive branch of the brain. There can be sensory sensitivities, and differences in expressions on the emotional side.

Is that un-pervasive?

I've met a few people with ADHD in my life and all of them seemed to have some social differences. Not in an AS way, but there was still something about their behaviour style that was slightly different to a typical person. One of them was a 16-year-old boy at college, and he was so loud and hyper that sometimes other people grew tired of him and walked out of college at the end of the afternoon feeling a bit exhausted from him. But lucky for him, he seemed to still draw friendships to him because he was just too much in your face to keep him away, and sometimes people felt that they had no choice but to include him in their group. But his friendships didn't last very long though.

Then I knew a girl with ADHD, and she was more popular than I ever was, but also there was something a bit ''off'' about her. Just the way she behaved at times, and she sometimes said inappropriate things what upset other people, and even reacted to certain things in a slightly different way to what a typical person would. At first I thought she was being a bully, but when someone said she had ADHD, I suddenly then noticed that she couldn't help her actions and that she wasn't being nasty to impress her friends or to just be a horrible person or anything. And I then grew more understanding of her, and we then became good friends.

And I grew up with a boy who has ADHD. I remember him as a child more because I don't see him as an adult as much. But I remember when I was playing with him and some other children, he would always cause aggravation amoung the group. He always wanted to play games in a stupid way, for example he always wanted to ''pair off'' in every game and end up competing with eachother, until the game got a bit out of hand, and it always caused me to get past pretending to be angry and becoming angry for real and then not want to play the game any more. Also he always wanted to take control of every game, and sometimes it's not always what the other children wanted. They just wanted to co-operate in the game and just play it the way it should so that nobody gets left out, but my ADHD friend could not see that. He just didn't seem to know how to learn to compromise. That was just his social difficulty - he wanted everything to himself, or if he was in a group he would still take over like he was alone. That did annoy me a bit.

So not sure if ADHD is linked to Autism or not but they can appear socially awkward.

It is, there are several genes that have been found in autistic or ADHD people, but not NTs or something, there is definitely a genetic link between the two, at least in some cases.

My best friend in high school & coolege had ADHD.
Now he has children, one who has some ADHD. The other boy is looking like a definite case of Asperger's (one reason he was accepting of my condition.)
I wonder what this says about genetic effects in the AS?
I also showed some ADHD in School but also severe OCD, depression, anxiety etc. but Asperger's wasn't known back in the 70's & early 80's. Not well known, anyway.

Sincerely,
Matt