ADHD over-dx diluted ASD credibility?

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I know this might offend some people who are legitimately ADHD, but for a while I've felt that ADHD is a "vanilla diagnosis" used by laypeople or incompetent psychiatrists (the latter being less common nowadays), who don't know what other label to use. After a while, this became public perception, that ADHD was being over-diagnosed, e.g. a kid in school fails a couple of tests, and the teacher and the school counselor decide that the kid must have ADHD - without investigating other factors like maybe the kid misinterpreted the instructions or was distracted by sensory input in his surroundings or anxious about bullying.

So, enter the Asperger dimension: as a result of this ADHD over-dx, people with Aspergers like myself and the majority of people on this forum, tend to have their diagnosis discounted by laypeople. I have had a few occasions where I explained my condition to a layperson, only to receive a flippant reply such as: "Well, you know, for so long they've diagnosed those kids in schools with ADHD, or whatever the latest fashionable label is, and I just think that some people have different things to work on than others."

Heck, even after my diagnosis of Aspergers in 2001, I still had the occasional person ask me if I had ADHD, and at an old job, had colleagues spread gossip that I must have ADHD.

But the reality is that Aspergers is far more serious, and debilitating, than ADHD. The prognosis for ADHD is more benign than ASD for sure.

Is this phenomenon part of a collective "cry wolf" mentality? And is there any way we Aspies can deal with our condition being trivialized as a result?

The "phenomenon" is a lack in understanding of any disorders by healthy people.

Suffering fools gladly is what really works.

I doubt it's because of ADHD, which is underdiagnosed and undertreated.

There are people who want y'all to believe that ADHD is overdiagnosed (the Church of Scientology for one, as well as its countless subsidiaries), or people who just don't get it, and think that ADHD isn't a real disorder in the first place.

If you're running around saying that ADHD is overdiagnosed, you fell for a scam. I'm not saying it is never misdiagnosed in people who don't have it, but it is much more common that people who have it never get diagnosed at all.

Anyway, you're not going to find a single first cause for why people think of Asperger's Syndrome as "not a real disorder," least of all this one. Although I have to admit I get tired of hearing people characterize it as a "mild form of autism."

Also, if you want to complain about public perceptions of AS, I should point out a lot of people on this forum like to insist that AS is nothing more than a personality type or a difference and not a disorder or a disability at all. Not that they are strictly at fault for causing that perception. Ableism (link) is more likely a significant cause for that perception.

I have ADHD as well as being on the autistic spectrum. I say that to clarify that I am not offended by your false overgeneralization. But I want to ask that you not try to cast doubt on ADHD diagnoses in order to explain/understand why people don't get AS.

Regarding ADHD overdiagnosis:

http://jad.sagepub.com/content/11/2/106.short

I think in my case, the reason ADHD seems overdiagnosed is a combination of three reasons.

1. When I was in 3rd grade suddenly a bunch of kids (definitely more than 7% of my class) were given this diagnosis. They tried to force it on me as well. I could see some people actually being ADHD, but it seems like there was a particularly high rate, without a particularly strong reason, at the point at which I became aware of ADHDs existence.

2. People tried very hard to force that label on me (who were not doctors, professionals laughed at the idea and pointed out that I was intelligent and bored).

3. I know someone with NPD who uses an ADHD as an excuse to get more attention while not showing impairments from it (and admitting its a mild case). Things to do with this person are in some ways automatically biased in my view points.


However, overall I think that people don't discredit AS because of ADHD. I think they discredit AS for a combination of how people talk about it and simple ableism of not understanding.

People I know don't think AS is fake, they think its a mild social difference and not really autism, and why do you call yourself autistic if you're an aspie. They see the stereotypes of people saying how its only a difference and don't see the impairments.

I believe ADHD overdiagnosis does happen on a local level, but not on the global level that many think.

I agree with you (Tuttle) about how AS is viewed.

ADHD is poor regulation of attention/ motivation/ memory/ energy. Is Aspergers? NO! It is very tiring living with ADHD. Humans rely on the frontal lobe to organise, socialise, work, budget, clean, raise families, not forget the simplest of things that could land you in debt/ divorce/ someone shaking their head at you/ a car accident or locking oneself out of their home.

Asperger's = long term memory
ADHD = poor memory retention, both short term and long term

Asperger's = increased concentration on subjects of interest
ADHD = Interests in far too much and never spend long enough on a single topic.

Executive dysfunction is far more impaired in ADHD than autism. In ADHD you can have a person realising they need to get something done but lack the brain chemistry to get it done, in autism it's down to what interests them more. I'm not just saying that, I have witnessed it.

It's hard being hyperactive too. Not being able to focus at anything at all and needing to move. You offend people with your tactless speech and wonder why they are suddenly so mad at you. Why can't they just see life as a game like you? Not to forget the hyperfocus that can have you doing many crazy impulsive things and then suddenly having you stop and realising what you have done, but it's too late because all your energy is exhausted.

Don't get me started on inattentive symptoms. Can't move. Can't think. Can't...oh f***k it, forgot what I talking about *moans* might just go back to sleep.

ADHD is having no control of what you do when you do it and only a small window of focus is opened at a time. It is far more exhausting than autism. Autism is still tough. I shut down in public and around high sensory environments. I need routine and repetition. But ADHD is pretty constant as long as I'm not on medication. To be human means to have a working frontal lobe and mine chooses when it wants to work and only for a short time.

I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD into my adulthood and being on medication has been far more helpful than being diagnosed with autism.

ADHD and AS is probably misdiagnosed in certain people. Both disorders are alike so it's very hard to know which one a person has for sure. I know I have both.

Yes your post is offensive to me, a person who continuously struggles with ADHD. It should be renamed severe executive dysfunction and motor regulation disorder, or something to that affect.

I think a lot of people, even professionals, fail to realise what ADHD really is. It's not some hyperactive inattentive forgetful child. It's someone not in control of attention/ energy/ memory/ emotions. It's like all of that gets exhausted far too quickly to be of any use.

People probably don't take AS seriously because right now autism is all throughout the news and people are used to autism being a very serious disorder. People might relate to some symptoms and compare themselves to other people and because they're doing ok then other people like them should be doing ok too. No one really takes into account the severity scale of the symptoms.

I'm going to take a shot at answering this, because I myself didn't take AS too seriously when I first looked into it after a psychologist suggested I might have it.

From briefly reading the description of symptoms it basically sounded to me like the clinical diagnosis of being a nerd. I think I actually described it this way to some people I know! Of course, upon looking deeper into it I realised there's more to it than that. I guess I missed the fact that it's an actual neurological difference the first time and focused on the symptoms - and the symptoms, as described in Wikipedia and whatever other pages I read at the time are general enough and vague enough that you could get many geeky/nerdy people to fit them if you tried hard enough. Another, related, reason was that I just didn't see the implications of having AS. I thought "OK, so I'm a bit different to others. I already know that. How does it matter to me whether I'm different because I have condition X or I'm different for some other reason? What would it change?"

It was only reading WP that really convinced me that Aspies are genuinely "wired differently" and that I am one. The thing is, most people won't do anywhere near that amount of research. Most certainly won't read WP! I could hardly expect them to when I myself didn't (initially). It was a bit of a catch-22: I wouldn't take it seriously until I did more research and I wasn't particularly motivated to do more research since I didn't take it seriously.

So just as people may dismiss ADHD with "so you can't pay attention? that's the whole problem? drink a cup of coffee!" they might dismiss AS with "so you're not very social - well, you can learn to be if you try, right? spend less time on the computer and more time talking to people and it might get easier". pensieve did a very good job of explaining ADHD and perhaps someone can do the same for AS in a way that would be understood well by the average person. I would start with: "It's not about being shy or nerdy, it's about how you understand social interaction. NTs understand it intuitively, while Aspies have to learn it scientifically." To me that was the critical point and I don't think it's generally explained very well.

I know someone who was told by her child's school (no-one at the school is medically qualified to diagnosis anything, really) that her child has ADHD because he plays up in class. His mum replied with "well, he wouldn't be naughty if he was given the support he needs". He's visually impaired.

I don't believe it's over-diagnosed, just over-hyped.

It's hard for people with ADHD too. I have only told two acquaintances at school about my ADHD and both outright told me that they don't believe ADHD exists. If anything, I think inattentive ADHD is sorely overlooked in favor of the predominantly hyperactive variant. There are many in my family who don't believe I have it, simply because "I'm well-behaved and not hyper". However, I have trouble sitting through movies, I have yet to beat a single RPG video game and I am daydreaming 24/7, in addition to being extremely forgetful and having a poor short term memory, but an excellent long term memory. Finally, I can really only focus on things concerning my special interests, regardless of how important the object in question i need to focus on is. I have always eaten healthy and was never given much junk food to eat as a kid, yet many insist I was raised with a poor diet and are still skeptical about my diagnosis and ADHD in general. I don't even tell anyone I have it anymore unless it's necessary.

It's tough, but I believe that the media is also partly to blame for AS being taken lightly. Either autistics are portrayed as severely disabled souls deserving of pity, or as geniuses and prodigies who have their life set out for them and will have no trouble once they're out in the real world. I would love to see at least once, a news interview where someone who has ADHD or Autism isn't stereotyped as a hyperactive basket case or a savant, and does struggle quite a bit in their daily lives, despite being high-functioning. It'd also be nice if their main focus wasn't always on children. pensieve summed everything up a lot better than I could have though.