Is disorganisation a symptom of Asperger's?

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My psychiatrist says I have 'mild Asperger;s' but when I explained that I'm very disorganised and am not neat and tidy, he wondered if it was ADHD instead. Can disorganisation be a symptom of Asperger's? My somewhat stereotypical view, which I think my psychiatrist shares, is that people with Asperger's are more on the OCD side of neat (think Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory) but is that the truth or can executive dysfunction affect organisation?

I would love to be neat but I never seem to manage it. I feel like I have dyslexia of organisation, I just cannot see how to do it, it takes me a long time to tidy things up but I can cause a mess in an instant. I hate being such a mess, it really stresses me out, I spend many weekends either avoiding tidying or desperately trying to get my flat tidy. I tried ADD medication about 12 years ago and it did help me tidy things, but I also ended up building databases at 3am when I was on it. I've thought about getting a cleaner although I'd struggle to afford it and I don't like the though of a stranger coming into my flat. It would make me keep the flat tidy as I was brought up not to let people see the mess.

I feel that Asperger's probably suits me more than ADHD, but could my disorganisation indicate co-morbid ADHD?

Symptom of executive disfunction, often associated with ASD, ADHD, schizophrenia, dementia, etc.

Autism is, at it's core, hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli. That hypersensitivity makes the world seem too loud and too intense and makes it very difficult to mentally juggle all the data coming in.

The reason organization is important to people in this condition, for the same reason we prefer to adhere to strict routines, is that the more of our daily experience we can control, the less unexpected stimuli we're likely to encounter, that might cause us to feel overwhelmed.

So, the tendency to keep well organized is a direct response to the seeming chaos that pounds and pummels our senses every waking moment. Can you be dis-organized and still be autistic? Yes, but you will likely be unhappy and stressed out because of it.

I tend to be very organized, everything in its place. My cans of soup and spaghetti and meat balls have their place. My music and video collection have their place. My remote controls have their place. My clothes have their place. By default I'm just that way.

No but it's NOT uncommon in people with ASD. People with ASD TEND to be either VERY organized or VERY disorganized.

I'm VERY disorganized.

I have to keep everything in its place or I forget about it.
I'm very absent-minded, maybe that is similar to being disorganized, or maybe it causes it.
When I'm not stressed, I can remember where everything is no matter where I put it, but I'm very stressed now.
I even have two shelves in my room, one for consumables and one for everything else. I even have my own personal spoon and fork and dishes and pans that I use. Somehow, everyone thinks that I am not ready to live on my own, but I practically own half of the stuff in the house. I even have my own induction burner that cost me only $50 on cyber monday.

personally organized timewise, but physical space is messy.

I typically go through cycles: by default, I'm very tidy and organized, but as time goes by and especially as I'm using some of my stuff and have to take it out, and just leave it lyring somewhere out of convenience, my space tends to become very disorganised. As the chaos grows, I will feel an urge to organise it all again, and the cycle continues and so on and so forth...

First, I have to say I am not medically diagnosed, but the patterns of organization and disorganization in my life are one of the things that I could relate to when reading about AS. I am currently a rather disorganized person, but I really don't enjoy it, and compared to some past parts of my life I am stressed and anxious, probably at least partly because of that.

When I was in middle and high school I followed a rather strict routine and I liked it. I wasn't very stresed and I had a lot of energy. During high school I got up at 7 and went to bed at 1:30 in the morning every day (including weekends and small holidays), I was never tired and I felt great. Then, until 4-5 years ago I had a quite similar routine around my studies, my work and my personal life. There was slightly more unexpected elements in my life but I could handle them. I sometimes became a bit depressed because of other concerns (my work started getting a bit less interesting) but it was basically OK.

Then I met my girlfriend and we eventually moved in together. Living with someone is much more unpredicable than living alone (you have to deal with the other person's emotions, whims, desires and behaviours) so I couldn't maintain the same level of organization. In addition to that, she made me notice the repetitive and rigid patterns in my life and we went on to change them. I really don't blame her for that, none of us had any idea I may have an autistic disorder at the time, and she just wanted to help me become a less boring and more lively person. (I agreed with that, I often found I was slightly boring indeed and in many ways I was attracted to her because she was not.)

It did not go well and I think it is the moment where I became much more anxious and stressed in my daily life. Only work gave me some kind of stability, and as I mentioned it was a bit boring at the time, and sometimes stressful in its own way. I also felt like I had lost most of the focus I had when I was doing things and I was achieving much less in my daily life. About 2 year later I fell into a real depression and it took me 1 and half year to start really recovering. I'm still in the process of understanding the exact causes of it but I think the amount of chaos and unpredictability in my life, combined with some new social demands I couldn't meet, were at the root of it.

Now I have moved abroad for work and I have been living on my own again for 6 months. I have therefore (unconsciously) started to setup some new routines and structures in my life, and although I am still stressed and sometimes depressed, I feel like I am mostly in control of my life again and my emotional stability and resilience have improved greatly.

I have only really understood that a few weeks ago, after reading about AS and realizing I probably have an ASD. The consequence is that I am now considering willingly introducing more structure and organization in my life on purpose, since it seems it is what I need.

I tend to feel that "a place for everything and everything in its place" is correct.

My problem is that I don't have a place for everything. If you don't have a place for everything, then it is impossible to put everything in its place.

When I have enough storage space for everything to have its place, I tend to be very neat. When I don't have enough storage space, I start stacking things up and trying to find a place for everything eventually becomes so overwhelming that I give up trying to be neat.

Though not part of the diagnostic criteria for ASD, many aspies have executive dysfunction. That means we have trouble with scheduling and being organized. For me, I think it is part of the hyper focus that sometimes comes with AS. I get lost in a zone and time just flies by. I mean to get around to cleaning but I never do. My area always looks like a cyclone hit it unless I get punished for leaving things messy (like at work). Also, I heard that ADHD was like Asperger's, but I could be wrong. If ADHD is like Asperger's it wouldn't surprise me if they share some symptoms.