ADD v Aspergers

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I have been looking through posts about this and can't seem to find out what I am looking for.

I has been said a lot in places that it is common to have both. I just got an aspergers diagnosis last summer and it fits the bill. I do shut down when I get overwhelmed by noises, sights or images and I get very very easily drained from social interactions. The few things I mostly talk about are art, my nephews and with counsellors- trying to sort out my head. I am a perfectionist. I could go on with the list.
What is confusing me is I feel conflicted a lot. I'm still not sure how aspergers affects me, there are some days I question whether or not I have it, then other days when there is no doubt. I get very upset by any change and am very routine orientated. Yet I find it very hard to make a routine for myself and be able to keep it up. Right now I have the routine of getting out for college and it's all I can manage- literally getting up, putting on some clothes and walking out. I was told that people with aspergers have a solid routine. When I don't have college I have absolutely no routine and feel like crap for it. I have tried lists and setting routines but nothing ever sticks.
What really got me thinking about ADD is my attention. I find it very hard to focus. It's a little worse now cause I have a huge amount of workload and don't have the energy. Yet when I do get focused I would be lost in my work for days or weeks until I burn myself out. I have become quite restless and a tiny bit on the hyperactive side, there are times where I can't stop myself from talking and it really wears me out and there are times where I am the person that says nothing and doesn't participate in any social interactions as it wears me out so much. My tone of voice is quite loud at times. I don't have super sensitive senses- I can't handle crowds and loud noises and am sensitive to high pitched noises and do react badly to them often but nothing like a full on meltdown. I am sensitive to some forms of lights but it doesn't affect me much. Stim wise I pace, pick my lips, rub my neck or face when I am anxious or nervous, often have to have something in my hands to move repeatedly. My diet is absolutely crap and I either forget to eat or don't want to cause I want to work or am thinking of nothing but work.
I don't know what the symptoms of ADD are and am only beginning to understand Aspergers. I guess I am asking what are the symptoms of ADD/ADHD and does anything I mentioned fit- particularly the lack of focus and restlessness. How do I really know what I have is aspergers. I have social phobia and a small amount of GAD. Most of the time I am not aware of anything- even what is going on inside of me.

Restlessness and lack of focus are symptoms of many different disorders. People think attention problems = ADD but most disorders involve some kind of attention problems. In adults restlessness is more often a sign of anxiety. It would be hard to say whether you have ADD/ADHD based on what you wrote here.

ADD/ADHD affects inhibition. It makes it very hard to restrain yourself from acting on your impulses. You would probably have a history of very impulsive behavior, maybe even reckless behavior, like hotheadedness, mouthing off at people very easily, lots of driving accidents and/or speeding tickets, or being prone to road rage.

People with ADD/ADHD have a poor sense of time and how much time is passing. Lots of difficulty keeping a regular sleep cycle and getting up in the morning. It's hard to plan for the future or think about the future consequences of your actions. If it isn't "now" it doesn't seem important. You tend to procrastinate to the last minute on things because you need that impending sense of time running out to spur you into action.

You can get stuck on one thing and have trouble switching to another task. And you can also be easily distracted by things happening around you. It's really not that it's so difficult to pay attention to things, it's just difficult to choose WHAT you pay attention to. You need constant stimulation or feedback or motivation or rewards to stay focused on something.

It's hard to remember things and hold things in mind while you are doing something. Like if you walk into another room to get something, maybe your minds blanks out and you forget why you are there. If you are interrupted or distracted you may completely forget what you were doing before and it is hard to start back up again. One of the classic signs of ADD is putting something on the stove to cook and walking off and totally forgetting about it (and maybe coming back to find it burning).

I can relate to some of that but I don't know whether it's my aspergers.
While I can sit down to work- the amount I get done is very little because I daze off staring into space in procrastination yet I seem to be able to snap out of that the closer it's due. It's like if adrenaline kicks in or something or maybe anxiety. My sleep cycle is only ok because of the sedatives in my meds and even at that I need something to soothe me to sleep- right now it's the vibrations from a fan on my bed. Again that could be Aspergers.
I have huge trouble with getting stuck on one task and not being able to deviate from it. Right now it's college work- I find it very hard to do or think of anything else. Within the college work I find it hard as I have 4 projects on the go at the one time and am finding it difficult to hop from one task to the other. The feedback and I would say encouragement is what has gotten me this far.
My mind blanks a lot and I am very forgetful and remembering to do something when I am doing something else is very common for me but again I don't know whether that's because my mind is so focused all the time on my work that there is not much room for anything else.

What got me really thinking about it was even though I didn't want to I often start talking and can't stop for ages often running one topic into another. My brother is the same only worse. It was after living for a week with him that I noticed I sort of do the same thing. That and not being able to manage routines and feeling like crap from anxiety for it.

Check out Executive Function Disorder (EFT). A lot of what you describe falls under that, but a lot also seems to fall under ADD. Much of what you describe also falls under Asperger's. You may have them as co-morbids.

I have Asperger's and EFT, but from the description given by Dianthus, I may also fall under ADD. Although I don't have a big problem with impulse control, the other three paragraphs do fit me, so I guess that's another co-morbid for me. I did have some problems with impulse control when I was younger, though, so that is yet more reason to believe that this applies to me.

For the record, I don't belong to the hypochondriacs condition of the month club. In my ongoing research to understand my overall condition, I have come across a number of conditions that I have looked into to see if they had any relevance for me. A few have applied to me, but most have not, so no, I am not collecting conditions to claim I suffer from. When I find one that seems to fit my symptoms, I do further research into it to mine the research for help in dealing with my problems. Those conditions that don't apply to me I don't do follow-up research on, as it won't help me, and I don't have the energy or the time to ride the wrong horse.

Keep up with your research into your symptoms. It may help you in dealing with your problems, or at least in understanding them.

I'm beginning to think that I'm more ADD than classic Aspergers/Autism Spectrum. The descriptions of ADD seem to explain more of me/my behaviour, the bits which AS didn't "quite" cover. I've just been reading a bit about it, and so so much of it rings bells with me. The opening post here does too.

I think there's a lot of overlap, it's a spectrum after all; it's probably why Alex hasn't created a sub-forum specifically for it, as he did for bipolar etc, because ADD really falls into the same category.

Apparently regular exercise, and sunshine, and good/affectionate/regular/stable connections with other people, offline, and solid nights of sleep help.

But it takes skills simply to maintain those things, and I've started and stopped so many times I currently can't face trying again, such that I'm currently not doing any of them apart from the sleeping, and getting contact with my micro-family of one son ( and basic exchanges with his father when he's not away for work ), and excluding one of the main food opioid sources, gluten, ( because they apparently cause more disruption to the dopamine and/or serotonin deficiencies involved in ADD ) but bingeing on the other one, dairy, so not very helpful.
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I believe I just have ADHD with a few autistic tendencies rather than real autism. The majority of my "autistic symptoms" can be explained by ADHD.

I often have problems paying attention to social situations and that can make me miss some social cues. That problem was quite bad when I was a kid, but it got better when I forced myself to focus. I think that actual autistics would probably miss social cues without explicitly learning them. I just naturally got better picking them up by paying more attention.

I also have problems with doing socially inappropriate things. Most of it could be explained by my lack of impulse control. When I was younger I used to say all sorts of rude things. I knew that I was being rude most of the time. I just couldn't control myself.

I still do things that are rude, but it's mostly related to what I do or don't do rather than what I say. A lot of the time I'm rude because I'm too exhausted to do what's expected. I'm still aware of those expectations, I just don't have the energy to fulfill them.

I also have classical ADHD symptoms like being late all the time, being unable to focus on my school work, having a hard time focusing on everything including interesting stuff, occasional hype focus and hyperactivity.