This is something that I had been wanting to do for some time, but never quite got around to it...
I think I may have found a highly regarded psychologist here in town that specializes in ADHD but is knowledgable about ASD and is open to the idea of re-assesing me in regards to having both. More and more I think that could be the answer. As soon as my money situation improves (hopefully in a couple of months) I will be going to see him.
I'm sure your list will be helpful to a lot of people! _________________ "Meddle not in the affairs of dragons; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Joined: Oct 08, 2011 Age: 16 Posts: 3599 Location: Indonesia
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 11:30 am Post subject:
Joe90 wrote:
I actually have practically all of the traits in the ADHD list, but was diagnosed with AS.
Yes. I think that I have both, or else I'm seriously confused. _________________ Cinnamon and sugary
Softly Spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes
In 1975 I was misdiagnosed with ADHD and put into special education. In 2010 at age 40 I was diagnosed with having Asperger's Syndrome and the doctor found no signs of learning disabilities so for 10 years I was given a substandard education for nothing. Everyday from first grade to tenth grade I was torment in some way or fashion for being in special education classes. _________________ There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die -Hunter S. Thompson
I actually have practically all of the traits in the ADHD list, but was diagnosed with AS.
Yes. I think that I have both, or else I'm seriously confused.
I think it's quite possible to have both... and from what I've seen, there are quite a few people who do. I don't know the actual statistics, but it seems to be pretty common. _________________ I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
In 1975 I was misdiagnosed with ADHD and put into special education. In 2010 at age 40 I was diagnosed with having Asperger's Syndrome and the doctor found no signs of learning disabilities so for 10 years I was given a substandard education for nothing. Everyday from first grade to tenth grade I was torment in some way or fashion for being in special education classes.
Sorry to hear that your education failed you a bit. I get the feeling that your story isn't an uncommon one, especially since AS wasn't really a common diagnosis at that time. Maybe I should add that "Some people with AS are misdiagnosed with ADHD, while others with ADHD are misdiagnosed with AS. There are also some people who have both ADHD and AS, but never receive a diagnosis for either." The unfortunate thing, I think, is that a lot of people get misdiagnosed, while a lot of people don't get diagnosed at all.
I was on the other side of the fence. Mainly, I got evaluated for ADHD when I was younger and showed that pattern. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell me or get me in for any treatment. I ended up making it all the way to college before it finally started becoming a real issue. Before that, I was able to compensate by intelligence mostly. I barely studied, procrastinated like mad, and frequently forgot to bring my materials. So I often didn't credit even when I DID manage to get the assignment done properly. Very frustrating, indeed, and I thought it was all due to personal failings. I remember one my 6th grade science teachers was convinced I was just lazy.
Did I absolutely need special services and medication? No. I was functioning enough without it. That said, I would've appreciated knowing that some of my troubles were due to something other than just "not trying hard enough".
In your case, I think you might've benefited from receiving some services, but not by being forced to attend special ed classes. I can only imagine that it must've been another level of torture added to the already horrific middle school and high school years. Well, a little personal bias is showing through on my part. I wasn't too happy around that time. Haha. I'm glad that things improved once I got to college. _________________ I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
Joined: Feb 24, 2011 Age: 40 Posts: 2320 Location: Budapest, Hungary, Europe
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:40 pm Post subject:
I think I have both AS traits and ADHD traits. They showed up in my childhood equally. I have the impulsiveness, the inattentiveness, I'm basically disorganized, like to procrastinate, but also like to stick to routines when it comes to work and I like to break them sometimes, although I have totally non-functional routines too, and I like sameness in general.
(Thank You, Syrella) _________________ Another non-English speaking - DX'd at age 38
"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam." (Hannibal) - Latin for "I'll either find a way or make one."
Joined: Feb 24, 2011 Age: 40 Posts: 2320 Location: Budapest, Hungary, Europe
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject:
dr01dguy wrote:
(...)
How much of that is "Aspie", how much of that is "ADD", and how much of it is due to two semi-conflicting conditions fighting for dominance, is anybody's guess. Personally, I think that particular "aspie" trait is just a common coping mechanism rather than an inherent trait. IMHO, the entire DSM does a crap job of identifying and differentiating between things that are inherent and caused by biology, vs things that are just coping mechanisms or their related side effects.
I personally hate the artificial division between psychiatry and neurology, and wish there were a middle category like "psychiatric neurology" for doctors who are kind of like the medical equivalent of embedded software engineers (where you have people who do mostly hardware design and others who do mostly software design, but very few who don't end up touching both ends of the design process at one point or another).
I tend to agree with you, and I identify with the other part of your post, too.
Joined: Feb 27, 2011 Age: 26 Posts: 2899 Location: In the Andes, counting the stars and wondering if one of them is home to another civilization
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:21 pm Post subject:
Dr. Russell Barkley comes to clarify that people with ADHD don't "hyperfocus", a persistent myth among ADHD advocates, they have the seriously disabling trait known as "perseveration". 'Hyperfocusing goes with autism, Perseveration goes with ADHD' were his infallible words.
Last edited by swbluto on Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:57 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: Feb 24, 2010 Posts: 8267 Location: Great Britain
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:24 pm Post subject:
Well I wasn't hyperactive as a child. Well, I was to a certain extent, but all children are. But I mean I wasn't enough to meet the ADHD criteria. If I had a ball when out in the street, I used to bounce it carefully, trying my best to avoid it bouncing onto the road. But my friend (who had ADHD) used to lose control of the ball and ''forget'' that there is a road right next to him, and is used to happen again and again. I just thought that was one example of hyperactivity in a child, but I could be wrong, since all kids are different. But I suppose if I did have ADHD, I probably would've kept losing control of the ball and bouncing it like there's no tomorrow.
Otherwise, I seem to have more points on the ADHD list than I do the Autism list. _________________ Real gender: Female
From: East UK
Age: 23
I've been reading about giftedness too. It seems it can be hard to tell if someone is gifted/NT or has Aspergers or ADHD or is both gifted and has one or other of them. I'm trying to get my head round the whole thing. It seems that I come into the category of giftedness (I went to school a year early as I was identified as gifted), but I suspect either ADHD or Aspergers too. ADHD sounds closer to me, but I definitely do hyperfocus. However, giftedness can also present like these as well, so maybe it's only that. Gifted people can have the sensory issues too, so I've read, so it really isn't easy to distinguish the 3. I'm going round in circles thinking about this.
My daughter is even more of an enigma. She's not obviously academically gifted like I was, but I know for sure that she's extremely bright, as does any adult she speaks to. She won a prize at school today for her art work too (very proud Mum here). She has behaviour problems, which make her stand out much more than I did at her age. We had been thinking that this was down to Aspergers, as this is what the diagnosis is looking like, even though I know Aspergers does not always come with the challenging behaviour that she presents with. But, I'm wondering if the giftedness is impacting much more on her behaviour than we could have imagined, and the Aspergers isn't quite so pronounced. Until about a year ago, I thought she had a mild form of ADHD.
I've ordered 'When the Labels Don't Fit' and hope to get some answers from there. _________________ "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiatic about." Charles Kingsley
Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 3122 Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:14 pm Post subject:
Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:
I've been reading about giftedness too. It seems it can be hard to tell if someone is gifted/NT or has Aspergers or ADHD or is both gifted and has one or other of them.
I've known a lot of gifted NTs, and in my experience, they are not much like people with AS. They may appear socially awkward or distant to mainstream NTs, but they appear very socially adept to me and interact very well with each other. Gifted NTs are just as alien to me as mainstream NTs. Some gifted NTs have a few autistic traits with low severity, e.g. interests that they pursue as hobbies or careers but not to the intensity of ASD special interests, but they still understand the social stuff intuitively, even if they don't care to apply what they know, because it bores or annoys them.
Joined: Oct 08, 2011 Age: 16 Posts: 3599 Location: Indonesia
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:26 pm Post subject:
Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:
I've been reading about giftedness too. It seems it can be hard to tell if someone is gifted/NT or has Aspergers or ADHD or is both gifted and has one or other of them. I'm trying to get my head round the whole thing. It seems that I come into the category of giftedness (I went to school a year early as I was identified as gifted), but I suspect either ADHD or Aspergers too. ADHD sounds closer to me, but I definitely do hyperfocus. However, giftedness can also present like these as well, so maybe it's only that. Gifted people can have the sensory issues too, so I've read, so it really isn't easy to distinguish the 3. I'm going round in circles thinking about this.
My daughter is even more of an enigma. She's not obviously academically gifted like I was, but I know for sure that she's extremely bright, as does any adult she speaks to. She won a prize at school today for her art work too (very proud Mum here). She has behaviour problems, which make her stand out much more than I did at her age. We had been thinking that this was down to Aspergers, as this is what the diagnosis is looking like, even though I know Aspergers does not always come with the challenging behaviour that she presents with. But, I'm wondering if the giftedness is impacting much more on her behaviour than we could have imagined, and the Aspergers isn't quite so pronounced. Until about a year ago, I thought she had a mild form of ADHD.
I've ordered 'When the Labels Don't Fit' and hope to get some answers from there.
So I'm not the only who feels completely disoriented by these three things right now. _________________ Cinnamon and sugary
Softly Spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes
Joined: Feb 27, 2011 Age: 26 Posts: 2899 Location: In the Andes, counting the stars and wondering if one of them is home to another civilization
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:59 pm Post subject:
Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:
I've been reading about giftedness too. It seems it can be hard to tell if someone is gifted/NT or has Aspergers or ADHD or is both gifted and has one or other of them. I'm trying to get my head round the whole thing. It seems that I come into the category of giftedness (I went to school a year early as I was identified as gifted), but I suspect either ADHD or Aspergers too. ADHD sounds closer to me, but I definitely do hyperfocus. However, giftedness can also present like these as well, so maybe it's only that. Gifted people can have the sensory issues too, so I've read, so it really isn't easy to distinguish the 3. I'm going round in circles thinking about this.
My daughter is even more of an enigma. She's not obviously academically gifted like I was, but I know for sure that she's extremely bright, as does any adult she speaks to. She won a prize at school today for her art work too (very proud Mum here). She has behaviour problems, which make her stand out much more than I did at her age. We had been thinking that this was down to Aspergers, as this is what the diagnosis is looking like, even though I know Aspergers does not always come with the challenging behaviour that she presents with. But, I'm wondering if the giftedness is impacting much more on her behaviour than we could have imagined, and the Aspergers isn't quite so pronounced. Until about a year ago, I thought she had a mild form of ADHD.
I've ordered 'When the Labels Don't Fit' and hope to get some answers from there.
The book "different minds" differentiates between Aspergers and ADHD among gifted individuals, and provides really good examples of "regular giftedness", "ADHD giftedness" and "Autistic giftedness" and pretty thoroughly compares between the types.
Joined: Nov 19, 2008 Age: 27 Posts: 7452 Location: Sydney, Australia
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 7:57 pm Post subject:
btbnnyr wrote:
Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:
I've been reading about giftedness too. It seems it can be hard to tell if someone is gifted/NT or has Aspergers or ADHD or is both gifted and has one or other of them.
I've known a lot of gifted NTs, and in my experience, they are not much like people with AS. They may appear socially awkward or distant to mainstream NTs, but they appear very socially adept to me and interact very well with each other. Gifted NTs are just as alien to me as mainstream NTs. Some gifted NTs have a few autistic traits with low severity, e.g. interests that they pursue as hobbies or careers but not to the intensity of ASD special interests, but they still understand the social stuff intuitively, even if they don't care to apply what they know, because it bores or annoys them.
I know many gifted NT's and one thing that sticks out for me is they like to be social and are very capable of it. My niece says she has some friends with no social skills whatsoever but I think it's an exaggeration. I've met most of her friends and if they can party all night then they have some social skills. And they don't always drink alcohol.
One of them tried to tell me what was 'couch etiquette' which I held off explaining to her that I don't follow social rules. Not ones that ridiculous. I'm on the couch more than them so I will act whatever way I choose to. They feel kind of sorry for me because I'm always on my own, but I really don't care to be around them because to me they are just NT as the rest. Oversocialised and uninteresting.
Note: I'm generalising, I know. I going through a bit of stress to do with NT's, denial of diagnostic labels and damn organic good or Earth friendly products that cost a fortune. So, I have some issues.
And I'll just add Russell Barkley will never say anything positive about ADHD. He wants to dispel the whole 'gifted' perception and wants people to see ADHD as a real disability. Quite right to. _________________ My autism blog - http://latedx.wordpress.com
My completely random though usually about Doctor Who blog - http://alonsy.tumblr.com/
