Aspergers plus ADHD, I feel like my life is ONLY chaos.

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Hi! First post here.
I was diagnosed with ADHD a caouple of years ago, when going to a psychiatrist due to alcohol problems, and before summer i got an Asperger diagonis during the same treatment run. The alcohol problems are slowly waning off, but i feel like it is hard to function after i got to know of my Asperger diagnosis. I've started noticing more and more issues, that had never been issues before. I have a lot of insecurity about who i am and how to live with the chaos around me after leaving the bottle.

From what i understand i've been self-medicating for most of my teenage/young adult life so far and i'm sure that i would have had these problems without the self-medicating... So what i'm really wondering is if there is anyone with an Asperger and ADHD diagnosis who has any input on how to move on with my life away from the bottle, and how to deal with life with these issues?

There seems to be a gazillion sources on how to cope with just one of the diagnoses but close to zero sources on how to deal with them in tandem.

Congratulations on getting away from the bottle.

Have you any university plans?

Aspie and ADHD. Although I only figured out I'm an aspie recently, and I've never drank.

If I'm not totally absorbed in ten different things at the same time, I'm completely overwhelmed by just how hopeless things seem.
I've never had to deal with an addiction yet (other than cigarettes, still trying to deal with that), but I've been around it a bit in the past.
It seems like, generally, finding something relatively positive to do instead is a good place to start. If you can find support, like meetings maybe, that seems to help people. Learn to meditate, work out, get into cooking, read, go to school. Anything positive that can occupy your time and a little bit of your mind and start to pick you back up.
That's all I can come up with right now.

I'm close with autism and add.

I have no magical advice for you. Nothing I can say that can make any meaningful impact in the here and now. You have to just take each day as a separate entity. Be patient in yourself. Some days will be good, some days will be bad. It's really something you have to learn to live with. Learn how to function, how to accomplish in a way that works best for you. How to organize the chaos to work better for you. You get to learn about you and how you can cope with things. How to do something you don't have any interest in, find boring, etc. How to maintain focus on the project at hand. You can do things like give yourself a reasonable time limit and once that time limit is reached, you're not longer required to work on that task, finished or not. Do what is best for you, don't worry about having to impress anyone.

I'm not going to tell you everything will be rainbows and unicorns. Some days I still don't function well. Though that may be the added bonus of dysthymia. You'll find what works best for you but it'll take some work, still the work isn't complicated. Be patient. Trust yourself. You'll get there.

I can't comment on medication. I've tried medication for the ADD, but I just get agitated and that is NOT helpful. I've been taking medication for about 20 years and I still forget to take it some days.

Oh, and get a pet. I cannot stress enough just how much a pet can help. Even if it's only a goldfish. It can set you in to a routine because you kind of have to remember to feed them every day. You can start with a plant and work your way up.


I'm sorry. I tend to not make much sense (well...less sense) or be able to convey what I mean to say when I'm tired. I can type more later. Keep on keeping on.

Yeah I've always been absorbed with cooking. Cooking is just one of those things that make sense to me, but i can never relax when im doing it. I am kindof my friends designated cook, mostly because i really struggle to eat badly prepared food, usually because of texture.
I also understand the "i absolutely need to focus on 10 things at the same time" urge, but i have found it to stress me even more. But since breaking my bad drinking routine, i seem to have lost control on a multitude of things, and i'm struggling a lot more than i did when drinking because i get to experience this whole new level of emotional complexity when socialising and it's really wearing me out. Also meditating is something i've also taken a liking to in the last week. And reading too. In the last week i've read some 1300 pages for pleasure which i have not done in years.



I am studying information technology at the University of Oslo. Apparently i'm somewhat skilled at that too. My study technique sucks, but im making 66% progress. Thank god university is free in Norway.

What does 66% mean in Norway?

It's pretty good, about a "B" in the U.K.

It's a "D" in the US, though.

I also have Aspergers and ADHD.

I also feel the chaos you mention and also have self medicated during my life as well.

I use use prescription medication these days, Ritalin. It works and I can now hold down a job and function.

I'm still a "little weirdo". They're my boss's words by the way.

Good luck.

Inattentive ADHD and HFA here. I take dexamphetamine for my ADHD and have for 13 years. There are days when I think I'm taking a placebo and nothing goes right, but they are not every day thankfully.

You've truly done an awesome thing by giving up the drink. I know it's hard after seeing my dad go through the same thing.

And uni too, thumbs up.

I feel your pain my friend as I have Asperger's Syndrome as well as ADHD too. For me, add to that mix Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. My therapist classifies my current anxiety status as "inconceivable."

Some days I feel like a firecracker in a bottle with all of this crazy energy and no where to spend it on. I'm on Mirtazapine right now and that seems to do the trick for sleeping issues but I'm not getting the other medications I need for the other problems due to lack of money so it's creating issues at work especially. Therapy is helping a great deal and that's probably the best solution to all of that mess that I have.

The forums right here on Wrong Planet are an immense source of therapy and the best thing to do is to stay glued to these forums and try and be as positive a contributor as you can and you'll find that it will help out a great deal with the problems that you have too.

And welcome to Wrong Planet!

Hi, I have Asperger's and was diagnosed with ADD a few years back and based off your profile I'm only about a year younger than you. It seems you've been self medicating with alcohol which I haven't done since I've only recently reached legal drinking age and don't like the taste of alcohol nor have the money to spend on it.

Try finding some material from people with both ASD and ADHD. Also start paying more attention to yourself. When I got diagnosed with Asperger's I went through a lot of introspection (still am) and I'm starting to learn and realize more about myself that my insecurities have started going away.

Yeah a part of the problem is that i really struggle to find material covering both diagnoses at once. It seems impossible to find sources that covers the crossover of the two.

To KraftieKortie the 66% means i only take 66% of courses i should take in a semester. Right now i'm heaviliy subsidized by the state(thank Marx... I like using the right kind of thanks to where they belong), and university is free here so no problems. I study Information Technology with an emphasis on NLP(natural language processing) and NNP(neural network programming). Getting mostly B's and C's

Sorry for not answering all of you right now, had a problem where i was banned for noe reason whatsoever :S

Have both ASD and predominantly inattentive ADHD, I tried most of the ADHD meds and couldnt tolerate the side effects so I stopped them. I tried Methylphenidate IR, SR, CR, Concerta, Wellbutrin SR, XL, Dexedrine IR, Vyvanse, Adderall XR, for which Adderall XR worked the best of them. On Adderall XR my grades went from 60% to low 90s but it made me really agitated, caused my mood to go up and down like a rollercoaster, worsened my already chronic sleeping issues, altered the taste of my food and destroyed my appetite so I quit it. I am still on plenty of other meds but nothing for ADHD.

I currently am on disability and can't focus worth s**t unless it is a special interest of mine. I have also struggled with impuslivity from time to time which has caused quite a bit of problems in my life.

I haven't been through the same amount of meds that you have, but i do take Ritalin on a day to day basis. In the time i had a drug/drinking habit I wasn't allowed to have Ritalin in Norway as it is listed as a narcotic, end then we tried the Wellbutrin XL instead. That truly set me on an emotional rollercoaster. I managed to say some really hurtful things to my aunt during my birthday celebration, and we still don't talk. Not that it matters because she's a toxic person.

Right now i am really happy because I just got my grades for the semester back and i scored quite well for being me.

One thing that is bothering me though, my girlfriend gets really on edge every time i manage to leave like a piece of empty packaging or something, like anywhere. And she has a temper, understandably, that has built up quite a lot over the last year living with me. Not asking for sympathies really, but do any of you have any tips on how i can remember s**t like that? It's one of those things where i get an impulse to do something and i just don't even register leaving stuff in places.