Are a lot of Aspies misdiagnosed with ADHD?

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I’ve been doing a lot of research lately since I think I may be on the spectrum. What’s confusing is that I’ll watch a YouTube video or read a post about ASD and there would be people who comment “that sounds exactly like me and I have ADHD” or that the two disorders are “very similar”. Is this really the case or do you think there are probably just a lot of misdiagnosed Aspies? I know they overlap in certain areas (like executive function issues) but there seem to be a lot of things attributed to ADD that really sound more like autistic traits.

It gets especially confusing when reading about the “inattentive” type. From what I gather there seem to be two types of people that get diagnosed with this.

The first type really isn’t that different from ADHD, they’re just missing the hyperactivity. Or in some cases, there may still be some hyperactivity present, it’s just not as pronounced as the other symptoms.

The second group of people are those who seem to be the POLAR OPPOSITE of typical ADHD. These are the types that Get other symptoms attributed to them that are unrelated to the original ADD criteria. They are often referred to as “spacy”, and “lost in their own world”. There were also other traits mentioned for this type such as:

Motor coordination problems/delays
Shyness, extreme introversion
And even
Doesn’t like change, risk averse, needs routine.
And
Social problems not because of social mistakes (ADHD) but not knowing how to interact in the first place.
This sounds WAY more like ASD than ADD/ADHD.

This is why I’m wondering if there are a lot of Aspies out there who think they are “just AD/HD” but are actually misdiagnosed. It seems like the psychologists themselves are confused!

Curious to hear people’s experiences.

I was diagnosed as Level 2 Autism, with co-morbid C-PTSD, MDD, GAD, Agoraphobia and Selective Mutism. I also suffered a stroke three years prior to my ASD assessment. I got a very thorough 20 page report but felt there was something "missing" in my evaluation, even though I fully identify with all of the doctor's findings. I felt like there was something else on top of all the other diagnoses because of my difficulty paying attention, but I assumed that I was tested for ADHD during the Autism assessment and I mustn't have met the criteria.

About two years after my ASD diagnosis I noticed that there was no mention of specific ADHD screening in my report, or of a negative test result. I confirmed this with the Neuropsychologist who evaluated me, and she said I hadn't been tested for ADHD during my ASD assessment.

I decided to be screened for ADHD and spent 20 hours being tested with a group of Neuropsychs who are affiliated with my Autism doctor. The tests are similar but different and they focus much more on attention / memory than social difficulties, repetitive behaviours, or sensory imbalance. I was diagnosed with the combined presentation of ADHD and they re-confirmed my other conditions as listed above including Autism / L2. I'm spacey and I either zone out without paying attention, or I get hyperfocus and can't let things go. Hyper doesn't have to mean that you are physically hyper. In my case I'm mentally hyper and can't relax my mind even when I appear sedate or spaced out.

I'm lucky that I was diagnosed ASD first, and I realised there was "more". I can see that some people who are diagnosed ADHD first might not be aware of their autism unless they have very pronounced sensory processing disorder or repetitive behaviours which are indicative of ASD.

I know that ASD and ADHD were previously considered mutual exclusive but not any more. Maybe you were diagnosed before 2013 or before increase in ASD diagnosis? Here is an article with a lot on the subject I hadn't seen before: Decoding the overlap between autism and ADHD

There is certainly a lot of overlap. In some ways that means double the trouble (if the ASD and the ADD / ADHD antagonise each other) but in other ways the two balance each other out, meaning there can be a reduced impact overall.

Also worth pointing out there's an overlap with Borderline Personality Disorder as well. I scored 86% on an initial ASD assessment and 83% on an initial BPD assessment but I was basically told I must have ASD because there's no BPD treatment available in my County. Which is a bit like saying "Ooh we don't do hips, so you've definitely broken your ankle".

NB. Borderline Personality Disorder is a completely different thing from Bi-polar, but you'd be amazed how many people (including mental health specialists) jumble them up.

WTF! That's crazy. What treatment does Derby offer for ASD ? I would of guessed there's more treatment available for BPD.

When I was first assessed as a child I was diagnosed with just ADD, but when I got retested as a mid-adolescent I was told I have ADHD combined type (which is different than ADD...) and that it was very, very likely I do have ASD. Due to my childhood the woman who assessed me referred me to therapy before a solid diagnosis was made, but the other woman I was sent to basically looked me in the eyes after 20 minutes and told me that she didn't think I had autism since I didn't "seem autistic", and that my ADHD plus me picking up behaviours from my brother with Asperger's was why I had problems. So, technically I still don't have a formal diagnosis because of my ADHD.

Borderline Personality Disorder isn't diagnosed or treated in Derbyshire at all. So if you have it (though there's no way of telling, really) - tough luck. But if you temporarily move to Staffordshire or Leicestershire the NHS can treat it, though presumably only after a lengthy wait.

Three years ago when I first started researching in detail, there was a private practice in York that could diagnose, but they only offered follow-up treatment for women. A diagnosis would still have been useful though and I wish I'd done it while I had the chance. There's still an old blog page which mentions diagnosis but in practice BPD is now missing from all the drop-down menus on their website. Lots of other internet loops and dead ends out there, nothing really helpful.

I waited roughly 18 months to see the lady who decided I must have ASD because Derbyshire NHS don't treat BPD. Then another 18 months to start a "living with autism" course with MIND (one hour a week for 10 weeks) and, in parallel, 19 months to see a different NHS team in Derby for a full AS diagnosis. Which meant at the start of the MIND sessions I still had no idea whether they were actually going to be relevant or helpful, because I hadn't been diagnosed. The NHS team who diagnosed my ASD have also made another referral for ADHD assessment which will be in Sheffield. At the time they said the wait would be circa 18 months (again) but I'm guessing it'll actually be closer to 2 years now.

The formal diagnosis was only 2 weeks before the Covid-19 lockdown, so most of the MIND sessions were done via Zoom and the follow-up NHS meeting hasn't happened yet.

I'm still convinced I have mild autism and BPD, and possibly ADD (not ADHD) although those symptoms could be down to anxiety / depression, trauma and poor coping mechanisms, as it seems to have developed very late. Do people seriously develop ADD in their late 30s / early 40s without having some form of physical brain injury?

The main NHS excuse for ignoring the high BPD scores in preliminary tests (other than "we don't do BPD") seems to be the lack of extreme childhood trauma / abuse. But if I had autism as a child surely that lowers the threshold for "extreme trauma"? So the combination of my parents splitting up when I was 12 and things going horribly wrong with the love of my life after a miscarriage when I was 23 might have been enough? I'm 45 now.

So just from what I see here (and in general when researching) is that it’s overlapping traits but also that they are commonly co-morbid. Since milder forms of ASD seem to be less known than ADHD, there are probably a lot of people who got the ADHD diagnosis first and are unaware of their autism.

There are also people who claim that ADHD itself is on the autism spectrum but I don’t think this is true.There are people with ADHD who are definitely not autistic at all.

ADHD isn't on the autism spectrum. It doesn't involve Restricted Repetitive Behaviours, sensory challenges, or low scores in PIQ. ADHD is a form of Neurodiversity and there's a degree of overlap between ADHD and ASD with regard to occupational functioning, but they don't have the same diagnostic criteria overall. They are often comorbid, but they are distinct conditions.

When I was a kid ADHD was only known as "a naughty, troubled little boy who is class clown but is a little hellion for the teachers" - which was why I didn't get diagnosed with ADHD in childhood, despite the fact that I was very hyperactive at home, had difficulties paying attention in class, was very impulsive, rather chatty, and very disorganized even for a child (was often losing things and couldn't keep track of time, which caused stress).

If I was a child in this day and age I probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD, along with ASD. Or I might have just been diagnosed with ADHD, and the ASD could have got missed.

These categories change and yes they do overlap. Yesterday’s hysteria is today’s anxiety. Tomorrow we might call the same person “prudent” or “wary”. Or having “defective emotions”.

There is no physical way to diagnosis any psychological “disease” so they are all just educated guesses.

You kind of have to read up for yourself and work with any doctors to get a diagnosis that seems correct to you.