ADD and Aspergers

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Quoted for truth...

and too weird and awkward for a lot of the regular ADDers...in my experience...many of the more "neurotypical" ADDers I have known have been hyper-social and with emotions I have a hard time understanding...we haven't gotten along too well...unfortunately....
Their energy wears me out...

in regards to the avatar...she's me newest homemade Ann....I have close to 100.....am going through an uncomfortable dry spell of not finding any lately. She is almost 3 feet tall and made of a sort of flour sack material. Her dress is made of a particular vintage quilt-print that I keep finding over and over, in the radius of 3 thrift stores in the same area over the course of a few years and i wonder if the stuff that I keep finding comes from the same person...I have a quilted baby blanket...my beloved sewing granny....now an apron i found just the other day...and the dress on the ann...
It could be that it is just a common print and a cooincidence. But I am glad I keep finding it because I really like it.

Very cool. My mom and I have a Raggedy Ann bond. She made one for my daughter - and out of all the Dora Explorers and s**t, she LOVES Raggedy Ann most! I'm so surprised because there's virtually no merchandising around Raggedy Ann and Andy.

I can totally see making vintage doll clothes. I (and my mom) are into civil war and depression era fabrics. She collects them and I give her the ideas to use them.

I also have a "line" of Barbie clothes. The Modest, Slightly-Androgynous, Young American collection. I just got tired of the hassle of putting on the store-bought Barbie clothes, too tight and way way way too skanky.

Anyway - I love that you're into Raggedy Ann. Maybe I'll make one for you. Hmmm... I have so many funky fabrics yet there's a very strict set of design rules. As you alluded to, its all about the story behind the fabric and the manufacturing of the doll. Like, maybe I'll make hand-made Ann hair from recycled t-shirts and cherry koolaid and salt.

That would be interesting!
I was planning on a project of making a bunch of really weird raggedy anne dolls, but only got as far as one....
I also have ideas for a series of weird paintings.

There is nothing I like more than finding "anomalies"...My blond and Green anne.....for example.....I have a few others besides....a navy blue one...some serious brunettes...I really need to unpack them soon. They were hidden away during SHFL inspections...

Maybe we could swap, and I could make you a sock creature.....

Do you do sock worms? I don't like sock monkeys. Had a really bad experience. "Monkey Shines" with a GD sock monkey. I haven't seen him for awhile but my mom's getting ready for a big move and I fully expect that mutha to resurface.

But I love non-monkey sock animals. I like the idea of a (brown flecked) sock snake. Like an anaconda. 6 feet but reticulated. Not like one long sock.

Yeah..I have made a lot of snakes. I like making them out of really nice long argyles....They are made so that the stuffing doesn't redistribute..i figured out to do this after my first couple.
I tried to make one that actually swallowed it's prey, but I did not quite succeed...I think I could though...
I did make one that held it's prey in a zipper compartment in it's belly...it was really really long...we had a "habitat" for it in a display case at the old SHFL...

They can (just how they can concentrate on utterly boring topics too), but they won't always be able to because they cannot direct their attention and concentration like normal people can.

And those with AS-only can direct their attention if not distracted by the outside. Unless they have an additional attention deficit.



The DSM says that a PDD excludes the possibility of a AD(H)D diagnosis if that attention/hyperactivity/impulsvitiy symptoms appear in the course of the PDD.

If taken literally, this means a diagnosis of AD(H)D is possible if it obviously and explicitly isn't caused by the symptoms of the PDD/by the PDD.

And usually professionals have no idea where the attention deficits of a non-verbal autistic child or a verbal small autistic child come from, as children are hard to diagnose by the use of behavioural criteria. And autistic children are often even harder to diagnose with any mental disorder besides their ASD.

And if a professional can't find it out and be sure that the symptoms described by AD(H)D are independent from the symptom of the PDD, they're not allowed to just diagnose a form of AD(H)D.

Not what I've read in the books on ADD that I've read. They didn't say that sometimes people with ADD can concentrate on stuff of interest, and sometimes they can't. They said there is a real true difference. Things of interest they not only can connectrate on, but sometimes excessively so. Attention surplus rather than deficit.

In short, BF probably did get it from the DSM, but that doesn't mean others will interpret the DSM the same as him.

I believe you that you read that because there is a lot of literature on it. I heard about it too.

What I told is what I read and got told from others adults and teenagers with ADHD. Also from what I observed in kids with and without hyperactivity. Some of what you read was probably from adults with AD(H)D too.

What goes without saying is that those with forms of AD(H)D are diverse, so the different accounts don't suprise me anymore than the different information about ASDs. (And I agree with an attention surplus especially in hyperactive individuals, because that is - from what I know - a part of the attention regulation deficit.)



I never said he did not. That interpretation though should be universal because that's what is written there. 'in the course' is an exact quote.

There's different ways to understand what "in the course of" means in this case. There is also the possibility of wrong interpretation, including adding things in that weren't said.

I thought "in the course of" meant that once you have PDD you can't get ADHD and this confused me because if you have them you are born with them.

Okay, never thought about that. What can you imagine 'in the course' can mean also? (Just reminded me of thaten the relationships of schizophrenia and AS could then be interpreted differently also, which touches upon a similarly complicated topic as that of the relationships between PDDs and AD(H)D.)

This is truly amazing. Excellent thread but a little confusing. It never occurred to me that I could be ADD. I have no trouble with my attention at all, except for over focusing. I didn't know there was such a thing as attention surplus. If there is, that's my primary trait and worst problem. My social skills are a disaster...the thing people always tell me, more than anything else, is that I can't "drop" a subject...I just want to keep on and on and on....like a dog chewing a bone...or thoughts constantly churning.. This attention surplus thing...I've got it bad. I can't quit analyzing things....over analyze a lot of stuff, not only my special interests.....can never get deep enough into it.. So is this ADD? My focus and concentation is too good....?...It's problematic in a social context; I don't know when to quit or don't care about the rules for quitting....and it irritates every friend to the point where eventually they just can't stand it anymore...

Otherwise it's a good skill to have--especially for school. I'm not a particularly "quick study" because it takes me a while to get up to speed...but once I've started processing information rapidly....I can't get enough...and my brain is really fired up and going almost lightspeed. It's like a rush...a thrill....kind of my reason for being. Does that sound like ADD? [or mania?] Can I have ADD more than AS and still have AS? I'm also highly intuitive and many of my ideas come in a flash, without leaving a paper trail so to speak....I can't explain how these ideas come to me, how I arrived at these conclusions. Also I frequently can't explain my actions...if someone asks, "Why did you do that?".....damned if I know. It was spontaneous.

Like bi-polar could be either manic or depressive or both. Maybe ADD can be attention deficit or attention surplus or both.....?

Another thing. I usually don't multi-task very well....but when my brain is really fired up and close to lightspeed.....I can easily multi-task and it's like thinking on 9 or more different levels simulteneously.....or spanning at least 4 or 5 new dimensions [i.e., different from the normal 3].

In my opinion, everyone with AS has ADD but not everyone with ADD has AS.

Well, I admit that's my own working. I think what I was thinking of is more often called superfocus. Very focused on one thing. Often not what others think we should be focused on. I don't know if it's mentioned in the diagnositic criteria or not. There's the diagnostic criteria, and then there's other traits that are common to people with ADD though not part of the diagnostic criteria. I haven't had reason to pay close attention to which is which.

And, now that I think of it, from what I've read, the lack of attention in ADD can also be seen as, not a lack of attention, but, what could from a different perspective be called too much attention. Instead of paying attention to one thing, getting distracted by other things. More of a wandering attention than a lack of attention, in a way of thinking.

I'm inclined to think the executive disfunction label is better than that attention deficit label. That it more gets at what's going on.

Biro said pretty much what's also my own thinking, in the post just above yours (which you may have missed, as they were posted at almost the same time)



To me "in the course of" means, while you have it, or while you have the traits of the disorder showing. So, a person who shows traits of a PDD shouldn't be diagnosed with ADD. And I don't see how with someone with autism or asperger's, you can say they have ADD traits, but that they are separate from the Austism or AS.

I tend to think a duel diagnosis is redundant, but yet might also sometimes be useful.