ADHD-Inattentive or Asperger's?

Post Reply New Topic

I've had no choice since I can't tolerate the meds.

ElderWanda: The hypothetical describes me, except I am a male. I am at WP because it fits better than ADHD fora I have visited. I suspect ADHD is not the whole story. ADHD and BAPpie are probably more accurate. With a professional degree, job, and marriage to the only person who can tolerate me, I function fairly well, but not so well that I blend in at work. Socializing is uncomfortable for others - me standing there unable to listen because I hear 60 cycle hum, have no clue or interest or something (oh, humming bird!)

I love your questions.... I have the same questions.
I'm not officially diagnosed and I don't know if I ever will be.
I think I am a mix up of AS and ADHD... I am 40 years old and STILL dont understand why people think I am rude, outspoken or inappropriate.
I still have tantrums like a 4 year old when really distressed
I obsess over all sorts of things, but never more than one at a time. Currently playing video games (DIablo 3) whenever I can fit it in.
I cannot handle it when something is done one way at home (the correct way according to the rules (the rules exist only in my head)) and then my wife does it another way... I get really upset that it is unfair or not right...
I stim when really stressed, pull at my hair, fidget with my hands and cannot make eye contact.
I cannot make eye contact a lot of the time.... Unless I am physically attracted to the other person and then I stare...

Sounds great eh!!?

Anyway, your questions are great....

Wow, that's me! Just read the first page, and I also doubt whether Aspergers and/ or AD(H)D is making my life so confusing and energy-consuming.
I'm having my final talk to the psychologist within two weeks, so he will have a diagnosis for me, I hope.
He is specialized in autism, I contacted him because online ASS tests showed a very high score.
He is in doubt because I show typical signs of autism but also things that are contradictive for autism.
A few weeks ago I also learned more about ADHD, which, until then, I only knew as the often used excuse for busy kids.
The symptoms of ADHD sound very familiar too, but they don't cover everything.
So I'm very curious what the psychologist and the psychiatrist (who I saw two days ago) make of it

I'm diagnosed with both ASD (Asperger's) and ADHD-I too. Sometimes I feel like they keep each other in check then other times they are at war and my mind is the battlefield....

The psychologist, I am seeing right now sees both AS and ADHD in me and I am surprised about the last, because no one would ever call me impulsive, - even though I have done physical dangerous things without thinking now and then and shocked everyone (there it is!). There is a quietly inattentive variant too, and that, I think, is often taken for a pure AS symptom, - which it is in a sense, belonging to a typical comorbid. You can thus be very orderly, OCD ish and all, and still have ADHD.

I have a diagnosis of ADHD and I'm not diagnosed AS but I think it likely. I didn't see the point in pursuing the AS diagnosis because it wouldn't change anything, however the ADHD medication has helped me.

On the subject of ADHD and depression, I have found that Venlafaxine (anti depressant) seems to calm the ADHD symptoms as well, so may be worth a try for those who can't have stimulants.

I have been formally diagnosed moderate AS and ADHD as well as probable dysthemia [a depressive disorder], I take methylphenadate [Ritalin] for the ADHD and it is fairly helpful with the bonus that it tempers some aspects of the AS, particularly my tendency to overload in public places due to over-stimulation.

Apparently a co-morbidity of these two conditions is very common, I'm not sure but when I was looking into it I seem to remember the figure was 40% of AS types were also ADHD but don't quote me on that.

I had major problems at school and 'behavioural problems' in general especially as puberty approached, however my family is pretty messed up so I think my environment aggravated the situation [my mother has mental health problems and my father is more Aspie than me but never diagnosed and moderately functional, particularly career-wise]. I was forced through a religious home life and education that I had no belief in from about 8 y/o due to the application of rational enquiry and logic and being a willful wee bugger... well, you can imagine the rest.

Most people with ADHD either loose or learn to cope with it in adulthood and it seems like a slightly cruel twist of fate to be cursed with it permanently, but this also seems to be par for the course with the co-morbid cases.

Good luck to all, peace j