Breaking down the Misdiagnosis Monday
So as we know there's a lot of misinformation or unclear information circulating around on autism and ADHD, and people who suspect that they might have one, the other or both might have a very difficult time unpicking charts like the one above, studies or any other info that they find. I have been on a continuous research spiral on both autism and ADHD for almost a year. I've spent hours almost every day deep diving research studies, people's experiences on tiktok, reddit, tumblr etc. So I'd like to use the best of my knowledge (and people's experiences) to try and dissect this venn diagram and hopefully help people understand the difference in the overlap btw ADHD and autism.
Firstly we need to address that there is still research going into both conditions as we speak, and sadly a lot of this research focuses on how both of these conditions present on the outside and how it affect other people, and less on the fact that inside they might not be as similar. This is a reference to my previous post (or more like a previous rant). I might also make this a series because I don't want to write a huge wall of text in one post. This will be very long already.
I am currently self dx-ing with autism, I don't relate to the ADHD criteria, I strongly believe that I only have autism (I also currently await assessment).
And again, if I do say something that is incorrect, please don't hesitate to correct me or throw links & studies at me.
The thing is, everybody stims. Even neurotypicals. Stimming refers to self stimulatory behaviour, and it is used to regulate the nervous system.
In autism, stimming can be much more apparent than in neurotypicals or other neurodivergencies. Rocking back and forth, hand flapping, tugging on sleeves, playing with stim/fidget toys etc. For autistic people, this can help process information, such as written or verbal communication, sensory stimuli, can help prevent sensory overload, meltdowns and shutdowns (and can also help recover from them). It can also help express emotions and feelings, such as anxiety, stress, excitement, happiness, joy, etc.
My stim for many, many years was swings. I often had very low interest in connecting with my peers, and all I desired was to sit on the swing for... 2hrs/day.
ADHD people can also stim, as we have established above because, again, everybody stims. However, their repetitive behaviour that can look like autistic stimming is very often for a different reason. For people with ADHD, stimming/fidgeting helps focusing, regulating their attention, and get rid of excess energy besides regulating the nervous system. Which isn't the case in autism. Of course both is a spectrum, and people might relate differently, but again, the core of the stimming in these conditions can be different. In the ADHD diagnostic criteria this is described as "often fidgets and squirms, can't seem to sit still".
I, as someone who is very likely autistic, have no problem sitting or standing still (hell I can sit for hours even if I'm bored or am not focusing on anything in particular) as long as my nervous system isn't on fire. So if I have to stand in a crowd I might tug on my sleeve or look around for an escape route because the situation is freaking me out. People with ADHD might find sitting/standing still difficult due to distractibility, impulsivity, hyperactivity or boredom. But people with ADHD can sit still when they hyperfocus on something (this is an intense state of focus that is very hard for them to come out of). I believe this has to do with the dopamine production of the brain, or rather the lack of production. I don't know about dopamine production being an issue in autism, but that might just be my lack of knowledge on this particular matter.
If you are on tiktok, I highly recommend looking into Devinsamess' account. She is an auDHD content creator, has a series where she breaks down the ADHD criteria and how the similarities in ADHD and autism are different, using her own examples.
I will write more posts going through all the middle section of the venn diagram slowly, one by one so it's not too difficult to process and read through. But I want to provide information for those who want to find out whether they have one, the other, both or neither.
Here I'll also link the diagnostic criteria for ADHD and ASD.
And if you have troubles understanding the ASD criteria (I know I did!), Yo Samdy Sam on YouTube made a video and explained it very well, using her own examples.
