Master Thread: Autism-ADHD comorbidity

Those have been following me for a while now should know that this has been a hyperfixation of mine, so I thought I'd collate and round up my thoughts.

As always: I'm not a psychologist/doctor, this is based on my personal experiences

1/

I tend to forget that there may be some who don't have knowledge of both, so here are two collections of threads I put together on the symptoms/diagnosis of ADHD/autism.

Autism: https://twitter.com/barisanhantu/timelines/1256633878384541698

ADHD:
https://twitter.com/AskADHD/timelines/1250411405120925696

2/

Personally I find that a lot of the confusion over autism-ADHD overlap and comorbidity is due to the fact that we use deficit models to describe them instead of looking at how they work individually. I explain this in more detail here:

https://twitter.com/barisanhantu/status/1256420928113655808

3/

Generally speaking, I've seen various ways of explaining the overlap/comorbidity:

1) ADHD and autism are part of the same spectrum
2) ADHD is subtype of autism
3) ADHD and autism are frequently comorbid

4/

But I don't think that we have any real answers to this yet, because I haven't been able to find any substantial resarch about this per se.

Based on figuring out my own experiences though, I would say that they are distinct but frequently comorbid.

5/

The reason I think so, besides the ones I give in the thread above, is that I can describe them as separate in my head and that ADHD and autism for me interact so to speak.

So for example, being autistic changes how my ADHD looks.

https://twitter.com/barisanhantu/status/1260098368597921792

6/

At the same time, I would also say that ADHD affects how my autistic traits present themselves.

https://twitter.com/barisanhantu/status/1260108971832008704

7/

So personally, I really like using the metaphor of fusion - the two combine to form something slightly different, will retaining a lot of the core elements. Less like 1+1 = 2 and more like hydrogen and oxygen giving you water.

8/

I think that one of the problems with the deficit model (re: autism) is that a lot of comorbidities with autism have not be sorted out. My guess is that ADHD is one of the major ones that changes the presentation of autism.

9/

My pet theory (without any scientific evidence I must add) is that autism-ADHD comorbidity results in the greatest variety in terms of presentation depending on the person. Some of us have stronger autistic traits, while others have stronger ADHD traits.

10/

This may be why they both can look so different. Anecdotally, it seems like women are the most likely to be missed for an autism diagnosis, while getting either an ADHD diagnosis or a BPD diagnosis (based on what I've seen on here).

11/

I'm nonbinary, but I strongly identify with the profile of autism in women. So gender is clearly a factor where diagnosis is concerned and I think that ADHD and gender are both key factors in how autism presents itself.

12/

Given recent discussions, I should add that I am not referring to male/female autism as a biological difference.

I'm saying:

1) Gender affects the institution of diagnosis.

2) how you are socialised as a gendered individual affects the presentation of autism.

13/

I think that men, women, trans and nonbinary folk can all identify with what psychologists label autism in women. I also think that until we look at how gender/comorbidities affect the presentation of autism, we will have a hard time diagnosing it.

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