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How to know if you’re co morbid?

lizzieolsenswife November 18th, 2021

Hi I’m Grace! I have ADHD and I’ve known this for a long time. I was diagnosed around the 4th grade (so when I was like 9 or 10). But recently I’ve started to notice some behaviors that I think are more exclusive to autistic traits. I don’t want to be that person that’s like “oh ADHD and autism and basically the same the same thing, etc.” because I know they are very different and I don’t want to discredit actually autistic people. But there a good amount of similar traits between the two. Would I have gotten diagnosed with both with I got my ADHD diagnosis? Basically I’m wondering how do you know if it’s just ADHD or if I might be both and ADHD and autistic?

2
IceCream4IceCream November 19th, 2021

@lizzieolsenswife

Hi there! I moved your post here as this sub-community covers ADHD and Autism.

So first off, I'm not a medical professional so it is best you do speak to a healthcare provider for technical questions like this.

However, ADHD and Autism often come together and there is a lot of overlap. So sometimes it can be hard to distinguish. Diagnosis is a system we have at the moment to ensure that people get the support they require, but existing classification manuals have space for improvement.

A trained clinician can do an assessment an adjudge whether you meet the criteria for a diagnosis, but to be fair, it's not that clear cut. Autism is a spectrum, and ADHD manifests in a spectrum of ways to an extent.

Long story short, it's complicated and they're more similar than you might think, That being said, at present, they're considered different diagnoses. I've tried to refrain from going super technical here. As I said, do get an assessment for this as we cannot provide medical advice.

I too often wonder if I'm on the spectrum and it is likely that I have more traits than the average person as I have ADHD combined type. Perhaps another question is: would you find it helpful to have another diagnosis/ seek one?

Welcome to Support Plus by the way! We're here and we care.

globalBraid3744 November 19th, 2021

@lizzieolsenswife

Hey Grace! This is a very good question. Even when they have similar features you would be given a second diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) if you fulfilled all the criteria. ADHD is the most common condition associated with ASD and the co-morbidity rate can be as high as 70%. Remember that having some autistic traits still does not guarantee that you would be given this diagnosis. You could address the diagnostic manual to see whether you meet the criteria but I would recommend seeing a therapist as they are the experts and can even help you with how to manage - it is much less of a burden than trying to figure it out on your own. I hope my answer helped :)