TIL about the term "AuDHD." I have both, but the term itself seems kinda strange. I get that it's common, though is there a need for that term or rather a convenience/"pop" term?
I dislike the term because it is, in fact, not that common.
I am diagnosed ADHD but I don't have any symptom of autism (sensory overload, difficulty reading social cues, gender dysphoria, repetitive behaviour etc.) and I wish they were studied separately as the physiology, pharmacology and the effect on quality of life is completely different between ADHD and autism.
Without mentioning the effect on focus and executive function, which is basically all ADHD is, and presents the complete opposite in autism: repetitive behaviour and long-lasting focus in niche interests vs squirrel brain with flashes of hyperfocus.
If they seem comorbid on social media profiles, it might be because everybody and their dog seems to have ADHD today, so is pretty much meaningless. You could attach it to any personality disorder you wish.
Your understanding of ADHD is very limited and doesn't reflect the true scope of what ADHD entails.
Also, a lot more people being diagnosed with ADHD (who were previously masking and "blending in" while secretly suffering) doesn't make the word meaningless.
> (who were previously masking and "blending in" while secretly suffering)
Do you mind helping me understand this more? How can one mask ADHD symptoms? I have ADHD, and I cannot conceptualize what masking would even look like. Or perhaps, in better terms, what is the difference between masking ADHD and adhering to social expectations and norms?
What would not masking the condition look like? Is masking a bad? If one can mask their condition then is their condition generally less severe than those that cannot mask their condition?
I am just trying to understand because I feel like masking is the new pop-psychology term that keeps popping up, and I find it hard to discern what the nuance surrounding it.
Maybe they meant self-medicating? I used to be a heavy smoker, quit 4 years ago, and in hindsight quitting made me aware I had debilitating ADHD and I couldn't function.
I recently made the connection between quitting nicotine and my life spiraling down, that I reintroduced nicotine patches and I have found that they are better, cheaper and longer lasting than any amphetamine I was prescribed.
> I think overall the health effects are less negative
Possible but in my case amphetamines last 4 hours (lisdex lasts 6), and make me very hungry, horny and exhausted by 7pm. Also, they feel like I am the cart and the meds are the horse, i.e. they pull me around to do stuff even when I just want to relax a little.
Nicotine on the other hand gives me motivation, focus is still a bit iffy and not as pointed as with AMPH, but OTC patches last 24 hours, are cheap and don't make me tired at all (I remove the patch 3 hours before bed). Also I can drink coffee again without feeling like my heart's exploding, which is a major plus.
It's been 2 weeks of this nicotine experiment, and I feel more like myself than a very driven machine attached to an 8 hour battery. I'm using 7.5mg patches (15mg nicorette cut in half)
My med dosage was relatively low btw, I'm pretty sensitive to amphetamines. Nicotine by itself seems to be as dangerous as caffeine.
In any case, there is a lot of research correlating between nicotine inhalation (even from second hand smoke) while in utero or in youth and ADHD. My pet, non-scientific theory is that for some, their ADHD is simply "chronic nicotine withdrawal". The fact that there are a lot more diagnoses these days might be because smoking is not in vogue any more, everybody wants to quit (rightly so), but our smoking parents permanently ruined our growing brain in childhood, as so did the past 5 generations.
I personally noticed a steep drop off in efficacy once I built up tolerance each of the handful of times I’ve tried and then given up using nicotine as a medicine. It’s low reward and high risk (full blown addiction).
Interesting about your parents smoking. Mine did also, chain smoked with me in the car basically hot boxing and all their friends did too.
How did you use nicotine? The addiction/tolerance potential is proportional to how quickly it gets in your brain. Smoked/inhaled nicotine takes 7 seconds, a patch takes about 4 hours to reach peak blood concentration.
Also I do not recommend tobacco, which is much more than nicotine.
for example picking jobs (and choosing partners) that give/impose structure is a form of masking. overcompensating is another.
adhering to norms, okay but to which ones? how do you know when the norms are shifting? are you pushing for change, rocking the boat with a the trailblazers or are you cooling heads and pitching for the status quo? and of course this is where the neurodiversity dilemma is very visible, because is "pushing for change" in your personality or it's the "neuropathology"? sure, a bit of both, but if someone is bad at managing changes, seeing transformative projects to completion, then ... maybe they would fare much better if they could stay put on their butts instead of joining the youngsters (to escape the otherwise incomprehensibly harsh boredom).
> What would not masking the condition look like?
ideally, accepting that someone is simply a 1000-fold more sensitive to "boredom", getting accommodations for it, while still doing the same "boring old job" as others (instead of running away with the proverbial circus)
> If one can mask their condition then is their condition generally less severe than those that cannot mask their condition?
well. in some sense yes, of course. but maybe because they are better at keeping their mouth shut and pushing through adversity, they are in a more precarious situation in life, they simply don't have the luxury to not be okay.
for example is being rich and having the possibility to not work for months (or job hop for many years), go to fancy therapy centers and evaluations, better than being forced to work low-paying service jobs for decades?
is masking good? since it's a very broad concept (maybe if we want to somehow encapsulate it we might call it a collection of tools) the various forms have different good and bad consequences.
being kept accountable usually helps for some ADHD people. but if one's ADHD mostly manifests as various nasty emotional regulation problems, then it just condemns one to a life of depression and anxiety (impostor syndrome, low self-esteem, etc.) and here masking is just "suppressing problems" which is hopefully obviously bad.
also simply having some kind of diagnosis, knowing one's limits, weaknesses and occasional strengths helps dealing with life.
I mean neither are particularly well defined or well understood diagnosises. Just identify with whatever helps you get through the day we're all in this together. I've been diagnosed with quite severe ADHD but the psychologist admitted I was displaying several autism symptoms as well so really it could be either but the fastest route to treatment here in the UK is ADHD (still shockingly slow). Seeing as the symptoms and treatments overlap and our medical systems are generally poorly equipped to deal with either I think fussing the line is a bit of a waste of time. Also not that many people are diagnosed or identify as ADHD, most people are neurotypical hence the typical bit, if you feel like ADHD is everywhere you need to get out of whatever echo chamber has been designed to make you angry about it. More love.
well, yes, but no. there's a huge overlap, and AuDHD seems more than just the sum of its parts:
"Additional analyses revealed that individuals diagnosed with both ASD and ADHD are double-loaded with genetic predisposition for both disorders and show distinctive patterns of genetic association with other traits when compared to the ASD-only and ADHD-only subgroups."
"We identified seven loci shared by the disorders and five loci differentiating them. All five differentiating loci showed opposite allelic directions in the two disorders and significant associations with other traits, e.g., educational attainment, neuroticism and regional brain volume."
Communities are going to make language. It's what communities do. Gamers used to say Shazbot. Did we need another exclamation? No, did we adopt a new one and use it for awhile? You bet we did.
AuDHD is a neologism that some communities use. It might stick around, it might go away. We'll know if we needed the new term if it continues to be useful to people.
I think there's kind of an issue with society when we start viewing people with shared neurodivergences as a "community"
I'm diagnosed ADHD. I'm not a part of any "ADHD community". I'm not shy about sharing that I am, but it's also not some kind of "out and proud" thing for me. It's just a part of who I am, and it's a diagnosis of why I struggle with some things that other people don't
That's all it should be. Not everything needs to be a community.
I would go even further and say that many things shouldn't be a community, especially an online community . People need to build connections with their physical neighbors more than they need a community of fellow autistic or adhd people online
I wouldn't draw the line at "community", I'd draw it at "identity". It's one thing to be something, for example, I'm a picky eater, it's another to build your existence around that fact. Being a picky eater is not part of my identity, it doesn't define who I am, it's part of who I am, surely, and I wholeheartedly accept it, but if I woke up one day and craved some cauliflowers I would still be me.
I could be a part of some picky eater community, I guess, but I would quickly grow uncomfortable with it if it revolved around cherishing and celebrating how we are picky eaters.
I think at some point we took a wrong turn in the identity-based paradigm of society we now find ourselves into, and in our zeal to achieve self-acceptance, empathy and compassion we went from "you don't have to be defined by things you don't want to be defined by" to "you are defined by these and that's great". Everybody is free to base their identity around whatever they want of course, but I can hardly think of anything more dull than basing your being around some mental quirk.
Your identity is anything you define yourself with. You just identified yourself as a picky eater -- that's part of your identity. However, you choose not to make it a celebrated, core, or significant part of your identity. That's fine.
If you said "I am not a picky eater ", that's denying it's part of your identity.
Ones identity is simply the set of all traits they would use to self describe. Parts of one's identity people will push forward and parts they'll not ever emphasize or show.
ADHD is not a "mental quirk". It's a serious condition that often make people incompatible with modern world. It's like being blind. Everything blind person is doing in his/her life is affected by being blind.
I can't hide mine. People can smell it like a hound. I guess it comes with the territory when you are overtly hyperactive in your 30s. I'm not proud of it either, but I wish I could go through life a bit more discretely.
> People need to build connections with their physical neighbors more than they need a community of fellow autistic or adhd people online
Absolutely. ADHD is too diverse and too common to be a focal point of a community. Other ADHD folks are great for creating a pity-party echo-chamber, but I tend to be more pragmatic and am more interested in solutions, which said communities tend to lack in my experience e.g., all the various subreddits.
I've seen this, fwiw, in that there's less of a disability community around adhd than say autism or deafness. That said, there are probably thousands of adhd communities, some which fall into self pity and some that are very "gimme solutions please". Just a matter of finding one that works for you if you want to find one.
I'm sorry you haven't found a community to share in your disability.
Communities are incredibly useful for some disabled folks to share strategies, check experiences ("does anyone else experience... how do you deal with..."), and talk with people who will understand you better than someone without your disability.
What you are describing is isolation from others who might connect with you. No one is suggesting you only participate in communities associated with your disability, just that those communities are often incredible resources and sources of strength.
