Link between ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome?

[Kara]

If this has been addressed before, somebody please direct me to the link. I have not been on the forums for awhile.

After a very difficult childhood, doing poorly in school (despite being quite intelligent, even "gifted," though not a total Einstein or anything :) ), being disruptive in class, hyperactive in other situations and having poor social interaction with peers, I finally came to the conclusion I had ADHD and started medication at about age 25. Very positive results. My speech improved immediately and I was actually asking questions and listening with interest to what other people had to say about their lives. After a poor GPA in my Bachelor's degree, I was able to attain a Master's and work full-time with very complicated mapping software. The Adderall changed my life.

Now I am unemployed and depressed so am seeing a therapist. She has suggested that I have Asperger's Syndrome. Based on what I recall from my childhood and what my mother has told me, I displayed autistic-like traits in my early childhood. Another woman who uses these forums suggested a connection as well. It was her comments that opened my mind to what my therapist was hypothesizing. I will Google this, but I wanted to get some information from people who have experienced this or seen it first-hand.

Kara

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Hi Kara.
One thing that kind of annoys me is the assumption that any social issues are automaticly Asperger's/HFA. You can have the social delays as a developmental thing without it being due to an autistic like condition. For example, kids with learning disabilites very often have significent social delays....it's not just Aspie kids.

[Kara]

Hi Kara.
One thing that kind of annoys me is the assumption that any social issues are automaticly Asperger's/HFA. You can have the social delays as a developmental thing without it being due to an autistic like condition. For example, kids with learning disabilites very often have significent social delays....it's not just Aspie kids.

You are right that people tend to make assumptions. Although I most certainly have it myself, ADHD is often overdiagnosed, particularly with energetic children. Children are known to have poor impulse control anyway! They grow up and learn to control it. That's why people say you can "grow out of" ADHD; they "grew out of it" because they never had it in the first place! I have a long memory and I was the weirdest, spaciest kid, in her own little world. Reading and composing at four, with perfect pitch. To me, musical notes had colors and flavors. Numbers had personalities. Very sensitive hearing and easily overstimulated and distracted. No problems academically (except not actually *doing* my schoolwork a lot of the time!). Those are all Aspie-type traits, though it is possible my social developmental delays were more because of the ADHD behaviors, the resulting stigma and ostracism. How can you develop relationships with other children if their mothers are telling them not to play with you? The stigma continues to follow you, especially when teachers ridicule or scold you in front of the entire class over the years, and you really never learn to mix. Junior high was particularly tough because kids are relentless and feel the need to gang up on the "different" one, so in 7th grade, I was sent to a shrink, who diagnosed me with Social Phobia. Well, no wonder!

High school gives you a second chance, because there is a pool of upperclassmen who don't know your history, so I already had a boyfriend I'd met at summer band practice the first day of high school! Gradually, I became more socialized, which was accelerated by the Adderall in my 20s and now I could pass for a completely "normal," slightly eccentric person.

So I don't know what the answers are. Especially when you add mild epilepsy into the mix. It is completely unrelated in my case, I think, but could have contributed to the spaciness before I hit puberty and developed full-blown simple-partial seizures. It's all so complicated!

I told my mother my therapist thinks I have Aspergers and she said, "I've always thought you've had Aspergers since I read about it 5 years ago [we were estranged at the time] and recognized you immediately. I had asked your father to tell you to look into it, but apparently he didn't."

[Daisy]

I've worked at the elementary level when we start to try to sort out the differences at some of the milder level of Aspergers vs ADHD and frankly even with the help of some very gifted child nueros it can be very challenging to sort through the diagnosis process and as you work through the therapies both medicinal and behavioral when done right people do get the right labels but often we don't have the time, talent, and treasure and it has sadly been my experience that when we have the SPED staff more familiar with ADHD get that diagnosis and when I've had someone more familiar with Asperger's/Autism they lean in that direction on the milder cases. It tends to be a result of trying to find a label and do it quickly instead of finding the right label.

In children there are some approaches that are similiar and some that are different depending on the needs of the child and frankly what works best.

As an adult I think the issue is working with your therapist not so much on the label as what treatments that she suggests would help you if she believes that you have been misdiagnosed. What would she have you do differently to help you overcome your depression, etc.? Well there can be relief in finding a label what really helps is finding the right help in approaching how to make things more liveable. If you have social issues what can she do with either diagnosis to make them better? If the approaches are different then I'd say the diagnosis is more relevent. Ultimately if the approaches she's suggesting are similiar it is more of a matter of semantics.

[2holly]

I have worked, as a speech pathologist. with many young hs students with aspergers. What characterizes one individual does not characterize another. The social connections can be difficult, so if that is difficult for you, perhaps therapy could be helpful. Adults with aspergers seem to desire social relationships but have difficulty maintaining and nurturing them. This is also so true for thrse with social phobia or just shyness. I have found that women who are depressed also avoid social involvement since they can never count on 'being in the mood' to engage in conversation.