Combined ADHD & Autism Assessment

Following social norms

Individuals with ADHD and Autism can face challenges in initiating and sustaining interactions with others. Both may unintentionally cause offence, have issues with eye contact and non verbal communications, leading to social isolation and loneliness. Understanding these challenges is key to providing effective support.

Impact on relationships

Underwhelm v Overwhelm

Individuals with AuDHD often experience heightened sensory issues due to the combination of traits from both conditions. Sensory overstimulation can be more intense for AuDHD individuals compared to those with only Autism or ADHD. The autistic trait of being detail-oriented can make every sensory input, like sounds, lights, or textures, extremely noticeable and often overwhelming. At the same time, ADHD-related attentional differences can make it difficult to filter out these sensory inputs, leading to a constant bombardment of stimuli. This dual impact can cause significant discomfort, distraction, and anxiety, making it challenging to focus on tasks or engage in social interactions. 

Need for structure

Assessing the difference between ADHD and Autism routines involves observing specific needs and responses to routine structures. ADHD routines focus on managing time, flexibility, breaking tasks into steps and incorporating physical activity. Autism routines prioritise predictability, consistency, structure, visual schedules and minimising sensory overload. Evaluation includes monitoring how individuals adapt to these strategies and identifying which approaches enhance their daily functioning and reduce stress.

Why AuDHDers move?

Repetitive body movements are a characteristic of autism, although not all autistic individuals will exhibit them. Examples include jumping, hand-flapping, finger-wiggling, body-tensing, and rocking. Similarly, individuals with ADHD often engage in repetitive movements, known as fidgety behaviours, such as finger-tapping, leg-shaking, hair-twirling, object-picking and torso-rocking. Both conditions can involve these movements, though they may stem from different underlying needs and sensory experiences. Understanding these behaviours is essential for providing appropriate support and creating accommodating environments for individuals with autism and ADHD.

Managing emotional difficulties

Empathy Imbalance

Empathy issues in ADHD involve rapid, intense emotional reactions and difficulty recognizing social cues, leading to impulsive responses. Autism-related empathy issues include challenges in understanding social cues and varied emotional responses, from overwhelming emotions to detachment. Both conditions result in social misunderstandings and difficulties in forming stable relationships due to empathic imbalances.

OCD overlaps and can mimic ADHD and autism

OCD overlaps or mimics ADHD and autism in several ways:

1. Repetitive behaviours: Both OCD and autism involve repetitive actions or rituals. In autism, these are often routines or self-soothing behaviours, while in OCD, they are compulsions driven by anxiety.

2. Focus and attention: In ADHD, distractibility and trouble focusing are key traits. OCD can mimic this, as obsessive thoughts distract from tasks, creating a sense of inattention.

3. Rigidity and inflexibility: Autism is characterised by rigid thinking and difficulty with change, which can look similar to OCD's compulsive need for order or routines.

4. Anxiety: Both OCD and autism often involve heightened anxiety, and this emotional distress may cause behaviours that resemble ADHD’s impulsivity or inattentiveness.

Overall, OCD can share symptoms with both ADHD and autism, making it difficult to distinguish without a detailed assessment.