Thinking twice about ADHD and autism spectrum disorder

Talk delivered by Professor Patrick Bolton, Professor of Child & Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN.

This talk was given as part of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Clinical Academic Group (CAMHS CAG) Projects Day 2018.

The CAMHS CAG Projects Day celebrated the diverse and broad research that has taken place in the past 8 years within King's Health Partners, South London and Maudsley and King's College London's Clinical Academic Group.

The theme of the day was Translating Basic Science to Improve the Mental Health of Children and Young People with talks from 15 eminent speakers. A Research Summaries book has also been produced containing 104 projects that have made an impact both locally and nationally. For more information and a digital copy of the Projects Day Research Summaries Book, please visit:

[neveryawn]

My brother has ADHD and Autism, hes 19, super introverted, and addicted to his computer. Has mostly only online friends. Super smart and knowledgable but can’t hold a convo in person.
I have ADHD im 17, extroverted, but mostly isolated, dont have many friends, just acquaintances, most people think im weird because i forget how to “act normally” when im around people that make me happy. I guess i cant make other people happy, idk.
I just want compassion for me and my bro,
We still pushing thru the dark nights💪🏽

[dancegod]

I wasn't diagnosed or given ADHD meds until I was an adult, and honestly I think that helped me a lot. It's hard to explain but struggling with my mind; all those deeply anxious times where I "overthought", were part of why my memory is so much better than average, and a lot of my ADHD friends seem to share this in common. Instead of focusing on the things I was told to focus on during childhood, I developed some especially creative abilities by obsessively engineering "short cuts" in my own head for creating, filtering, and storing information. I'm being vague because I've seen this sort of thinking applied to a lot of different creative fields including things like engineering.

[chasegardnerproductions]

I'm 22 years old and I have been officially diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, ADHD, Depression, Appraxia and even though it hasnt been officially diagnosed, I believe that I have social anxiety as well. It is a very...very difficult life and I've noticed that there are a lot of factors that are present in both symptoms. It is crazy to hear how connected the two actually are and how unaware psychologists today are about it.

[SmallSpoonBrigade]

I've got a great deal of frustration personally over the level of ignorance about these conditions. I'm fortunate enough to have a psychiatrist that at least is current enough on ADHD to know that the stimulant medication only works if you've got a specific under activation in a specific region of the brain and that you're unlikely to see any positive improvement with medication if you don't.

It's massively frustrating how hard it is to get doctors to consider that older diagnoses may not ever have been accurate due to changes in the understanding of what various conditions are or what other possibilities there might be. In my case, I was never a particularly good fit for most of the diagnoses that I was given, but now I can't get an accurate diagnosis because I'm in my '40s have little memory from when I was a young child and nobody that was in a position to be impartial on what I was doing at the time either.

It's good to see that there's at least an awareness that interacting conditions can cause issues with diagnosis and treatment, but it's cold comfort for those of us that have been victimized twice. Once by being missed in childhood and then by the criteria being yanked back when the problem's true origin becomes apparent.

[kayagaming]

I was diagnosed of A.D.H.D on time at an early stage of my life, and as a result I was home schooled, I wasn't happy about my condition especially when I see my siblings going to school every morning. As the years went by, I got to know about Dr Iyhere on youtube and I have tried out his sessions and drugs, I started day school last spring and it has been amazing.

[jasonhutson]

is everyone watching ths cause they have something? I was just diagnosed with adhd and autism. the part where he talked about the two audiences for the adhd and autism lectures really interested me. probably because he made a joke of it. but is that really how autistic and adhd people are? are autistic people generally docile and adhd people vocal? is my brain just on uppers and downers at the same time always? that sucks and explains a lot, but sucks.

[Alex-ouxh]

I'm not currently studying this field, but thank you for the information. I'm going to utilize this too better communicate with my psychiatrist in the future!

[bthknuckles]

Having both adhd and autism cause generalized anxiety dissorder.

[mislitiktok]

Hi as a medical personnel I tell my clients to always checkup on their family. To know if they are okay. But I didn't have enough time for mine and I didn't notice that my child had ADHD. But I am greatful to Dr Iyhere on youtube for providing a lasting treatment for him. I appreciate you sir.

[abcde_ghijklmnopqrstuvwyxz]

wait what? i accidentally got invested in a conversation with my online friend and missed out on half the video

[douladoulasarah]

I have ADHD and my son has ASD and some of my closest friends too. I have always felt that I am the opposite to my friends and son in many ways which is how we connect so well. Almost like two peices of a puzzle.

[fahadimran]

ASD+ADHD presentations are common but stupid clinicians forgo the fact that both at a single time are rare to be seen! I'm both autistic and ADHD but my symptoms marginally overlap with bipolar and BPD. Due to this, my psychiatrist has diagnosed me with BPD!

[Philosophrone]

How do I know if I'm autism when I'm diagnose with Adhd and trauma? Those autism standards test doesn't include things like changing interest, not having issues talking in public because of Impulsivity but not understanding the norms of talking in public and things like that?

[SunIsLost]

I have both, I think I got diagnosed with ASD before I went to Elementary school, while I haven't gotten ADHD diagnosis until this year 2022.

[OrthodoxChristian]

I'm 51 and have autism and adhd. I get very depressed. There's no help from the NHS.

[yugigames]

My theory is when you have autism spectrum disorder and live with a sibling who has adhd you mask yourself by mimicking them to get by, I believe its also genetic, but was giving sleeping tablets while I was young to sleep all day as my dad couldn't look after us while my mum wasn't there. I've got autism or both due to thinking my brother has done okay in life a copying him the best I can, We are not all are the same we are all different.

[woIf]

Being monotropic with adhd is an experience that is difficult to understand if you're not having it. Whenever people have described amphetamine or cocaine overdoses to me, it sounds like what I feel like every minute of the day.

[sharonramirez]

In 2010/2011 my son was evaluated. His symptoms were in line with bith disorders and due to the fact he wanted his peers to like him the official diagnosis was ADHD. He's changed ALOT since then, but I wonder if the diagnosis was incorrect

[avancalledrupert]

I love my ADHD . I focus obsessively on what interests me and what dousnt interest me dousnt exsist .I'm fine with that and have no desire to change .

I have ied that I want gone it has no up side .

[listen-compute]

Is there a study about people who are introvert and substance abusers and how many of those people are ASD or ADHD?