Although I often don’t identify the ADHD aspect, as I am diagnosed as both, sometimes I do identify both (i.e. AuDHD) because I feel they may both someday be proven to be part of the same neurodivergent spectrum. I do have more intricate opinions about them comparatively to each other.

The reason I associate autism more dominantly than ADHD is because I’ve seen people on social media associating behavioral traits to ADHD that seem to assume they are correct. I don’t think ADHD is all that complicated. So, I take the acronym itself literally.

ADHD clearly involves attention deficit and in some cases hyperactivity. This means the person has difficulty paying attention, focusing, concentrating, attention span, more easily distracted, prone to multi-tasking and not finishing what they start.

Hyperactivity is outbursts of hypermania in a number of different behavioral forms. It can be talking fast every time you communicate. Since adolescence, I’ve always talked faster than normal. Just ask my Mom. Hyper behavior isn’t always seen by those around you. I personally hide any of mine that my parents might see and stigmatize even though they’re my parents.

Autism, on the other hand, influences the very spark of self-awareness: our thinking. In it’s simplest form, our thought processes are inherently different from inception, thinking, behavior, and interacting with the stimuli in our environment.

It’s what I call a ‘downstream’ approach. What starts upstream will trickle downstream having a greater effect. What starts with our thought processes will result in info-dumping, oversharing, sensory overload, and making a sandwich no one’s heard anyone else making.

Pumpernickel bread, peanut butter, cream cheese, and ketchup.

Who eats that? I used to in early elementary school. I still could if i wanted to and if i hadn’t masked/avoided eating it to blend in with my peers. That’s autism. Not ADHD. Try this analogy with a billiard table cue ball:

ADHD puts spin on the ball.

Autism is the ball moving with a different center of gravity but ending up in similar places as a typical ball.

If you think I have value in research, I’m trying. I just published my Autistic Chronophobia Theory and it’s been getting a lot of attention including from at least one PhD who outright supported it.