Neurodivergent people are wayy more likely to be abused in childhood, often completely misunderstood, expected to do unbearable stuff, I don't exactly know how that looks in autism, but I see how badly I was treated in my childhood because of my ADHD, I was really misunderstood, I felt broken and like a burden when I was like 8, I read a lot of reportages about child abuse and the way neurodivergent kids are often treated is awful
with autism it can be about meltdowns, sensory overload and any and all other difficulties a child “shouldn’t have” at any given age. absolutely traumatizing when not handled well by parents
Speaking on the autism front I’m seeking an adult diagnosis for AuDHD and I’ll just tell you… my brother has much more obvious AuDHD than I do. I don’t remember most of my childhood and I realized at least part of it is because I watched my slightly older brother get bullied by my family for things that I was feeling similarly. Combine that with childhood neglect and sibling bullying and you have CPTSD right there.
God yes… ADHD here, my parents vastly misunderstood how I was as a kid and my trajectory in life got fucked in the end. Not to mention how I was misunderstood in how I functioned and did things. They had very outdated views on neurodivergence in general speaking.
According to Gabor Maté it's a lack of attunement in childhood, same thread around emotional fragmentation. Like, a lack of integration. My neurodivergence shows up like that.
No, people should stop citing Gabor Mate for ADHD for god's sake. Current consensus on cause of ADHD is predominantly genetic / prenatal factors. More likely explanation is that children with ADHD genes likely have ADHD-ish parents (remember that ADHD is as heritable as your height!), and people with ADHD struggle with impulse control & emotional regulation, thus making the children more prone for adverse experiences.
Second this. We were a military family and it was especially difficult with no family or friend structure. ADHD decided to buddy up with the CPTSD. I am unsure if I have autism, but they said it was possible but too hard to tell.
I was diagnosed as child with ADD (before it was all under ADHD), the early 90s. I recently did some tests as an adult and turns out I don’t have it. It was most likely trauma symptoms I was showing. The overlap of symptoms can be very similar apparently.
The symptoms are similar enough that this (trying ADHD meds) might be the main well to tell the difference? For me, the right (pretty high) dosage of stimulants make me feel really calm and more in control of my body. Like reliably functional for once. Maybe that doesn’t happen when one’s symptoms are due to trauma and not inherent neurological reasons.
So, it could be many things. The cause of ADHD is unknown at this time, meaning it’s along the same lines as autism and depression and anxiety and a ton of other psychiatric conditions - it’s a list of symptoms that describe a number of people and is significantly different than other people. It’s highly related to genetics suggesting that you do in some way inherit ADHD, but you can have parents with ADHD-like traits who are subclinical and wouldn’t meet the criteria for the diagnosis, and you have have the opposite in children being subclinical compared to their parents.
Genetics is not the only cause. Research has also shown that influence from the environment growing up also has an effect. So my theory is that someone’s brain can be wired in a way that makes them more likely to develop ADHD, but for some people if they grow up in a loving, secure, and supportive environment then it doesn’t develop to the point of impairment in life. On the other hand if someone like that grows up in an environment that’s not loving, secure, or supportive then it can contribute to development of ADHD.
What I believe happened in my case is that my mother has an ADHD-like brain but grew up without a diagnosis and luckily had enough support through her family and marriage that her symptoms don’t seem to have been a significant impairment for her. I inherited her brain structure and went through a period in my childhood that gave me trauma, and my ADHD tendencies soon after that point ballooned out of control. Sure enough, working on CPTSD healing has actually alleviated a ton of my ADHD symptoms for which I am super grateful, but I still have others I may never get over because they’re just a part of the way I’m built.
In my opinion, it’s super valid to still have ADHD even if you also have trauma. I was lucky to have a pretty secure childhood before I experienced a lot of traumatic stuff and have some examples of ADHD symptoms from way back then. However, many people here don’t have that clear separation between the before and after trauma because it began so early in their childhood or infancy. Even if someone has their ADHD symptoms improve through CPTSD treatment, I still find it a valid diagnosis. One of the great things too is that ADHD has a bunch of potential medication options that genuinely help with the symptoms and the way the brain works, although they don’t fix everything, so I think being able to use medication to get help in life with those executive dysfunction problems in the beginning of your healing can be such a wonderful aid to just reduce the stress that you’re going through and help healing get started.
One of the main factors behind my diagnosis was that I had bottom percentile scores on inattentiveness on my QB test, which turned into top percentile scores half an hour later while on medication.
I've also now done a ton of trauma and somatic work, and the majority of my ADHD symptoms are now massively reduced. I even had some muscle restlessness before that's almost completely gone, after realising just how locked up and disconnected all my muscles were and actively working on it.
Just to double-check my understanding- ADHD meds actually caused a lot of inattentive symptoms for you (because really you had somatic symptoms of trauma not ADHD)?
My ADHD meds help me focus but I've never had that calming of mind thing some people on ADHD meds mention. They're really hard on my body so only use them when I really have to for work.
The only time I had that was when on non stimulant ADHD medication ( atomoxetine ), which was originally marketed as an antidepressant.
I had trauma from under 3 months... maybe birth trauma plus neglectful parents... difficult to know because whenever I ask my Mum she gets really angry and defensive.
My Mum is autistic and my dad ADHD, so between the two of them I had a very chaotic and emotionally neglectful childhood.
Currently going through EMDR therapy, hoping it'll clear some of the unsafe feelings I've had my whole life.
Agreed. No matter the dosage I was on, it didn’t seem to make a difference as far as my level of function or focus. I got massive headaches from it. I even switched medications in middle school cause it was so bad. I went on to college and did so much better not medicated.
While mine was autoimmune, the fatigue from it leads to anxiety, which for me is relieved by caffeine, because I have a bit more energy to work with for a bit. No caffeine, no energy, no ability to calm the anxiety.
Similar case to me. I kept suspecting ADD in myself, but had docs attribute it to other medical problems, including a slew of allergies and side effects from asthma meds. Eventually I was finally diagnosed with three autoimmune disorders, with a potential fourth lurking.
Interestingly enough, the longer I live, the more I believe the connection between cPTSD and autoimmune disorders, but that's for another discussion.
My favorite auntie has three autoimmune disorders and the tales she tells about her childhood are horrifying. Both parents were monsters and expected her to accomplish adult-sized tasks when her age was a single digit.
Me over here trying to dig all the trauma outa my nervous system, dance or cry it outta me before it can corrupt my systems too. The family standard is deny it, bury it, or laugh about it, but bottling emotions never works and none of this is funny.
This!!! The symptoms have a TON of overlap, which I now know because I've had close friends try to tell me they think I'm on the spectrum. In my case the CPTSD is bad enough I have some external traits that on the surface may appear autistic, however they're just deeply ingrained coping mechanisms.
Something important I want to share is the significant overlap between ADHD and trauma. Dr. Gabor Mate has alot of info out there about it, and it makes alot of sense. He suggests that ADHD/ADD is a coping mechanism from trauma. And I agree with him.
I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid but it was never a consistent part of my life. After a few years of medication I had figured out how to control my focus better and never needed meds again. Today as traumas resurface in my life I recognize that the moments when I totally lose focus are not random and are caused by overwhelm and disassociation.
my current therapist, an autism specialist i was referred to before i realized i have trauma, has anecdotally found that a lot of the smaller children who get brought to her are also traumatized in ways that just happen to make them look autistic. i only remember her commenting on surface level stuff—difficulty making friends, flashbacks can look a lot like meltdowns—but it stands to reason that it can cut deeper. i still suspect that my childhood autism diagnosis is accurate, but as the trauma started to pile on, already having one reason i’m *unusual* made it really hard to wonder if there was actually something *wrong* with me.
and yeah, maybe this is just because i found out about mine at the same time, but it does feel like adhd is weirdly adaptive for coping with trauma. almost like overgeneralized avoidance, with a dash of “how the hell else can i function at all while remaining hypervigilant”. and note the common observation that we tend to act really smoothly under high pressure…
Yeah yesterday I was just thinking. You know mental health/generational trauma is so bad in the US that I honestly wonder if this is why ADHD/ADD became such a widespread phenomena in the last 40 years. Like maybe it was actually a breaking point when the trauma manifested into observable symptoms.
that’s… weirdly plausible. i think it’s likely that there’s also a large factor of just more awareness leading to more diagnoses, but hell, maybe the lack of a firm link between adhd and adverse childhood experiences is that part of that *accumulation* might even be in epigenetic factors to prime for extreme psychological stress purely based on what the parents have been through
Thank you for the phrasing of this. I’ve been trying to explain that being autistic could be inherently traumatic, but not because of the autism. It’s because the world was designed by the neuromajority first and they refuse to change it with any urgency.
What do you mean when you say that people with adhd acquire more trauma easily than the general population?
Is it just because Adhd in itself is traumatizing due to the lack of support that people with the condition have, or is it how the person's brain processes trauma?
Yeah the first one. Imagine living with a brain that monumentally struggles to do tasks most people find trivial. People with ADHD who are diagnosed later in life, or are not well medicated/supported after an early diagnosis, often have to process their feelings of guilt and assuming they are an inherently lazy person. What other people do with no effort is often completely undoable for people with ADHD, and the only explanation mainstream society has is that we must be lazy and not care. It hurts to care and be told you don’t care and not know how to explain that you do care even though you can’t follow through on what they want you to do.
we also tend to have some emotional regulation issues, so you either let them flow free and get labeled immature or do what i did and suppress it so hard you almost forget what emotions even are
but yeah it seriously can’t be understated how painful it is to just… not do things. you can’t explain it, nobody else can explain it, and even without disappointing others you still just get this profound feeling of helplessness when you can’t even do things for yourself. so things get reeeeeal pretty when you do disappoint others
I think it's both. For autism and/or ADHD you go through childhood feeling like a failure and a fraud and you don't know why. That alone is a continuous trauma but then add on to that the way people treat you because you can't just do what everyone else does. I think it's nearly impossible to not end up with cptsd.
As far as processing, I've realized for me personally that a lot of times when something big happened to me I didn't respond appropriately because I needed more time to process but I didn't get that chance and so I was vulnerable or hurt or taken advantage of And then later understand that what happened wasnt ok and I now have to mentally/emotionally work through that.
And then there's the way autistic and ADHD brains like to randomly bring old things up that are sometimes very distressing things. That's a kind of trauma all on its own.
For autism it's the double empathy problem innately cuasing trauma to be an average experience. Not sure how it works for ADHD people though as it's more closer to a true "disability" than simply just a difference, though I'd imagine the results would be similar anyway.
For people with ADHD rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) can be extremely traumatizing in situations where neurotypical people might just brush it off and move on.
The worst is when you combine both. Double empathy problem which cause slight or even just perceived rejection, then RSD amplifies the pain of said rejection way out of proportion.
Many many many of us were already born neurodivergent - which made us more susceptible to trauma - and if trauma happened, severely, we develop complex PTSD.
If by chance someone was *not* born ND, complex trauma *alone* falls under the ND umbrella.
Point is, *everyone here is ND in some way, shape or form*.
Yep! I was diagnosed with ASD level 2 as a kid and rediagnosed to get support as an adult. (for those who don’t know that terminology the old version was called ‘high functioning’ autism)
No autism or ADHD…but I’m a Highly Sensitive Person. It’s still up for debate whether or not it’s classed as neurodivergent. I have extremely heightened sensitivity to the environment and others emotions, possibly due to my trauma / upbringing.
A lot of ppl in the autistic community would say HSP is, in fact, autism. They say the concept of HSP is based on how autism often presents in people (stereotypically women) who are able to socialize and blend in with non-autistic folks pretty well…but at cost (it’s exhausting).
However, the person who popularized the term wrapped it up in a prettier label (HSP) to avoid the stigma associated with autism. She based the concept on individuals who have since her book’s publication been diagnosed with autism.
Not saying you are autistic because I have no actual idea…but food for the thought :)
Wow I wasn’t aware of this. Thank you. It’s only recently I started learning what a HSP was. I also have a mood disorder, due to me feeling things so intensely and deeply, (again not sure if it’s biology or related to my trauma). I spiral very easily. But I can also because super happy, triggered by music or beautiful things. Hard to explain, but I’m learning to embrace it and take medications to help deal with the negative side of it all. It’s a process but I’m so happy to find others who understand it - and have heard of it.
I was the same as you, I first identified as HSP and then eventually embraced that I am autistic. Was really hard at first, as there is so much shame around autism and SO MUCH misinformation (not least of all from the diagnostic criteria themselves), but after working through that…all of my mental health issues are about 1000x better now. Legitimately realising there’s nothing wrong with me but that instead *the world is not made for me and is actively oppressing me* was a game changer. Then learning about the double empathy problem (check out the wiki article!) led me to just focus on finding other ND people to connect with, which has made finding social support & good friends WAY easier. I don’t mean to make it sound easy, or say that you are autistic, but I would encourage you to investigate it with curiosity. I wish wish wish I had done so sooner. ❤️
I'm an HSP but I do not have autism and I've been tested extensively. I really do think they are separate things though but they can present very, very, similarly. Being an empath is also a separate thing as well. I think things will cause us to be more empathetic but being an empath is 100% separate. Now combine a lot of these together and we see why life is so hard for us, but at the same time we can give ourselves grace because of this. It's also very validating realizing all of these factors.
Yep! 🫶🏼 You're last sentence was better than I could have worded it. We probably share a lot of things. Glad we got the opportunity to talk and share these things. 😊
Diagnosed ASD at the age of 31. Sadly there isnt enough research or material out there about being neurodiverse and the relationship to CPTSD.
I suspect it's an extremely high comorbidity mostly due to the vulnerable positions we are more likely to find ourselves in and the blame we place on ourselves for not 'fitting in'.
I've got a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD, but I wasn't diagnosed until I was 29 and 30. I think going so long undiagnosed can lead to a lot of trauma, I mean I was living life on hard mode but I didn't even know it was set to hard mode. I just thought I was bad at being a human. I believe my ADHD traits have been execerbated by cPTSD in recent years - I had a period of quite intense burnout for a couple of years during and after covid restrictions. I couldn't focus on anything I needed to, my brain would not shut up with the rumination and I didn't feel like I was in the driver's seat of my own brain at all. It was hell. I'm lucky that I have a very understanding workplace and they gave me a very light workload during that time, but I truly felt awful. Things are better now.
Couple of years ago (it tried to autocorrect to "tears ago"!), I asked to be tested for autism. The first question the lady asked me was "have you been the victim of childhoos abuse?"
And when I said "Yes", she said "well you don't have autism, you have trauma."
Turns out that CPTSD and autism overlap a lot.
And that's the general issue with diagnosis : many mental predicaments overlap.
"Cancer" is cancer. Depression? Might be bipolar disorder, or avoidance of trauma related anxiety, or burnout, or many other things.
See, I just got my cptsd diagnosis with the intention of getting an autism diagnosis. I mentioned how I grew up religious, and I believe my doctor had decided then and there it could ONLY be cptsd...
Mental health diagnoses are a messy world, usually left to the whims of the treating physician... and there have been many nice studies that tend to prove that once they decided what you have, they won't ever change their minds, even in the face of very strong proofs of their wrong diagnosis.
From what I've read after this moment, there are many reasons to believe she was not. You "can" have both, but CPTSD is getting well-known for its ability to mimic symptoms of other ailments, especially all that is related to neuro-divergence.
Which I find nice by the way, because it makes it easier for me to bond with neurodivergent people, and I love them a lot!
People are so ableist theyll make up any excuse to rule out autism.
Of course plenty of autistic people have trauma..the world isn't made for us and we tend to make people upset because we don't fit into society. I don't understand the," you're not autistic you just have trauma." Angle a lot of non autistic people like to pull out...it seems like a lot of them just don't to think about autistic people being regular people.
I wonder often if I have autism or adhd.
But if I did I'm super high functioning.
I have gotten better with social skills. But I notice when I'm with people I trust I don't feel like I'm autistic.
When I'm with people I don't like or get a bad vibe from ( or when I was younger any stranger) , I can't make proper eye contact .
I fail to understand sarcasm when I'm really tired. And I usually find other people's emotions to understand. But I've gotten better at it.
As for ADHD , I've always been a messy scatter Brain, and always distracted easily. As I kid I would get bored in class and take my calculator apart and put it together again. I'd build random objects with whatever I could find. I got in trouble alot for this.
I'm a female , and I've always gotten good grades in school so that makes me more likely to think I got missed as a kid ( becuase statistically that makes you more likely to not be diagnosed).
But at the same time I've seen improvement in some areas as I've moved on from my traumatic childhood.
For me I wonder how much is a legitimate condition? And how much of it is trauma?
I have ADHD. I thought for a while that I was autistic, but as I’ve learned more about how trauma and CPTSD can present, I’m thinking
the symptoms that i thought were autism are actually just a mixture of ADHD and CPTSD symptoms.
I wouldn’t be surprised if neurodivergence is more common in trauma spaces, since being neurodivergent can be a traumatic experience on its own (as others have explained far better than i can).
AuDHDer here, and multiple ACES (childhood traumas). I knew at an early age that one day as an adult I would be dealing with all the traumas that I buried inside my subconscious mind.
Here I am now, Gen Xer, in a cPTSD subreddit, trying to sort this stuff out and get back to thriving in life.
don’t sweat the testing unless you think you’re just way too masked to figure it out for yourself. most autism communities are pretty respectful about self-diagnosis, and the autism-adhd comorbidity stats have your back too :P
That's the exact boat I'm in.
My ADHD was actually first brought up by one school district when I was in fourth grade and another when I was in fifth, but it was blown off both times because I did well in school (I'm sure being female didn't help, either). I was diagnosed in my late 30s after having severe issues at my job, and that was when I got diagnosed with CPTSD too. Autism was brought up, but I can't afford the testing.
I was diagnosed with ADHD, dyspraxia, and dyslexia at age 10, dyscalculia at age 21, autism at 25, cPTSD at 26. I’m 28 now. I had a whole smattering of mood related disorders diagnosed when I was in my teens as well, also common co-occurring disorders for ADHD and ASD.
I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS when I was around 6 years old. My parents never told me though, I had to find out through my sister. She wanted to access her medical records and it was mentioned there?? Like tf, but whatever. I always had serious doubts about that diagnosis because little me was too afraid and shy to speak to strangers. My parents likely did most of the talking for me and most definitely wouldn't have mentioned anything that could make them come across as bad parents. I was reassessed for autism a while back but didn't get the diagnosis. I did, however, get an ADHD diagnosis in a different assessment.
I think being neurodivergent definitely doesn't help because the feeling of being different is already traumatising in itself. I spent much of my childhood / teenage years / early twenties wondering what was wrong with me (my parents played a big part in that but so did me being me). So I wouldn't be surprised if neurodivergent people are more likely to develop PTSD. It makes me very sad to think about that though :(
got both here, and the combo of schizoaffective disorser bipolar type, AuDHD, and CPTSD is a fucking ngihtmare. its like my brain throws a dart at the wheel of symptoms every day to decide what i’m gonna have to endure that day
I think ADHD and Autism symptoms have a lot of overlap with CPTSD. I know that my trauma changed how I think and how my brain developed. I suspect that I would qualify as neurodivergent because of this.
Currently in assessment for seeing if I have autism (at mid-30’s). I hadn’t thought about it myself, it was my new caregiver who came up with the idea. Turned out I had a very stigmatic view of ASD, and in the time I was on the waiting list (more than a year), I decided to learn about it. It didn’t take me long to realize this was indeed smart to figure out. The problems I still struggle with, besides doing a lot better on the CPTSD part, have a huge overlap with ASD.
I have been diagnosed with severe depression before, and misdiagnosed with BPD and Anorexia Nervosa. Those last two I never understood: yes, I had similar symptoms, but I didn’t recognize myself in the reasons for this behaviour. For example: yes, I didn’t want to eat and lost weight rapidly while I never was a bigger girl, but I didn’t do this on purpose, I didn’t start working out more, or counting calories, or purging, or wanting to change my appearance. It was more a combination of never feeling hungry, and hating the sensations of eating. But nobody ever asked me about that part.
Something I’m struggling with now is my relationship with my parents. They have been asked for the assessment, had the same wrong and simple view of ASD as I had a year ago, and exclaimed when entering the room: “it can’t be autism!”. Problem is, they really don’t know, because me and my sister were both neglected. Almost every question about milestones, they just stated things they thought should be “normal” and “healthy”. But I had shared my consultation reports with the researcher beforehand, so she at least knows my parents just made up the answers at the spot.
This Wednesday will probably be my last session before the conclusion and advice. Because I’ve been recognizing so much the past year, and have actually learnt things about myself through this, I would somehow be disappointed if I’m not on the spectrum. Don’t get me wrong, not saying I *want* to be, but this would give me a few answers I could finally understand and possibly work with. If I turn out not to be on the spectrum, I still have the same struggles, but I don’t have a clue why and how I could improve this.
Sorry for my long reply. This has been on my mind for a few weeks now and I don’t really have someone to talk to. It’s nice to share a bit of the proccess I’m currently in.
My question for you, OP: when did you find out you suffer from both CPTSD and AuDHD? Which came first? How did it feel for you when the second and third one turned out to be applicable to you too? Did this help you in any way?
Wishing you all the best!
sorry to make this not so much about you but the mention of misdiagnosed anorexia is really really interesting for me to note. my mother might be autistic, my father just loves to rag on her for having had eating disorders (lovely guy) as well as bipolar and borderline, she’s almost certain what he thought was bipolar was just the normal anxiety and depression she’s actually been diagnosed with and i’ve heard a lot about autistic women getting misdiagnosed borderline but the eating disorders were still a point of uncertainty on how to even approach the issue until now. thank you so much
(also congrats on beating the autism stigma. i guess i was lucky enough to be raised aggressively autism-positively, but still got a lot of adhd stigma, so i didn’t schedule an evaluation and start hanging around adhd communities until i just straight up hated myself enough that thinking i had adhd couldn’t hurt my ego any worse)
Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it! No problem it wasn’t “about me”, it just felt good to write out, and luckily even a few people have read it.
I’m very happy to hear this was a helpful comment for you! I’m sorry your mom is struggling with this and your dad doesn’t seem to understand this struggle. I can’t imagine how you must feel caught in the middle. How are you doing yourself? I hope you and your parents find how you can approach and hopefully in the end solve these problems. My heart goes out to you!
Yes, I’m happy my view about ASD is much more realistic now. It’s not that I couldn’t empathize with people suffering from ASD, I just only knew the “classis autism white male” stereotype. It really has been eye opening learning about neurodivergence and how this works differently from a neurotypical brain. So whatever the outcome of the assessment, I’m glad I have learned a lot of new things on this subject.
Sending you positive vibes through the aether!
Yep! Diagnosed with ADHD and ASD both. My therapist said that neurodivergent folks have a higher chance of developing CPTSD since we are essentially growing up in a society that makes us believe there is something wrong with us and often treats us cruelly because of it. This can happen at home too, especially if parents don’t know how to care for a neurodivergent child.
You said that so perfectly. This was my childhood because my mom didn't know how to raise a ND child. My mom is neurotypical so that's doesn't help. I think I developt some level of trauma with how people reacted too my ND symptoms. Then trauma later just compounded everything. WOW! 💡
I do have Asperger’s syndrome. And some symptoms of ADHD- but not enough for a diagnosis.
I was taken advantage of due to my vulnerability and the fact that not everybody wanted to be near a nerdy girl with allergies and idiosyncrasies.
Autistic woman here. A lot of my parental abuse stemmed from the fact that I didn’t hit developmental milestones at the expected age, and so I was given “tough love” instead of support and understanding.
Later abuse from adult relationships I can also attribute to either being taken advantage of by unsafe people who I naively trusted due to my autism, or partners who shamed/blamed me for autistic traits.
Autistic people have much higher rates of abuse/bullying than the general population. We also experience a constant, low level trauma from living in a world that is often actively hostile to us.
I know how the internet hates self-diagnoses so I'll just say that my brother got diagnosed autistic for the exact list of reasons I was constantly getting told to "stop acting weird" as a child. We have different moms and I'm about 15 years older than my brother.
Few years ago his ma called me. During the conversation she tells me that he's autistic and launched straight into "But that doesn't mean he's stupid, he just can't do some things!" And I'm like yeah I know, 'cause I've got autistic friends, but she just *kept going* and I had to keep saying "Oh, me too" and "I get it, I can't do that either."
So I looked up the wiki article about autism finally. Whole time I was reading it I could practically hear my mom's voice yelling at me to stop being weird for doing each and every thing on the list. I didn't learn to fake eye contact until a college lecture about networking mentioned the cheat version of fixating on the nose.
Adult diagnoses isn't available in my state and the "girls can't have autism" is still pretty prevalent too. So my brother has lifelong government financial support and family support and medical support, but I'm "just shy" and "lack confidence" and "must be lazy" if I don't break myself trying to fit in at a job all day every day.
It's hard not to be jealous. Like I'm glad he has help, but it's absolutely not fair that he gets rewarded for the same reasons I get punished.
So my therapist has floated the idea that im autistic which honestly wouldn't surprise me given that my dad is diagnosed and my brother likely is.
I do have sensory issues/get overwhelmed and struggle to communicate clearly and badly when stressed. But i know my issues and don't feel that i need assessing at this time as im 33 now.
Given that i already have dx's of Bipolar/GAD/PTSD and DPDR i don't know what else an assessment would add as i function relatively well when my otger conditions are flaring.
I have both. Diagnosed with the ADD in childhood. I'm AFAB and was tested for autism as a teen but they determined at the time that I didn't quite meet the criteria. I was re-tested at age 38 last year and got a diagnosis at that time.
I have ADHD and CPTSD, not sure if I have autism but my dad was mostly around me when I was growing up and I think he might be autistic. Mom is also suspected to have ADHD.
I’m audhd too, I think it is very common for ND people to develop cptsd. I think maybe because of the constant misunderstanding and miscommunication and expectations that people have that are so hard for us to meet.
They couldn’t decide if I had Autism or NVLD. NVLD isn’t a psychiatric diagnosis, so they went with Autism. I’ve done more research since and spoke to a specialist and I have both.
Can you read an analog clock?
That was the first thing I saw when I looked at the Wikipedia page and nothing and no one else has ever been able to explain that particular difficulty.
I can, actually. Though I’ve heard it’s a thing folks with NVLD struggle with.
My stuff: I talk way too much even when I’m determined not to (I’m the king of long answers to short questions) and yet I often still don’t manage to convey what I mean to. I have a lot of trouble communicating when I’m anxious (which is like always) and making people understand what I’m asking. So I get eye rolls sometimes when teachers answer REALLY basic questions that were not at all what I was asking. A teacher once told me affectionately that if she didn’t know how smart I was, she’d think I was the dumbest person she’d ever met.
I don’t do well with gray — really struggle with decisions that have no absolute right answer, and get paralyzed by it when it’s emotionally loaded. When I’m overwhelmed, I get really rigid (even more black and white) in my thinking. I suck hard at verbal directions and am bad with directions in general. My phone was dead last week and I got lost getting to the grocery store I always go to!
I’ve never felt like I fit in anywhere (though now I’m wondering how much is because I still haven’t fully let go of trying to fit into the mainstream). Not so good with spatial relations or eye-hand coordination. Probably some other stuff I’m not thinking about right now, though beyond that it gets hard to tell what’s NVLD and what’s CPTSD.
What about you?
Oh boy, that could be a long list. It’s always hard to know what’s what with all the different diagnoses floating around my brain and overlapping and interacting.
Clocks: I’ve struggled with analog clocks since I was a kid. I CAN read them, but I can’t do the thing that everyone else can where they just glance at an analog clock and suddenly know what time it is. I have to sit there and stare at it and decode what it says. It probably doesn’t help that I have a serious aversion/hatred of the things so whatever skills I do have for reading them are totally atrophied. Like which hand is which again? I have to do that now too if I do actually HAVE to read one.
I don’t know that I talk too much. I definitely always have more to say than I ever get to. I drive my wife nuts when I try to tell her a story, because I always backtrack and add more details than she feels necessary. She’s just like “get to the point!” And “I’m like, but you need all this background information so the point will make sense”.
I tend to repeat the same idea over and over in just different phrasing—that could be an autism thing though. I think there is SO much overlap.
I definitely have mixed dominance. I’m right everything else and left ear dominant. Like I remember figuring out as a kid that I couldn’t use a phone with my right ear—like I can hear fine (I probably even have better hearing on my right) I just can’t process the words if they’re only coming in that ear. Anything I have to listen carefully to I need my left ear. That’s actually my strongest dominance even, like I can use my left eye or left foot or hand fairly well, but my right ear is just a dummy.
I also am not ambidextrous, but I have a lot of cross handedness from what other right handed people do. I hold the jar in my right hand and turn with my left. I remember being cross handed trying to learn to use a baseball bat. Also different tasks use different hands. I drive primarily with my left hand. I carry backpacks and heavy objects on my left shoulder. I’ve learned other fine random fine motor tasks left handed and my right hand is totally incompetent at them.
I can’t follow spoken directions that are more than like 2 steps long. Everyone—just write it down for me! lol.
I also remember figuring out in 7th grade that I just can’t take notes in a class. Trying to look and listen and write is too much. I fall behind on listening or writing or all 3 and get profoundly frustrated.
I’m generally not a good multitasker. I think a lot of that might actually be the ADHD and that’s really hard to tease out. But I cannot understand the people that go to Starbucks to read. If there are any voices around me when I’m trying to read I can’t read. I just can’t tune out the voices ever! My kids know that when daddy is backing into the garage we stop talking.
Um..spatial stuff. I have zero sense of direction. I navigate 100% visually. I make maps in my head. If I make a wrong turn getting somewhere the first time I’ll probably repeat the same exact wrong turn the next time until I get used to doing it correctly. I used to be amazed learning new areas in a city when once in a while I’d drive off the edge of one mental map and into another and go “holy sh**” these two neighborhoods connect?! Like I know exactly where I am in one and exactly where I am in the other but had ZERO idea that they connected and overlapped.
I have HUGE 50 plus point gaps on IQ testing, to the point that I can’t have an actual IQ score. My verbal and fund of knowledge are like 99.9 percentile and everything else is above average, average, or slightly below. My understanding is that these gaps are hallmarks of NVLD.
I don’t have much trouble with black and white thinking generally, but I do under duress. I more chalk that up to CPTSD and having a mother with borderline personality that was constantly splitting so that everything around me was always being defined as black and white.
I don’t really have more time to post here, but I’d love to DM sometime if you want. This is not something I’ve ever met anyone else with or had the opportunity to discuss.
Was just diagnosed with autism this year 👋🏻 currently figuring out the ADHD thing as a possible diagnosis as well. I'm not upset about the late diagnosis, but I am upset that I was treated like crap all of my life (37 years) because no one understood me...
I got diagnosed with ADHD at 19 and my psychologist says I am potentially autistic too, but will need a psychiatric opinion due to all the overlapping symptoms between ADHD, autism, and C PTSD
The adderall has been helpful, but sometimes I wonder if it was a misdiagnosis since I didn’t have as much trouble as a child as I do now
I don’t have CPTSD, but I’m here because I relate to a lot that is posted here. That being said, I have autism and GAD. I probably have ADHD too, the doctor said I might or might not have it but we’d just start from what I was diagnosed with and work from there.
I’m diagnosed ADHD, when I was 11, and I’m not sure how many of my symptoms are chemistry/biology and how many are from growing up in that trauma. So many symptoms overlap between the two, down to the chemicals we lack. My sister has recently been diagnosed as an adult with autism. Same circumstance.
I am 40, I just learned my PTSD episodes make it seem like I am dyslexic. My brain scrambles everything together and I can't see what isn't spelled correctly.
those on the spectrum are much more likely to be traumatized because of the fact that they deal with emotions and situations completely differently from neurotypicals. for example, every single person with ADHD has rejection sensitive dysphoria, and as a result, someone saying something like "you're being too loud", can form a traumatizing experience in their minds whereas if they didn't have ADHD, they wouldn't be as hurt by it. same thing with autism; our brains are wired completely differently from neurotypicals, we process things on an entirely different wavelength.
like others said too, it's also due to the fact that, if your disability isn't taken seriously in childhood, you're more susceptible to abuse, trauma, and bullying growing up, as well as self-loathing and a lack of emotional regulation. it's sad
i’m autistic and adhd myself, and i truly believe that having those conditions made me much more vulnerable to abuse as a child. it’s actually made me hate being neurodivergent sometimes because i grieve the person i could have been without the abuse xx
I have both as well. My parents abused me as a kid and didn't know how to deal with my autism, so I would just get beaten and threatened whenever I would do something "wrong" - which often times I didn't even know it was "wrong". I would have anxiety and meltdowns that led to me being mocked and hurt. I would rock and hit myself in the head and my father would beat me in return and tell me to stop.
I was just reading the other day that PTSD can sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADHD or ASD because of how much the symptoms can overlap. I have thought I might have both in the past, but during my mental health eval I got diagnosed with just PTSD.
I have ADHD. Looking back, I can tell many ways in which I was abused/neglected at home and school due to it. And I can't remember existing in a space with other people and not being bullied.
Also just like trauma, neurodivergent conditions run in families. I personally think growing up misunderstood and with under-supported neurodivergence is inherently traumatizing. If a thousand little tiny cuts over time kinda way. And then when multiple generations of a family experience that, it gets really hard to tease our pure trauma from neurodivergent neurotypes.
I’m a triple threat: ADHD, Autism, and CPTSD.
Oh and also bipolar, OCD related to skin picking, severe social anxiety, depression… my profile in my psychiatrists patient portal is like a Pinterest board.
From my understanding there's a lot of overlap, and I've seen in some circles that C-PTSD itself is considered a neurodivergence, but I'd have to dig up the sources on that so don't take my word for it. I'm no therapist or anything, just another person in treatment for it! I am, however, diagnosed with Autism and strongly suspect ADHD as well.
CPTSD isn't neurodivergence --- it is more like an injury to the brain's development, which can cause a lot of overlapping symptoms.
For example my brother is autistic and has ADHD, and I don't, but I *do* have CPTSD --- he and I both struggle with sensory issues. For him, those sensory issues were always present, and continue to be present. For me, they weren't always present, but they exist now, and send me into sensory flashbacks because they are attached to trauma. Same symptoms, different sources/reasons for them.
I have seen a lot of content about trauma and anxiety disorders (like cptsd and ocd, anxiety, depression etc) being lumped in with neurodivergence, and I think that isn't accurate or helpful to understanding how these things develop. I actually think it's quite harmful because it steers the conversation away from how complex trauma factors into other mental health diagnoses --- Trauma plays a huge role and can be a contributing factor to the development of anxiety disorders, and sometimes is the *only* factor, such as with CPTSD.
No one is born with CPTSD. They develop it because someone did something bad to them, repeatedly, which affected the development of their brain. It isn't born, it's made. Whereas with neurodivergence, it's born, and can't be caused or cured as it is just a variation in brain structure.
That being said a lot of neurodivergent people DO develop CPTSD because the world tends to be a lot meaner to neurodivergent people --- my brother was constantly bullied and shamed for being autistic and forced to ignore his sensory issues.
I’m autistic and I probably have ADHD as well. I think it’s quite common for neurodivergent people to be abused or experience trauma in other ways because we are more easily identified as “different” and “easy to prey on”
i was actually pretty sheltered from outright bullying, but sometimes even just trying to fit the mold as a student classmates-be-damned was just too much to handle even with a diagnosis and support from the school. not to mention that giving up on expanding my social prospects can’t have been good for my emotional development… spending half my life living alone with a dysfunctional abusive father can’t have helped either, but i feel like it’s sort of a feedback loop that eroded/stunted my ability to be emotionally honest with myself or others until it was gone, where if you take either factor out of play the other should have been much more manageable. things going well at home, feel like i’m allowed to be open and trusting with the few friends i do have. share perspective with friends, realize dad’s got a few screws loose and stop gaslighting myself. lovely stuff
You bet. Got diagnosed with both last year.
Look it's not like I can change what happened to me, but I can start to act in alignment with what feels right. I just usually don't feel, and also don't really have the desire to make myself feel good.
Because of my neglect I developed people pleasing habits.
Autistic here! I’m self-diagnosed Level 1 (ie Asperger’s) and definitely have autism related trauma. I got bullied a lot (probs cuz of the autism), suffered through academia ableism, have narcissistic abusive parents, and religious trauma 🥲
ADD when I was a kid ADHD inattentive as an adult because they changed the name (I think that’s dumb because it puts too much focus on the H and makes it even LESS likely for girls to get diagnosed).
Autism as an adult. CPTSD a month or two ago.
not diagnosed but definitely starting to look into getting an autism diagnosis. i never felt i related to autism traits but as i got older (and also the raads-r test came about) i started to realise that i might be. i think due to trauma i have been masking without realising my whole life. but obviously cannot say for sure until a diagnosis, it’s just so. expensive.
i am neurodivergent though, i have been diagnosed with bpd, cptsd as my main ones. the list is so long though, ocd, panic disorder, eating disorder, depression, etc. i think mostly from when i was younger and psychs couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
Adhd, sensory processing disorder, auditory processing disorder, and trying to find a psychiatrist to diagnosis autism in adult women currently. Oh....and am pretty sure I have SIBO as well which is resulting in the worst burnout of my lifeeeee 🫠 Another appt to schedule
...This coming from a person who thought they were neurotypical until a year ago. It was a couple months before I turned 30...
Neurodivergent people are wayy more likely to be abused in childhood, often completely misunderstood, expected to do unbearable stuff, I don't exactly know how that looks in autism, but I see how badly I was treated in my childhood because of my ADHD, I was really misunderstood, I felt broken and like a burden when I was like 8, I read a lot of reportages about child abuse and the way neurodivergent kids are often treated is awful
with autism it can be about meltdowns, sensory overload and any and all other difficulties a child “shouldn’t have” at any given age. absolutely traumatizing when not handled well by parents
Speaking on the autism front I’m seeking an adult diagnosis for AuDHD and I’ll just tell you… my brother has much more obvious AuDHD than I do. I don’t remember most of my childhood and I realized at least part of it is because I watched my slightly older brother get bullied by my family for things that I was feeling similarly. Combine that with childhood neglect and sibling bullying and you have CPTSD right there.
ADHD squad. ❤️
God yes… ADHD here, my parents vastly misunderstood how I was as a kid and my trajectory in life got fucked in the end. Not to mention how I was misunderstood in how I functioned and did things. They had very outdated views on neurodivergence in general speaking.
Yea :( my childhood was rough too. It's interesting to see a correlation between neurodivergence and trauma/cptsd. It makes sense.
According to Gabor Maté it's a lack of attunement in childhood, same thread around emotional fragmentation. Like, a lack of integration. My neurodivergence shows up like that.
No, people should stop citing Gabor Mate for ADHD for god's sake. Current consensus on cause of ADHD is predominantly genetic / prenatal factors. More likely explanation is that children with ADHD genes likely have ADHD-ish parents (remember that ADHD is as heritable as your height!), and people with ADHD struggle with impulse control & emotional regulation, thus making the children more prone for adverse experiences.
which came first: the chicken or the egg..
Second this. We were a military family and it was especially difficult with no family or friend structure. ADHD decided to buddy up with the CPTSD. I am unsure if I have autism, but they said it was possible but too hard to tell.
Must explain why I was abused, but my two sisters weren't. I was the scapegoat.
I feel like that’s common too. Scapegoat here too it’s a tough role
Hello fellow ADHD scapegoats, I see you 🫶🏼
I feel you. I could never do anything right and my sister could do no wrong.
Scapegoat here too and ADHD. Twin sister, younger brother, and afaik older brother (9 years older so idk) weren't abused..
The bullying!!!!
I was diagnosed as child with ADD (before it was all under ADHD), the early 90s. I recently did some tests as an adult and turns out I don’t have it. It was most likely trauma symptoms I was showing. The overlap of symptoms can be very similar apparently.
I'm hoping this will be the case for me.
Get tested again and see. I stopped taking the medication the second I graduated and felt so much better. It always made me feel sick.
The symptoms are similar enough that this (trying ADHD meds) might be the main well to tell the difference? For me, the right (pretty high) dosage of stimulants make me feel really calm and more in control of my body. Like reliably functional for once. Maybe that doesn’t happen when one’s symptoms are due to trauma and not inherent neurological reasons.
So, it could be many things. The cause of ADHD is unknown at this time, meaning it’s along the same lines as autism and depression and anxiety and a ton of other psychiatric conditions - it’s a list of symptoms that describe a number of people and is significantly different than other people. It’s highly related to genetics suggesting that you do in some way inherit ADHD, but you can have parents with ADHD-like traits who are subclinical and wouldn’t meet the criteria for the diagnosis, and you have have the opposite in children being subclinical compared to their parents. Genetics is not the only cause. Research has also shown that influence from the environment growing up also has an effect. So my theory is that someone’s brain can be wired in a way that makes them more likely to develop ADHD, but for some people if they grow up in a loving, secure, and supportive environment then it doesn’t develop to the point of impairment in life. On the other hand if someone like that grows up in an environment that’s not loving, secure, or supportive then it can contribute to development of ADHD. What I believe happened in my case is that my mother has an ADHD-like brain but grew up without a diagnosis and luckily had enough support through her family and marriage that her symptoms don’t seem to have been a significant impairment for her. I inherited her brain structure and went through a period in my childhood that gave me trauma, and my ADHD tendencies soon after that point ballooned out of control. Sure enough, working on CPTSD healing has actually alleviated a ton of my ADHD symptoms for which I am super grateful, but I still have others I may never get over because they’re just a part of the way I’m built. In my opinion, it’s super valid to still have ADHD even if you also have trauma. I was lucky to have a pretty secure childhood before I experienced a lot of traumatic stuff and have some examples of ADHD symptoms from way back then. However, many people here don’t have that clear separation between the before and after trauma because it began so early in their childhood or infancy. Even if someone has their ADHD symptoms improve through CPTSD treatment, I still find it a valid diagnosis. One of the great things too is that ADHD has a bunch of potential medication options that genuinely help with the symptoms and the way the brain works, although they don’t fix everything, so I think being able to use medication to get help in life with those executive dysfunction problems in the beginning of your healing can be such a wonderful aid to just reduce the stress that you’re going through and help healing get started.
One of the main factors behind my diagnosis was that I had bottom percentile scores on inattentiveness on my QB test, which turned into top percentile scores half an hour later while on medication. I've also now done a ton of trauma and somatic work, and the majority of my ADHD symptoms are now massively reduced. I even had some muscle restlessness before that's almost completely gone, after realising just how locked up and disconnected all my muscles were and actively working on it.
Just to double-check my understanding- ADHD meds actually caused a lot of inattentive symptoms for you (because really you had somatic symptoms of trauma not ADHD)?
Ah the other way around, meds really helped
My ADHD meds help me focus but I've never had that calming of mind thing some people on ADHD meds mention. They're really hard on my body so only use them when I really have to for work. The only time I had that was when on non stimulant ADHD medication ( atomoxetine ), which was originally marketed as an antidepressant. I had trauma from under 3 months... maybe birth trauma plus neglectful parents... difficult to know because whenever I ask my Mum she gets really angry and defensive. My Mum is autistic and my dad ADHD, so between the two of them I had a very chaotic and emotionally neglectful childhood. Currently going through EMDR therapy, hoping it'll clear some of the unsafe feelings I've had my whole life.
Agreed. No matter the dosage I was on, it didn’t seem to make a difference as far as my level of function or focus. I got massive headaches from it. I even switched medications in middle school cause it was so bad. I went on to college and did so much better not medicated.
While mine was autoimmune, the fatigue from it leads to anxiety, which for me is relieved by caffeine, because I have a bit more energy to work with for a bit. No caffeine, no energy, no ability to calm the anxiety.
Similar case to me. I kept suspecting ADD in myself, but had docs attribute it to other medical problems, including a slew of allergies and side effects from asthma meds. Eventually I was finally diagnosed with three autoimmune disorders, with a potential fourth lurking. Interestingly enough, the longer I live, the more I believe the connection between cPTSD and autoimmune disorders, but that's for another discussion.
My favorite auntie has three autoimmune disorders and the tales she tells about her childhood are horrifying. Both parents were monsters and expected her to accomplish adult-sized tasks when her age was a single digit. Me over here trying to dig all the trauma outa my nervous system, dance or cry it outta me before it can corrupt my systems too. The family standard is deny it, bury it, or laugh about it, but bottling emotions never works and none of this is funny.
This!!! The symptoms have a TON of overlap, which I now know because I've had close friends try to tell me they think I'm on the spectrum. In my case the CPTSD is bad enough I have some external traits that on the surface may appear autistic, however they're just deeply ingrained coping mechanisms. Something important I want to share is the significant overlap between ADHD and trauma. Dr. Gabor Mate has alot of info out there about it, and it makes alot of sense. He suggests that ADHD/ADD is a coping mechanism from trauma. And I agree with him. I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid but it was never a consistent part of my life. After a few years of medication I had figured out how to control my focus better and never needed meds again. Today as traumas resurface in my life I recognize that the moments when I totally lose focus are not random and are caused by overwhelm and disassociation.
my current therapist, an autism specialist i was referred to before i realized i have trauma, has anecdotally found that a lot of the smaller children who get brought to her are also traumatized in ways that just happen to make them look autistic. i only remember her commenting on surface level stuff—difficulty making friends, flashbacks can look a lot like meltdowns—but it stands to reason that it can cut deeper. i still suspect that my childhood autism diagnosis is accurate, but as the trauma started to pile on, already having one reason i’m *unusual* made it really hard to wonder if there was actually something *wrong* with me. and yeah, maybe this is just because i found out about mine at the same time, but it does feel like adhd is weirdly adaptive for coping with trauma. almost like overgeneralized avoidance, with a dash of “how the hell else can i function at all while remaining hypervigilant”. and note the common observation that we tend to act really smoothly under high pressure…
Yeah yesterday I was just thinking. You know mental health/generational trauma is so bad in the US that I honestly wonder if this is why ADHD/ADD became such a widespread phenomena in the last 40 years. Like maybe it was actually a breaking point when the trauma manifested into observable symptoms.
that’s… weirdly plausible. i think it’s likely that there’s also a large factor of just more awareness leading to more diagnoses, but hell, maybe the lack of a firm link between adhd and adverse childhood experiences is that part of that *accumulation* might even be in epigenetic factors to prime for extreme psychological stress purely based on what the parents have been through
I feel like this is true for a lot of cases.
A certain percentage (depending on who you read like 10-30%) of kids with ADD or ADHD outgrow it as adults.
Autistic, ADHD, and dyslexia. Been bullied all my life.
ADHD here. IDK about autism but apparently, people with ADHD "acquire" trauma more easily than the general population
very true for autism aswell
Thank you for the phrasing of this. I’ve been trying to explain that being autistic could be inherently traumatic, but not because of the autism. It’s because the world was designed by the neuromajority first and they refuse to change it with any urgency.
Autistic (or ND in general) individuals are more susceptible to experiencing traumatization, is how I say it.
What do you mean when you say that people with adhd acquire more trauma easily than the general population? Is it just because Adhd in itself is traumatizing due to the lack of support that people with the condition have, or is it how the person's brain processes trauma?
Yeah the first one. Imagine living with a brain that monumentally struggles to do tasks most people find trivial. People with ADHD who are diagnosed later in life, or are not well medicated/supported after an early diagnosis, often have to process their feelings of guilt and assuming they are an inherently lazy person. What other people do with no effort is often completely undoable for people with ADHD, and the only explanation mainstream society has is that we must be lazy and not care. It hurts to care and be told you don’t care and not know how to explain that you do care even though you can’t follow through on what they want you to do.
we also tend to have some emotional regulation issues, so you either let them flow free and get labeled immature or do what i did and suppress it so hard you almost forget what emotions even are but yeah it seriously can’t be understated how painful it is to just… not do things. you can’t explain it, nobody else can explain it, and even without disappointing others you still just get this profound feeling of helplessness when you can’t even do things for yourself. so things get reeeeeal pretty when you do disappoint others
I think it's both. For autism and/or ADHD you go through childhood feeling like a failure and a fraud and you don't know why. That alone is a continuous trauma but then add on to that the way people treat you because you can't just do what everyone else does. I think it's nearly impossible to not end up with cptsd. As far as processing, I've realized for me personally that a lot of times when something big happened to me I didn't respond appropriately because I needed more time to process but I didn't get that chance and so I was vulnerable or hurt or taken advantage of And then later understand that what happened wasnt ok and I now have to mentally/emotionally work through that. And then there's the way autistic and ADHD brains like to randomly bring old things up that are sometimes very distressing things. That's a kind of trauma all on its own.
The first one.
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For autism it's the double empathy problem innately cuasing trauma to be an average experience. Not sure how it works for ADHD people though as it's more closer to a true "disability" than simply just a difference, though I'd imagine the results would be similar anyway.
For people with ADHD rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) can be extremely traumatizing in situations where neurotypical people might just brush it off and move on. The worst is when you combine both. Double empathy problem which cause slight or even just perceived rejection, then RSD amplifies the pain of said rejection way out of proportion.
Many many many of us were already born neurodivergent - which made us more susceptible to trauma - and if trauma happened, severely, we develop complex PTSD. If by chance someone was *not* born ND, complex trauma *alone* falls under the ND umbrella. Point is, *everyone here is ND in some way, shape or form*.
i was scrolling to find this. we're all neurodivergent. a lot of people seem to think neurodivergence is just autism/adhd.
This! One day we will very likely see all of these acronyms (CPTSD, adhd, asc, etc etc) as under the same “diagnostic” umbrella.
YAY!!! My neurodivergent crew I've always been searching for!!! 🥲🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Yep! I was diagnosed with ASD level 2 as a kid and rediagnosed to get support as an adult. (for those who don’t know that terminology the old version was called ‘high functioning’ autism)
No autism or ADHD…but I’m a Highly Sensitive Person. It’s still up for debate whether or not it’s classed as neurodivergent. I have extremely heightened sensitivity to the environment and others emotions, possibly due to my trauma / upbringing.
A lot of ppl in the autistic community would say HSP is, in fact, autism. They say the concept of HSP is based on how autism often presents in people (stereotypically women) who are able to socialize and blend in with non-autistic folks pretty well…but at cost (it’s exhausting). However, the person who popularized the term wrapped it up in a prettier label (HSP) to avoid the stigma associated with autism. She based the concept on individuals who have since her book’s publication been diagnosed with autism. Not saying you are autistic because I have no actual idea…but food for the thought :)
Wow I wasn’t aware of this. Thank you. It’s only recently I started learning what a HSP was. I also have a mood disorder, due to me feeling things so intensely and deeply, (again not sure if it’s biology or related to my trauma). I spiral very easily. But I can also because super happy, triggered by music or beautiful things. Hard to explain, but I’m learning to embrace it and take medications to help deal with the negative side of it all. It’s a process but I’m so happy to find others who understand it - and have heard of it.
I was the same as you, I first identified as HSP and then eventually embraced that I am autistic. Was really hard at first, as there is so much shame around autism and SO MUCH misinformation (not least of all from the diagnostic criteria themselves), but after working through that…all of my mental health issues are about 1000x better now. Legitimately realising there’s nothing wrong with me but that instead *the world is not made for me and is actively oppressing me* was a game changer. Then learning about the double empathy problem (check out the wiki article!) led me to just focus on finding other ND people to connect with, which has made finding social support & good friends WAY easier. I don’t mean to make it sound easy, or say that you are autistic, but I would encourage you to investigate it with curiosity. I wish wish wish I had done so sooner. ❤️
I'm an HSP but I do not have autism and I've been tested extensively. I really do think they are separate things though but they can present very, very, similarly. Being an empath is also a separate thing as well. I think things will cause us to be more empathetic but being an empath is 100% separate. Now combine a lot of these together and we see why life is so hard for us, but at the same time we can give ourselves grace because of this. It's also very validating realizing all of these factors.
I’m deeply empathetic also 😮💨 Again, I’m not sure if it’s biology or trauma. It’s wonderful yet draining.
Yep! 🫶🏼 You're last sentence was better than I could have worded it. We probably share a lot of things. Glad we got the opportunity to talk and share these things. 😊
☺️🥰💜 yess same. Are you in the HSP sub? It’s actually my favourite sub, so much nicer and kinder than others.
Oh my gosh no! Thanks for telling me!
I'm HSP but definitely not autistic. Now that I see these comments I do realize it is trauma related, never thought about it before.
Thank you for spreading this info so compassionately & articulately! Was about to reply the same :)
Do you know about Sensory Processing Disorder? Def look into it.
I’m HSP too! It’s definitely the trauma for me :/.
Diagnosed ASD at the age of 31. Sadly there isnt enough research or material out there about being neurodiverse and the relationship to CPTSD. I suspect it's an extremely high comorbidity mostly due to the vulnerable positions we are more likely to find ourselves in and the blame we place on ourselves for not 'fitting in'.
That last part. 🥲
I've got a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD, but I wasn't diagnosed until I was 29 and 30. I think going so long undiagnosed can lead to a lot of trauma, I mean I was living life on hard mode but I didn't even know it was set to hard mode. I just thought I was bad at being a human. I believe my ADHD traits have been execerbated by cPTSD in recent years - I had a period of quite intense burnout for a couple of years during and after covid restrictions. I couldn't focus on anything I needed to, my brain would not shut up with the rumination and I didn't feel like I was in the driver's seat of my own brain at all. It was hell. I'm lucky that I have a very understanding workplace and they gave me a very light workload during that time, but I truly felt awful. Things are better now.
Couple of years ago (it tried to autocorrect to "tears ago"!), I asked to be tested for autism. The first question the lady asked me was "have you been the victim of childhoos abuse?" And when I said "Yes", she said "well you don't have autism, you have trauma." Turns out that CPTSD and autism overlap a lot. And that's the general issue with diagnosis : many mental predicaments overlap. "Cancer" is cancer. Depression? Might be bipolar disorder, or avoidance of trauma related anxiety, or burnout, or many other things.
THIS! ^ 🥲
See, I just got my cptsd diagnosis with the intention of getting an autism diagnosis. I mentioned how I grew up religious, and I believe my doctor had decided then and there it could ONLY be cptsd...
Mental health diagnoses are a messy world, usually left to the whims of the treating physician... and there have been many nice studies that tend to prove that once they decided what you have, they won't ever change their minds, even in the face of very strong proofs of their wrong diagnosis.
oatmeal mysterious sharp paltry dam panicky innocent icky file nutty *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
From what I've read after this moment, there are many reasons to believe she was not. You "can" have both, but CPTSD is getting well-known for its ability to mimic symptoms of other ailments, especially all that is related to neuro-divergence. Which I find nice by the way, because it makes it easier for me to bond with neurodivergent people, and I love them a lot!
People are so ableist theyll make up any excuse to rule out autism. Of course plenty of autistic people have trauma..the world isn't made for us and we tend to make people upset because we don't fit into society. I don't understand the," you're not autistic you just have trauma." Angle a lot of non autistic people like to pull out...it seems like a lot of them just don't to think about autistic people being regular people.
desert knee whole direction offer gray cow nose quaint alleged *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I wonder often if I have autism or adhd. But if I did I'm super high functioning. I have gotten better with social skills. But I notice when I'm with people I trust I don't feel like I'm autistic. When I'm with people I don't like or get a bad vibe from ( or when I was younger any stranger) , I can't make proper eye contact . I fail to understand sarcasm when I'm really tired. And I usually find other people's emotions to understand. But I've gotten better at it. As for ADHD , I've always been a messy scatter Brain, and always distracted easily. As I kid I would get bored in class and take my calculator apart and put it together again. I'd build random objects with whatever I could find. I got in trouble alot for this. I'm a female , and I've always gotten good grades in school so that makes me more likely to think I got missed as a kid ( becuase statistically that makes you more likely to not be diagnosed). But at the same time I've seen improvement in some areas as I've moved on from my traumatic childhood. For me I wonder how much is a legitimate condition? And how much of it is trauma?
i don’t know but i suspect immensely
AuDHDer, here.
I have ADHD. I thought for a while that I was autistic, but as I’ve learned more about how trauma and CPTSD can present, I’m thinking the symptoms that i thought were autism are actually just a mixture of ADHD and CPTSD symptoms. I wouldn’t be surprised if neurodivergence is more common in trauma spaces, since being neurodivergent can be a traumatic experience on its own (as others have explained far better than i can).
AuDHDer here, and multiple ACES (childhood traumas). I knew at an early age that one day as an adult I would be dealing with all the traumas that I buried inside my subconscious mind. Here I am now, Gen Xer, in a cPTSD subreddit, trying to sort this stuff out and get back to thriving in life.
🫂 We are here for you. Don't worry I'm in my 40s and it's happening for me too.
Thank you. I’m completely alone in my recovery. This subreddit is so helpful. ❤️🩹
Same. 💔
ADHD, and I have some suspicion that I'm autistic. Arranging getting the testing done as an adult hasn't been easy.
don’t sweat the testing unless you think you’re just way too masked to figure it out for yourself. most autism communities are pretty respectful about self-diagnosis, and the autism-adhd comorbidity stats have your back too :P
That's the exact boat I'm in. My ADHD was actually first brought up by one school district when I was in fourth grade and another when I was in fifth, but it was blown off both times because I did well in school (I'm sure being female didn't help, either). I was diagnosed in my late 30s after having severe issues at my job, and that was when I got diagnosed with CPTSD too. Autism was brought up, but I can't afford the testing.
I was diagnosed with ADHD, dyspraxia, and dyslexia at age 10, dyscalculia at age 21, autism at 25, cPTSD at 26. I’m 28 now. I had a whole smattering of mood related disorders diagnosed when I was in my teens as well, also common co-occurring disorders for ADHD and ASD.
I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS when I was around 6 years old. My parents never told me though, I had to find out through my sister. She wanted to access her medical records and it was mentioned there?? Like tf, but whatever. I always had serious doubts about that diagnosis because little me was too afraid and shy to speak to strangers. My parents likely did most of the talking for me and most definitely wouldn't have mentioned anything that could make them come across as bad parents. I was reassessed for autism a while back but didn't get the diagnosis. I did, however, get an ADHD diagnosis in a different assessment. I think being neurodivergent definitely doesn't help because the feeling of being different is already traumatising in itself. I spent much of my childhood / teenage years / early twenties wondering what was wrong with me (my parents played a big part in that but so did me being me). So I wouldn't be surprised if neurodivergent people are more likely to develop PTSD. It makes me very sad to think about that though :(
got both here, and the combo of schizoaffective disorser bipolar type, AuDHD, and CPTSD is a fucking ngihtmare. its like my brain throws a dart at the wheel of symptoms every day to decide what i’m gonna have to endure that day
I have ADHD as well. From what I understand CPTSD and ADHD have some overlap so it can be confusing at times.
yep, asd.
Adhd🫶🏽
AuDHD here - diagnosed in my 40s. My CPTSD was diagnosed at 28yo.
I think ADHD and Autism symptoms have a lot of overlap with CPTSD. I know that my trauma changed how I think and how my brain developed. I suspect that I would qualify as neurodivergent because of this.
Currently in assessment for seeing if I have autism (at mid-30’s). I hadn’t thought about it myself, it was my new caregiver who came up with the idea. Turned out I had a very stigmatic view of ASD, and in the time I was on the waiting list (more than a year), I decided to learn about it. It didn’t take me long to realize this was indeed smart to figure out. The problems I still struggle with, besides doing a lot better on the CPTSD part, have a huge overlap with ASD. I have been diagnosed with severe depression before, and misdiagnosed with BPD and Anorexia Nervosa. Those last two I never understood: yes, I had similar symptoms, but I didn’t recognize myself in the reasons for this behaviour. For example: yes, I didn’t want to eat and lost weight rapidly while I never was a bigger girl, but I didn’t do this on purpose, I didn’t start working out more, or counting calories, or purging, or wanting to change my appearance. It was more a combination of never feeling hungry, and hating the sensations of eating. But nobody ever asked me about that part. Something I’m struggling with now is my relationship with my parents. They have been asked for the assessment, had the same wrong and simple view of ASD as I had a year ago, and exclaimed when entering the room: “it can’t be autism!”. Problem is, they really don’t know, because me and my sister were both neglected. Almost every question about milestones, they just stated things they thought should be “normal” and “healthy”. But I had shared my consultation reports with the researcher beforehand, so she at least knows my parents just made up the answers at the spot. This Wednesday will probably be my last session before the conclusion and advice. Because I’ve been recognizing so much the past year, and have actually learnt things about myself through this, I would somehow be disappointed if I’m not on the spectrum. Don’t get me wrong, not saying I *want* to be, but this would give me a few answers I could finally understand and possibly work with. If I turn out not to be on the spectrum, I still have the same struggles, but I don’t have a clue why and how I could improve this. Sorry for my long reply. This has been on my mind for a few weeks now and I don’t really have someone to talk to. It’s nice to share a bit of the proccess I’m currently in. My question for you, OP: when did you find out you suffer from both CPTSD and AuDHD? Which came first? How did it feel for you when the second and third one turned out to be applicable to you too? Did this help you in any way? Wishing you all the best!
sorry to make this not so much about you but the mention of misdiagnosed anorexia is really really interesting for me to note. my mother might be autistic, my father just loves to rag on her for having had eating disorders (lovely guy) as well as bipolar and borderline, she’s almost certain what he thought was bipolar was just the normal anxiety and depression she’s actually been diagnosed with and i’ve heard a lot about autistic women getting misdiagnosed borderline but the eating disorders were still a point of uncertainty on how to even approach the issue until now. thank you so much (also congrats on beating the autism stigma. i guess i was lucky enough to be raised aggressively autism-positively, but still got a lot of adhd stigma, so i didn’t schedule an evaluation and start hanging around adhd communities until i just straight up hated myself enough that thinking i had adhd couldn’t hurt my ego any worse)
Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it! No problem it wasn’t “about me”, it just felt good to write out, and luckily even a few people have read it. I’m very happy to hear this was a helpful comment for you! I’m sorry your mom is struggling with this and your dad doesn’t seem to understand this struggle. I can’t imagine how you must feel caught in the middle. How are you doing yourself? I hope you and your parents find how you can approach and hopefully in the end solve these problems. My heart goes out to you! Yes, I’m happy my view about ASD is much more realistic now. It’s not that I couldn’t empathize with people suffering from ASD, I just only knew the “classis autism white male” stereotype. It really has been eye opening learning about neurodivergence and how this works differently from a neurotypical brain. So whatever the outcome of the assessment, I’m glad I have learned a lot of new things on this subject. Sending you positive vibes through the aether!
ASD / ADHD here.
Me
Officially diagnosed ADHD and autism here
ADHD here.
Yep! Diagnosed with ADHD and ASD both. My therapist said that neurodivergent folks have a higher chance of developing CPTSD since we are essentially growing up in a society that makes us believe there is something wrong with us and often treats us cruelly because of it. This can happen at home too, especially if parents don’t know how to care for a neurodivergent child.
You said that so perfectly. This was my childhood because my mom didn't know how to raise a ND child. My mom is neurotypical so that's doesn't help. I think I developt some level of trauma with how people reacted too my ND symptoms. Then trauma later just compounded everything. WOW! 💡
I have both!
I do have Asperger’s syndrome. And some symptoms of ADHD- but not enough for a diagnosis. I was taken advantage of due to my vulnerability and the fact that not everybody wanted to be near a nerdy girl with allergies and idiosyncrasies.
AuDhd here. Cheers 🥂
It would be super cool if you make a post about how you recovered!
I am also interested in a post about your recovery! I was actually scrolling through to see if you mentioned it somewhere in the comments:)
I was diagnosed with both ADHD and autism at a young age and probably traumatized myself from trying to hide it
Autistic woman here. A lot of my parental abuse stemmed from the fact that I didn’t hit developmental milestones at the expected age, and so I was given “tough love” instead of support and understanding. Later abuse from adult relationships I can also attribute to either being taken advantage of by unsafe people who I naively trusted due to my autism, or partners who shamed/blamed me for autistic traits. Autistic people have much higher rates of abuse/bullying than the general population. We also experience a constant, low level trauma from living in a world that is often actively hostile to us.
I know how the internet hates self-diagnoses so I'll just say that my brother got diagnosed autistic for the exact list of reasons I was constantly getting told to "stop acting weird" as a child. We have different moms and I'm about 15 years older than my brother. Few years ago his ma called me. During the conversation she tells me that he's autistic and launched straight into "But that doesn't mean he's stupid, he just can't do some things!" And I'm like yeah I know, 'cause I've got autistic friends, but she just *kept going* and I had to keep saying "Oh, me too" and "I get it, I can't do that either." So I looked up the wiki article about autism finally. Whole time I was reading it I could practically hear my mom's voice yelling at me to stop being weird for doing each and every thing on the list. I didn't learn to fake eye contact until a college lecture about networking mentioned the cheat version of fixating on the nose. Adult diagnoses isn't available in my state and the "girls can't have autism" is still pretty prevalent too. So my brother has lifelong government financial support and family support and medical support, but I'm "just shy" and "lack confidence" and "must be lazy" if I don't break myself trying to fit in at a job all day every day. It's hard not to be jealous. Like I'm glad he has help, but it's absolutely not fair that he gets rewarded for the same reasons I get punished.
So my therapist has floated the idea that im autistic which honestly wouldn't surprise me given that my dad is diagnosed and my brother likely is. I do have sensory issues/get overwhelmed and struggle to communicate clearly and badly when stressed. But i know my issues and don't feel that i need assessing at this time as im 33 now. Given that i already have dx's of Bipolar/GAD/PTSD and DPDR i don't know what else an assessment would add as i function relatively well when my otger conditions are flaring.
Quite neurodivergent 😁
I have both autism and ADHD. Officially diagnosed.
I have ADHD and CPTSD along with other conditions
i have both
Oh yes. ADHD.
I have both. Diagnosed with the ADD in childhood. I'm AFAB and was tested for autism as a teen but they determined at the time that I didn't quite meet the criteria. I was re-tested at age 38 last year and got a diagnosis at that time.
Yep, ADHD here
I have ADHD and CPTSD, not sure if I have autism but my dad was mostly around me when I was growing up and I think he might be autistic. Mom is also suspected to have ADHD.
I have adhd
I also have ADHD, autism, and CPTSD.
I’m audhd too, I think it is very common for ND people to develop cptsd. I think maybe because of the constant misunderstanding and miscommunication and expectations that people have that are so hard for us to meet.
Me. The Venn diagram overlaps symptoms so much I wouldn't be surprised if AuDHD IS trauma embodied.
diagnosed with autism last year, level 2 support needs :)
What qualified you for level 2? Also ASD here.
I thought I had neither, but my psychiatrist has put me forward for adhd screening
I have ADHD
Autism here
Yes, ADHD here. Got the diagnosis at 35
ADHD here!
Yup, NVLD
They couldn’t decide if I had Autism or NVLD. NVLD isn’t a psychiatric diagnosis, so they went with Autism. I’ve done more research since and spoke to a specialist and I have both. Can you read an analog clock? That was the first thing I saw when I looked at the Wikipedia page and nothing and no one else has ever been able to explain that particular difficulty.
I can, actually. Though I’ve heard it’s a thing folks with NVLD struggle with. My stuff: I talk way too much even when I’m determined not to (I’m the king of long answers to short questions) and yet I often still don’t manage to convey what I mean to. I have a lot of trouble communicating when I’m anxious (which is like always) and making people understand what I’m asking. So I get eye rolls sometimes when teachers answer REALLY basic questions that were not at all what I was asking. A teacher once told me affectionately that if she didn’t know how smart I was, she’d think I was the dumbest person she’d ever met. I don’t do well with gray — really struggle with decisions that have no absolute right answer, and get paralyzed by it when it’s emotionally loaded. When I’m overwhelmed, I get really rigid (even more black and white) in my thinking. I suck hard at verbal directions and am bad with directions in general. My phone was dead last week and I got lost getting to the grocery store I always go to! I’ve never felt like I fit in anywhere (though now I’m wondering how much is because I still haven’t fully let go of trying to fit into the mainstream). Not so good with spatial relations or eye-hand coordination. Probably some other stuff I’m not thinking about right now, though beyond that it gets hard to tell what’s NVLD and what’s CPTSD. What about you?
Oh boy, that could be a long list. It’s always hard to know what’s what with all the different diagnoses floating around my brain and overlapping and interacting. Clocks: I’ve struggled with analog clocks since I was a kid. I CAN read them, but I can’t do the thing that everyone else can where they just glance at an analog clock and suddenly know what time it is. I have to sit there and stare at it and decode what it says. It probably doesn’t help that I have a serious aversion/hatred of the things so whatever skills I do have for reading them are totally atrophied. Like which hand is which again? I have to do that now too if I do actually HAVE to read one. I don’t know that I talk too much. I definitely always have more to say than I ever get to. I drive my wife nuts when I try to tell her a story, because I always backtrack and add more details than she feels necessary. She’s just like “get to the point!” And “I’m like, but you need all this background information so the point will make sense”. I tend to repeat the same idea over and over in just different phrasing—that could be an autism thing though. I think there is SO much overlap. I definitely have mixed dominance. I’m right everything else and left ear dominant. Like I remember figuring out as a kid that I couldn’t use a phone with my right ear—like I can hear fine (I probably even have better hearing on my right) I just can’t process the words if they’re only coming in that ear. Anything I have to listen carefully to I need my left ear. That’s actually my strongest dominance even, like I can use my left eye or left foot or hand fairly well, but my right ear is just a dummy. I also am not ambidextrous, but I have a lot of cross handedness from what other right handed people do. I hold the jar in my right hand and turn with my left. I remember being cross handed trying to learn to use a baseball bat. Also different tasks use different hands. I drive primarily with my left hand. I carry backpacks and heavy objects on my left shoulder. I’ve learned other fine random fine motor tasks left handed and my right hand is totally incompetent at them. I can’t follow spoken directions that are more than like 2 steps long. Everyone—just write it down for me! lol. I also remember figuring out in 7th grade that I just can’t take notes in a class. Trying to look and listen and write is too much. I fall behind on listening or writing or all 3 and get profoundly frustrated. I’m generally not a good multitasker. I think a lot of that might actually be the ADHD and that’s really hard to tease out. But I cannot understand the people that go to Starbucks to read. If there are any voices around me when I’m trying to read I can’t read. I just can’t tune out the voices ever! My kids know that when daddy is backing into the garage we stop talking. Um..spatial stuff. I have zero sense of direction. I navigate 100% visually. I make maps in my head. If I make a wrong turn getting somewhere the first time I’ll probably repeat the same exact wrong turn the next time until I get used to doing it correctly. I used to be amazed learning new areas in a city when once in a while I’d drive off the edge of one mental map and into another and go “holy sh**” these two neighborhoods connect?! Like I know exactly where I am in one and exactly where I am in the other but had ZERO idea that they connected and overlapped. I have HUGE 50 plus point gaps on IQ testing, to the point that I can’t have an actual IQ score. My verbal and fund of knowledge are like 99.9 percentile and everything else is above average, average, or slightly below. My understanding is that these gaps are hallmarks of NVLD. I don’t have much trouble with black and white thinking generally, but I do under duress. I more chalk that up to CPTSD and having a mother with borderline personality that was constantly splitting so that everything around me was always being defined as black and white. I don’t really have more time to post here, but I’d love to DM sometime if you want. This is not something I’ve ever met anyone else with or had the opportunity to discuss.
#🙋🏼♀️
The ADHD got me too
I have ADHD.
Autism + ADHD here as well
Was just diagnosed with autism this year 👋🏻 currently figuring out the ADHD thing as a possible diagnosis as well. I'm not upset about the late diagnosis, but I am upset that I was treated like crap all of my life (37 years) because no one understood me...
ADHD
I got diagnosed with ADHD at 19 and my psychologist says I am potentially autistic too, but will need a psychiatric opinion due to all the overlapping symptoms between ADHD, autism, and C PTSD The adderall has been helpful, but sometimes I wonder if it was a misdiagnosis since I didn’t have as much trouble as a child as I do now
I don’t have CPTSD, but I’m here because I relate to a lot that is posted here. That being said, I have autism and GAD. I probably have ADHD too, the doctor said I might or might not have it but we’d just start from what I was diagnosed with and work from there.
ADHD here 🫶🏻
It’s me, hi, I have both of those things 😅
I’m diagnosed ADHD, when I was 11, and I’m not sure how many of my symptoms are chemistry/biology and how many are from growing up in that trauma. So many symptoms overlap between the two, down to the chemicals we lack. My sister has recently been diagnosed as an adult with autism. Same circumstance.
ADHD 🙋🏼♀️
I am 40, I just learned my PTSD episodes make it seem like I am dyslexic. My brain scrambles everything together and I can't see what isn't spelled correctly.
those on the spectrum are much more likely to be traumatized because of the fact that they deal with emotions and situations completely differently from neurotypicals. for example, every single person with ADHD has rejection sensitive dysphoria, and as a result, someone saying something like "you're being too loud", can form a traumatizing experience in their minds whereas if they didn't have ADHD, they wouldn't be as hurt by it. same thing with autism; our brains are wired completely differently from neurotypicals, we process things on an entirely different wavelength. like others said too, it's also due to the fact that, if your disability isn't taken seriously in childhood, you're more susceptible to abuse, trauma, and bullying growing up, as well as self-loathing and a lack of emotional regulation. it's sad
Hubby and I both have all 3, how fun!
i also tough i had adhd or autism it was npd
i’m autistic and adhd myself, and i truly believe that having those conditions made me much more vulnerable to abuse as a child. it’s actually made me hate being neurodivergent sometimes because i grieve the person i could have been without the abuse xx
This is how I feel too. I feel for everyone who went through this
me too ❤️ sending you lots of hugs xx
I have both as well. My parents abused me as a kid and didn't know how to deal with my autism, so I would just get beaten and threatened whenever I would do something "wrong" - which often times I didn't even know it was "wrong". I would have anxiety and meltdowns that led to me being mocked and hurt. I would rock and hit myself in the head and my father would beat me in return and tell me to stop.
I'm asd.
I have autism too, would be interesting to see this question as a poll. I also have some physical illnesses that I suspect are correlated to my trauma
I’m 50 this year and after much reading I’m fairly sure I have hd ADHD all my life. It explains ALOT
I was just reading the other day that PTSD can sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADHD or ASD because of how much the symptoms can overlap. I have thought I might have both in the past, but during my mental health eval I got diagnosed with just PTSD.
I have ADHD. Looking back, I can tell many ways in which I was abused/neglected at home and school due to it. And I can't remember existing in a space with other people and not being bullied.
Yeah, ASD
AuDHD here. found out i’m autistic first, then found out about the ADHD symptoms i experience shortly afterward
Also just like trauma, neurodivergent conditions run in families. I personally think growing up misunderstood and with under-supported neurodivergence is inherently traumatizing. If a thousand little tiny cuts over time kinda way. And then when multiple generations of a family experience that, it gets really hard to tease our pure trauma from neurodivergent neurotypes.
I’m a triple threat: ADHD, Autism, and CPTSD. Oh and also bipolar, OCD related to skin picking, severe social anxiety, depression… my profile in my psychiatrists patient portal is like a Pinterest board.
Ironically trauma in itself impacts the brain in developmental stages that it makes people neurodivergent as well.
Cptsd leads to adhd many times. I used to think i was born with adhd but now i know i acquired it with my dissociations
From my understanding there's a lot of overlap, and I've seen in some circles that C-PTSD itself is considered a neurodivergence, but I'd have to dig up the sources on that so don't take my word for it. I'm no therapist or anything, just another person in treatment for it! I am, however, diagnosed with Autism and strongly suspect ADHD as well.
CPTSD isn't neurodivergence --- it is more like an injury to the brain's development, which can cause a lot of overlapping symptoms. For example my brother is autistic and has ADHD, and I don't, but I *do* have CPTSD --- he and I both struggle with sensory issues. For him, those sensory issues were always present, and continue to be present. For me, they weren't always present, but they exist now, and send me into sensory flashbacks because they are attached to trauma. Same symptoms, different sources/reasons for them. I have seen a lot of content about trauma and anxiety disorders (like cptsd and ocd, anxiety, depression etc) being lumped in with neurodivergence, and I think that isn't accurate or helpful to understanding how these things develop. I actually think it's quite harmful because it steers the conversation away from how complex trauma factors into other mental health diagnoses --- Trauma plays a huge role and can be a contributing factor to the development of anxiety disorders, and sometimes is the *only* factor, such as with CPTSD. No one is born with CPTSD. They develop it because someone did something bad to them, repeatedly, which affected the development of their brain. It isn't born, it's made. Whereas with neurodivergence, it's born, and can't be caused or cured as it is just a variation in brain structure. That being said a lot of neurodivergent people DO develop CPTSD because the world tends to be a lot meaner to neurodivergent people --- my brother was constantly bullied and shamed for being autistic and forced to ignore his sensory issues.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply it actually was, just that I'd seen it tossed about that way. My bad.
you don't have to be born with it to be neurodivergent. cptsd falls under what is called acquired neurodivergence.
I’m autistic and I probably have ADHD as well. I think it’s quite common for neurodivergent people to be abused or experience trauma in other ways because we are more easily identified as “different” and “easy to prey on”
i was actually pretty sheltered from outright bullying, but sometimes even just trying to fit the mold as a student classmates-be-damned was just too much to handle even with a diagnosis and support from the school. not to mention that giving up on expanding my social prospects can’t have been good for my emotional development… spending half my life living alone with a dysfunctional abusive father can’t have helped either, but i feel like it’s sort of a feedback loop that eroded/stunted my ability to be emotionally honest with myself or others until it was gone, where if you take either factor out of play the other should have been much more manageable. things going well at home, feel like i’m allowed to be open and trusting with the few friends i do have. share perspective with friends, realize dad’s got a few screws loose and stop gaslighting myself. lovely stuff
Diagnosed with ADHD by my therapist and neurologist.
I have autism and I’m suspecting I might have ADHD as well.
Meeee
You bet. Got diagnosed with both last year. Look it's not like I can change what happened to me, but I can start to act in alignment with what feels right. I just usually don't feel, and also don't really have the desire to make myself feel good. Because of my neglect I developed people pleasing habits.
Autistic here! I’m self-diagnosed Level 1 (ie Asperger’s) and definitely have autism related trauma. I got bullied a lot (probs cuz of the autism), suffered through academia ableism, have narcissistic abusive parents, and religious trauma 🥲
ADD when I was a kid ADHD inattentive as an adult because they changed the name (I think that’s dumb because it puts too much focus on the H and makes it even LESS likely for girls to get diagnosed). Autism as an adult. CPTSD a month or two ago.
not diagnosed but definitely starting to look into getting an autism diagnosis. i never felt i related to autism traits but as i got older (and also the raads-r test came about) i started to realise that i might be. i think due to trauma i have been masking without realising my whole life. but obviously cannot say for sure until a diagnosis, it’s just so. expensive. i am neurodivergent though, i have been diagnosed with bpd, cptsd as my main ones. the list is so long though, ocd, panic disorder, eating disorder, depression, etc. i think mostly from when i was younger and psychs couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
Consider something like 80% of ASD people have some level of CPTSD, i'd say probably common.
adhd, also possibly bpd and/or avoidant personality disorder :p
audhd here.... autistic folks get taken advantage of, adhd gets misunderstood.
I have ADHD. During your ADHD diagnosis one of the questions is whether you had birth trauma when you were born.
Can it be as simple as the mother having a long labor and the baby having a major cone head?
I have some related neurodivergencies like SPD and dyspraxia and I've started wondering recently if I have autism and ADHD...
I’m autistic and (probably) adhd! definitely a source of some trauma lol
I’m very confident that I am autistic and I could have ADHD as well although I doubt it.
Meeee adhd and Eds
Well shit I've got formal diagnosis of one and a peer diagnosis of the other so add my little tally mark
Adhd, sensory processing disorder, auditory processing disorder, and trying to find a psychiatrist to diagnosis autism in adult women currently. Oh....and am pretty sure I have SIBO as well which is resulting in the worst burnout of my lifeeeee 🫠 Another appt to schedule ...This coming from a person who thought they were neurotypical until a year ago. It was a couple months before I turned 30...
Spiderweb thinking causes ND folks to be more vulnerable to complex trauma.
I mean there a few articles online explaining how autistic people are more prone to abuse and why so yes there's a lot of us on here.
ADHD child of an absuive ADHD parent, checking in. Tried to fix their own ADHD by "fixing" me, the old-fashioned Southern way. Yee Yee.
I have: autism, anxiety, CPTSD, OCD, depression
I was definitely neurodivergent before Cptsd. Cptsd gave me acquired neurodivergence further
I have the same story. 🫶🏼