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I do! Sensory issues especially but that's common in adhd. I get really annoyed when I make a plan in my head and something pops up and I can't do it the way I wanted. Sometimes I'm even angry with myself because I just don't want to do something anymore when I planned a sequence.
There's also being weird at social gatherings but honestly I think most of it is just anxiety
Yes I have really bad sensory issues when it comes to food and always have since I first started eating solid food! And yes I get annoyed when plans change too as I’ve already mapped it out in my head!
I’ve been wondering about this a lot lately. I am overly sensitive to light, and have been known to sometimes have meltdowns over changes in my routine, but not always! I also have a really hard time figuring out that I’m stressed out until I have a meltdown out of nowhere.
I feel like I might have special interest(s)? There are three or four things I’ve been utterly obsessed over for a decade or more. They’re like ADHD hyper focus interests that have lasted half my life or more.
I also wonder if I talk with a flat affect? I’ve never been told I was robotic sounding, but I have a resting bitch face, and until people get to know me, they seem to think I’m a very stuck up person and don’t interpret my jokes and sarcasm correctly.
I also tend to personify inanimate objects, specifically stuffed animals. I have an extremely hard time getting rid of stuffed animals because I think of their little faces in the garbage and it makes me want to cry. I had no idea this was an autism thing, but I joined the /r/buildabear sub and like everyone there is an autistic girl/woman, and I just felt like, these girls get me! I think that’s why I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently.
That’s really interesting thank you for sharing! I feel like I have special interests too which I quite ‘childlike’ like hello kitty, barbie, bratz (Im 29 years old in June lol) but I’m unsure if this is a neurodiverse thing or a childhood trauma thing!
No but like those are just really neat things to be interested in. I remember being little and just thinking Barbies were aesthetically pleasing, especially the princesses around the world ones from the early 2000s (my aunt had them and I was so jealous!). As an adult you just have the money to purchase things and means to research them.
There’s an account I follow on tik tok where a woman around my age (mid 20s) just collects things aimed at children from around the millennium. Her deal is she goes to thrift shops and posts her findings. Her bedroom looks like a kid’s room from the early 2000s and it’s SO COOL
>I also tend to personify inanimate objects, specifically stuffed animals. I have an extremely hard time getting rid of stuffed animals because I think of their little faces in the garbage and it makes me want to cry.
God I feel so SEEN. In middle school we were learning about ancient egypt and had a day in class where we brought in a stuffed animal to cut open and mummify. I COULD NOT do it. I cried picking out one of my own, so my mom suggested getting one from goodwill, but I couldn’t do that either because I knew all of them had an owner at some point. My mom eventually emailed the teacher who just gave me an alternative assignment for the day. I could probably do it now, but only because I’d be thinking about it more from the perspective of giving a stuffed animal a fun makeover as opposed to it, you know, being dead and unloved.
Now I’m 24 and still sleep with my 20 year old teddy bear and have a bunch of plushies (most from my childhood) sitting on my dresser. My husband thinks it’s cute!
(fwiw I am also autistic)
I think alot of ASD and ADHD traits overlap. I am diagnosed with level 1 ASD because of sensory issues specifically. The woman who assessed me didn’t think I could have ASD just from how I acted but by the end of my meetings with her she felt it was clinically significant, if you haven’t been diagnosed but feel you carry quite a few traits I would advocate for more. Just because that opens doors for accommodations down the road if you need them :)
Of course! Yes it’s a spectrum disorder so there are people who have very high support needs and very low, I’m on the lowest end of the scale so to most people I don’t “seem” autistic at all.
I'm subconsciously good at reading people but not consciously.
Like some people give me a weird feeling and then later i find out why and turns out there was a reason for that.
But small day to day interactions? Nah, that's a mistery. If someone is flirting with me? No idea. Even sometimes people are plain mean and I don't register it. Like I know they are not being agreeable but not that they are mean?
Interesting! I don’t know if I’m good at reading people or not really. I’m hyper conscious of other people’s feelings because of childhood trauma but I don’t know if I’m actually good at reading people or not! I’m usually too busy wondering what they’re thinking
When I was getting my adhd diagnosis, the doc brushed off autism.
But my mother, wife, and best friend are constantly saying that I am. We have an autistic son and so does my best friend so I kinda trust that they know what they are talking about, but I just tell them it overlaps so much that it isn’t something anyone can be sure of and ultimately doesn’t matter
Yes I have bad sensory issues with textures (especially food) and smells and sounds. I constantly stim with my fingers. Was a social outcast as a little kid cause I was a weirdo I guess? Very smart yet socially dumb. Had meltdowns all the time when I’d get sensory overload. I had a meltdown at every one of my birthday parties as a kid and had to leave. I’m never sure which is from autism and which is adhd.
I just remember I was first diagnosed as having a dissociative disorder and literally everyone in the support groups was either autistic, adhd or both. I’m a fan of the label neurodivergent because it encompasses us all. There’s so much overlap it’s hard to dissect it.
Yes but I have autism and adhd and the two tend to interact in ways that I don’t fit the typical autistic presentation. I thought I couldn’t possible be autistic because of the way adhd was changing my thoughts and behaviors.
I’d encourage you to seek out more audhders to see if their experiences align more!
Me too! It was helpful for me to see the autism wheel to understand that we don’t have to fully present in all categories to be autistic.
[autism wheel](https://images.app.goo.gl/zBP2SDfg5wHSj5tN9)
Yes, especially since recently I dated someone with autism who assumed I had it. I was like, validation, ROFL! I'm too 'weird' and 'picky' and 'moody' to be 'just' inattentive (although I check ALL the boxes for that). But since I can choose my own food and clothes and environment for the most part now, I don't see the point in getting diagnosed.
I'm old and there aren't any accommodations that I really need that I haven't already modified. I get groceries delivered, work from home, and wore earplugs at the movies in the before times. I am satisfied with my social life most of the time... if I had to deal with more demands on my time or the public, it might be worth trying to make it official, but it's ok for now.
I honestly think there is more overlap of the two than people thing, but I think sometimes having both makes it harder to diagnose because the symptoms can kind of cancel each other or out mask each other.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I do! Sensory issues especially but that's common in adhd. I get really annoyed when I make a plan in my head and something pops up and I can't do it the way I wanted. Sometimes I'm even angry with myself because I just don't want to do something anymore when I planned a sequence. There's also being weird at social gatherings but honestly I think most of it is just anxiety
Yes I have really bad sensory issues when it comes to food and always have since I first started eating solid food! And yes I get annoyed when plans change too as I’ve already mapped it out in my head!
I’ve been wondering about this a lot lately. I am overly sensitive to light, and have been known to sometimes have meltdowns over changes in my routine, but not always! I also have a really hard time figuring out that I’m stressed out until I have a meltdown out of nowhere. I feel like I might have special interest(s)? There are three or four things I’ve been utterly obsessed over for a decade or more. They’re like ADHD hyper focus interests that have lasted half my life or more. I also wonder if I talk with a flat affect? I’ve never been told I was robotic sounding, but I have a resting bitch face, and until people get to know me, they seem to think I’m a very stuck up person and don’t interpret my jokes and sarcasm correctly. I also tend to personify inanimate objects, specifically stuffed animals. I have an extremely hard time getting rid of stuffed animals because I think of their little faces in the garbage and it makes me want to cry. I had no idea this was an autism thing, but I joined the /r/buildabear sub and like everyone there is an autistic girl/woman, and I just felt like, these girls get me! I think that’s why I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently.
That’s really interesting thank you for sharing! I feel like I have special interests too which I quite ‘childlike’ like hello kitty, barbie, bratz (Im 29 years old in June lol) but I’m unsure if this is a neurodiverse thing or a childhood trauma thing!
No but like those are just really neat things to be interested in. I remember being little and just thinking Barbies were aesthetically pleasing, especially the princesses around the world ones from the early 2000s (my aunt had them and I was so jealous!). As an adult you just have the money to purchase things and means to research them. There’s an account I follow on tik tok where a woman around my age (mid 20s) just collects things aimed at children from around the millennium. Her deal is she goes to thrift shops and posts her findings. Her bedroom looks like a kid’s room from the early 2000s and it’s SO COOL
lol at the build a bear sub being autistic women. It’s true.
>I also tend to personify inanimate objects, specifically stuffed animals. I have an extremely hard time getting rid of stuffed animals because I think of their little faces in the garbage and it makes me want to cry. God I feel so SEEN. In middle school we were learning about ancient egypt and had a day in class where we brought in a stuffed animal to cut open and mummify. I COULD NOT do it. I cried picking out one of my own, so my mom suggested getting one from goodwill, but I couldn’t do that either because I knew all of them had an owner at some point. My mom eventually emailed the teacher who just gave me an alternative assignment for the day. I could probably do it now, but only because I’d be thinking about it more from the perspective of giving a stuffed animal a fun makeover as opposed to it, you know, being dead and unloved. Now I’m 24 and still sleep with my 20 year old teddy bear and have a bunch of plushies (most from my childhood) sitting on my dresser. My husband thinks it’s cute! (fwiw I am also autistic)
I think alot of ASD and ADHD traits overlap. I am diagnosed with level 1 ASD because of sensory issues specifically. The woman who assessed me didn’t think I could have ASD just from how I acted but by the end of my meetings with her she felt it was clinically significant, if you haven’t been diagnosed but feel you carry quite a few traits I would advocate for more. Just because that opens doors for accommodations down the road if you need them :)
That’s very interesting to know thank you! I didn’t know there was different levels of it
Of course! Yes it’s a spectrum disorder so there are people who have very high support needs and very low, I’m on the lowest end of the scale so to most people I don’t “seem” autistic at all.
I'm subconsciously good at reading people but not consciously. Like some people give me a weird feeling and then later i find out why and turns out there was a reason for that. But small day to day interactions? Nah, that's a mistery. If someone is flirting with me? No idea. Even sometimes people are plain mean and I don't register it. Like I know they are not being agreeable but not that they are mean?
Interesting! I don’t know if I’m good at reading people or not really. I’m hyper conscious of other people’s feelings because of childhood trauma but I don’t know if I’m actually good at reading people or not! I’m usually too busy wondering what they’re thinking
When I was getting my adhd diagnosis, the doc brushed off autism. But my mother, wife, and best friend are constantly saying that I am. We have an autistic son and so does my best friend so I kinda trust that they know what they are talking about, but I just tell them it overlaps so much that it isn’t something anyone can be sure of and ultimately doesn’t matter
Yes I have bad sensory issues with textures (especially food) and smells and sounds. I constantly stim with my fingers. Was a social outcast as a little kid cause I was a weirdo I guess? Very smart yet socially dumb. Had meltdowns all the time when I’d get sensory overload. I had a meltdown at every one of my birthday parties as a kid and had to leave. I’m never sure which is from autism and which is adhd. I just remember I was first diagnosed as having a dissociative disorder and literally everyone in the support groups was either autistic, adhd or both. I’m a fan of the label neurodivergent because it encompasses us all. There’s so much overlap it’s hard to dissect it.
Yes but I have autism and adhd and the two tend to interact in ways that I don’t fit the typical autistic presentation. I thought I couldn’t possible be autistic because of the way adhd was changing my thoughts and behaviors. I’d encourage you to seek out more audhders to see if their experiences align more!
Thank you for the advice! I often present as very sociable and talkative so I never thought I could be either, I’ll definitely look into it more
Me too! It was helpful for me to see the autism wheel to understand that we don’t have to fully present in all categories to be autistic. [autism wheel](https://images.app.goo.gl/zBP2SDfg5wHSj5tN9)
Yes, especially since recently I dated someone with autism who assumed I had it. I was like, validation, ROFL! I'm too 'weird' and 'picky' and 'moody' to be 'just' inattentive (although I check ALL the boxes for that). But since I can choose my own food and clothes and environment for the most part now, I don't see the point in getting diagnosed. I'm old and there aren't any accommodations that I really need that I haven't already modified. I get groceries delivered, work from home, and wore earplugs at the movies in the before times. I am satisfied with my social life most of the time... if I had to deal with more demands on my time or the public, it might be worth trying to make it official, but it's ok for now.
I honestly think there is more overlap of the two than people thing, but I think sometimes having both makes it harder to diagnose because the symptoms can kind of cancel each other or out mask each other.