 We have one last video that we're gonna have a look at from Yo Samdi Sam, which is a reference to Looney Tunes, if you don't know. Very cool. I didn't realize that she also had the tooth gap. I saw something recently about like models, particularly female women, like trying surgically kind of create an artificial gap in the front tooth. Not because it necessarily makes them look more attractive, but it makes them look more noticeable. You know, when you have sort of a unique aspect to your face, people are more likely to notice and remember you. Really interesting. So you've got that going on Yo Samdi Sam, but this is five signs you have ADHD and autism or odd HD. Let's get into it, guys. We show that anywhere between 30 and 80% of autistic people also have ADHD. And the number seems slightly lower for the number of ADHDers who are also autistic, but that's still a pretty hefty chunk of overlap. The disparity between the two probably just means that ADHD is slightly more prevalent or maybe slightly more diagnosed on a population level. Weirdly enough, the DSM, which is the diagnostic manual for use by psychologists, doesn't actually talk about this at all. And the criteria for autism and ADHD within it do not overlap, despite the fact that there is a great deal of overlap between the two conditions, especially when it comes to things like... I feel like the reason for that is because you're trying to discern which diagnosis someone's having. I feel like that's an okay way of doing it. I haven't looked at the ADHD diagnostic criteria in a while, but if there is something that is in the ADHD diagnosis criteria, which does also cross into autism, then that would be an issue, I think. Things like executive functioning issues. Up until recently, you couldn't even get a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD. If you had one, you couldn't be diagnosed with the other. Consequently, there is very little in professional literature about what it actually looks like when someone has both. How do they present? Luckily, we have the internet now and people from all over the world can share their lived experiences relatively easily. Woo-hoo! So you clicked on this video, maybe you have one diagnosis, but we're always kind of wondering about the other one. Maybe you don't have any, you think both of them kind of apply to you. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. Disclaimer, I'm not a doctor. I do have a psychology degree, but if you want real clarification, you probably should find a professional and not an internet person. Just think of this video as kind of like a starting point in your journey. Let's go. Hello, everyone. For those of you who are new, I'm Sam and I make videos about autism and neurodiversity related things right here on YouTube. After I was diagnosed with autism in my early 30s, I now know that I also have ADHD. It's really strange looking at like the, I feel like a lot of the top YouTubers tend to be late diagnosed adults, which I feel like is an interesting one. Yeah, it definitely makes me different, I think to a lot of creators because I was diagnosed when I was quite young, a 10. I mean, they spotted signs of me being autistic when I was quite a bit younger, but I was diagnosed when I was 10, so I've grown up knowing that I'm autistic. I feel like I have some different insights into life, I guess. The ADHD and the overlap is a really interesting topic because there's very little out there about what it's actually like having both because we don't really look like what people expect from one side or from the other side. So today I'm gonna go through- We do have a lot of stuff out there on all the ADHD. Maybe not YouTube videos as much, but there is a lot of stuff online. One thing that really worries me about advocates and creators is particularly when creators are talking about autism, but they're also ADHD as well. So there's traits from the ADHD also feeding into what they're talking about in terms of autism, which I think is something that you've gotta remember. If you're following someone who's autistic and ADHD, perhaps not everything's gonna apply to you. Not saying that don't listen to them, but you've gotta take into account that their lived experience is gonna be somewhere in the middle of autism and ADHD. There's obviously gonna be some things that they can discern from the other, but when you're learning from people, learning from their experiences, if they have a dual diagnosis, it might not always be very applicable to you. Like if you're just autistic, like myself, or just ADHD, there's gonna be a lot of differences between ADHD or ADHD and autistic, you know? It's always a good thing to keep in mind when you watch different creators. If you're interested in seeing my interview with her, we were talking about this idea of demisexuality. Over on the Forty Auty podcast, I do have an episode with you, Samdy Sam. If you are interested in seeing us chat to each other. I'm gonna go through five signs that you may, may have both. Number one, a constant conflict between apparently contradictory traits. You might feel inconstant in a conflict with yourself, which often results in becoming frequently frustrated with yourself. You may crave order and routine, but be unable to maintain it. You might get overstimulated as much as you get understimulated. And sometimes this might even happen at the same time or in a very short space of time, which can be confusing and frustrating for yourself and probably also for others around you. So these two sides... I say that the understimulation and overstimulation can also happen just for autistic people. Even just like their actual hypersensitivities. But also, depending on what your mental state's like, how are you feeling? What's been happening during the day? Who's sides of me are both fair. They're both part of me. But sometimes they have completely opposite desires and needs. And I think this can result in what looks like apparently hypocritical behavior from the outside, although it makes perfect sense when you know what you're dealing with. Like for example, needing everyone around you to be completely quiet and then making a lot of noise yourself. Number two, your traits might appear to... That is also an autistic thing. It's not just an ADHD thing. ADHD autism thing. It is also an autism thing. Verbal stimming, you know, it makes sense you can handle something. If you're quite a sensory defensive person, you might not find your own voice to be like a bad thing to experience. I don't know, there's sort of concept that I've come across that is all ADHD. And it was actually a podcast that I did with Matia Morey. And we were talking about all ADHD and sort of the difference between autism and all ADHD too. They were kind of describing this idea of having like cyclical energy, which can sometimes come across as bipolar. Obviously, you can apply that to burnout as well, I suppose. If you have someone who is kind of having periods where kind of your autism takes control a little bit more, I don't know, it's a weird way of talking about it. Or times where your ADHD traits are a little bit more apparent in comparison to your autistic traits, perhaps people might see your ADHD side as being quite hypomaniac, like quite mania-like. So it characterizes you in that way. And then perhaps when you need to retreat and you need to be by yourself and things like that. And perhaps don't have as much sort of outward indirect communication. They might characterize you as being kind of the depressed aspect of it. It's interesting like how when you don't consider autism and ADHD as something particularly in women, it does happen quite a bit. The other diagnosis has kind of come up like BPD particularly, bipolar schizophrenia. So a lot of crossovers there. There's also crossovers with misdiagnoses with visual impairments, which is one of the recent podcasts I did with Paul Isaacs. That was a really interesting episode talking about like how differences in someone's sensory system that's not due to autism can sort of impact the way that people diagnose you. It's like one of the things that the first tell parents before going and getting an autism diagnosis so you gotta get a hearing test. Cause one of the things is that you don't necessarily respond to your name. If they don't respond to your name, they could be deaf. If they don't respond to your name, they could also be autistic. So there's a few sort of areas of misdiagnosis and crossover with other conditions as well, which can muddy the waters a little bit. Peer to balance each other out at times. I think that what can happen sometimes, not for everyone, but for many people, is that the opposing actions of autistic and ADHD traits can seem to balance each other out or maybe even conceal each other. My struggles weren't always obvious growing up. I only was diagnosed in my 30s because for example, the social awkwardness aspect of my autism often kind of gave in to the chattiness and sociability of my ADHD. So from the outside, I kind of just appeared as if I was shy at first and then took a little bit of time to warm up to people, but that wasn't what was happening inside. Both of those people were me, the person who does not want to talk at all in a crowd, but also the one who can't stop talking sometimes. Luckily now I have a YouTube... But the thing is as well, you also have something that's quite seen as quite an autistic trait, which is monologuing, when I present autistic people do that. I'd say that it tends to happen a lot more with all the ADHD that's just from my experience, but it's true. YouTube channel, which means I can talk at many, many people at once and never actually get overstimulated-ish. And while my brain is plenty chaotic on the inside because of my autistic need for order and routine and everything being correct and right, I try really, really hard to maintain a tidy house clear of clutter because of the visual stimulation that loads of clutter brings me. It stresses me out to the house that naturally have left to my own devices I would make. So I may not look like a typical chaotic ADHD-er because my autistic needs dictate that I need to create order and calmness. You're right. And also like for both ADHD-ers and autistic people, having a stable routine and a structure to your day is beneficial to both. Number three, a larger variety then typical of special interests and or hyper fixations. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Another thing that we were talking about on the podcast on ADHD, kind of like with autistic people, our interests tend to be a little bit more stable, whereas ADHD-ers just seem to like grasp onto something new every like few weeks, you know? And they just become interested in it and then grasp onto something else and they become really interested in it. It's never really been something that I've experienced. Like I have a few very, very stable special interests that I have that don't change. One, exercise or sport. One of those, another thing would be obviously autism, psychology and philosophy. Love all that stuff. RuneScape, that's what I'm saying. My gaming sort of lounging kind of style of enjoying life or like TV shows. But I think TV shows are a bit more sporadic, although if it ends I will repeat it over and over again. Now, special interest is a topic that really varies from person to person, even within the autistic spectrum itself. But if you're also an ADHD-er, you may be more likely to have more intense special interests for a shorter time, you know, to use up the dopamine before switching to another one, possibly alongside longer running special interests kind of throughout your life that are more stable and less prone to being suddenly bored with it. There is a stereotype that autistic people can only be into one obscure or weird topic their whole lives, but this isn't exactly true. I found myself becoming extremely obsessed with many different things throughout my life so far while maintaining, I guess, an ongoing intense special interest in, for example, psychology. That's one of my ongoing special interests. I did a degree in it. But I also have these occasional micro fixations, which I guess is more like the ADHD hobby merry-go-round. You know, I'll get really into dressmaking for a few weeks. And that's a really intense period of obsession. I remember when... Yeah, I don't do that. I don't do that. And that actually happened. I struggled to sleep because of it because my mind was so busy creating patterns and constructing them and figuring out how to put the dress together and stuff like that. I was sitting there awake at night and my brain would just not turn off because I was so into this particular topic. The intensity of that didn't last long and now it's kind of something that's, well, that's cheap. Actually, it's in the cupboard behind me. So special interest is something that varies so much from person to person, but you may relate more to having lots of different ones or a mixture of lots of different ones and some ongoing ones than just one or many. I feel like as I've got older or maybe just because I have kids, like I don't really have the energy left for that kind of those intense bursts, but it still happens occasionally. Number four, different versions of yourself come out at different times and in different places. When I'm out of the house or when I was at school or working in an office, I believe that my autistic traits became a lot more noticeable. Out of the house, I'm getting some kind of novelty and stimulation. So the ADHD monster within is pretty satisfied because, hey, we're doing something new. We're getting out. We're seeing things. We're seeing people. But the things that I can't control out of the house is the sensory environment and it's a less predictable social environment too. And those are the things that my autistic self starts to struggle with. When I'm at home, in the environment that I have set up to be as comfortable for me as possible, my ADHD traits are far more dominant. Within the house, I control the sensory aspects as much as I can. So my autistic side is more or less appeased. But it's a familiar environment. It's pretty predictable. Dare I say, sometimes boring. So that's when the ADHD traits become way more noticeable to me when I'm struggling to manage daily life, keep things organized, or struggling to find that kind of novelty in a really familiar place. You see, this is interesting and this is why it is important to talk to lots or at least watch and learn from other people's, like a variety of people's experiences because this is not something that I would ever come with. I don't have experience of being ADHD and autistic. I feel great if I'm in my house. To be honest, it does, it can be bad. I experienced something similar, mostly with my anxiety and depression. If I do get out of the house more, I do talk to more people. My anxiety tends to be higher. My mood tends to be elevated. If I'm not doing as much and I'm sort of solitary, kind of isolated doing my own thing for a long period of time, my anxiety tends to lower quite considerably. My depression tends to get a bit worse. My mood tends to drop a little bit. So it's a weird kind of fine balance, I guess. So I can somewhat relate to that experience but perhaps from a different lens. So I was really good watching Sam. Tend to have some really, really cool kind of perspectives on things. And number five, you relate to people who also have both. This is something that is often really missed by the professionals is relating to other people. And relating to other people is a really important aspect of our humanity. And it's not very easily measurable but it's something less real because it can't be quantified. At a point after my autism diagnosis, I felt a little bit of kind of imposter syndrome because I was meeting more autistic people and I was a bit like, well, I'm not really like completely like them. I'm a bit different from them. And I feel like I am often, dare I say, a little bit too much for autistic people. I talk a lot and I get excited. And when I am being social, I want to be really, really social. So I do actually tend to have more friends who are just ADHDers. The irony is that these people are often too much for me. So I tend to find myself needing more downtime from socializing and more social recovery time than they do. What I'm trying to say is if you have a couple of friends who have a dual diagnosis and if you just find yourself clicking with them or if you think you have one diagnosis but you don't completely, it doesn't explain everything. You feel it's correct, it's not everything. Maybe that's a sign that you have both as well. And you know, neurodivergent people do tend to run in packs who do tend to kind of seek each other out consciously or unconsciously. So, you know, it's not so unlikely. So that was it. Five signs that you may have both ADHD and be autistic. Let me know if any of this resonates with you. If you have these similar experiences of being kind of in a conflict with yourselves, tell me about your inner conflict in the comments. Take care and I will see you next time. Bye. Thank you very much. That was your Sam de Sam. Five signs you have ADHD and autism. Do you feel enlightened by this video? Do you feel like it strikes a chord? Maybe you are also old HD. Who knows? There is also a possibility that you're ADD and autistic if you're not completely like decided on the whole hyperactivity aspect of it, like myself. I don't think I'd go for an ADHD diagnosis because I don't think it fits me. I might see if I'm ADD, I might be. Interesting. If you have enjoyed it, please go over to your Sam de Sam's channel. Go show them some love. Very big channel, probably don't need any more traction from my side of the YouTube space, but really great work, Sam. Always lovely to hear what you've got to say. If you have enjoyed this stream, you want me to do more of this kind of stuff. You can always subscribe, like the video, become a member for as little as 99 p.m. month. Get a little badge next to your name that levels up every month or so into different colors. I've set out my own individual member badges, which I'm very happy with myself about. I will at some point be doing members-only content. So you want to get it in on that. We'd much appreciate it. Much appreciate that. Really does help me out a lot.