|| First published: | Last edited: || 📚🕒 Reading Time: 3 minutes AuDHD is an unofficial term for co-occurring Autism and ADHD. It’s most often used as a term that people use to describe themselves with, and is a shorthand that can refer to:
- having been diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism
- having been told during a formal assessment of ADHD or Autism that traits from the other condition are also present, just not to an extent that would qualify for its own medical treshold
- having been formally diagnosed with either ADHD or Autism, but recognising extra neurodivergent traits that formally belong to the other group
Why is the AuDHD distinction important?
AuDHD people might prefer the term simply because it’s less of a mouthful than to say “I’m Autistic and ADHD”, “I’m ADHD and also have Autistic traits”, and so on.
Also, AuDHD people might prefer the term AuDHD because the coexistence of the two conditions often present their own difficulties.
- In AuDHD, the unique makeup of one’s Autistic and ADHD traits can mean that some traits might exacerbate or weaken the presentation of each other. For example, the impulsivity of ADHD might be held back by the Autistic need to familiarise oneself fully with a situation or a context before engaging with it.
- Other times, having traits from both conditions can make it harder to get diagnosed as more dominant traits from one condition might ‘cancel out’ the trait hiding under it and being looked for. Diagnosticians’ knowledge of the ability of ADHD and Autism to coexist often helps recognise when one trait masks another, getting more precise diagnostic results.
- Based on environmental effects, the ability to unmask, hormonal changes, and age can all shift how traits can interact in AuDHD.
- In other cases, traits from one condition might be hiding under a corresponding trait from the other, and presenting based on how ‘strong’ the overlapping trait is.
Because of all this, living as an autistic ADHDer can sometimes feel like a walking contradiction. It can also be confusing to friends, family, co-workers, managers and medical professionals. If someone prefers the safeness and predictability of a routine but also randomly craves spontaneity and unexpected adventures, they will have a harder time being acknowledged as ADHD or Autistic as the person observing them can go ‘But you do X, therefore you can’t be Autistic/ADHD’. Another reason why conversations about how traits work and show up for each individual are so much better than making assumptions based on surface-level behaviour.
Is AuDHD really a thing?
Yes. Among the many reasons it’s rarely known just how much more related ADHD and Autism is than what was previously thought is that before the publication of the DSM-5, getting an ADHD diagnosis ruled out an Autism diagnosis, and getting an Autism diagnosis ruled out an ADHD diagnosis.
At the time of writing, it’s only been a decade since both conditions were even allowed to be diagnosed in the same person. In medical establishment years, a decade is not a lot, therefore the amount of overlap and co-occurrence is still not well known.
Ironically, because of the overlaps, it is still easier to group traits in with other traits, for example disregarding Autistic traits during an ADHD diagnosis and simply categorising them as part of ADHD. Or vice versa.
The situation is slowly improving, thankfully, as swathes of adults have been (rightly) getting their previously missing diagnosis, filling out the picture. As usual, adults with decades of lived experience of themselves and their neurodivergence are leading the charge in raising awareness of AuDHD. That said, the goal is not to have AuDHD entered into the medical lexicon, but more rather to spread the word that people with one neurodivergent diagnosis can and should look outside their diagnosis if they are experiencing traits that don’t neatly fit the condition they were diagnosed with.
How AuDHD is used in language
The term AuDHD is most often used colloquially in casual settings, although in recent years the phrase could also be heard from medical professionals and researchers (not surprisingly, often from those who themselves have both ADHD and Autistic traits).
Both person-first and identity-first usage of the phrase exists, so someone might say “I’m AuDHD”, “I’m an AuDHD person”, or they might say “I’m a person with AuDHD”, though the latter is less frequent as AuDHD is not a recognised medical condition. As usual, how exactly someone prefers to phrase this will be personal, so when wanting to refer to someone else, it’s best to ask whether they prefer person-first or identity-first language.
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