42
The sudden rise of AuDHD: what is behind the rocketing rates of this life-changing diagnosis?
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
42 points (100.0% liked)
Neurodivergence
3249 readers
1 users here now
All things neurodivergent and relating to the broader neurodivergent community (and communities).
See also this community's sister subs Feminism, LGBTQ+, Disability, and POC
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
He is now trying to spread what was once an unbelievable message: that both autism and ADHD can coexist in the same person simultaneously.Just over a decade ago, the two conditions were considered to be mutually exclusive, with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, often referred to as “psychiatry’s bible”, stating that the diagnosis of one precluded the existence of the other.“My clinical experience suggests it’s more than three-quarters in both directions,” adds Dr Eccles.Online, the idea that autism and ADHD can coexist is so widely accepted that it has spawned its own label – “AuDHD” – and a groundswell of people who say they recognise its oxymoronic nature, perpetual internal war and rollercoaster of needs.
“It’s unpleasantly loud, it’s going to distract you from your food, it’s anxiety-inducing.” Additionally, some autistic people may find social situations exhausting or overwhelming, or feel incompetent when they’re unable to decipher the subtleties of interpersonal communication, 60% of which is non-verbal.
They impulsively dopamine-spike with food, sex, drugs, booze, the internet, people, hobbies and novelty of all shades.“I am a slave to my own brain and it’s tiring,” writes one anonymous person on an ADHD Reddit support group.
ADHD UK is one of many advocacy groups calling for the Autism Act, which legally compels the government to support autistic people, to be widened in scope to include other forms of neurodiversity.Once a correct dual diagnosis is obtained, there are still complications.
The balance of masking has changed.”The prevalence of autism was widely believed to be 1% until last year, when a first of its kind study published in the Lancet found the true rate to be more than double that, with at least 1.2 million autistic people in the UK.
Saved 87% of original text.