ADHD, Autism

[Flouncer]

I thought I'd start this thread and see if there are many other people here who are afflicted/blessed with these conditions. It's been a big year for me; last week I was finally diagnosed with autism by the adult autism team, and this weekend I started taking ADHD medication (atomoxetine) after being diagnosed a few months ago (I had been diagnosed with it when I was thirteen but had to be rediagnosed as an adult before being treated for it).

Getting the ADHD diagnosis has been a massive headache that has taken forever - I tried to get it through the local community mental health team but they were absolutely appalling; I was treated like a nuisance, blocked from seeing specialists, and told that I didn't have it by two different psychiatrists despite the fact that I'd been diagnosed as a child and it continues to have a significant impact on my daily life. This caused me a huge amount of stress and I became rather bitter about it to be honest - I feel like they gaslighted me and had no intention from the start of investigating in good faith. This massively frustrating waste of time took three years as well. I'm really lucky that my mum paid for me to be diagnosed privately because it simply wouldn't have happened otherwise. It was clear from the amount of effort my private psych put into the process that I'd been badly let down by the NHS, but I am putting all that behind me now that I have been taken seriously and am finally being treated.

The autism diagnosis feels like even more of a hard-fought victory really, because my mum realised there was something unusual about my behaviour when I was a toddler and tried unsuccessfully to get me some sort of diagnosis throughout my childhood. It's taken thirty years to get to this point and although it would have been brilliant to have had more help when I was growing up, I'm really glad that it has been officially recognised at last. The quality of the support I've been promised remains to be seen; I have an appointment coming up next month where this will be discussed, but I think really it's going to be a personal journey to figure out how I put these diagnoses into context and use them to help me figure out how to proceed. They don't really change anything in practical terms but I think they might be useful going forward; I can now confidently look into coping strategies and practical support for people with these conditions, and ask for reasonable adjustments in the workplace - I've been unable to work for a while now due to mental health stuff but I'm hoping the ADHD medication will help me get my shit together to the point that I can work again.

So... I'm sure there are one or two people around here who have similar issues. It would be lovely to hear your experiences - are you looking for a diagnosis, or have you got one, and did you find it helpful? What resources or support have you found useful? How do your conditions affect you in day to day life?

[canadagoose]

As of late, I've wondered about the autism thing. I always just thought I was really weird, with odd fixations, but I've done some reading online and it seems possible. Don't know what use a diagnosis would be to me - I've got a few adjustments at work anyway (am allowed to wear earphones during the day because the noise in the office stresses me out, and I've got more night shifts than day) but maybe it would be something to pin stuff to. Not sure really.

[Glebe]

Sorry to hear about all the hassle you've been through with health services Flouncer, glad to hear you're getting things sorted now though... best of luck mate.

[Dex Sawash]

Have the ADD without any.hyperactivity. Lovely amphetamines sort it right out and add a touch of hyperactivity/annoying twatitude/cokehead vibe. The time release drugs are great but fucking $200/month in america. The normal 1 every 6 hours kind are less than$40/mo but I can only remember to take the morning one. Drug induced awareness reminds me I need to take second one in x hours... Drug wears off and all of a sudden it is nighttime.and never took second or optional 3rd.

Probably a touch of autism spectrum stuff too but I am happy watching traffic instead of talking to people.

[Flouncer]

As of late, I've wondered about the autism thing. I always just thought I was really weird, with odd fixations, but I've done some reading online and it seems possible. Don't know what use a diagnosis would be to me - I've got a few adjustments at work anyway (am allowed to wear earphones during the day because the noise in the office stresses me out, and I've got more night shifts than day) but maybe it would be something to pin stuff to. Not sure really.

That does sound like sensory overload stuff (cool of your employer to make allowances for you). My girlfriend, who is also currently in the process of being investigated by adult autism, suffers with that quite badly sometimes. I took her to a gig last month and she had to put some ear plugs in before it started because the noise of people talking was too much for her. I can have a bit of trouble on bad days; I get pretty bad social anxiety too so I'll usually put my big Sennheisers on and play some nice music when I go shopping and stuff, which makes the experience much more bearable. Some places have started to try and cater for this by offering ear defenders on request, so you can block out the noise at the expense of looking like a complete fucking Joey.

If you think it's worth investigating, go to your GP and ask them to refer you to adult autism. It takes some time on the NHS though - it was about 18 months from my GP referring me to having any contact with them, and I'm told it can be up to two years depending on where you are. Go and get the ball rolling though, if you think it might help you.

Sorry to hear about all the hassle you've been through with health services Flouncer, glad to hear you're getting things sorted now though... best of luck mate.

Cheers Glebe! It seems like everything is coming together now so I'm feeling quite optimistic. :-)

Have the ADD without any.hyperactivity. Lovely amphetamines sort it right out and add a touch of hyperactivity/annoying twatitude/cokehead vibe. The time release drugs are great but fucking $200/month in america. The normal 1 every 6 hours kind are less than$40/mo but I can only remember to take the morning one. Drug induced awareness reminds me I need to take second one in x hours... Drug wears off and all of a sudden it is nighttime.and never took second or optional 3rd.

Probably a touch of autism spectrum stuff too but I am happy watching traffic instead of talking to people.

I'm on the non-stimulant ones. I know from experince that amphetamines work for me, and last year before the option of going private came up I started self-medicating with street amphetamines. I was fed up after being messed about and desperate for some relief from my symptoms. Unfortunately it all got a bit out of control and I overdid it; taking large doses and staying up for days at a time, and I was drinking a lot of wine at the same time which isn't great for your heart - I did get some fucking music done for the first time in years though. I ended up in rehab towards the end of last year, mainly for the alcohol, and I've been completely clean for about nine months now. I agreed with my psych that taking into account my substance problems it probably wasn't a great idea to start taking methylphenidate (I really would be in trouble if I started abusing drink and drugs again) so we've gone down the non-stimulant route as they don't have the abuse potential. I'm hoping that I'll find them useful. I'm told it'll take a few weeks for them to kick in properly and will probably have to have the dose increased. I can certainly feel them doing something after a few days, but it's too early to say yet.

[bgmnts]

Probably somewhere on the spectrum but not arsed.

[the ouch cube]

Diagnosed as Aspie three years ago at age 35. I had considered the possibility before, when I was in my early 20s, but the doctor I had at the time just said "no, no, I can tell just by looking at you that you're not Aspie" (not sure what he was expecting; someone who insisted on talking about anime? someone who refused to talk at all?), but I had moved away and gotten another doctor and she put me on the list to be tested by autism specialists. She said the list was miles long, so I forgot about it, and then I got word that someone had dropped out of the queue, so I got moved to the front.

Did a bunch of tests and questions with a specialist nurse and the eventual result was that it was almost certain that I had AS - though these things are rarely 100% definite either way.

Kind of a relief. No treatment, though, cause I can do the things everyone else can; I'm just not interested in most of those things.

[Flouncer]

Diagnosed as Aspie three years ago at age 35. I had considered the possibility before, when I was in my early 20s, but the doctor I had at the time just said "no, no, I can tell just by looking at you that you're not Aspie" (not sure what he was expecting; someone who insisted on talking about anime? someone who refused to talk at all?), but I had moved away and gotten another doctor and she put me on the list to be tested by autism specialists. She said the list was miles long, so I forgot about it, and then I got word that someone had dropped out of the queue, so I got moved to the front.

Did a bunch of tests and questions with a specialist nurse and the eventual result was that it was almost certain that I had AS - though these things are rarely 100% definite either way.

Kind of a relief. No treatment, though, cause I can do the things everyone else can; I'm just not interested in most of those things.

I'm lucky that my GP is great with mental health stuff and takes me seriously with things like this. She's wonderful. I've encountered professionals like your first doctor and it's fucking infuriating that they think they know best when they haven't got a fucking clue what they're on about.

Some places have started to try and cater for this by offering ear defenders on request, so you can block out the noise at the expense of looking like a complete fucking Joey.

My girlfriend found this on her local library's Facebook page. Aren't libraries supposed to be quiet anyway? Still, if you can't stand the sound of people flicking through pages and you don't mind looking like a total spazmo, they've got you covered.

[canadagoose]

That does sound like sensory overload stuff (cool of your employer to make allowances for you). My girlfriend, who is also currently in the process of being investigated by adult autism, suffers with that quite badly sometimes. I took her to a gig last month and she had to put some ear plugs in before it started because the noise of people talking was too much for her. I can have a bit of trouble on bad days; I get pretty bad social anxiety too so I'll usually put my big Sennheisers on and play some nice music when I go shopping and stuff, which makes the experience much more bearable. Some places have started to try and cater for this by offering ear defenders on request, so you can block out the noise at the expense of looking like a complete fucking Joey.

If you think it's worth investigating, go to your GP and ask them to refer you to adult autism. It takes some time on the NHS though - it was about 18 months from my GP referring me to having any contact with them, and I'm told it can be up to two years depending on where you are. Go and get the ball rolling though, if you think it might help you.

Ah, that's a shame both of you have bother with it. I totally would go about outside with headphones on but I feel like it'd make me a target for muggers! I have tried earplugs when I'm walking about the city centre (makes a huge difference - it's so noisy), but I've ended up missing buses because I don't hear them coming. I end up a bit like a meerkat, constantly looking left and right to make sure I don't miss it. I guess it just takes time to adjust?

I certainly would consider seeing my GP - there's actually a mental health nurse who works at my GP practice who I see about depression and anxiety, so maybe I could see her as well and see what she says. Thanks for the advice anyway.

Incidentally, do any of you have any experience with anti-anxiety medication? I'd really like to go and see more gigs but my nerves just get the better of me in crowds, and my various attempts at mindfulness and CBT have never really worked. Also, hopefully it doesn't interact with painkillers, 'cos  they really help if I'm standing for longer than a couple of mins. But that's another thing entirely!

[Sebastian Cobb]

That does sound like sensory overload stuff (cool of your employer to make allowances for you).

Pretty uncool of an employer to ban office workers from headphones to begin with tbh.

[canadagoose]

Pretty uncool of an employer to ban office workers from headphones to begin with tbh.

Not uncommon in a lot of workplaces, even when you're not a call centre worker. I wasn't allowed to at all in my last two workplaces, and at my last one, I was seated near the entrance of an open-plan office. I ended up falling ill quite a lot and I wonder if that's why.

[earl_sleek]

Incidentally, do any of you have any experience with anti-anxiety medication? I'd really like to go and see more gigs but my nerves just get the better of me in crowds, and my various attempts at mindfulness and CBT have never really worked. Also, hopefully it doesn't interact with painkillers, 'cos  they really help if I'm standing for longer than a couple of mins. But that's another thing entirely!

I'm taking citalopram for anxiety at the moment, after it flared up badly earlier in the year. Apparently when taken for anxiety you need to take a higher does than you would for depression, so I'm currently on 40mg. Seems to be working (as well as my mood being noticeably more stable), but definitely noticing side effects - dry mouth, daytime fatigue, trouble sleeping / difficulty waking when I do sleep, daytime fatigue, very strange dreams and decreased libido. Better than life-dominating anxiety though! I want to go down to 20mg but GP advised to stay at 40 for another couple of months which I'm fine with. I'm not aware of any paonkiller interaction to be concerned about either.

[Ambient Sheep]

I've been wondering for a while now if I haven't had ADD ever since a carbon-monoxide poisoning incident around age 23.  I always found it difficult to concentrate at work after that (although I always got the work done, and well, too) and, in recent years, with the rise of the internet, that's reached epic proportions.  I struggle to watch TV any more, even my favourite shows, for more than a few minutes at a time.  I seem to forever be needing little dopamine(?) hits to keep me going.  This from somebody who used to be able to concentrate for hours (and I still can, sometimes, but rarely).

[canadagoose]

I'm taking citalopram for anxiety at the moment, after it flared up badly earlier in the year. Apparently when taken for anxiety you need to take a higher does than you would for depression, so I'm currently on 40mg. Seems to be working (as well as my mood being noticeably more stable), but definitely noticing side effects - dry mouth, daytime fatigue, trouble sleeping / difficulty waking when I do sleep, daytime fatigue, very strange dreams and decreased libido. Better than life-dominating anxiety though! I want to go down to 20mg but GP advised to stay at 40 for another couple of months which I'm fine with. I'm not aware of any paonkiller interaction to be concerned about either.

Ah yeah, I remember being on citalopram briefly about 10 years ago. I don't think it agreed with me, sadly. I'm on 120mg duloxetine (split dose) per day now but it doesn't seem to stop me being anxious. Maybe they can add something to my current thing. Sorry, diverting the topic a bit!

[hermitical]

Another one here. "Mixed neurodevelopmental disorder". Dx just over 18 months ago, aged 46.
Was investigating ADHD and I thought there was no in-county service so went private. Psychiatrist quickly brought up the autistic angle. More tomorrow...

[Great White Ape]

First of all, congratulations on your diagnosis. I was diagnosed at 20 by a speech and language therapist, but only so I could access DSA funding and support. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have bothered. Like you, it was my mum, a paediatric nurse, who realised early on there was something 'amiss' with me (unresponsive to physical contact, happy starting into space for hours, obsessed with numbers and jigsaws), and I grew up without ever really questioning that ASC best explained my behaviour. The severe language delay was apparently the clincher (knocks me over to ASC rather than Asperger's), and I would always have trouble initiating conversations, a trait which persists to this day.

I suppose it was more of a hard-earned victory for my mum, who, again like yours, had tried and fought for years to get me some support. The primary and secondary education system let her down spectacularly on this front, either by playing dumb and pretending my condition didn't exist or dismissing my case on the grounds that "we never had a student with this before", and this definitely contributed to my feeling that getting a diagnosis would be a similar waste of time.

But I am kind of glad I went through with it, even if it just confirmed what I already knew. And, if nothing else, it is good in the sense that it gives teachers and employers a tangible framework to refer to when they might otherwise assume I'm being an obstinate, uncooperative weirdo. Nothing worse than not having a name put to your weirdness.

[purlieu]

Fully fledged Aspie here - happy to talk about my favourite band for hours at someone without noticing they are painfully uninterested. Since getting my diagnosis, and having a girlfriend who's done a lot of research and really helped me learn about how my behaviour can be perceived as problematic, I've had the opportunity to look back over my life and frequently found it kind of hilarious how utterly rude I've been unintentionally, and how I've also completely missed glaring subtext in things because people haven't been completely straight-forward (example: girl who fancied me telling how she'd love a guy to cuddle her in bed, and my immediate thought being "some lucky bastard then" because she didn't explicitly say me).

There are plenty of difficulties that come with it: the struggle of impatience when it comes to things I'm not interested in meaning employment has always been a nightmare; sensory overload is absolutely hideous, and makes a lot of outdoor experiences a struggle, especially if I'm already doing badly with my mental health; the very acute obsessive interests combined with the self-sabotage intrusive thoughts of OCD have led to actions resulting in hospitalisation more than once. At the same time, it's impossible to separate one's personality from one's autism, and I'm aware that a lot of my endearing traits and eccentricities that draw people to me are very much as a result of being this way. Similarly, I can't imagine - and nor do I want to imagine - living a life without the strange extremes of emotion, imagination and logic that are peculiar to the condition.

I was bullied a lot as a kid and learned to put on a facade of being allistic, which is a curse and a blessing. I've been told by many friends that they're surprised that I was diagnosed, or even outright disbelieve it, but this is only because they've never seen me when I'm completely myself. The psychiatrist who diagnosed me said she'd be able to use me as an example of someone with Asperger's if she was teaching students about the condition. Sometimes I want to actually let that side out and just say "this is why I need help and can't cope with normal things sometimes", but it's so very difficult to show one's perceived weaknesses.

I take escitalopram (a higher concentrated version of citalopram generally prescribed for people in emergency situations; I had my first prescription in a hospital visit) daily which really takes off the edge of my mental health stuff in general. For a while I was on fluoxetine, but that had a very numbing effect which ended up with my not caring about my special interests, which caused a whole other level of anxiety. Escitalopram allows a normally fluctuating range of emotions, but generally cuts back on the extremes which is kind of what I need. I've taken diazepam for anxiety and panic attacks before, albeit sparingly due to it being addictive. That said, since my GP refused to give me some for a time after an overdose last year, I've not actually requested any more. The severity of that situation forced me to make some very active attempts to sort my health out, and as a result I've actually not had a full on anxiety attack since. I've still had moments of difficulty, and my depression has kicked in a few times, but that out of control feeling has been absent for 18 months now, incredibly.

It's quite funny that neither of my parents remotely picked up on it. My dad's probably further along the spectrum than I am, and my mum almost certainly has alexithymia, so neither thought it was weird that I spent most of my teenage years creating catalogue numbers for the hundreds of cassettes I'd recorded myself.

[Great White Ape]

Always happy to hear you talk about your favourite bands, purlieu. You've long been one of my favourite posters here, and your Autumn of Communion, Carpe Sonum, and other '90s-inspired ambient thread astonished me. Lots to think about and discover there.

Good taste in classical and ECM records, too.

[purlieu]

Ah, well thank you! Actually, places like this are great because I'm able to make threads like that in a way that wouldn't work at all in real life. I can count the number of people I've met in real life who are interested in that stuff on one finger. God bless this place.

[Avril Lavigne]

I think purlieu's post just convinced me I'm autistic, but to be honest I kinda suspected as much.

[Zetetic]

I take escitalopram (a higher concentrated version of citalopram generally prescribed for people in emergency situations

Escitalopram is a particular stereoisomer of citalopram. A double-dose of citalopram, relative to escitalopram, is quite similar.

It's main benefit over citalopram is that up until about 2015 you could charge a lot more for it - 4x to 5x as much - without having to pay anyone else off not to produce it.

(The latter approach, which Lundbeck also tried with citalopram, eventually earned them a fine of just under EUR100 million. Despite this citalopram has still double and tripled in price at various times in the last few years due to supplier shortages...)

That's probably not entirely fair on my part. It might have quicker onset and does seem to be more tolerable. But Lundbeck did chuck an awful lot of money at trying to showing this...

(There's now not much difference in cost between the two, particularly given citalopram's price volatility. Citalopram 'scripts look to be about 1.2 million per month in England and maybe falling slowly, escitalopram is about 100k prescriptions per month and rising slowly.)



While this post probably manifests an excessive interest in the systems behind citalopram's economic history (relative to an insufficient level of empathising for purlieu, whose experiences are more significant anyway), I don't think I'm autistic (or towards autistic).

(Edit: This postscript isn't meant to be a strong endorsement of E-S approaches to characterising autism. Apologies if required.)

[Zetetic]

Edit bug fuck.

[purlieu]

I've moved twice since being on it, and both times new GPs have expressed quite a lot of surprise at me being on it, along the lines of it being something they wouldn't normally prescribe. In fact, when I moved to where I am now, I couldn't get a doctor to prescribe it to me until my full medical record had come up, as it was considered too strong and an unusual choice of medication. From what I've read it's still largely prescribed to people who are considered high risk for self-harm, suicide etc., rather than lower risk mental health problems. Probably because it's basically twice as strong. At one point I was on the maximum dose of it, but thankfully I've been able to come down a step since then.

[Bently Sheds]

One of my kids was diagnosed with Aspergers about 10 years ago. His behaviour at the time made me re-evaluate my childhood, where a lot of his AS traits were also strongly present in me as a kid.

I truly believe I am on the spectrum, but I feel like a diagnosis wouldn't really achieve anything. I spent my childhood and adolescence feeling like a right freak and outsider, but now - after all the research and reading we did as parents and reflecting on the therapy sessions my son had, I've kind of made peace with how I was and how I am.

[Flouncer]

First of all, congratulations on your diagnosis. I was diagnosed at 20 by a speech and language therapist, but only so I could access DSA funding and support. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have bothered. Like you, it was my mum, a paediatric nurse, who realised early on there was something 'amiss' with me (unresponsive to physical contact, happy starting into space for hours, obsessed with numbers and jigsaws), and I grew up without ever really questioning that ASC best explained my behaviour. The severe language delay was apparently the clincher (knocks me over to ASC rather than Asperger's), and I would always have trouble initiating conversations, a trait which persists to this day.

I suppose it was more of a hard-earned victory for my mum, who, again like yours, had tried and fought for years to get me some support. The primary and secondary education system let her down spectacularly on this front, either by playing dumb and pretending my condition didn't exist or dismissing my case on the grounds that "we never had a student with this before", and this definitely contributed to my feeling that getting a diagnosis would be a similar waste of time.

But I am kind of glad I went through with it, even if it just confirmed what I already knew. And, if nothing else, it is good in the sense that it gives teachers and employers a tangible framework to refer to when they might otherwise assume I'm being an obstinate, uncooperative weirdo. Nothing worse than not having a name put to your weirdness.

My mum really did try for me. This would have been in the early nineties, when support networks weren't very well established. She joined a parents support group in Leeds because there wasn't one in Sheffield at the time, and she bought loads of books on it. She was a bank clerk in those days but went on to be a child protection officer at a school and got a masters in Psychology in her fifties. She was pretty emotional when I told her that I'd finally been diagnosed. She recalled an incident when she was called into my primary school to pick me up; I had been put in a store room on my own all day for being disruptive. She told the teacher that I had ADHD, and the teacher replied that I was "just naughty," leaving mum in tears. The head teacher of that school also told her that it was all in her head.

I was eventually excluded for a few days in the last year of primary school. My teacher was a right arsehole and would just send me to the library where I would sit for hours reading books instead of doing the work she set for me (I was really sharp at school and got bored in class a lot - I had invariably already grasped what I was being taught because I read a lot at home). I learned a lot more from the books than I would have from her lacklustre teaching. She also said I'd never amount to anything - WELL LOOK AT ME NOW! [Don't look at me - my life's a joke.] I suppose I was unlucky to have grown up at a time when there was little support. I would have really benefitted from a bit of help, and on the occasions when certain teachers saw my potential and treated me with respect, I would actually give some back and put the effort in.

Fully fledged Aspie here - happy to talk about my favourite band for hours at someone without noticing they are painfully uninterested. Since getting my diagnosis, and having a girlfriend who's done a lot of research and really helped me learn about how my behaviour can be perceived as problematic, I've had the opportunity to look back over my life and frequently found it kind of hilarious how utterly rude I've been unintentionally, and how I've also completely missed glaring subtext in things because people haven't been completely straight-forward (example: girl who fancied me telling how she'd love a guy to cuddle her in bed, and my immediate thought being "some lucky bastard then" because she didn't explicitly say me).

Yeah, I can really relate to this. I didn't start having relationships til my late twenties: I just thought women were totally disinterested in me. I was recently telling my girlfriend about this lass I knew when I was a teenager; she was really pretty. Sometimes she'd hold my hand and once when we were both drunk she started kissing me passionately... Somehow it didn't occur to me that she fancied me - I had a lot of problems with my self image back then and I think I just couldn't get my head around the idea that someone would want me. Looking back there were a number of occasions when it was staring me in the face but I couldn't see it. The rise of the whole incel culture is a bit disturbing in these terms; I never thought about things like that and just wondered what was wrong with me, but now there's a growing culture devoted to weaponising those sorts of feelings. Scary stuff.

There are plenty of difficulties that come with it: the struggle of impatience when it comes to things I'm not interested in meaning employment has always been a nightmare; sensory overload is absolutely hideous, and makes a lot of outdoor experiences a struggle, especially if I'm already doing badly with my mental health; the very acute obsessive interests combined with the self-sabotage intrusive thoughts of OCD have led to actions resulting in hospitalisation more than once. At the same time, it's impossible to separate one's personality from one's autism, and I'm aware that a lot of my endearing traits and eccentricities that draw people to me are very much as a result of being this way. Similarly, I can't imagine - and nor do I want to imagine - living a life without the strange extremes of emotion, imagination and logic that are peculiar to the condition.

I'm kind of lucky; the sensory overload thing is an occasional hinderance for me; every now and then I have to get the fuck out of somewhere because it's too much but generally I cope reasonably well. Like you the mental health stuff exacerbates it massively. I have OCD type symptoms too, and recently hearing Maria Bamford talk about 'unwanted thought syndrome' really rang some bells. I get stuff like that quite a lot; like a mental scab that you can't stop yourself from picking. It can be really unpleasant and disturbing stuff, that my mind goes over and over with no apparent way of getting it out of my head. I've had terrible anxiety at times over the last few years which really sent it into overdrive, but thankfully it seems to have died down quite a lot now I've been sober for a while. If I fuck up again I'll be in some real danger because I ended up in an awful pit of suicidal depression that I felt incredibly lucky to have got out of. It was terrifying and I want to do all I can to make sure I don't end up back there again.

I think ultimately I'm quite at peace with myself and how I am; I'm proud of my interests and eccentricities and I don't really give a shit if people think I'm a weirdo. I definitely view it as more of a blessing than a curse.

[fatguyranting]

My daughter was diagnosed a few years back when she was 16 and it has been really insightful reading all your experiences here. Massive thanks.

[a duncandisorderly]

Probably a touch of autism spectrum stuff too but I am happy watching traffic instead of talking to people.

I've been wondering for a while now if I haven't had ADD ever since a carbon-monoxide poisoning incident around age 23.  I always found it difficult to concentrate at work after that (although I always got the work done, and well, too) and, in recent years, with the rise of the internet, that's reached epic proportions.  I struggle to watch TV any more, even my favourite shows, for more than a few minutes at a time.  I seem to forever be needing little dopamine(?) hits to keep me going.  This from somebody who used to be able to concentrate for hours (and I still can, sometimes, but rarely).

hashtag metoo.

probably most of us, then, innit? :-/

[MiddleRabbit]

My missus is convinced that I'm autistic but I don't agree.  However, when I read that people are still getting diagnosed with Asperger's I do find it irritating because Asperger's was removed from DSMV in 2012/13, so maybe I am.

[earl_sleek]

It's in ICD-10 though, which I would expect diagnoses in the UK are more commonly based on.

[Zetetic]

That's sort of true, although how popular is "hebephrenic schizophrenia" these days?

(Not that ICD-10 is supposed to define the taxonomy of diagnosis for day-to-day work anyway.)