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You are listening to the Navigating Adult ADHD podcast with your ADHD coach and expert, Xena. Hello, my friend, welcome back. Today we are navigating some adult ADHD together and also maybe some autism. That's what we're talking about today. Is it adhd, is it autism? Or is it both? Is it audience? Before we get into that though, I just want to comment on the fact that it is school holidays here. So while it's highly unlikely there could be some background noise if the boys decide to run up and down the stairs and act like crazy little humans because they are trapped inside, today it's pouring with rain, unfortunately. So we all get a little crazy when we're stuck indoors like this. So anything is possible. But I doubt it. I doubt you're going to hear anything to be fair. How is it already? School holidays? I swear they only just went back. What the heck? Omg. Now, one other thing I just wanted to mention before we dive into this episode today is I have created a couple of really low cost ADHD resources alongside my friend Logan. Logan has been on a previous episode here on the podcast as well, fellow ADHDer. And I'm going to link to these in the show notes. So we've got two things which I think are really incredible resources right now. So one of them is a workbook full of really practical activities. It's called the Unresolution Workbook. And while it has sort of goal setting in mind, but you know, without it having to be like, you know, rigid goals, it's more about various activities that help you get unstuck, better understand your brain, et cetera. It's very practical. Practical, let's go with it. I was trying to merge practical and colorful together. Practical, colorful, fun resource. And it is like roughly, I want to say 10 or 12 New Zealand dollars. Like it's very minimal cost. But the other one, which I'm so excited and passionate about because the feedback on this has been insane, off the charts is an AI based ADHD coach. So this is a coach that we have trained. I have taught it with a lot of the experts that I have learned from and it is kind of like having access to my brain, but for less than, you know, roughly 20 New Zealand dollars. Like it's so cheap and you've got it forever. So if you wanted to coaching and you know, price wise, time wise, that's not something that you feel is available to you. This is like having an ADHD coach in your pocket. Okay, so these two things I'm Going to link to them in the show notes. I think they are incredible resources. We've poured our heart and soul into these, and they're incredibly low cost because we want to try and impact more people with ADHD and help them and give them tools and help them better understand their brains. And we've got more things that we're working on behind the scenes as well. But I just thought I'd mention it if that's something that interests you. Okay, check them out. Check them out, my friend. So let's talk about it. Have you ever found yourself thinking, hang on, is this still adhd? Why do I struggle so much with noise, with change, with people, with routines, with food textures, with making eye contact or needing, like, lots of downtime, like recovery time? Why is it that I feel like I can really relate to all of the autism content just as much as the ADHD stuff? Am I just overthinking it, or have I missed something really important? Okay, if that's you, my friend, and if you clicked play on this episode, it probably is, you are absolutely not alone. And I totally get it, because I have questioned, do I have autism? Did I miss something? So today, that is what we're going to talk about. Because so many, many. And I talk to ADHDers all day long, late diagnosed adults with ADHD. So many of them are asking, do you think I might have autism? Because do you. Do you think I might have both? Because, like, I see that content, I really relate with that. And they're asking that question, all right? And let's be honest, it can feel like a lot because for so many of us, when we get that ADHD diagnosis, it's like this massive light bulb moment. So much finally makes sense, right? So much of our life is finally explained. So when autism or asd, autism spectrum disorder enters the chat, it can bring up, you know, a lot of questions, a lot of relief, but a lot of confusion, maybe grief, maybe validation, a whole bunch of new emotions, okay? Now, as I was doing the research for this episode, I found one study, and this. This was wild to me. One study I read said that between 22 to 83%, okay, there's a massive fucking gap, right, between 22 to 83% of autistic children also meet the criteria for ADHD, which means that they would then be ADHD, right, having both ADHD and autism. So, all right, here's what to expect, my friend. In this episode, what we're going to do. I'm going to walk us through why ADHD and autism can look so, so similar. We're going to talk about some of those key overlaps, specifically five areas where we overlap. I also want to offer a few key differences that will help to potentially distinguish if autism might be something that is in the mix for you. We'll touch on why this can often get missed, especially in adults, and also how you can explore this without spiraling into some sort of a self diagnosis panic. Let's stay away from that. Okay? So this is not about boxing yourself in. It's all about better understanding yourself. Okay? Because the better we understand ourselves and our brains, the better we can support our brains and ourselves. All right, so why is this question so common? One of the first things I want to say is this. ADHD and autism overlap a lot, okay? They can both affect executive functioning, attention, the way we process sensory information, emotional regulation. Right? Social experiences, the way our nervous system responds and how sensitive it is. It can also both of them can affect our repetitive movements or our fidgeting, our intense interests, and of course, that feeling of just being different in a world that wasn't built for our brain. So there's a lot of overlap, which is one reason why we might get misdiagnosed or only half diagnosed or, you know, diagnosed with one when the other one is quietly sort of sitting in the background wearing a fake mustache. Okay, Now I've talked about this before, but I want to highlight it. There is research out there, and Russell Barclay is one of the key ADHD experts who talks about this a lot. There is research that shows you have, if you have one form of neurodivergence, so you are diagnosed with adhd, or maybe you were diagnosed with dyslexia. If you have one form, you have an 80% likelihood of having another form of neurodiversity. Okay? So there is research showing that ADHD and autism do commonly occur together. And if you don't have that flavour of neurodiversity, you might have a different flavour of neurodiversity, whether it be dyslexia or dyspraxia or OCD or there are so many. Okay, now this part I found really, really interesting. Dual diagnosis. So diagnosing somebody with both ADHD and autism is only something that clinicians have been allowed to do, do since 2013. So this is only something that has been able to happen in the last 13 years. I'm recording this April of 2026. I really had to do some math in my brain just then, my friends. But what that means is if you were diagnosed with ADHD before 2013. Whoever diagnosed you, they were not actually able to or allowed to give you a diagnosis of both ADHD and autism, even if you fit the criteria for that. Make sense. Isn't that wild? So now things are different. Although I do have questions. I know here in New Zealand and there is still a lot of unknown around this, but here in New Zealand, as of February this year, 2026, specific certain doctors, right? So certain GPs can now diagnose ADHD. Obviously they have to go through training, it will be a longer appointment, a longer cost, who knows, right? I've got. There's so many questions, nobody really knows what the heck is going on yet. And we're in April. However, those GPs are not necessarily trained to diagnose autism. So again, I think there's going to be a lot of questions that come up around that and potentially that may lead to some misdiagnosis or some, you know, people not getting the correct diagnosis of both autism and adhd. Okay, so I just want to point that out because I feel like there's a lot of questions around that. Okay, so friend, if you are sitting here, thinking, driving, listening, walking, whatever you're doing while you're listening to this, why didn't anyone notice this earlier? Right? Part of that answer is because these systems haven't exactly been brilliant at spotting it. Especially if you were a really bright child, right? If you did well, you were high achieving, if you were really good at masking, if you were chatty, if you were female, if you were social on the outside, if you were somebody who learned to survive by over explaining, over performing, overcompensating people, pleasing, all of those sorts of things, right? So many of us I know I can relate to so much of that. Maybe not the bright part, like I don't think I did very well in school, but definitely some of the other things there. But a lot of late diagnosed adults were never really asked, what does this feel like for you on the inside? Because that's where a lot of information lies. Okay, so let's start with the overlaps. Okay, so I'm going to run through five of the most common areas where both ADHD and autism overlap. The first one is executive functioning. Okay, so both people with adhd, people with autism, they experience struggles with executive functioning. So this could look like difficulty getting started, right? Difficulty switching between tasks, being forgetful, having messy spaces, having difficulty with organising or planning, decision paralysis, losing track of what you were just doing, knowing what to do but not being able to make Yourself do it. So if you struggle with that, it does not automatically tell us which category you fall into. As I said, executive functioning differences are so common in both. The second one is sensory differences, and this is a really big one. Both ADHDers and humans with autism can have really strong sensory experiences. Maybe its noise feels too loud, lights are too bright, clothes are too scratchy. People are too people. Y. I definitely relate to that. Maybe you seek sensory input in some areas and avoid it in others. We just recently, I think maybe two episodes back, we talked about the sensory differences that we can experience. Okay, it may be that you love crunchy food or you hate mushy textures. You might need movement, pressure, music, silence, pacing, or fidgeting to stay regulated. Okay. Sensory differences, again, are really common between both ADHD and autism. Now, a little bit later on, I am going to explain some of the key differences. And there is one big one here in sensory. Okay, the third area where we really overlap is the emotional regulation. Okay? Big feelings, fast to react. You know, a lot of overwhelm, meltdowns, shutdowns, struggling with the rejection, sensitivity. Right. Again, these can show up for both those of us who have ADHD and those who have autism. Also, there's differences in interoception. I love talking about this one. It's so fascinating. It's one of our senses, one of the internal body senses, which helps us to understand what our body needs when our body needs it. Right. So registering that our bladder is full and that we've got some pressure in our bladder and we need to go pee, or registering that our stomach is, you know, kind of tickling and hollow and hungry and that we need to eat. Right, These sorts of things. So this difference in interoception, the ability to know what our body needs when it needs it and read the cues and the little signals and sensations that it's giving us. Again, is something that shows up between both ADHD and autism. Okay, Big overlaps there. So the fourth area is social things. Right, the social stuff. So both. Both of us, we can have social struggles. Now, sometimes it's for different reasons. So somebody with ADHD might mis cues, social cues because they're distracted, or they might interrupt because their brain is just going too fast and they don't want to forget. Or maybe they overshare because they're excited and they want to conn. Now, an autistic person might be working much, much harder to consciously decode the social cues and understand what that person's saying and what they mean. Trying to read the body language, the tone, the subtext. Right? The expectations that that other person has. Trying to manually read all of that. One thing I often see, and I know this is not for all people with autism is having a real difficulty with understanding sarcasm because they can take things quite literally. And I definitely have a human with autism in my life who really struggles with sarcasm, which is something I was brought up on. My dad is one of the most sarcastic humans I know, so that was instilled in me quite deeply. So I have to be careful when I'm around this person because they can take those things very literally and very personally. Okay? So again, socially wise, like, from the outside, the social differences or challenges that we may experience can look similar, but the why underneath is often very different. Okay, we're going to dive a little deeper into this in a minute. So the fifth area where we overlap a lot is with the stimming, fidgeting, the repetitive movement. Okay? So both, both autism, adhd. We can move, we can fiddle, we can tap, sway, chew, bounce, repeat songs, pace, doodle, and use movement to either stimulate or regulate, okay? However, there is one helpful question here. Is this more about releasing energy or getting the dopamine, the stimulation that we're craving, or is it more about predictability? Doing this because it feels very comforting, very safe, doing this repetitive movement or making this repetitive sound. Right? Which is more of like a regulation sort of a thing. Okay? The reason I ask that question, or I offer you that, is because autistic repetitive behaviors are often more for a soothing, regulating. This feels safe and comforting sort of a reason. Okay? Whereas for people with adhd, that. That kind of hyperactivity or the fidgeting is more likely to be an impulse or a sort of stimulation seeking. Right? We need the. The. The variation or the dopamine, that sort. Again, these can definitely overlap, as we explored recently in a sensory differences episode, but that can sometimes help us to better understand where we may be leaning. Okay? So, of course, I know it goes without saying. However, I'm going to say it anyway, my friend. This episode is not here to diagnose you. And this is definitely not medical advice. I'm just helping us to explore and answer a question that I get asked a lot. And again, right? The more we better understand ourselves, the better we can support ourselves in our brain. Okay? So I'm going to say this next part carefully. These are not neat little boxes, right? As humans, we are, like, literally messier than a junk drawer. God, we've got a few junk drawers in our house. But humans are messy. Okay? So what I want to do next is I want to give you a few key differences whilst you keep in mind humans are messy to help highlight where some differences between ADHD and autism can lie. But also, again, remember, there is that middle category there, the third option, which is or DHD having both. Okay? So difference number one is novelty versus familiarity. So a lot of ADHD brains, right, they're pulled towards novelty, urgency, interest, you know, the stimulation for the dopamine. Okay, We. I've talked about this on lots of episodes, right? ADHD brains are motivated by something called the NICU tool. NICU tool, right, nicu. Novelty, interest, challenge and urgency. Those things produce dopamine in our brain to stimulate us into taking action. Okay? We come alive when something's new, when it's shiny, when it's challenging. Like a challenge we like, right? Or, you know, emotionally engaging. Now, autistic brains are often more likely to find comfort or safety, right? A feeling of comfort and safety in familiar, predictable routines. Right? Familiar, predictable things. Now, of course, you can have both, right? I know for me, for sure, I function better with routines. I call it the guardrails in my life. I need those guardrails, otherwise I spin out. But I also lean towards novelty. I love new, shiny, challenging, engaging things, right? I know my brain wants that kind of dopamine. Okay? So again, you might have both. You might deeply crave the novelty and be completely thrown away by change, right? You might be very, you know, take me somewhere new, but also, you know, don't move my spoon. That's kind of me, to be honest. Now, that tension actually makes a lot of sense in the Audi HD community, right? The community who are in both categories here. So difference two is social confusion for different reasons or social challenges for different reasons. Okay? So with adhd, when we have social issues, it typically comes from impulsivity, right? When we interrupt or blurt out what we're thinking from distraction, right? From missing those cues because maybe we were talking too much or, you know, distracted by something, by forgetting things, right? Forgetting to ask a question, forgetting what we wanted to say, or interrupting. That's the ADHD side. Now, an autistic person may be working much harder to consciously decode social cues. Body language, tone, the subtext, right? Reading between the lines, the expectations that the other person has. So from the outside, these things might look really similar, but the underneath, again, the why for the social differences or the social. Social challenges we experience are often quite different. Okay, so one reason for this may be something called Bottom up processing. This is really fascinating. Now, this is really common for people with autism. So bottom up processing means that the brain often takes in the details of first. Right. And then tries to work out the bigger picture. So instead of instantly going, yep, yep, I totally get the vibe of this conversation, the brain may be noticing the facial expression, the tone, the exact words that were used, the body language, the environment, and then trying to piece each of those individual things together. So an example of this would be if somebody says, I'm fine, but their voice sounds off, their face looks tense, and they answered a bit too quickly. An autistic person may consciously notice all these little pieces and then have to piece it all together to work out what that means. Okay, so again, that's going to be very kind of effortful in the brain, which is why it can make social situations feel like they require a lot of effort. Because instead of the brain automatically filling in the blanks, you may be having to manually decode each of these pieces for what's going on. Okay, so if you struggle socially, is it coming more from, like, that, you know, attention, focus, impulsivity, place, or from having to consciously analyze and decode social cues? Really interesting questions there to explore. Okay, so one of the third differences is what happens when plans change. Okay, so this can be quite a big reflection question for people with adhd. We can absolutely struggle with change. I know I do. And most of the ADHD is that I support do, especially when it creates overwhelm or transition problems or, you know, extra demand on our executive functions. Okay, now for people with autism, those people are often very affected by unexpected changes with more stress, more irritability, more anxiety when their routines are disrupted. Okay, so when their routines are disrupted, that can be very challenging and unsettling, very stressful. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that every autistic person loves routine and that every single ADHD is a spontaneous human, you know, who will go with the fl. But how you respond to the disruption might have some really interesting clues in there. And this is likely going to be something that your psychiatrist or psychologist will ask about if you are exploring diagnosis. Okay, so why is it that late diagnosed adults can miss the autism diagnosis? Right. A lot of adults don't realize autism might even be part of the picture because they don't relate to the old stereotypes. You know, we talk about, like, Rain man or Sheldon. Right. Our boys downstairs. Actually, probably what they're watching right now is episodes of Young Sheldon. It's one of their favorite things to watch on I don't know, Disney, Netflix, whatever, it's on. But again, that's some of the stereotypical autism people that we sort of think of, right? So often people might think, oh, you know, but, but you can make eye contact or, or you're empathetic, or you're chatty, or you've got friends and you don't line things up in a row or, you know, you're not that good at maths and you know, so they, they again, have all of these stereotypes in their mind. And honestly, so much of that way of thinking is from these outdated, narrow ideas of what autism is supposed to look like. You know, we had the exact same thing for adhd. The naughty little boy sitting on the mat at school, you know, constantly disrupting, getting in. And that's such bullshit. All right? Those narrow little stereotypes are the reason why so many of us were misdiagnosed, were, you know, undiagnosed, all of these things. And it's the exact same for people with autism. Okay, so so many adults, especially the, the women, right? Again, very common for women. But the high masking, those of us who are really good at masking, who've learned to camouflage, right? What we did, we studied people, we, we copied people, we rehearsed, we smiled, we over prepared, we burned trying to look air quotes normal. So masking often holds a lot of clues when it comes to what's actually happening for us and what's going on in our brains. So autism screeners. So when somebody's psychiatrist, psychologist, whoever is screening you for autism, it was often overlooked when ADHD assessments were happening, even despite there being a lot of these overlaps. I don't even know, like, this is something I've thought about. When I went to see my psychiatrist, you know, years and years ago and got my ADHD diagnosis, did she screen me for autism? Is that something that happened? Because I definitely have a lot of overlaps with the, you know, the Audi HD category, shall we say? So yeah, is that something? And if you haven't yet gone for a diagnosis and you are going, and this is something you're, you're questioning, it's worth asking, are you screening me for both? Is that something that's happening? So sometimes the question isn't, do I look autistic or you know, are these autistic behaviors? It's how much effort has it taken me to actually look like I'm doing okay. Right? Because that question can crack open a whole new layer of self understanding, my friend. So what if you relate to both Then maybe it is both. Okay, maybe you do have aud, and if that's true, it doesn't cancel your ADHD diagnosis. It may just help to explain the parts of the ADHD or the parts of you that ADHD alone doesn't fully cover. Maybe the ADHD explains the novelty seeking or the dopamine chasing, the impulsivity, the procrastination, the time blindness, the scattered focus, the stimulation seeking. And maybe the autism helps to explain that sensory overwhelm, the deeper need for sameness or routine or, you know, the shutdowns, the masking fatigue, the social differences. Either way, simply having a better understanding of yourself and your differences is so helpful when it comes to working with the brain that you have. Okay, now if you resonate with autism traits, then I highly recommend that you just do a little bit of research. Maybe you listen to a couple of podcasts about autism, maybe you watch a couple of YouTube videos or you read a book. One Audi age dear whom I really like, I really resonate with. Her name is Ellie Middleton, which is E L L I E Allie Middleton. She's the author of two books, Unmasked and How to Be you. Both are fantastic easy reads. I actually did them both on Audible, to be fair, and I really enjoyed them via Audible. So that might be an avenue that you want to explore. But again, if you're resonating with it, then just do a little bit of research, have a little bit of a play around in that arena. So I wanted to make it super simple, although this isn't simple, but I wanted to offer that ADHD is primarily, not always, but primarily defined by difficulties with inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Okay, whereas autism, right, asd, Autism Spectrum disorder is characterised by challenges with social communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. Now again, you might fall into both categories, which is the aud. So if this episode is bringing up a whole bunch of, I don't know, questions or thoughts or whatever, I wanted to offer you some helpful questions for you to sit with, to consider. Okay, so here we go. Number one, do I struggle socially mainly because I miss things, interrupt, forget or get excited, or because I am actively trying to decode and analyze what they mean and put all of the pieces together? Number two, do I crave more novelty or do I really need predictability? Number three, how do I respond when plans change unexpectedly? Number four, is my movement more about stimulation or getting energy out? Or is it more about soothing, about, you know, safety, about feeling comforted and grounded and regulated? Number five, how Much of my coping is actually masking. That can be a tricky one. Six, have there always been sensory experiences that have felt more intense for me than other people? And seven, did my ADHD diagnosis feel like it explained everything, or did it only feel like it explained part of the. Part of what I'm experiencing? Okay, now, I don't want you to go diagnosing yourself in a panic spiral at, you know, quarter past one in the morning after you've watched six TikTok videos of autism. Right? I just want to offer you get a little bit curious. Just learn a little bit more. Okay, again, I want to be clear. This episode is not me trying to diagnose you through your earbuds. It's simply an invitation to understand the overlap, to notice some of the patterns and explore a few helpful questions. Because whether it is ADHD or autism or both, okay, the goal is not to collect labels like, you know, Pokemon cards. The goal is understanding. Right? Self compassion, better. Support, less. Shame, more. Holy shit, that makes so much sense. Okay, so if your ADHD diagnosis has helped you to finally stop blaming yourself, but there's still a little part of you going, yeah, something else. Something else is missing. Something else is going on here. Magic. Okay. I hope that this episode is helping you to see a little bit more of what that picture could be. Okay, now remember, we have an 80% likelihood of having another form of neurodiversity. When you've got one, there is more. So, my friend, if this episode has resonated, I would love to know. Please leave us a review or share this episode with a friend who has been wondering the same thing. And if you, you know, if you are someone who's diagnosed with ADHD first, or if you know someone, you know, who was diagnosed with ADHD and then later realized that autism's already, you know, also part of this picture. Fantastic. I think this conversation is. Is so important. It really, really matters. So please keep having the conversation, keep talking about it, because the more we do that, the more we help other people to better understand themselves, to better understand their brains and how to support themselves and, you know, figure things out. Okay? All right, my friend, I feel very fired up today. I feel like I could keep talking to you all day. Huge, huge, huge, huge love to you. Take care, and I'll speak to you next week. Hey, friend, if you want some more help navigating and thriving with ADHD and some help applying everything that you're learning here on the podcast, then head over to our website, navigating adultadhd.com.