No two Autistic people are the same, no two ADHD people are the same, no two autistic and ADHD people are the same. This is just my experience. This isn’t everything but it’s the main stuff I can think of right now.

• Time: I don’t experience time like other people. I often have multiple thoughts in my head at the same time, and I am living in the past, present and sometimes emotionally the future at the same time (I don’t envision myself as being in the future here).
  
  I’ll explain with an example. I love cats, I have had pets throughout my lifetime – I have been privileged here immensely. When I pet my cats – at the same time I can be processing time in three ways:I am thinking about my past experiences while petting the cat
  I am also processing the sensory stuff in the present and I am feeling happy
  I am simultaneously experiencing the grief of losing the cat I am stroking due to knowledge of this and will be crying at the same time
  
• Memory: My memory isn’t sequential. I also don’t have any visual memory. I have aphantasia (no mind’s eye). I cannot play a sequence of memory out in my head – it’s all loose association.
  
  In spite of this I have a pretty massive memory for stuff, but it’s not specifically detail oriented – instead my brain will categorise stuff like the Dewey decimal system almost – except this index is far more abstract. It’s also incredibly powerful – while I may not know everything about specific information – I will have stored how to access that information again – this can be page numbers, journal titles, google search terms, lyrics in songs, sequences of words to search, sequences of numbers.
  
  It’s pretty awesome but it has a significant drawback also – there’s emotional indexing as well. And the categories associated with bad memories are far more complete. When I get anxiety or have intrusive thoughts – my brain will queue all the bad memories associated with this feeling to play in rapid succession. Because I have no concept of time, the emotions and feelings are as powerful as they were when I first experienced them. I can usually suppress outwardly displaying this emotion but the cost is anxiety.
• Executive Function – I am a sim. That’s the best analogy that I can give. Due to the vast amount of information that my brain is constantly processing (a lot of it utterly irrelevant), I queue up actions. Sometimes these behaviours don’t make sense to other people, e.g. I will walk around a table sometimes before I go to get something out of a draw – this is sort of an auto pilot mechanism. My brain knows that I need to do X but it’s already decided that it needs to do this Y list before it can reach that task.
  
  This is the reason I think I have so many issues with auditory processing. I don’t have the disorder, I have no problems actually following instructions, and I can discern different sounds. The issue is that I am often either traversing information nodes when people are talking to me, or living in alternative timelines. That means that information is queued usually – I have found on my low executive function ability days that the delay from hearing someone to that information being processed is usually 5-10 seconds if I am not too disengaged from reality. This is frustrating as hell for people who know me, and for me also.
  
  An example of this that is a frequent occurrence:I am processing a queue of stuff inside my head while not fully engaged in a specific task
  My wife asks me to do a task – I do not respond
  My wife repeats herself almost immediately
  The audio information from the initial task reaches my head
  I snap because I have actually queued up the task in my head, and I am processing the audio – her repeated instruction interrupts the audio processing and it makes me angry as I am usually about to start whatever she has asked.
  I have to moderate my response – but I sometimes fail – “GIVE ME SOME TIME”. I always immediately apologise – but I also internalise guilt.
  

Continue reading at.....

https://roryreckons.blog/2021/03/07/dual-diagnosis-the-science-and-my-experience-of-audhd/

“Imagine that it’s 4:59 p.m., only one minute before your deadline.

You swore you’d never put yourself in this position again, and yet you have. This isn’t your best work, and you’ll be lucky just to turn anything in. What would you do differently if you could turn back the clock?”

Rob Rosenthal, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado has some suggestions.

In a blog post last week for The Conversation, he outlined four successful strategies that have emerged from his work with adults with ADHD:

• Organisational systems and prioritising
• Managing the environment and limiting distractions
• Support networks
• The need for sleep

Easier said than done!

Dr Rosenthal suggests starting with a smaller step in the right direction. He says: “As you incorporate these strategies, start with those that are most accessible to you. Though people with ADHD often chase novelty and chafe at routine, developing a routine is worth it. You might find that instead of racing to finish at the last minute, you have time to spare and are proud of what you’ve done.”

Read the full article here.

What strategies do you use to manage your ADHD?