#comorbidity

neurodivergent-noodle:

OCD and autism

since it’s autism acceptance month, I thought I’d do an OCD Project post about the overlap between autism and OCD!

fast facts:

• 17% of autistic folk also have OCD
• autistic people are twice as likely as allistic to receive a late diagnosis of OCD
• people with OCD are four times more likely to receive a late diagnosis of autism than those without

overlapping symptoms:

• repetitive behaviours
• anxiety
• hoarding
• sensory issues
• executive dysfunction
• desire for routine

what do they look like together?

this is a complicated question, because both OCD and autism can have a lot of different symptoms and presentations. but common issues include:

• increased chance of alexithymia, which you can read about here
• autistic people often get overwhelmed more easily than allistic people, which means we may also have a lower anxiety threshold before we turn to a compulsion
• over-relianceon stimming can turn stims into compulsions — because almost anything can become a compulsion
• high likelihood of thought spiralsandmeltdowns feeding into each other
• increased likelihood of communication challenges, making it harder for others to understand what they’re doing and why

in conclusion:

autism and OCD can be hard to live with on their own, but together they cause unique challenges that need to be countered very carefully. despite a high comorbidity rate, it can be hard to be diagnosed with both due to similarities in external presentation.

observing-galaxies:

I’ve noticed a pattern in myself that another autistic narc has confirmed they experience. I ended up internally calling what experience a narcissistic meltdown, where my autism and NPD combine to cause me to have a narcissism fueled meltdown.

I guess it would be similar to a narc crash but it’s a lot more specific and crashes can last for a long time, whereas with a meltdown it can last from 10 minutes to just a few hours.

For me, it’s when something triggers my NPD, and because I’m either unable to fix it or don’t know how to deal with it, I can get overwhelmed and a meltdown happens.

I feel like autistic with NPD have a very specific experience, and this would be a useful term. 

mxxngxddess:

me, starting friendship w someone: attention is worth the exhaustion of faking emotions. i need attention.

me, 2 weeks later, lying on the floor: it’s not….. worth it…….

I was the one who asked if there’s a way to tell if you experience sensory sensitivities or if what you experience is just neurotypical.

So for one, a couple days ago, my step-mom’s friend’s daughter was here. She’s 9-years-old and my brother was “jokingly” scaring her and she would keep screaming at the very top of her lungs and I kept plugging my ears because it hurt. My brother made fun of me and said I was being “stupid” for doing that. To this day, I can’t comprehend how her screaming didn’t hurt his ears. It got to a point where even after she stopped for a while, it felt like my ears were ringing even though they weren’t.

Ever since I was younger, I always told people “I have sensitive hearing” but I only told that to people because I don’t like loud noises unless I can control it (music). I don’t actually know if it’s true that my hearing is sensitive or not, but I notice when I’m the only person plugging my ears, it makes me question. If I can avoid loud noises, I always make the choice to do so. When our dogs are barking and yowling a lot, I get irritated and I can’t stand it. At school, I always avoided pep assemblies if I could because I always told people my hearing was too sensitive to deal with it. But at the same time, I don’t know if I’ve experienced sensory overload caused by anything other than emotional sensory information, if that makes sense…

I get meltdowns and shutdowns, but I always associated them with stressful emotional moments, but I can’t tell if other sensory input like sound or visuals also added to it.

There are textures I hate, like crayons, so through my entire life I have never used crayons if I was given a choice. Certain papers bother me a lot, but I’ve learned to deal with them. I notice when I’m the only person wearing a coat in cold weather. Textures bother me to a point where I’m glad I have to wear gloves at work because every time I touch something gross, dirty, or something that bothers me, I always end up washing my hands.

But at the same time, I can “deal” with these things ?

I experience same-fooding and I have ADHD and I experience SO many autism symptoms, but it’s so hard to know if I am autistic because I have so much trauma and my ADHD is so bad and so is my depression and anxiety that I can’t tell if certain things I experience are due to trauma, ADHD, or it actually is autism, but I can say that I watched a video about one person’s experience with their autism and I cried because I related so much and my autistic friend says that it believes I might be autistic as well.

Original ask date: September 16th

Hi there!  Thank you so much for putting in the work to describe your sensory experiences more in detail, so I can give you a better answer.

So upon reading this, no, this is not a neurotypical experience.  You observed how neurotypicals respond- they don’t cover their ears.  They don’t wear their coat.  They touch the crayons and they don’t care about the type of paper.  

All of these experiences you listed are sensory sensitivity, to a T.  The fact that you are able to “deal” with it isn’t what makes you neurotypical- a neurotypical person doesn’t have to deal with it, because for them, there is nothing to be dealt with.  So having to deal with it means there is something there that you’re dealing with- and that thing is sensory sensitivity.

Sensory sensitivity is one of the symptoms that overlaps between ADHD and autism.  So it is entirely possible that your sensory-sensitive experiences are caused by your ADHD.

Fromthis scientific study on children with ADHD:

One type of sensory processing problem is sensory over-responsivity or sensory hypersensitivity. That is, individuals respond to sensory stimuli in the way that is faster, longer, or more intense than what is expected. This response can be towards any types of sensory stimuli. Sensory over-responsivity can be considered as an independent diagnosis. For example, a child with tactile sensitivity or defensiveness might be defensive for hair-brushing and/or haircuts because she/he cannot tolerate it easily.

This sounds to me exactly like what you are experiencing.

It makes perfect sense that you would relate to autism experiences in this way, because sensory sensitivity and meltdowns are a very common symptom of autism, and it is one we share with ADHD.  

But at the same time, I don’t know if I’ve experienced sensory overload caused by anything other than emotional sensory information, if that makes sense… That makes total sense, and my question is…what else do you think causes sensory overload?  Emotional sensory information IS sensory overload.  That’s the cause of it.  There are two things that contribute to overload in a brain: emotionally distress, and too much sensory input (such as touching Bad Textures or hearing Bad Sounds, etc.) This is exactly what overload is.

I get meltdowns and shutdowns, but I always associated them with stressful emotional moments, but I can’t tell if other sensory input like sound or visuals also added to it. The answer is yes.  Emotional distress and sensory distress compound each other.  This means if you are emotionally upset, your ability to process sensory input is reduced.  Or if you are experiencing sensory distress, then your ability to handle emotions is reduced.  They are both things that “fill the overload tank” in your brain, and a person can get overloaded from either Too Much emotions OR Too Much sensory input OR a combo of both.

None of these experiences are neurotypical.  Both are things experienced by people with ADHD and people with autism.  Both ADHD and autism have a lot in common, and so people with one very often relate to the experiences of people with the other.

You also may have autism as well.  It is very common for people who have one to also have the other.  So if you feel you might have autism too, it can’t hurt to go and get tested for it.  If there are some symptoms you experience that ADHD doesn’t explain, that is an indication you may have autism as well.  But you are most certainly neurodiverse, and it makes perfect sense that you would related to autistic experiences regarding sensory experiences and meltdowns, because those are not neurotypical experiences at all.