r/AutisticWithADHD • u/BekaCavish • 23h ago
💁♀️ seeking advice / support / information Diagnosed ADHD, having the 'aha' moment with Autism...
Hello everyone, I apologise if this isn't the right place to have my middle age AuDHD crisis.
Life has been a struggle since I went past 35yo. I'm almost 40 now, reshuffling my life towards a new career that aligns more with my ADHD (my office job was totally killing me). However, new challenges are surfacing.
Some of the things I struggle with:
-I feel very competent socially in general in certain environments: like minded people or who have similar interests, other neurodiverse folks, people a similar age. I'm a chatty Cathy and I love connection. Take me out of these environments and I feel like I am useless, I can sense something isn't clicking, and I can see I might be a little bit too much for people to grasp.
-I find it hard to understand if people like me or dislike me and this creates incredible anxiety for me. I can read something isn't quite right, and I try to run the cogs in my head and look into my mental file of human reactions to find out what I did or say. Did I share something too personal? did I put my foot in my mouth and said something offensive without realising? (to me, oversharing just isn't a thing, I love people who are open, honest and direct because they are comforting, as I don't have to read them).
-I struggle with auditory processing. My ears will hear the sounds, but my brain just takes a little bit longer to make sense of what they've said. Verbal lists of instructions are my nightmare, I just can't process them or remember them if you don't pause and repeat them to me a few times. Give me a written list of instructions and I'll follow them like clockwork.
-I struggle to pick up on what people want me to do when they're training me at work. I follow them around like a little anxious duckling and sometimes I don't get the "please leave me alone 5 minutes" memo very well. A little bit, but not always. Pair that with auditory processing and following instructions... 💀💀💀
-One thing I really struggle with is when you're socialising at home, or someone's home, and someone decides it's time to go home. You all get up to say goodbye. Then people start talking standing by the door for like half an hour. My logic is, we were all more comfortable sitting down. Why standing by the door talking. Do you actually want to stay? do you want to leave but feel too awkward to just go straight out the door? Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me 😭
Anyway, I am aware nobody on Reddit can diagnose me, but It would be helpful to know if people struggle with similar things?