Thinking about AuDHD opens up the door to really get to yourself and your own individual brain!
Transcription:
Hi there, I’m JoyGenea, international neurodiversity coach and this week what we’re talking about, articles and so forth, are about AuDHD, which is autism and ADHD merged if you haven’t heard of that before, highly recommend you google. There is a lot of fabulous articles about this. I’m going to make this short and sweet. So, it is not uncommon in the neurodiversity field that I work in and the people that I hang out with, for them, us, to demonstrate and show more traits than just ADHD or more traits than just autism. The crossover is actually really really common from the autistic side into ADHD and as time goes on I think more and more people are recognizing that there is an even greater crossover also from the ADHD and autism side.
Really, we are talking about a variety of traits that at one point were put into categories, ‘this is this trait, that is that.’ As time has gone on they have figured out that those traits, mmm the lines between them are far more loose than they are structured. So, if you’re finding yourself with maybe, you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD but you have a lot of sensory things or you notice you’re very structured about your time and you don’t maybe handle routines that are messed with, that is the time to maybe be like ‘Hmm, maybe I should look into some of that.’ Because you will probably find there might be a little more going on, and the only reason I think it is really valuable to know this and to looking into it further, is because when you know more, you can do more for yourself. You can not put yourself in circumstances that obviously trigger that or obviously you know aren’t overly supported by your DNA. It doesn’t mean you avoid them but you go, “Oh, I am headed into this situation. It could possibly lead to this, I will be prepared for that. I’ll make sure I eat properly. I’ll make sure that I practice maybe in advance how I’m going to handle some of that. Tell some of the people that I know, “Hey if you start to notice me like getting overwhelmed, help me back off a little bit. Help me find a little spot to recalibrate. Really simple. So, that’s why getting to know these things can and is really really important.
Some of the other things that are really great for coping with that if you are in that arena, cognitive behavioral therapy can be really helpful. Also, some skills training, social skills training, medication for ADHD and anxiety, if you’ve never explored them, I would tell you you should at least explore them. That means you may or may not choose to take them or not, but you should understand what is available out there from that side of some things work really well for my clients, some things don’t work at all for my clients, and are useless and actually counter-productive. Everybody is different. You are different. You are your own new thing.
Occupational therapy and then, my favorite, coaching. So, another reason we are talking about this is because it also highlights why working with a coach, if you have been diagnosed with just one thing, if you are working with a neurodiversity coach like my clients when they are working with me, I can point out, ‘You know, let’s explore this trait. I don’t know but I am seeing things,’ and then we’ll go down that, every once in a while they’re like ‘No that’s not quite it but oh I found…,’ you know like it led into this. We’re better able to find that language, shift things up.
I’m JoyGenea, international neurodiversity coach. I hope this has been a good and informative video.