Thousands of Australians have these conflicting experiences, which may be explained as AuDHD. This term is mostly used to refer to people who have both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
While AuDHD is not a formally recognised medical diagnosis, the awareness of this condition has grown significantly in the past few years. Many people across Australia understand that having both autism and ADHD together can create a unique combination of strengths and difficulties that can’t always be explained by either condition on its own.
In this guide, you’ll learn how autism and ADHD overlap, the common signs of AuDHD, how assessments work in Australia, and the treatment and support options available.
What Is AuDHD?
AuDHD combines the words autism and ADHD and is used to refer to someone who has both Conditions.
AuDHD means having ADHD and Autism; it doesn’t just mean having both; it means having both and the unique experience that comes with it. This describes the ways it can impact different areas of a person’s life, including cognition, learning, communication, emotional self-regulation, and understanding and navigating the world.
No two people with AuDHD experience the condition the same. Some people feel more connected with Autism, while other people feel a stronger connection with ADHD. Understanding this intersection can often help people understand experiences they’ve been unable to understand.
Can You Have ADHD and Autism Together?
Absolutely. Having both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is more common than is believed.
For a long time, practitioners were unable to diagnose both. Earlier editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) stated that both cannot coexist. This left many people, especially children, with fragmented explanations for their challenges.
This changed with the 2013 version of DSM-5, where both can be diagnosed if the criteria are met. This version has reaffirmed the understanding of ADHD and Autism being coexisting more than previously believed. It has provided many people with clarity for the reasons a single diagnosis was unable to explain.
Clinicians have learned that autism and ADHD occur together more often than previously thought. Knowledge of both diagnoses provides a clearer picture of a person’s unique combination of strengths and optimal areas of support.
Is AuDHD an Official Diagnosis?
No. AuDHD isn’t an official medical diagnosis. If someone meets the diagnostic criteria for both conditions, they’re diagnosed separately with Autism and ADHD.
So, what has led to the increased popularity of the AuDHD term?
Even though autism and ADHD are assessed separately, they have a profound impact on a person’s daily life and can create experiences that are dissimilar to having either autism or ADHD separately. Thus, AuDHD is a term clinicians prefer to use when referring to the two conditions combined.
How Common Is AuDHD?
There are no official statistics on AuDHD in Australia; however, the co-occurrence of autism and ADHD is often noted.
The studies indicate that around 1.1% of Australians were identified as autistic in 2022, while ADHD is in 5-8% of children and 2-6% of adults. Further research suggests that many autistic people are also diagnosed with ADHD, which highlights the overlap between the two conditions.
Data from various studies show that co-occurring autism and ADHD are far more prevalent than previously anticipated. This is likely due to increased awareness and improvements in the diagnostic process, including changes to diagnostic criteria, resulting in more adults receiving accurate assessments much later in life.
Because autism and ADHD often share characteristics, comprehensive, individual assessments are recommended to help clinicians differentiate between the two conditions.
What Causes AuDHD?
Like individual cases of Autism and ADHD, AuDHD is also a developmental condition that involves the functioning of the brain. It is not caused by parenting style, parenting, vaccines, prolonged screen time, or bad diet.
Current research suggests that genetics play a role in both conditions. Studies show that genetic factors linked to autism also appear in ADHD. This explains why the two conditions often occur together. Having a close family member with autism, ADHD, or both may increase the chances of similar neurodevelopmental traits; however, genetics alone does not determine whether an individual will receive a diagnosis.
Currently, there are no blood tests, brain scans or lab tests for a diagnosis of ADHD with Autism. Clinicians analyse all available information through a clinical assessment of the individual’s case and determine the individual’s level of development and how the individual behaves across different settings.
Because of many of the similar characteristics of Autism and ADHD, clinicians do a differential diagnosis to determine whether traits are better explained by one condition, both conditions, or another co-occurring condition. This is a detailed and complex process that helps ensure the individual gets the right diagnosis and the support they need.
Autism and ADHD: Similarities and Differences
Although Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are separate developmental disorders, there are many characteristics that both disorders share. This is one of the reasons that the diagnosis of both Autism and ADHD is often complicated, especially in adults, many of whom have been masking the traits of both disorders for years.
These conditions affect a person’s executive functioning, emotional regulation, attention, social processing, and sensory processing. Even though there may be some similarities, they will not be exactly the same.
AuDHD does not simply add these traits. Rather, it combines these traits in its own unique way.
Where Autism and ADHD Overlap
ADHD Characteristics | Autism Characteristics | How AuDHD May Feel |
Impulsivity and difficulty pausing before acting | Preference for routine and predictability | Wants structure but is unable to maintain it |
Hyperfocus that shifts between interests | Long-term deep interests | Becoming intensely absorbed while finding it difficult to switch attention |
Emotional dysregulation | Difficulty with unexpected changes | Strong emotional response to disruption of predictable routine |
Sensory seeking behaviours | Sensory sensitivity to sound, light or touch | Wants a connection, but socialising is draining |
Social impulsivity | Differences in social communication | Wanting meaningful connections but feeling mentally exhausted after social interactions |
When Autism and ADHD Pull in Opposite Directions
AuDHD is a constant push and pull between the characteristics of autism and ADHD. It can often confuse a person, as it will create a need for competing traits, which is exhausting.
For example, your autistic traits may crave routine, predictability and familiar environments, while your ADHD side seeks novelty, spontaneity and change. You might spend a lot of time setting a schedule and want to stick to it, but then fall short and become frustrated.
This leads to executive dysfunction. You could have a good idea of what you have to do and what steps you have to take to get there, but find it difficult to get started, stay organised or finish tasks. And it’s less about not being able to do it and more about how the brain functions, and how it plans and organises things.
Sensory processing can be really confusing. Someone with AuDHD might want to be in control and seek things to stay engaged, like movement, music or other distractions, but can feel overwhelmed by brighter lights, crowded places or other sudden noises. This constant need for sensory input and sensitivity to it can make it impossible to tell what is okay and what is not okay for someone on a given day.
This is likely to trap someone in a paradox of sorts: AuDhd sufferers want to connect with people, but social experiences leave them feeling tired and drained.
Over time, this constant effort to balance the competing needs can contribute to autistic burnout, ADHD burnout or a combination of both. Most people will develop some sort of social camouflage or some other form of masking to meet social norms and expectations, often without understanding how draining it can be.
While social camouflage helps people adapt to their school, work, and social life, it can also delay diagnosis and leave people feeling misunderstood or disconnected from who they are.
Learning to understand these things will often inform someone with AuDHD that the common advice for ADHD and autism does not speak to them because they fall outside of the norm for both.
Common AuDHD Symptoms
Unfortunately, AuDHD does not yet have a universal checklist due to its relative newness. There are, however, traits of both autism and ADHD that often combine to form traits that are on their own and also traits that are in opposition.
Do I Have AuDHD? Signs to Know
Common signs may include:
Executive functioning differences
- Difficulty planning, organising, or prioritising tasks
- Starting different activities, but having difficulty completing any
- Forgetting daily tasks, losing track of time
Sensory processing differences
- Getting overwhelmed from noise, bright lights or certain textures
- Needing movement or stimulation to focus
- Having more or different sensory needs based on what’s around
Emotional regulation
- Responding strongly to things unexpectedly changing
- Feeling upset when things don’t go as planned
- Feeling upset or overwhelmed and having a hard time dealing with it
Social communication and masking
- Wanting to connect but feeling mentally tired from the conversations
- Thinking about the things you need to do or how to act to fit in
- Socially tired after being around people for a long time
Attention, hyperfocus and interests
- Changing focus a lot, but having a deep interest in some things
- Having a hard time switching from hyperfocus to everyday tasks and interests
- Noticing things around you and having a lot of thoughts
Not every person with AuDHD will show all of these signs, and how someone shows these signs will change during their life. This is why diagnosis is based on what you are good at, what you have struggled with, and how you have changed over time. This is more important than looking at the signs that you have in a limited way.
AuDHD in Children vs Adults
AuDHD doesn’t always show up the same way at every age, which is one reason it goes undetected.
When the disorder appears in children, it manifests as an exacerbated form of both conditions. Children may experience more meltdowns, since impulsiveness (which is caused by ADHD) combines with problems controlling their emotions.
In the sphere of social interaction, a child might face difficulties reading a situation just like an autistic child, and speaking out of turn, as an ADHD patient does. Attentive processes become complicated as well; a child can’t be distracted from what he likes to do and doesn’t concentrate on anything else. As for adults, AuDHD becomes quite subtle in their cases.
The years of masking behavioural characteristics make people exhausted and anxious, and some may feel they are doing too much and struggling with everything in life.
The reasons for adults to discover AuDHD are often connected with changes in their lives, such as starting work in a different sphere, entering a new relationship, or even becoming parents or undergoing menopause.
Why AuDHD Often Goes Undiagnosed
For a lot of people, finally getting an ADHD and Autism diagnosis is having their symptoms described. Before it is diagnosed, it is about having or living with things for a long time that finally make sense.
One reason AuDHD is often overlooked is due to the masking effects of autism and ADHD. Some adults, especially women, develop masking and camouflaging strategies that help meet social norms. Although these coping strategies help with the demands of school, work, and relationships, they may also make underlying traits less obvious during childhood and can lead to long delays in getting a diagnosis.
AuDHD in Women
Women and girls tend to receive their diagnoses much later. Many of them are said to learn how to mask both autistic and ADHD traits quite early. Some even receive labels like “quiet,” “anxious”, or “overly sensitive” with no further evaluations needed for a neurodevelopmental diagnosis.
In some cases, life-altering events like starting university or a new job, having a child, or even menopause, can result in having to face help and support for the challenges that they have lived with for a long time.
Do I Have AuDHD?
If you’ve asked yourself, do you have ADHD and autism together, you’ve probably questioned related things, like wondering if you have both.
You should definitely ask your GP or a qualified clinician about an assessment if you:
- Feel a strong pull-and-push effect: you want the comfort of a planned schedule, but also crave the excitement of sudden, unplanned adventures.
- Experience both sensory sensitivity and sensory-seeking behaviours.
- Struggle to plan and organise, and can’t figure out why all the time.
- Regularly hide your true self and your behaviours to fit social norms.
- Feel like you have experiences that don’t fit ADHD and don’t fit autism, but don’t fit anywhere else.
While none of the above can confirm you are AuDHD or even diagnose it, there’s enough there to warrant a more thorough investigation.
How AuDHD Is Diagnosed and Treated in Australia
Since AuDHD is not a separate diagnostic classification, when it comes to being assessed, it will generally mean visiting several health practitioners who can conduct a diagnosis of autism and ADHD at the same time, without masking any of these.
Visiting A GP: An Initial Step
A GP, psychiatrist, or paediatrician usually diagnoses AuDHD. A clinical psychologist or psychiatrist makes an adult’s autism diagnosis, specialised in assessing autism in adults because autism falls outside the routine GP assessment for ADHD in Australia.
If you need both diagnoses, it would be more appropriate to visit a professional or clinic that can diagnose both.
AuDHD Treatment
ADHD medication has been widely researched and is still effective for autistics. This will improve focus, impulsiveness, and attention, but it won’t diminish any of the autistic traits, which is why medication cannot be the full story.
There is also psychological assistance, such as psychoeducation and occupational therapy, that would help one understand one’s pattern of behaviour, develop coping strategies, and obtain the necessary accommodations at school, at home, or at work.
Family and carer involvement is important as well because AuDHD affects not only a person but also those surrounding them.
How Elyséa HEALTH Can Help
Elyséa HEALTH evaluates both ASD and ADHD simultaneously, rather than diagnosing one and forgetting about the other. This becomes particularly crucial for those who have hidden their condition well over many years, since the quick diagnosis of just one of the conditions would make them go undiagnosed with AuDHD.
AuDHD Assessment:
- Structured assessments of autism and neurodevelopmental conditions in children and adults, conducted by our psychologists
- A developmental history and standardised methods, along with clinical interviews, but no tick-boxes and no one-off conversations
- Assessment of overlapping ADHD features in the course of ASD diagnostics, and vice versa
AuDHD Treatment:
- ADHD medications are overseen by the psychiatrist, dosed and reviewed, keeping in view your sensory issues and daily requirements, not the usual ADHD treatment protocol.
- Help with executive functioning, sensory regulation, and masking-related exhaustion through psychological therapy that goes hand-in-hand with whatever medication you may be on.
- Coordination of information from the GP, psychiatrist, and psychologist to ensure your treatment is based on your autism and ADHD comorbidities.
If you’re an adult wondering whether ADHD alone explains your experience, Elyséa HEALTH’s guide to ADHD assessment in Adelaide is a productive starting point, as is their overview of signs of autism in adults. From there, a consultation can help determine the right assessment pathway for your specific situation.
FAQ’s
What does AuDHD mean?
AuDHD is the commonly used term for someone who has both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Is AuDHD an official diagnosis?
No. AuDHD isn’t a recognised medical diagnosis. Clinicians diagnose autism and ADHD separately when an individual meets the criteria for both.
Can adults be diagnosed with AuDHD?
Yes. Many adults receive a dual diagnosis after recognising lifelong traits that weren’t identified during childhood.
What are the common symptoms of AuDHD?
Common experiences include executive dysfunction, sensory differences, emotional dysregulation, social communication challenges, masking and intense interests or hyperfocus.
How is AuDHD diagnosed in Australia?
In Australia, AuDHD assessment usually starts with a referral from a GP to one of the relevant specialists for a formal assessment.
Can ADHD medication help someone with AuDHD?
Medication may help manage ADHD-related symptoms such as inattention and impulsivity, but it’s often combined with psychological and practical supports.
Does an AuDHD assessment cost anything through Medicare?
Medicare may subsidise some of the costs associated with the assessment process, but it is unlikely to subsidise the costs of a private comprehensive assessment.
Can I self-diagnose as having AuDHD?
Self-diagnosis is not strictly the same as officially diagnosing, but it can be the first step in the process; however, only a professional can
The Bottom Line
Sometimes it can be confusing to have both autism and ADHD, especially when functions and disabilities do not fall into one of the categories. Some people find clarity through understanding what AuDHD means, rather than as a label: their years of feeling confused might have been clarified.
If this article resonates with you, you don’t have to struggle on your own. A proper assessment done by professionals who know the specifics of autism and ADHD interactions is the best way to go from confusion to a solution.
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