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Are you hyper?

felines are superior

felines are superior

Well-Known Member
Is being hyperactive a part of ASD? I was so hyper when young. Could walk for miles and miles, fast. People much taller had a hard time keeping up with me.
 
I woudn't say I was hyperactive as such, but I'm always moving, fidgeting, kind of restless. I find it hard to sit still for a long time and need to get up and move around.

I walk very fast, too, people are always telling me to slow down and I get frustrated with people because they don't go fast enough.

I don't know whether it's an ASD thing, ADHD perhaps.
 
I have both ADHD and Asperger's. I agree that they are often comorbid. I didn't get it diagnosed in childhood because I didn't exhibit the hyperactivity super physically, but I definitely have it mentally. When I started getting depressed and having less control over myself, I started showing some of the physical symptoms as well.

For kids though, there is always the possibility of just having a lot of youthful energy, right? Do you still consider yourself hyper nowadays?
 
The only times I truly get 'hyper' is when I've had a fair bit of sugar - which gets me giggling at nothing among other things.
 
AGXStarseed said:
The only times I truly get 'hyper' is when I've had a fair bit of sugar - which gets me giggling at nothing among other things.
Click to expand...

You could be Diabetic in that case, if you have too much sugar in your blood it causes Diabetes

Speak to your Doctor.
 
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@AGXStarseed

Hypoglycemics can experience sugar rushes, too.
(getting giggly and high from food)
Do you ever have an A1C done, at the doctor's?

That shows your blood sugar level average over
a span of months, not just the moment you
happen to be at the doctor's office.
 
Yes, but I'm not sure if it's an autism thing or undiagnosed ADHD as others have mentioned. I don't care enough to go back and get checked properly. Caffeine is my friend!

In terms of walking, I don't think I have a 'strange' mode of walking. Although I walk fast for a hobbit sized person and I'm told I 'stride' (whatever that means).
 
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No, I would say I was more the opposite, quiet. But I had normal energy.
 
Not only are ADHD and ASD commonly co morbid, but there is also a big overlap, so it's easy to mistaken one for the other.

Like you, OP, I also walk much faster than most other people, and am always fidgeting. As I understand it, though, both are common with ASD even without ADHD. An online test did give me a high probability of having ADHD, but again, that could just be because of the ASD that I scored high on that test.

I asked my psychologist, who specicialises in both ADHD and ASD, about whether he thought I might have ADHD, to which he basically said no, he didn't think I had ADHD, but the only reasons he gave me for why not were:
1) Apparently, until recently, a psychologist wasn't allowed to co-diagnose both ADHD and ASD; they had to choose one or the other. Some people did have a diagnosis for both, but presumably didn't get the diagnoses at the same time. I'm guessing this was a rule in DSM-4 that was removed in DSM-5.

2) He said that the only thing an ADHD diagnosis would get me would be access to ADHD medication, and he didn't think ADHD medication would be good for me. I happen to agree with him on that - I don't think ADHD medication would be good for me, but I'm not sure that precludes the possibility that I have it.

Anyway, so in the end, if I had to guess, I'd say a probably don't have ADHD, but I have a very low degree of certainty on that.
 
I am asd, and combined ADHD.

ADHD is thought to be characterised by low dopamine, and norepinephrine, and sometimes high glutamate.

ADHD meds boost dopamine and norepinephrine, so if you have meds they will probably make you feel better.

So might these substances which do the same;
Alcohol.
Caffeine
Guarana
Cocaine

... And loads more addictive drugs.

They make everyone feel good, but for us there is a "getting back to baseline" effect.

Those drugs would make me feel normal in small doses.

ADHD responds well to meds for most people.
 
Sometimes I get hyper.
But mostly only my mind is a bit chaotic and it doesnt mostly causes my behaviour to go hyper active.
 
felines are superior said:
Could walk for miles and miles, fast. People much taller had a hard time keeping up with me.
Click to expand...

Progster said:
I walk very fast, too, people are always telling me to slow down and I get frustrated with people because they don't go fast enough.

I don't know whether it's an ASD thing, ADHD perhaps.
Click to expand...

My AS bf walks insanely fast, like sometimes I almost feel like I need to lightly jog to keep up with his natural pace--had no idea that might be an aspie thing, but super interesting if so!
 
No, I'm the opposite of hyper. Trying to motivate me to do most physical activity ever since I was a kid is like pulling out teeth. Which is a problem because I'm overweight. Exercise has always been torture, and I'm not young anymore so now it's even worse.:pensive:
 
Streetwise said:
I think its attention deficit hyperactivity disorder it's probably just co morbid with HFA
Click to expand...

Not to be too contentious or too much of a contrarian, but I do think people are too quick to default to this kind of assumption. Just because a person has more nervous energy than normal and seems to rush through life doesn't necessarily indicate some kind of attention deficit at all.

While I realize everyone is their own kind of snowflake it doesn't mean everyone has to have a mental disorder or even a comorbid if there's a hint of one. It bewilders me how often people talk about having a comorbid or even a bunch of comorbids, because even though I'm certain there really are people with them (obviously having comorbids is a prominent thing amongst people on the autism spectrum and sensory processing disorder happens to be a comorbid that so many of us have it's considered synonymous with autism or even like a criteria), I tend to think it must be prohibitively rare for a person to genuinely have as many comorbids as some folks like to claim.

There's a lot more awareness than there was in the past about mental illness but people still have a long way to go so far as understanding the difference between "she's socially awkward, maybe she has Asperger's" and "oh, that's what it's like for someone who legitimately has it".
 
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