Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Stimming ADHD vs Autism (YOU Didn’t Know This?)

Transcript

Stimming ADHD vs Autism (YOU Didn’t Know This?) · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
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  Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
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  an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
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  spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
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  So stemming an ADHD versus autism, right?
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  What is it all about? And we're going to get into it
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  right now. So there are two different types
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  of things we've got to think about here, right?
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  So if you're on the autism spectrum and you don't have an
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  ADHD comorbid diagnosis, which basically means Co occurring,
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  that means you have autism and ADHD together in this weird
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  marriage. Then you may also have stemming
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  sensory issues or stemming issues right now.
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  I'm going to get into all of that right now, but before I do,
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  you just want to say thanks for joining me on this channel.
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  My name is Dan and I have autism and I do weekly videos all about
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  this stuff. So if you want to subscribe,
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  make sure to hit the subscribe button down below.
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  OK? So in terms of ADHD stimming
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  versus autism and stimming, there is quite acute
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  differences. OK, so stimming, the word
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  stimming is short for self stimulatory behavior.
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  And basically, in a nutshell, what does that mean?
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  Well, it means that stimulatory behavior or self stimulatory
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  behavior is almost like a self soothing behavior.
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  What does that mean? If you're in a position where
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  you're highly anxious or highly nervous, then there'll be ways
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  that you'll want to soothe yourself.
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  So say a neurotypical person or a non autistic person, or
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  sometimes referred to as holistic person.
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  They could be in a situation where they feel nervous or
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  worried or stressed or maybe anxious about something that's
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  about to happen and they will kind of try and calm themselves
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  down because they'd be heavy breathing and they'd be sweaty
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  palms and all that kind of stuff.
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  So they might grab a cup of tea or coffee or maybe get some
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  water or go for a walk or try and take their mind off it.
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  These are acts of self stimulatory behavior.
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  But with autism and ADHD what happens?
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  Because they are neurological conditions or they are
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  neurodivergent conditions, the individual will have different
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  takes or different abilities to self soothe or self estimatory
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  behavior types. So what this means is that an
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  autistic person, if they are nervous or excited, because
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  these are two of the same type of reactions to adrenaline in
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  your body, then the autistic individual may rock backwards
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  and forwards, or they may flap their hands, or they may shake
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  their whole body, or they could stem with things in front of
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  their eyes. You know, if they're really
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  getting something out of it, like an enjoyment out of it.
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  Now, there's two things that happen here.
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  One is that they get this kind of emotional regulation from
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  stimming. And what is emotional
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  regulation? When you think about it,
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  autistic individuals have massive issues with emotional
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  regulation. So the word emotion comes from
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  energy in motion. And autistic individuals have a
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  difficult time processing the energy and how they are going to
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  move that into motion, to move forward, to explain or express
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  how they are or how they feel about something or what's going
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  on. So when you are faced with an
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  expression of emotion, then you will have to disperse that some
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  way in emotion. And so stemming helps disperse
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  that anxiousness, nervousness, worry, excitement, and
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  happiness. These can all come out in stems
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  like flappy hands. You might have seen autistic
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  individuals flap their hands, but one of the ones you'll
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  probably notice and you'll come across all the time is autistic
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  people will do this in front of light.
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  Now this is stemming and they can also like grab an object and
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  they can just like just flap the object in front of their eye
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  like this. You might have seen this quite a
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  lot in autistic individuals. It's more common for that to
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  happen, but just like it is in ADHD, those type of stems are
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  enjoyable and they're also dopamine hitting.
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  So when an autistic person does this in front of their eyes for
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  a long, long time, it's like they are self soothing, but
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  they're also getting lots of dopamine from it.
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  So people with ADHD and autism have issues with dopamine,
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  right? They're almost dopamine
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  deficient. So they're constantly chasing
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  dopamine, which is why we like to surround ourselves with
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  obsessive topics of interest or get really into something and
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  really just obsess over that one thing and just like want to talk
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  about that one thing or really have an affinity for one type of
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  food, right? Because that thing gives us mass
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  amounts of dopamine. And dopamine is like a happy
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  chemical that's released into your brain and it's a little
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  drug that stimulates your kind of happy hormones and makes you
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  feel really good and elated. Autistic individuals are
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  stemming. Autistic individuals stem
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  because of two reasons. One, because they are nervous or
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  they are, you know, upset or they're worried or they're
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  anxious. And if they're happy and excited
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  and they're anticipating something fun, The other part of
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  it for autism is like we just said, a dopamine chasing,
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  dopamine rich activity that they can do that can follow through
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  and they can have a lot of fun with and they can really get
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  something out of it. Now, if we look at ADHD in
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  stimming, this actually does occur in ADHD, but it's
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  different to that in autism. Now, ADHD stimming is not
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  because a person is nervous or anxious or that the person is
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  excited and elated or anticipating something fun.
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  It's almost always to do with two things, dopamine chasing,
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  because people with ADHD also have a dopamine kind of
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  deficiency. They never get enough dopamine,
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  so they're constantly chasing dopamine.
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  And the other thing is that they are trying to increase their
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  focus. Now you've heard that kind of
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  age-old tale, right? Where if you chew gum or like
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  you're, you know, sucking on a candy, like a hard boiled candy,
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  then your concentration can improve.
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  And why is this? Because your brain has
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  actionable tendencies to want to wander off to do multiple
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  things, right? So, you know, you've seen the
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  expression of iPad kid where they can't sit down and watch
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  the iPad. They have like, you know, move
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  around and dance about because they're trying to soothe the
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  part of their brain or their their personality that wants to
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  have be active and do all this kind of like impulsive stuff.
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  But they also want to watch the show on the iPad or play the
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  game or whatever. And that is specifically how the
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  ADHD brain is kicking butt because ADHD is when you have
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  the hyperactivity part of it, then it will be a physical
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  hyperactivity or you can have the mental hyperactivity where
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  you can't stay focused on one thing.
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  So how do you combat focus if you have ADHD?
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  Well, it's simple ways of increasing focus.
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  And I go into all details about this in another video
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  specifically on focusing for people with ADHD on autism
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  issues. But think about it, if you are
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  keeping your, your brain kind of busy and active by like, you
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  know, flapping your hands or like doing this or stemming in a
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  way rocking backwards and forwards or whatever, it will be
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  more beneficial for you because you'll be able to focus on
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  something. If you have a problem with
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  focus, ADHD people will stem in times of needing to focus and
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  needing to find dopamine. And actually at the same time,
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  you can combine those two and you'll get a dopamine rich focus
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  engagement, which is one of the ways that people with ADHD will
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  find better ways to manage their well-being in terms of like
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  focus for work, productivity and all that kind of stuff.
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  Now that is the overall nutshell, but that's not the
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  only thing. People with ADHD can stem when
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  they're nervous or they are excited.
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  Now I know it's contradictory to what I said before, but actually
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  I do believe that ADHD and autism are comorbidly Co
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  occurring together in most cases.
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  Almost all cases. I know you can get an isolated
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  diagnosis of either autism or ADHD but I do believe that they
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  come as a package. And this is just my personal
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  belief in it because I have seen personally people with ADHD who
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  will stem in situations of anxiety, nervousness, or
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  irritability, not in the way of dopamine chasing or focus
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  creation. This is simply the same way as
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  an autistic individual will stem.
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  Now a lot of people will kind of tell you that stemming is
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  something that you can do voluntarily.
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  That is just something that happens.
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  But actually, in actual fact, if you look at most cases of
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  stemming still is something that happens involuntary because you
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  are unaware of the fact that your body is almost convulsing
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  to want to do something about the energy that you've got about
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  the anxiety or the worry or the, you know, problem that's going
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  to occur or the excitement or the, you know, the interest in
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  something is going to happen. So because of that, I do believe
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  that there is a lot of misconceptions around stimming,
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  especially when it comes to people with ADHD and especially
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  when it comes to people on the autism spectrum.
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  You'll have people saying that they're doing stim dancing or
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  they're doing stim, you know, routine that is not stimming,
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  that is actually dopamine seeking activity for physical
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  kind of exercise. I get a mass dopamine hit when I
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  go running, right? But I wouldn't say that's stim
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  running. That's just running because I
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  want to have that energy. But people with autism and ADHD
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  have high amount of energy and, and motivation to do stuff and
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  they're just like, you know, this like kind of ball of energy
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  and they need to get that out. So dancing and exercising and
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  playing with fidget toys, that's a way of getting out the energy.
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  But that doesn't mean that you are stimming.
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  Stimming is something that happens involuntarily.
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  Like I don't know that I'm stimming when I'm stimming,
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  right? Because it's something that
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  happens. You know, if I'm nervous and I'm
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  like, you know, irritable leg syndrome, or I'm rocking
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  backwards and forwards or like I'm flapping my hands, I don't
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  know that I'm doing that because it's something that's just
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  happening. My body is urging myself to do
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  that because it's a response to something that's happening kind
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  of subconsciously, right? But when you actively grab like
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  a fidget toy to play with or something to kind of keep your
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  mind occupied, then you're actively searching for something
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  to increase dopamine. This is not stimming.
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  But with ADHD it's different because they will fidget with
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  anything involuntarily. You'll notice that if you know
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  somebody with ADHD, they'll just sit down and start, start
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  playing with anything. They'll start like fraying, you
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  know, pieces of, of material, or they'll start playing with
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  paper, or they'll just flip stuff around.
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  They'll take their rings off and start playing with their rings.
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  There's all of these involuntary things that they subconsciously
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  don't even realize they're doing, but they're doing this to
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  increase dopamine because again, with ADHD, you have dramatic
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  drops in dopamine day-to-day and quite consistently.
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  So they'll want to reach out to kind of increased dopamine here
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  or increased dopamine there. And the same with the focus
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  part, when an ADHD brain is wanting to focus and they're
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  striving to focus, they will implement stimming by accident.
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  Like you'll see them rocking in their chair or their foot will
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  start going on, then you'll start going right.
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  The restless leg syndrome. Now I know that people who are
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  non autistic may have restless leg syndrome, but at the same
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  time we're talking about people who have ADHD or have autism and
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  those things actually are apparent.
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  So when we think about stimming, when we think about the
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  principles of stimming, let's not get confused with dopamine
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  seeking and energy expulsion because what we are talking
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  about is stimming, which is a self stimulatory, which is
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  subconsciously activated. And it's not something that you
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  go, oh, I'm going to go stim. Now that's not something that
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  happens, right? And a lot of people will say,
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  well, I have sensory toys and I have sensory equipment that I
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  use to stim with. That's not the same.
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  That's a dopamine seeking activity to cap that kind of
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  dopamine craving that you're craving because you're missing
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  out on it. Now, there are ways to increase
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  the amount of dopamine that you have over a period of time.
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  There's lots of different ways to do this.
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  But none of that will take away the core fundamentals that
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  you're going to involuntarily stem if you have ADHD or autism.
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  And the truth of the fact of the matter is a lot of people think
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  that people with ADHD cannot stem.
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  But this is incorrect. ADHD can stem and autism can
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  stem. Now, I have my own take on this.
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  Like I told you, I think that people who have autism will have
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  ADHD and people who have ADHD have autism.
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  I think it's one of the same thing.
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  I think it's a double edged package.
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  That's my personal opinion. Look, I'm not a licensed Dr. I'm
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  not a therapist. I'm just a guy on the autism
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  spectrum that really wants to help this community.
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  If you found this interesting, please subscribe and I'll see
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  you in the next video. Guys, peace.
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  Hey guys, thank you so much for checking out this podcast.
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  Make sure you are subscribed because there are people
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  listening right now who are not subscribed to this podcast.
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  I can see you. Make sure you subscribe.
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  OK guys, see you in the next one.
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  Peace.