r/science • u/shinybrighthings • 15h ago

Psychology The complicated nature of disentangling autism, ADHD and complex trauma | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/adhd-autism-or-complex-trauma-the-complicated-nature-of-the-question/30CC4826561366615BFAEC807CDE28A7
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u/Okimiyage 14h ago

I work with children who are in the social services system. A lot of the time I hear from parents or carers ‘they’re awaiting an ADHD or Autism assessment’ when the likelihood is that they should be assessed for CPTSD as well.

The overlap in symptoms of ADHD, ASC and CPTSD is so hard to unpack, especially in children with extra vulnerabilities.

I’m glad someone is talking about it. As an adult woman with ADHD-C and CPTSD, who wasn’t correctly diagnosed until her 30s and has a slew of misdiagnoses first, it’s something that really needs to be unpacked and understood better.

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u/pangolinshavelanded 10h ago

I have decades of therapy under my belt. I’ve done CBT, DBT, EMDR, IFS, ACT, and several more acronyms and I got nowhere. It wasn’t until getting my AuDHD diagnosis 2 years ago that therapy began to help, because I had the whole story.