So, my man (autistic) is into science fiction, me (ADHD) not so much, but anyway today my man decided he was going to watch Star Trek and I happen to be around (usually I’m not) and watch with him.
It was that episode when the ship goes to be desinfected (I don’t remember the name of the episode) and Data mentions he created a sub-routine (wtv that is) for small talk and decides to listen to every conversation happening in that room and at some point he and the other guy (already forgot the name) start to talk about everything possible and I think it was Troi and Riker ask how can someone talk about nothing for so long. I’m like wdym about nothing? Small talk is about nothing!! Someone need to rewrite that series and give a proper mentor to that computer ASAP.
I can imagine a conversation going something like this:
Data: I’m trying to understand humans ND character I just made up: good luck on that bruh tell me later how did it go. I have been trying to do that for insert character age here years and no success… Data: wait… but you are human, how can you not understand humans? ND Char: oh boy this is going to be a long talk, but long story short what you are trying to understand is neurotypical humans, neurodivergent humans like me, are a totally different story, everyday I wake up and wonder if I’m the same species as Neurotypicals… Anyway do you like to read? Here is a list of books about this subject…
Data after reading them all: holy shit, understanding humans was already complicated when I thought there was only one type of humans and now… this… I’m never going to understand humans! ND Char: I just gave up Data: but then how are you supposed to know what to say and when and how and…? ND Char: welcome to the ND side of humanity bro! Why do you think so many of us are into coding? It’s just ones and zeros, not gesticulates to neurotypical humans being neurotypical all that mess…. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to be just and android? Because I think you are about to short circuit …
ND… Neurodiversity… is an umbrella term, similar to how LGBTIQA+ or ‘queer’ are umbrella terms.
ADHD, Autism, Schizophrenia, Down Syndrome, Dyslexia, Dyscalcula, Tourette Syndrome, OCD, Manic/Depressive Bipolar, etc… these are all distinct disorders/conditions that make a person’s mind operate significantly differently from a person without any of them.
You can of course have multiple conditions at the same time, and the term neurodiversity isn’t a formally recognized medical term with a settled definition, different institutions and doctors will or will not include different conditions/disorders in their idea of what the neurodiversity umbrella captures under it.
But… the different conditions/disorders that are considered neurodiverse… they are all distinct, with distinct behavior patterns.
I don’t think ADHD is … part of ‘the spectrum’, that term is usually used in the context of the severity of Autism/Apsbergers (they’ve since been merged together into ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder) symptoms.
I also don’t know that ‘burnout’ is associated with ADHD. Its… not currently even widely recognized by doctors as a valid term to use in the context of Autism, though some have started using it and there is a push for wider acceptance amongst professionals… either way, its a bit different than the purely colloquial usage of ‘burned out’, it specifically relates to being overwhelmed by the kinds of things Autists struggle more with due to being Autistic.
Basically, you have to score or be assessed as exhibiting a significant number of behavioral characterists, be high enough on ‘the spectrum’ to get formally diagnosed as having ASD such that it seriously impacts your life, makes you significantly different than non Autistic people… because basically everyone will probably exhibit mild Autistic behaviors at certain points of your life… but if they are persistent, and more severe, more impactful, you are Autistic.
To go back to the LGBTQ comparison… if you just said ‘I am queer’, all that really indicates is that you’re either not cisgender, or not straight, or not sexual at all, that you are somehow different from ‘the norm’.
… But a trans lesbian is significantly different from a cis gay man, or an intersex pansexual, or an agender aromantic/asexual… just as an ADHD person is significantly different from an autistic person or someone with down syndrome.
Finally, why is Data always asking ‘how did I do?’
Again, as an autist myself, especially as a kid, especially in the realm of social interactions… its quite common to just ask for feedback, as if you were asking a teacher to grade a math quiz or a paper.
You want to learn, you want to improve this skill, you want to make sure you understood the context of a situation and interaction correctly, to make sure you did not incorrectly assume someone’s intended meaning, or misread their emotional state.
Data constantly asking for feedback on social interactions is again, another pretty common thing for higher functioning autistic people to do.
Maybe not giving a shit is more common with your flavor of neurodiversity, ADHD, or maybe that is just your own personality trait independent of a condition/disorder…
…I don’t know, I don’t know you and I don’t know as much about ADHD, but hopefully by me bringing this up significant difference between different types of neurodiversity, you can see that you can easily misunderstand and even offend people by just lumping all neurodiversity into an essentially homogenous blob of sameness with minor variations…
When in reality its more like Neopolitan ice cream, or every distinct kind of skittle or taffy flavor or something.
Burnout is associated with ADHD also. I took a ADHD / Autism test, not the internet ones, the real ones done with specialized professionals, the ADHD part scored as high as it gets and the autism came back inconclusive, apparently I have enough criteria to be considered autistic but since those criteria overlap with ADHD and I scored so high on ADHD no one knows what to do with me 😭
A person can have ADHD and Autism at the same time, but they are distinct conditions, and a person with both is even more distinct.
If your Autism score/result was ‘inconclusive’, that means you are not significantly Autistic so as to warrant that as a diagnosis, you didn’t pass the threshold of persistent Autistic traits, they were not significant enough to class you as Autistic.
Inconclusive is, in this context, the term that means… the test/evaluation did not clearly indicate you are autistic.
Which means you have, apparently quite extreme, ADHD, and are not Autistic.
You just have ADHD, which generally makes your treatment, therapy, coping skills, etc, more well defined and easier to procure/practice than someone with both Autism and ADHD… though if you are not exaggerating and truly did get the max ADHD score possible, that may be particularly challenging.
I did some websearching and you are right that ADHD burnout is a thing, like Autistic bunout is a thing… but they work differently, they are provoked by different things, and then present somewhat differently as well.