I do it too, it helps me to process information. I’m AuDHD.

I do frequently read signs aloud because it does help me process.

When I repeat questions back to people it's mostly to make sure that I understand what they're asking. Sometimes I will paraphrase if I find their wording clunky, and re-asking it back is seeking confirmation that I understood it correctly.

I don't *always* do this though because most people find it offputting and I'm a highly masked individual most of the time. But when it's important, oh yeah, I repeat the question back to make sure that I "got it".

Definitely not just you. 😊

Echolalia (repeating someone’s question or statement) is often linked to autism & ADHD.

I have a theory about ADHD. (I am an educated, well read person, but NOT a qualified expert.)

ADHD might be a particular basket of autistic behaviours relating to a need for extra, more powerful stimulation. If a person’s traits fall mostly within that basket, they’ll be diagnosed as ADHD. A person’s ADHD traits might seem to balance their autistic traits, making late diagnosis more likely, but might be confusing & unsettling for that person.

But if diagnosed with & medicated for ADHD, their other, “more autistic” traits might become more apparent.

Unfortunately, perceived stigma around autism can result in some ADHDers rejecting that possibility.

My initial investigations into autism were discouraging, so I looked into ADHD & bingo! But I kept looking into autism, & once I came here & started accessing better resources, I was hit by a stream of “Aha!” moments.

@Susan60 In general, having "only ADHD" and no additional diagnosis is not the norm. This only applies to about 30% of people with ADHD. I will find the numbers for you but most ADHDers have at least one concurrent diagnosis, and many have multiple.

So most ADHDers that you interact with WILL have more. And I think autism is quite a common one. I have seen proposed that AuDHD might be a thing, and you present as either more ADHD or more autistic. ....1/2

@Susan60 ...
I think that, as they are currently understood, ADHD, autism, and AuDHD could probably be looked at separately. Just for getting better treatments etc. It makes perfect sense to me that when you have both the ADHD overrides the autism until properly medicated! Poor autistic brain bits. SO overstimulated 😔. 2/2

@GinevraCat
We do know that ADHD often responds well to medication, although the extent to which it is necessary probably varies greatly between people & from day to day. It’s just a shame that some people. having addressed their ADHD issues, go no further. If they are autistic, but are in denial, they’ll be masking.

@Susan60 @GinevraCat My understanding (from extensive reading) is that many disorders come with executive function issues - ptsd, #autism, etc. So that's where the overlap in symptoms comes from: executive function challenges. #adhd is when the primary cause is chronic low dopamine in key parts of the brain. My guess is the exec dysfunc in autism comes as a side effect of overstimulations, distracting physical discomfort, social interaction stress, etc.

@Susan60 @GinevraCat And so you can of course also have both exec function problems from autistic burnout, and also have chronic low dopamine (so adhd). I had a really good checklist from my therapist on how to tell if your executive function challenges were due to autism or adhd or both -- I need to dig it up and translate it to English.