Autism and ADHD Together: AuDHD Testing
Most of our AuDHD clients spent years being evaluated for one condition at a time, getting a partial answer, and still feeling like something didn't fully fit.
of autistic people also meet criteria for ADHD. That overlap has a name now, AuDHD, but the name is newer than the reality.
Who You'll Work With
Real clinicians, not a call center — here's who's actually behind your evaluation.
Dr. Quincee Gideon
"A diagnosis isn't a label — it's a map. My job is to hand you that map in a way that actually makes sense for your life, not just check a clinical box."
Dr. Megan Johnson
"I bring the same commitment: to see the whole person, not just the question I've been asked to answer."
A Combined Evaluation Is Worth Considering If:
- ✓You've already been evaluated or diagnosed with one condition, but the diagnosis never fully explained your experience
- ✓You notice traits of both: meltdowns and hyperfocus, rigidity and impulsivity, in the same week or even the same day
- ✓You've been told it's "just anxiety" or "just ADHD" more than once, and it never quite fit
- ✓You want one clear answer instead of two separate providers' possibly-conflicting conclusions
How Can Both Be True?
Autism and ADHD can look like opposites from the outside. They aren't. Both can live in the same nervous system, showing up on different days, even different hours, depending on your environment and energy.
A strong need for predictability and a pull toward acting without planning can coexist, and often trade off depending on how overloaded you are.
The same nervous system that goes quiet and withdraws under one kind of overload can lock onto a single task for hours under another.
One trait misses the cue; the other reacts before fully processing it. Both can look like "not listening" for entirely different reasons.
A preference for the familiar and a pull toward the new can both be present, which is often what makes a single diagnosis feel incomplete.
One Evaluation, Not Two
If autism and ADHD are both part of your picture, testing for them separately costs more and gives you two reports that might not agree with each other. One combined evaluation costs less and gives you one answer.
Two Separate Evaluations
Combined AuDHD Evaluation
Why A Combined Evaluation Matters
- ✓One coherent report, not two separate, potentially conflicting ones
- ✓Treatment recommendations that account for both conditions together, not one at the expense of the other
- ✓A single testing process and one set of sessions, instead of duplicating intake and history-taking twice
- ✓Real clarity on which traits belong to which condition, and where they overlap
What Type of Testing is Right for You?
A Single-Condition Screening
Testing for autism or ADHD alone can miss the other entirely, or misattribute traits of one to the other. That's how people end up with a diagnosis that never fully explained their experience.
Comprehensive AuDHD Testing
Standardized measures for both conditions, in the same process, with a clinician looking at how they interact, not just whether each one is present on its own.
What a Combined Evaluation Gives You
One coherent report that accounts for both conditions, instead of two separate evaluations that might contradict each other.
Treatment recommendations built for how autism and ADHD actually interact in you, not a plan for one that ignores the other.
An answer that finally accounts for the traits a single-condition diagnosis never fully explained.
Documentation you can actually use, for school, work, or your own understanding, without having to reconcile two different providers' conclusions.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
AuDHD is shorthand for having both autism and ADHD at the same time. It's not an official diagnostic term, but it's widely used because a large share of autistic people, estimates range from roughly a third to half, also meet criteria for ADHD, and the two conditions interact in ways that a single-diagnosis evaluation can miss.
-
They only seem contradictory from the outside. Autistic rigidity and ADHD impulsivity can both live in the same nervous system and show up on different days, or even different hours, depending on your environment, energy, and sensory load. One doesn't cancel out the other.
-
No. Our comprehensive evaluations screen for both from the start, in the same testing process, so you get one coherent report instead of two separate, potentially conflicting ones.
-
If you've been evaluated for one condition before and the diagnosis never fully explained your experience, or if you notice traits of both, meltdowns and hyperfocus, rigidity and impulsivity, a combined evaluation is worth considering. We can talk through your history in a consultation and help you decide.
-
Yes, often significantly. A treatment plan built for ADHD alone can overlook autistic sensory or social needs, and a plan built for autism alone can overlook ADHD executive functioning needs. Our reports give recommendations that account for both together.
Not Sure You Need the Combined Evaluation?
If you're fairly confident it's just one or the other, start with the specific page instead.