1 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:05,920 If you ever had that experience of reading about ADHD and 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:09,960 thinking yes, but also no, this doesn't quite fit. 3 00:00:10,040 --> 00:00:12,920 Or reading about autism and feeling the same thing, this 4 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:15,120 fits, but it doesn't quite explain everything. 5 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,000 Hi, I'm Doctor Megan Anna Neff and Audi HD, clinical 6 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,920 psychologist, founder of Neurodivergent Insights and the 7 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,400 author of self-care for Autistic People and the Autistic Burnout 8 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:26,080 Workbook. To be clear, there are actually 9 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:29,480 lots of reasons why you might mostly relate to ADHD but not 10 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,560 quite, or why you might even relate to autism but not quite. 11 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:35,400 Things like bipolar, social anxiety, trauma, all of these 12 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,240 things can all have overlapping experiences and features with 13 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:42,680 ADHD and autism. So it could be one of those. 14 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:47,480 Or it could be Audi HD Audi HD is when a person is both 15 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:51,120 autistic and ADHD. Now when I first heard the term, 16 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:55,160 I thought the term was a bit odd, but maybe that's because I 17 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:59,520 was pronouncing it wrong. I was pronouncing it as ODD 18 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:03,520 ODDDHD. Once someone explained to me 19 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:07,920 that it's pronounced as AW, as in awesome AW DHD. 20 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,280 I began to feel a bit better about the term and I eventually 21 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,760 have warmed up to it and it's a term that I now like quite a 22 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:16,400 bit. Audio HD isn't a formal 23 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:18,440 diagnosis. You're not going to find it in 24 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,320 the DSM and most clinicians won't write it on a chart or an 25 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:25,600 assessment report. Audio HD is a community created 26 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,560 term. It emerged online, not from 27 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:31,960 research labs or diagnostic manuals, but from people who are 28 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:34,400 trying to describe their lived experience. 29 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:37,080 Many of the words that we now use in the neurodivergent 30 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,840 community, things like neurodivergent masking, it 31 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,560 showed up because people needed language, language for something 32 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:48,800 that didn't quite fit inside the existing frameworks that we had 33 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:52,920 available to us. So at its simplest, Audio HD is 34 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,200 simply shorthand for being both autistic and ADHD. 35 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:01,080 But what it really captures is that dynamic interplay between 36 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,680 these two neurologies. Audio HD is not just the sum of 37 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,800 their parts. It's not simply ADHD plus 38 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,120 autism. Audio HD has its own unique 39 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:13,640 rhythms, experiences and patterns. 40 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:18,960 Autism and ADHD intersect and compound to create new and 41 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,440 different complexities. So coming to discover ourselves 42 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,320 as Audio HD, it's often the light bulb moment for many of 43 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:28,600 us. The moment where things finally 44 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:32,560 click into place and our lives for many of us for the first 45 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:36,240 time time begin to make sense. You'll often hear people use 46 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:41,480 audio HD as an identity term, as in I'm audio HD or I'm an audio 47 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,120 HDR. That mirrors a broader pattern 48 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:46,840 that we see within the neurodivergent community where 49 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:50,320 many people, particularly in the autistic community, prefer 50 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,960 identity first language. So saying I'm autistic rather 51 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:57,520 than I have autism, For many people, identity first language 52 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,360 is about ownership, pride and community. 53 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,400 It's about naming something that shapes how how we move through 54 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:05,440 the world rather than distancing from it. 55 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:10,080 So when you hear someone say I'm audio HD, it's often less about 56 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,480 labels and more about recognition. 57 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:16,680 Sure, it's technically smashing together to diagnosis labels, 58 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,080 but typically people are telling you something about their 59 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,280 identity, about how their brain takes in the world and how they 60 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:24,360 move through the world. Now, not everyone in the 61 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:27,880 community prefers identity First language, and it's important to 62 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,360 make space for that too. If you yourself are not 63 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:34,040 autistic, ADHD, or Audio HD, it's always best to go with the 64 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:36,400 language the person you're talking to prefers. 65 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,520 Generally, most people are OK with you asking what language 66 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:41,600 they prefer. As part of my upcoming book on 67 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,440 the Audio HD experience, I surveyed the community and asked 68 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,360 a simple question. What did finding this term give 69 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:49,000 you? And here are a few of the things 70 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,640 that people had to share. I feel like I actually 71 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,480 understand what's happening in my head for the first time. 72 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,040 It helped me to understand the push pull I always felt. 73 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,200 I thought it was low self esteem, but the contradiction 74 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,560 finally made sense. I gave myself more grace. 75 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,840 Now I'm less frustrated with the constant tension between the two 76 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:09,800 states. It changed everything about how 77 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,080 I see my behavior, my life, and even my family dynamics. 78 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:15,840 Seeing other people describe my experience made me feel less 79 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,880 wrong, less alien, less alone. Over and over the same themes 80 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:22,840 came up. Relief, validation, and a 81 00:04:22,840 --> 00:04:26,320 melting of shame. There was a sense I make sense. 82 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,720 I'm not broken. There is a name for this, and 83 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:31,200 this is the power of naming something. 84 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:34,280 When we finally have language to wrap around our experience, 85 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:37,600 language that fits our body can often begin to settle. 86 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:41,000 Our minds are no longer trying to solve an invisible puzzle or 87 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,240 explain away contradictions and uncertainty. 88 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:45,680 Things that we may have personally clocked as personal 89 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,680 failures or character flaws we can now begin to understand as 90 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,800 part of our innate neurology. Now, there's a few reasons that 91 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,520 Audio HD can feel pretty different than ADHD or autism 92 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,360 alone. Audio HD folks often don't fully 93 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:04,360 relate to the stereotypes of either ADHD or autism, the chaos 94 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,800 often associated with ADHD, or the rigidity often associated 95 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:10,320 with autism. For me personally, my autistic 96 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:13,920 traits and my need for predictability can curb some of 97 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:19,000 my ADHD chaos, and the ADHD helps me to get out of some of 98 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,600 the rest that my autism often pulls me into. 99 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,080 For many of us, we live inside this tension between structure 100 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:30,400 and novelty, quiet solitude and loud impulsivity, deep focus and 101 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,360 overwhelm with pingy thoughts. Understanding Audio HD helps us 102 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,920 to name several of these paradoxes that we embody and 103 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,520 hopefully to help us have a little bit more gentleness with 104 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:43,520 ourselves and self compassion along the way. 105 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:45,840 The term audio HD is relatively new. 106 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:49,760 It started showing up more widely around 2022 at least. 107 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:52,600 That's when we see a noticeable spike in people searching for it 108 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:54,200 online. Now there are a few different 109 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:56,600 reasons for this. For one, there's been an 110 00:05:56,600 --> 00:06:00,440 explosion of neurodivergent education and advocacy online. 111 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,200 More people are starting to share about their lived 112 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:05,760 experience. There's more collective meaning 113 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:09,600 making happening, more community culture that's being created, 114 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,640 and as part of that, more creation of language. 115 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,840 Now, another important reason is the diagnostic history of these 116 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:19,960 experiences. For 2013, clinicians couldn't 117 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,240 formally diagnose someone with both autism and ADHD. 118 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:25,600 They had to choose which one best fit. 119 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,720 Now that change, with updates that were made to the DSM 5 S, 120 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,880 more people are now being diagnosed with both ADHD and 121 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,920 autism. And then on top of that, more 122 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:41,480 and more of the lost generation of autistic and ADHD adults are 123 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,360 also being identified. So with these diagnostic and 124 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:49,520 cultural changes, we're seeing a rise in awareness of the Audi HD 125 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:52,040 experience. Again, to be clear, Audi HD is 126 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:54,760 not a medical diagnosis. Neither is this video. 127 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,520 A provider might diagnose someone with both autism and 128 00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:02,840 ADHD, but Audi HD itself lives outside the medical system as a 129 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:04,920 community. Create a term that celebrates 130 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,640 identity. If you are Audi HD, it's an 131 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:10,800 exciting time in our community in the sense that we're at the 132 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:14,600 emergence of culture, building awareness, and yes, even 133 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,880 building our own language like Audi HD. 134 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:20,800 So what is Audi HD? It's an identity term, a 135 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,480 community term, one that many people find deeply empowering 136 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:28,560 and freeing because it names the complexity that they've been 137 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:32,160 trying to untangle for years. So Audio HD isn't about 138 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:34,560 inventing something new. It's about finally having a 139 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:39,080 proper word to wrap around what, for many of us, is a very 140 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,720 complex experience. In future videos, we'll talk 141 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:45,400 more about how ADHD and autism intersect and what that means 142 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:48,320 for diagnosis, burnout, energy, and daily life. 143 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,240 But for now, if this term landed for you, I hope you know this. 144 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:56,320 You're not broken, you're not a shameful walking contradiction, 145 00:07:56,880 --> 00:08:00,680 and you're not alone. There is a whole community of us 146 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:01,080 out here.