some thoughts ….

– a survey of XXY about being left-handed or right-handed

( I recently found out with help of an autism specialist that I’m actually left-handed explaining a lot of difficulties with direction of rotation since childhood)

– a survey of XXY about enhanced sensory perception (yes/no, and which senses are affected most often: hearing, visuals, taste, tactile, smell)

(there are communalities between small-scale polls in autism forums and the british XXY forum, both resulting in enhanced sensory issues with hearing and visuals)

if ADD/ADHD are rather symptoms than syndroms (about 50 % of people with autism also have ADHD, about 60 % of people with XXY have also ADHD), and mainly the result of different sensory perception…. it would mean that XXY is one of many possible conditions to obtain a different perception in general.

The idea of, e.g. self-stimulating behavior or special interests as a strategy to manage too much incoming information, social stress, sensory overload, mental overload, etc… is relatively new (but included in the latest DMS-V for diagnosing autism spectrum conditions). If both behavior (stimming and special interests) is less defined, people have to look for other „bad“ copying strategies, like frequent meltdowns, attention deficits, hyperactivity, etc…

(in the few studies about autistic symptomes in XXY, XXY reveal less special interests, repetition behavior as non-XXY autistic people, which could mean that XXY are less able to self-regulate themselves)

Attending symptoms like bad time management, organisation, planning, etc… are shared by all conditions (XXY, ADHD, autism) as a result of executive dysfunctions (something’s working wrong in the frontal lobes).

For a long time, in Germany even now, nobody thought of communalities between these conditions because all symptoms were related to the lack of testosterone. This is another fact I’m quite curious about because hormone imbalances are also reported in autism (and gender dysphoria seems to be more frequent in autism than in the general population), and some autistic women reported too high testosterone values.

I guess the discussion about these relations often stutters because of the usage of the term „autism“: Autism is highly negatively connotated. Nobody wants to be referred to. Parents are often shocked even hearing about this possibility. I approach this topic rather from bottom-up thinking. I gather as much information as possible trying to puzzle it together. I follow the principle of neurodiversity, i.e., the different perception doesn’t express a disorder but a difference. Maybe, this approach gets lost in this strong desire of having categories and stamps, coming with DSM-V and diagnosis (good read: Frances, Allen (2013). Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5).

My intention is not to put XXY in additional categories but to destigmatize the existing categories.