The 8 Most Popular ADHD and Autism Infographics of 2022
As I look back on the past year, I can't believe how much has changed with Neurodivergent Insights. When I first started this project, it was just a hobby and passion project, but it has since grown into something much bigger than I ever could have imagined, and I have the infographics to thank for that!
I tend to think and process information visually. When conversing with people, metaphors and visuals often pop into my mind. So naturally, when I first started learning about ADHD and autism, I found creating infographics and diagrams was the most effective way for me to understand and metabolize the information.
These infographics and Venn diagrams have consistently gone viral and have helped me turn this website from a hobby into a business. I love seeing how turning the visuals in my mind into infographics has resonated with people—helping them to understand themselves and the people they care about more fully. So as we wrap up 2022, I wanted to share the eight infographics that have been the most popular (on here and Instagram).
Whenever I create infographics, you can find a whole mini literature review to go with them in blog form. All research studies are imperfect, and thus, all infographics are imperfect. However, they are helpful tools for capturing the essence of a thing. You can find my full library of Autism infographics here and my ADHD infographics here.
#1. ADHD and Autism
This year has seen a big surge in the interest in better understanding the overlap between ADHD and autism. And for a good reason! There is a high genetic overlap, meaning that many ADHDers are also Autistic or have elevated levels of Autistic traits and vice versa. It’s also common to have Autistic and ADHDers within the same family.
If you’re wondering why we’re just now recognizing this, it is because, until 2013, a clinician couldn’t diagnose both. It used to be believed you were either ADHD or Autistic.
So we’re making up for the lost time! If you’d like to read the research that goes with this infographic, you can find it here. You can also find my ADHD vs. Autism Venn diagram here, which covers similar topics.
#2. Autism and Trauma
There is also growing awareness about the relationship between trauma and autism. It used to be believed that Autistic people experienced a similar level of PTSD as non-Autistic people.
However, emergent research shows we experience PTSD and traumatic events at much higher rates. In one study, it was found that 60% of Autistic people were likely to have a lifetime prevalence rate of PTSD. This is likely for several reasons, but to simplify, it can be boiled down to two reasons
1) We are victimized and experience traumatic events at higher rates,
2) We have more vulnerable neurobiology, so when we experience a traumatic event, we are more likely to develop PTSD following that event.
If you’re Autistic and haven’t had PTSD, you are perhaps in the minority! There are two big reasons this matters:
1) For late identified Autistic people, our Autistic traits often get dismissed as “just trauma.”
2) If we receive trauma treatment that doesn’t consider our underlying neurotype, it is harder for us to make progress, and it may cause more damage/trauma.
You can see the mini literature review and original blog post here. You can also find the Venn diagram of Autism vs. PTSD here. And the ebook I created that discusses Autism and PTSD here.
#3. Autism and Sexual Diversity
This year has also been a big year for the growing recognition of the overlap between sexual diversity, gender diversity, and neurodiversity (more on gender diversity in infographic #7).
To put it simply: If you’re Autistic and straight, you’re in the minority of Autistic people. This is still an area of emergent research, and we likely need much larger studies to understand the true prevalence of overlap. You can read the mini-literature review and see the original post here.
#4. ADHD and Sleep
It’s no secret that sleep is ROUGH when you are an ADHDer or Autistic. However, when you’re diagnosed with ADHD or Autism, the provider doesn’t always tell you what to expect. For example, ADHD is associated with several sleep conditions.
Complicating matters, sleep issues can further make executive functioning, inattention, and hyperactivity worse! You can see the original ADHD and Sleep infographic and research review here. You can also find my Autism and Sleep infographic here.
Sleep is a mini special interest of mine, so I did a whole series on sleep. This is my deep-dive blog post into all things neurodivergent sleep, and I also made a workbook this year for neurodivergent people struggling with sleep.
#5. ADHD and Trauma
Similar to Autism and Trauma, there is a significant overlap between ADHD and trauma. This can also lead to misdiagnosis (of both!), complicating matters. I once heard it said that ADHD is both under and over-diagnosed, which feels accurate to me. Sometimes trauma and complex PTSD is misdiagnosed as ADHD. Other times ADHD is dismissed, and the person is diagnosed with PTSD. It’s messy, to say the least!
When a person has both, it exacerbates PTSD symptoms of makes ADHD more difficult to cope with. Newer research is looking into how to support ADHDers with PTSD. However, we need a lot more research in this area!
You can find the original infographic here, along with the literature review. You can also find my ADHD vs. PTSD Venn diagram here and the misdiagnosis Monday e-book on the topic here.
#6. Women and Autism
Another area we have seen a lot of growth this year is our awareness of women and autism. We are more aware that autism is not just a "boy's condition." Wonderful research and books have been published that are helping to increase our awareness of what autism looks like in women and girls. Even with that, 80% of Autistic females still remain undiagnosed by the age of 18. So there is much more work to do! You can see the original post and literature review here.
#7. Autism and Trans
We have also grown in our awareness of genderqueerness and Autism. There is a significant overlap between gender diversity and neurodiversity. Autistic (and ADHD) people are much more likely to identify as something different than the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes people who are trans, agender, genderqueer, gender fluid, and more. We have a lot of work to do to understand better how to support Autistic people going through gender-affirming medical care. This year I got to speak on this topic at the Gender Spectrum Conference, which was one of the professional highlights of the year for me!
You can find the original infographic here, along with the research review.
#8. ADHD and OCD
Finally, #8 has to do with ADHD and OCD. This one surprised me a lot when it grew in popularity! I think it’s because, in someway OCD and ADHD can look very different, so when they co-occur, it can be hard to spot. They co-occur at high rates, which can complicate things for both conditions! This is also an exciting area of research where we are learning a lot (Learning about the overlap of different forms of neurodivergence).
You can see the original post and the research that goes with this infographic here, or I’ve also created a Venn diagram of ADHD and OCD here and an e-book that covers the overlap.
Conclusion
Thank you all for your support this year. It has enabled me to become a part-time clinician so that I can dedicate serious time to creating neurodivergent resources and infographics for this community.
If you’d like to continue to support this work and to get monthly workbooks, ebooks, and more, consider joining the Neurodivergent Insights membership area. Every month I upload new workbooks, fillable PDFs, and ebooks.
