AuDHD and executive function coaching
AuDHD is the term used to describe being both autistic and ADHD. It is increasingly recognised as a distinct experience, rather than simply a combination of two separate sets of traits, because the way autism and ADHD interact can create challenges, and strengths, that are quite different from either on its own.
If you are AuDHD, you may have found that standard ADHD advice does not quite fit, or that autism resources do not account for the impulsivity and energy that ADHD brings. Coaching with an executive function lens can make a significant difference.
This might sound familiar if...
You crave routine and structure but also get bored and restless when things are too predictable.
You can hyperfocus intensely on things that interest you, but that focus can be hard to switch off even when you need to.
Unexpected changes are genuinely distressing, but you also have an ADHD-driven tendency to create chaos yourself.
You mask in social situations, which is exhausting, and then feel too depleted to manage the practical demands of your day.
You have periods of high functioning followed by crashes that can be hard to predict or explain to others.
You understand systems and logic very well but still cannot make yourself follow through on the simplest tasks.
You have been told conflicting things by different professionals, or felt that neither an autism nor an ADHD lens fully captured your experience.
You feel like you are constantly managing competing internal demands and never quite winning.
When your needs pull in opposite directions
One of the most distinctive features of being AuDHD is the experience of seemingly contradictory needs. The autistic part may want one thing, while the ADHD part wants something completely different, and trying to meet both at once can be genuinely exhausting.
This internal conflict is not a character flaw or a sign that something has gone especially wrong. It is a direct result of two neurotypes that have genuinely different operating preferences existing in the same person. Exploring that, with a focus on executive function, can be a validating part of the coaching process for AuDHD clients.
The autistic pull
tends towards routine, predictability, and sameness. There is often a strong preference for finishing one thing before starting another, a desire for deep focus on what genuinely matters, and a need to know the plan well in advance.
The ADHD pull
tends in the opposite direction, towards novelty, stimulation, and change. It brings a tendency to start new things before finishing old ones, a scattered and easily distracted attention, and a habit of acting before the plan has been fully thought through.
The strengths that often come with AuDHD
Being both autistic and ADHD is not only a set of challenges. Many AuDHD people have real and distinctive strengths, and the combination of autistic and ADHD traits can produce a genuinely unusual and powerful profile that is worth understanding and building on. Executive function coaching is strengths-based and takes these seriously as a genuine foundation for building strategies that work.
Pattern recognition at depth
The combination of autistic attention to detail and ADHD lateral thinking can produce an unusual ability to spot patterns, connections, and possibilities across complex information.
Passionate expertise
The depth of autistic focus combined with the energy of ADHD hyperfocus can lead to extraordinary immersion in areas of genuine interest, often producing real and distinctive expertise.
Creative problem-solving
Where autistic systematic thinking meets ADHD spontaneity, something genuinely creative often emerges, an ability to find solutions that follow neither the obvious nor the conventional path.
Authenticity
Many AuDHD people have a strong and clear sense of who they are and what they value.
Resilience
Navigating a world designed for neither autistic nor ADHD brains, often without recognition or support, builds a form of resilience that is real and substantial.
Which executive functions can be affected
Being AuDHD tends to mean executive function challenges across a wide range of areas, often with the autism and ADHD traits amplifying each other rather than cancelling out. The EF skills that come up most frequently include:
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
Research into AuDHD as a distinct profile is still relatively recent, but clinical experience consistently points to executive function being one of the most significantly affected areas. Strategies that work well for ADHD alone or autism alone do not always translate, which is why an individualised approach matters so much.
What coaching can open up
Coaching does not hand you a fixed set of answers. The aim is to help you explore what might work for you, drawing on your own insight and ideas first, with input and strategies from me at relevant points in your coaching journey, and all within a neuroscience-based framework. What that looks like is different for everyone, but common areas people explore include:
Making sense of the contradictions
Exploring how your needs seem to pull against each other, and how to work with both.
Protecting your energy
Exploring what depletes you most and how to structure things so you have more capacity for what matters.
Getting things started and finished
Exploring what actually helps you initiate and follow through, given how your specific combination of traits shows up.
Less internal conflict
Understanding yourself better tends to reduce the amount of energy spent fighting your own brain.
Access to Work may cover your coaching
If you are employed, self employed, or run your own business, and your AuDHD affects your ability to work, you may be able to have your coaching funded through the UK government’s Access to Work scheme.
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What neuroplasticity means for you
For a long time, it was believed that the brain was largely fixed by adulthood. We now know that Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new connections and adapt, continues throughout life.
It does take longer in adults than in children, and it requires consistent, repeated practice rather than a single step. But, it is possible! The strategies we co-create in coaching aren’t just workarounds (although you may choose to make some environmental adaptions) they’re ways of gradually rewiring how your brain approaches the things that have always felt hard.
Understanding your executive functions is where that process begins.
Curious about what executive function coaching could offer you?
A free discovery call is a good place to start. No commitment, just a conversation about where you are and what might help.
