Do I Have ADHD?

“Do I have ADHD?”

It’s a question traditionally asked of a person’s family physician, since that’s typically the only healthcare professional with whom most people have an existing relationship.

But in the past few decades, the question of whether or not a person has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been posed to the Internet. And the Internet has responded.

Psych Central was one of the first mental health websites to offer an online ADHD quiz to test to see if a person might qualify for a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, back in the late 1990s. We developed our quizzes from the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, which is basically a simply symptom checklist.

Qualifying for an ADHD Diagnosis

Of course, only a trained mental health professional — such as a psychologist or psychiatrist — can make a qualified ADHD diagnosis. But an online ADHD test — called screeners in psychobabble — can help determine if a person might want to see such a professional for further evaluation.

The symptoms a professional looks for include many of the following, according to the American Psychiatric Association:

• Difficulty with organization or time management, resulting in missed deadlines, messiness, or sloppy work.
• Losing things you need in order to complete your work, like a pencil for a school test or an important file you were going to work on at home.
• Messing up the details or being careless of something you’re working on, even if it’s important to you.
• Forgetting to do things you normally are expected to do everyday, like chores, appointments, or paying bills.
• Avoiding or endlessly putting off things that require a lot of concentration or thought, like schoolwork or a big project.
• Failing to follow instructions or finishing things you start.
• Keeping your attention on a single task or project is extremely difficult, and you find yourself constantly distracted, whether it be at work, in class, or in some other activity that requires sustained attention.
• Distracted endlessly by stuff going on around you or by others.
• Often seems like you are daydreaming when someone is talking to you.

So much for the symptoms of inattention. What about the symptoms of hyperactivity? According to the American Psychiatric Association again, you’d be looking for a majority of the following:

• Don’t like waiting your turn.
• Excessive, constant talking.
• Feelings of restlessness or, in children, runs around or climbs in situations where such play is not appropriate.
• Interrupts others when they are talking.
• Fidgets endlessly and can’t stop fidgeting even when they try.
• Does not know how to play quietly or do normally-quiet activities while silent.
• Completes other people’s sentences or answers a question before it’s been completed.
• Can’t sit still for extended periods of time, like at a restaurant, attending a class, or seeing a movie.
• Leaves your seat when you’re expected to remain seated, like in a class or seeing a movie.

Do I Have ADHD?

So after looking through all those symptoms, that becomes the question many people find themselves asking.

Rather than to try and figure it out on your own, we’re here to help by offering the following scientific quizzes that provide you with instant results and feedback about the possibility of whether you’d possibly qualify for a diagnosis of ADHD.

Adult ADD Screening Test — Our oldest and most comprehensive screening quiz.

Quick Adult ADHD Screening Test — This is a quick, 6 question quiz.

Cork ADHD Quiz — This is also a fairly quick, 9 question quiz.

Childhood ADHD Screening Test — For children and younger teens.

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Quiz — Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is a proposed third-factor of ADHD. This is a quick, 9 question quiz.

If the quiz gives you results that suggest concern, please seek out help from a mental health professional. Both psychiatric medications and psychotherapy are very effective in the treatment of this condition.

 

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA.

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