My gripe with some of these simple questions is that they do not provide a framework to answer the questions within.
"How often do you feel X?" With answers as "very often" means very different things to different people. For one person once a month could be very often since they expect this to never happen, while for another person a few times a day might be expected.
The problem here is that if people think that they might have a condition or be sick, it has been shown time and time again that this might emphasize the symptoms and make a person "sicker".
In addition these general questions that a lot of people can relate to will cause a lot of people to get unneeded screening, thereby straining an overloaded health service (it might be different in the US, I'm in Europe).
Am I missing something, or do they not actually say how to score the test? From playing with another version [1], any answer in a grey box counts for 1 point.
I scored 7... Sorry, joking but yes - I can relate to all the questions there. Some of those (like appointments) I learned to cope with. I just schedule everything in my phone and have 20 alarms throughout the day, which I enable to remind be about certain events. I wonder however, how many people would pass this test in this world of distractions.
When I was young I used to look at the watch compulsively to check what time it is and I never went late to an appointment. Is this ADHD too? Or maybe just depression that I procrastinate everything nowadays? Or maybe effect of extensive usage of technology?
unless I misunderstood what little I know of ADHD, shouldn't these symptoms have been there all your life, not just 6 months prior? I score 4/6 on the scale without question, but I wasn't functioning like this before (maybe 2/6), only these last few years, with no change in environment or routine
I'm old enough to remember when ADHD was invented. To sell meds.
Granted some people have difficulty concentrating, I'm one of them. But I've only heard of people in the US getting medications for something which is basically a lack of discipline.
I worry about all of this labelling that we apply to various ends of the "normal" spectrum. Where does it lead us? Is it actually helping?
I easily score as ADHD, but I'm in my 60s now and have never been diagnosed or treated. I have muddled through all my life. Yes, I often self-medicated unhealthily (cigarettes, various over-the-counter uppers), but also relatively healthily (I've been practicing meditation for decades). I managed to have two, long, fruitful careers (20 years of journalism, coming up to 20 years of software engineering) that (I'm betting) was at least partly attributable to me being on the outer edges of normal.
I think that's OK. I'm not looking to be "treated" because I'm a bit different.
I believe ADHD might be neutral/beneficial in some environments, and I also am not a big fan of labels; if it has a non-negative impact on your life -- sure, you don't need the meds
but
Until I started doing stims, I was regularly forgetting about food/water until I could barely move, and at one occasion I procrastinated from replying to an email with the offer of my life until the deadline was over. There's a lot that you can explain with "not motivated enough", but these just don't make any sense, right?
You do need some sort of a label to prescribe controlled substances. Even if you forget about the meds, just knowing that it's a pretty common thing and you're not alone is pretty helpful.
That - or a very similar one that is used where I live - was the very first screener I took. It's basically just part of the initial assessment with your GP, before you see a specialist. The interview you have with your GP should also be taken into consideration.
I sometimes wonder if I have ADHD or something, but I’d only score myself 1 / 6 on this test. “Trouble wrapping up the final details of a project” describes me perfectly, but I wouldn’t say I’m in the grey for any of the others.
Maybe that’s because I’ve developed coping mechanisms though. I don’t miss appointments because I scrupulously write everything down, and I don’t fidget with things sitting down because I don’t put myself in positions where I can’t get up and walk around.
I passed the test at 100%. Still, I had gone through a professional assessment not that long ago, and I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD because I lack hyper motion activity. I compensate it with ultra-hyper brain activity, but that doesn't qualify for ADHD. However, they've found some trails of ASD in turn.
Tangentially, I am so glad they talked about the Sensitivity and Specificity of the test, and how those values combined to actually affect the result of the test. These are such basic and yet important metrics for statistics.
Anyone tried to get diagnosed after 50? I'm 50+, I believe I have the symptoms. I have coped basically all my life but the cost was (and still is) pretty high. Lots of stress and probably a lot of missed opportunities too.
Getting diagnosed is somewhere on my "maybe to do" list but I'm not sure it's even worth to try.
Meanwhile, I have a wife and two kids, live in a nice house. I did well at school. I have no problem landing jobs that pay really well. I have lots of friends. I have many hobbies I like. I can play music decently well. I like 3d modelling. I am writing screenplays. I did the startup thing.
I am not depressed, I am not anxious, I feel fine, I feel smart, I feel able.
I have no particular "strategy" to "cope" with my "disorder". I am just disordered, and I don't care. Does it get me in trouble? Not really. The worst I got is my brother telling me he can't count on me cause I am mostly MIA. I can live with that. Sometimes I think that if I was more ordered, I would have a better career. But the reality is that I don't even want to have a better career. Which is probably the main reason why I don't have a better career.
I am not sick. I don't have ADHD. Not the way people who have ADHD describe it.
People with ADHD forget a lot of stuff all the time. They can't function properly at all. It's nothing to do with "finishing projects". It's about finding ways not to lose your car keys every day.
In the US, ADHD is way over-diagnosed. It's over diagnosed because US society makes you believe that "success" is a question of "willpower", and that if you can't gather enough "willpower", it's because you're somehow broken. It's over diagnosed, because the health system is incentivized to over-diagnosed. It's over diagnosed because they create 1 minute tests that are made to make people feel like they have it. It's over diagnosed because it's one of the only mental conditions that can be treated with pills, which means it's monetizable. It's overdiagnosed, because it's not a condition people feel ashamed of (unlike depression).
I know a lot of people on HN are diagnosed and treated for it. But you guys need to really ask yourself whether the way you felt before being diagnosed was so bad that you need to take brain-altering drugs to "fix" it.
23 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 47.7 ms ] thread"How often do you feel X?" With answers as "very often" means very different things to different people. For one person once a month could be very often since they expect this to never happen, while for another person a few times a day might be expected.
The problem here is that if people think that they might have a condition or be sick, it has been shown time and time again that this might emphasize the symptoms and make a person "sicker".
In addition these general questions that a lot of people can relate to will cause a lot of people to get unneeded screening, thereby straining an overloaded health service (it might be different in the US, I'm in Europe).
[1] https://psychology-tools.com/test/adult-adhd-self-report-sca...
When I was young I used to look at the watch compulsively to check what time it is and I never went late to an appointment. Is this ADHD too? Or maybe just depression that I procrastinate everything nowadays? Or maybe effect of extensive usage of technology?
I'm old enough to remember when ADHD was invented. To sell meds.
Granted some people have difficulty concentrating, I'm one of them. But I've only heard of people in the US getting medications for something which is basically a lack of discipline.
I easily score as ADHD, but I'm in my 60s now and have never been diagnosed or treated. I have muddled through all my life. Yes, I often self-medicated unhealthily (cigarettes, various over-the-counter uppers), but also relatively healthily (I've been practicing meditation for decades). I managed to have two, long, fruitful careers (20 years of journalism, coming up to 20 years of software engineering) that (I'm betting) was at least partly attributable to me being on the outer edges of normal.
I think that's OK. I'm not looking to be "treated" because I'm a bit different.
but
Until I started doing stims, I was regularly forgetting about food/water until I could barely move, and at one occasion I procrastinated from replying to an email with the offer of my life until the deadline was over. There's a lot that you can explain with "not motivated enough", but these just don't make any sense, right?
You do need some sort of a label to prescribe controlled substances. Even if you forget about the meds, just knowing that it's a pretty common thing and you're not alone is pretty helpful.
Maybe that’s because I’ve developed coping mechanisms though. I don’t miss appointments because I scrupulously write everything down, and I don’t fidget with things sitting down because I don’t put myself in positions where I can’t get up and walk around.
Getting diagnosed is somewhere on my "maybe to do" list but I'm not sure it's even worth to try.
And some questions feel true for everyone *looking around*.
I don't think I have ADHD, but could go either way on half the questions based on whether I include my helpers or not.
Meanwhile, I have a wife and two kids, live in a nice house. I did well at school. I have no problem landing jobs that pay really well. I have lots of friends. I have many hobbies I like. I can play music decently well. I like 3d modelling. I am writing screenplays. I did the startup thing.
I am not depressed, I am not anxious, I feel fine, I feel smart, I feel able.
I have no particular "strategy" to "cope" with my "disorder". I am just disordered, and I don't care. Does it get me in trouble? Not really. The worst I got is my brother telling me he can't count on me cause I am mostly MIA. I can live with that. Sometimes I think that if I was more ordered, I would have a better career. But the reality is that I don't even want to have a better career. Which is probably the main reason why I don't have a better career.
I am not sick. I don't have ADHD. Not the way people who have ADHD describe it.
People with ADHD forget a lot of stuff all the time. They can't function properly at all. It's nothing to do with "finishing projects". It's about finding ways not to lose your car keys every day.
In the US, ADHD is way over-diagnosed. It's over diagnosed because US society makes you believe that "success" is a question of "willpower", and that if you can't gather enough "willpower", it's because you're somehow broken. It's over diagnosed, because the health system is incentivized to over-diagnosed. It's over diagnosed because they create 1 minute tests that are made to make people feel like they have it. It's over diagnosed because it's one of the only mental conditions that can be treated with pills, which means it's monetizable. It's overdiagnosed, because it's not a condition people feel ashamed of (unlike depression).
I know a lot of people on HN are diagnosed and treated for it. But you guys need to really ask yourself whether the way you felt before being diagnosed was so bad that you need to take brain-altering drugs to "fix" it.
> Your son could do anything he wants if he’d just sit down and shut up.
https://psychology-tools.com/test/adult-adhd-self-report-sca...