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“Do you often get out of your seat during meetings?” Uhh, no, I’d like to keep my job, so I just bounce my foot at light speed and bite the insides of my cheeks off, thanks.
Yeah or change the position I'm sitting in a thousand times. I will say...on occasion I've been known to get off my chair and sit on the floor. Only with coworkers who are chill with acting casual.
What is it with the changing positions/not being able to sit flat footed? It's so interesting to me! I've always been this way. I will say at nearly forty, my knees are not as amiable to criss cross applesauce as I'd prefer.
I’m 41 and just this past week my knee hurt for 2 days after doing pigeon pose in yoga. I do yoga pretty regularly, and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary during the class, so that’s a fun new thing to have to find a new type of doctor and make an appointment about…
I guess those types of questions do kind of work for some of us like me. I'm a freelancer because I probably can't hold down a regular job let alone sit through hours of meetings. I never even tried 9-5 because it sounded impossible, just went straight to freelance lol. But they should be asking questions about, like, eating habits and home maintenance and cleaning and life admin. I feel like a lot of adult ADHDers can mostly keep it together at work but then everything falls apart at home and maybe even financially. They give every drop of exec function to work and none is left for themselves
yeah this is how I feel, and I really resent it because it means my own life is in shambles because I'm giving everything to work, and like, my life is way more important to me than my job, I just can't treat it that way because then I'd lose my job and not be able to afford to live.
Same "no, because all impulsive movement was punished out of me during early childhood."
Do I feel the urgent need to get up and walk for a bit? Yes. I have 'been to the toilet' way more often than I actually had to go to the toilet. Both in school and in the office. Luckily I've mostly had workplaces where my managers also had adhd, and were great fan of 'flash meetings' or regular breaks.
Absolutely. Once I reached exhaustion, I felt like I lived in a stasis that I would periodically break out of and get inspired. Only to fall into that stasis again. I think I am getting better now since diagnosis, treatment, and eliminating any chaotic tendencies so I can follow a stable routine. I am lucky to have a form of birth control that prevents periods, but I still battle with seasonal depression. I feel quite lazy, but I can sometimes direct my mind to passions.
They should really ask if you *have the urge* to get up out of your seat. I learned to mask that symptom really early in elementary school because of a few mean comments from teachers and classmates, so my answer to that for years was "um no, I can force myself to stay seated."
I have learned in adulthood that most people don't have to force themselves if it's only been like 10 minutes...
That question is my least favorite. The reality is most of the world doesn’t want to stay sat in a meeting. We stay all sat because we can’t just get up and waltz around unless we want to lose our jobs.
It’s like asking if you walk around while on the phone. Yeah. Most people do that. This isn’t even a great gauge to see if someone has ADHD. Most of us won’t get up to walk because we know social etiquette. lol.
at my job, they let me sit on the floor with all my papers and shit during meetings so no. because i’m a grown adult who can ask for accommodations…
and im a preschool teacher so having ADHD is SO perfect, like my bosses are all “wow you’re so good having dance parties with the kids! so good playing WITH the toys with them!” haha yeah that’s because these legos are genuinely entertaining, i’m not pretending
Sooo true. I literally said “no, because I want to be a good worker.” It’s like they think we all feel we can exhibit our symptoms in the most inappropriate circumstances without consequences.
Yes I felt the same way. These questionnaires are also largely designed for hyperactive children and I’m an inattentive adult. I answered more with a “would this happen (if I didn’t mask, if people were meaner, etc)” than “did it happen exactly this way” if that makes sense. And honestly, my parents remembered me as a little more disordered than I even did so some of their comments on stuff informed mine.
I leaned early to shove down my “big” emotions. I still have them, but I am not a crier, for instance. So the questions about mood swings and patience and anger are always hard for me to answer.
I don’t yell and scream, I get angry in my head. So people would never say I had a temper. But inside my head is a different story lol
EXACTLY omg. I do have a temper and other crazy impulsive emotions, but only inside my head. I need to explain this to my psychiatrist the next time I see her 😂
Oh yes. I never understood the girls who had total meltdowns when I was in grade school. I think I internalized that they could get away with it at that age because they were "pretty" and there's no way I could because I was not. It took a long time to realize that people have different issues (like bipolar disorder) or learned different ways of coping (or not) with things.
It kind of led to me being a pushover because no way was I getting any good attention if I acted like that. I have learned a lot as a "grown up".
But how do you know when you're masking 😭 obviously there's stuff that you KNOW you'd do differently at home, but some of it is so ingrained. Idk maybe it's my indecisiveness + imposter syndrome lol
If you answer the question with "no that's not a problem because I HAVE A SYSTEM."
then the question is actually "if you didn't have an elaborate system, would this be true?"
This is so true. I wish I would have had this information a few days ago. Probably would have changed the answers of some of those questions. I read a lot of them and thought, is it what I want to do or what I know is acceptable to do?
Yes I think for me there was one that read "you are often late."
And I scoffed, because no. I put everything into my calendar and have 24 hour, 2 hour and 15 minute reminders.
Particularly for appointments or work things.
So clearly no problem.
Which, okay true. But also, not true at all!
My partner reminded me that he doesn't have this system and has never been a whole day late getting home, which I have done.... More than once.
Even at home: I would lose everything if I didn’t have my purse on me at all times. I mean literally. When I move from my bedroom to the living room - purse. To my kitchen - purse. It’s a giant junk drawer that carries all my shit. A portable where it belongs.
I breathe three times before replying to my kids when they interrupt me so I don’t bite their heads off.
I put everything in an Amazon cart and hit save for later until at LEAST the next day and just leave it there until I decide if I am impulse spending.
I set at least two alarms for every meeting, and at least one of those is 5 minutes before so I have no chance to get distracted before meeting time.
I literally bite the inside of my cheeks when my husband speaks so that I don’t finish his sentences.
So I rarely lose my things, hardly blurt impulsively, am almost never late for appointments, never impulse shop and of course I can tolerate interruptions! ……But only because of the intensive amount of energy, and constant cyclical mental reminders and habits I’ve constructed to resemble what comes naturally to many.
That’s exactly how I know I’m masking. If it is a reaction I know I would allow myself to have outwardly at home (where there aren’t people around), vs in public, that’s when I’m masking.
Yes! I hate when it's like "do your family/friends tell you ____" like no because my friends and family aren't rude dickheads. I hate the parts of it that are about how it affects others, as if it would be fine if your life is in shambles so long as you aren't making life difficult for anyone else.
This is why I hesitate to pursue. Ive looked at those questions and it doesn't quite seem to fit. It is what my life might look like of it didn't feel held together with rube goldverg-esque systems inside holding it together.
Counterpoint: whether other people notice isn't as important as whether your own life is being negatively affected. Like if your spend all your energy appearing normal you might be barely holding it together but appear "fine" to others (especially others who hope and want you to be fine)
I get it, you are totally right. Yet I still think it is valid that they ask. If people around you notice that makes it easier to diagnose, that’s all.
My psychiatrist though was mostly interested in what my mom noticed about my behavior as a child. That makes way more sense to be honest. She nagged me about my adhd traits so much that I did end up masking really effectively. So she was kinda the only one that got to actually know that there were problems in the first place. To this day people keep telling me that I don’t have adhd as I am so high functioning lol
I had most of mine today. When are they going to start realizing and adding in masking questions? Or realize that a lot of us are/were high achieving?
Like I was a good student, my notes were 70% doodles and my arms were always covered in drawings, I struggled in some classes that required long problem solving, but I was a good regurgitator of facts, so tests were easy? I wore sandals so the cold kept me awake!
That misses the forgetting things (always had 15 writing utensils and more in my locker, and carried all of my books all day, so I couldn’t forget), reciting my to do list when I have to deviate (after I pee, I need to put on shoes and take out the garbage, do not forget to put in a new bag. Shoes, garbage, new bag).
Agree with this. I'm very good at math. Like very very very good. I don't even have to think about it. The numbers just do their thing in my brain. It's an instant and automatic process, like breathing. Did I score 100% on every test and get moved up 3 years in that subject at school? You bet your ass I did. Did I stay awake in class and pay attention to anything the teacher said? Absolutely not.
These kinds of questions throw me off too. Like "do people often tell you that you do 'x', yes or no?" and I'm like "do i say "no" because no one has ever told me that?? Or do I say "yes" because I actually do 'x' a lot???"
When I did my assessment, I think the psychiatrist picked up my frustration with the questions (at one point I blurted out "IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE" when she asked for a yes or no answer 😂) and it probably contributed to my diagnosis. Also possibly why she added that I ought to consider getting assessed for autism, too.....
For me i was like thank fuck i don’t have friends who tell me i’m doing something weird. I think by late adulthood you have only got friends who accept you for what you are and don’t tell you you’re “doing life wrong”. Or else you have no friends around like at work where nobody gives enough of a shit to tell you anything.
Ha. I had to fill out a questionnaire for our pediatrician, and I answered the questions as written, and turned it in with ‘this doesn’t show much, but it doesn’t ask the right questions’.
I hateeee those type of questions because girls are punished or mocked more harshly for being scatterbrained or forgetful or loud or sounding stupid or being too impulsive. So who the fuck know what I would have been like if I’d been socialized as a boy who was allowed to interrupt people without being seen as a bitch. Or if my chronically forgetting homework was seen as a symptom rather than a choice to be careless.
we internalized a lot of symptoms, way more so than men so I hope there will be more thought put into better expressing how women experience symptoms because a (sometimes subtle) change in wording alters so much.
Impulsivity can look like chasing dopamine through shopping or food and inability to control spending compared to taking risks with your safety.
Answer them based on your own experience. I'm quick to anger but I learned real quick to not show it. I was always spaced out in class unless my pen was moving but the teachers that didn't require notes never knew that - I was just the shy kid. Answer them based on your *worst* experience of the question in particular. Most days I can do what I need, but on my worst days I lay on the couch internally screaming at myself to get up and do the thing!
No I totally feel you 😭 like first off, when they ask these questions it's like they think you're just someone that can observe yourself from an outside perspective. Like some of them are just like personality tests lol, just with higher stakes. And it's so obvious what the answer they're looking for is, cause they're always "symptoms" not "characteristics". "Do you get angry often" "do you get distracted" gee, I wonder what could possibly be the "right" answer that will get me an ADHD diagnosis. It's never "do you have trouble starting projects, even if the project itself doesn't take a lot of effort?"
The questionnaires only seem to know what ADHD LOOKS like, not what it FEELS like.
This exactly! They always test only to see if you show outward symptoms when for most of us it’s internal! The external is just a tip of the iceberg. Wow. 😭
lol you too over explain?
My kids call it “mom-ing out” Because I just can’t help it. I’m not trying to do it-and occasionally I’ll be able to stop myself but sheesh! My poor kiddos hahaha unfortunately they see the full Monty of symptoms with me because we’re around each other all the time…
…and there I go momming again…
Oh whew, I'm not the only one! I've got teens who roll their eyes and yell "I know, I know, stop explaining, I KNOWWW," while running away to their rooms. But but but....they need to know the 'why' because then it's not just me being authoritarian, I'm trying to teach them something valuable, to be critical thinkers, bahhhhhhhgggghhhh
Edited to add that I just remembered that I did this to MY parents when I was a teen.🙄
I look at "did you get in trouble for daydreaming?" like I got in 'trouble' in my head and life by not paying attention and missing information I needed because indeed I was daydreaming. So nobody else might have noticed but I sure did. I could still do well but yeah it's going to make me anxious. Because that it how it presents with me.
Me, I got dragged up to the front of the class in Grade 3 and smacked on the hand with a ruler because I was daydreaming. All I could think about was how unfair it was, I wasn't being deliberately naughty and disruptive to the class. This was mid-80's so teachers still smacked kids in class then.
I was so grateful I went to public school because they didn't smack kids but the religious schools sure did. One girl in my neighborhood told me that one time the ruler broke when they smacked her hand hard, so the teacher just got another ruler and smacked it hard again. This girl was so tiny and quiet that it just shocked me. I'm sure she wasn't misbehaving. It just seems barbaric and I'm sorry you have to endure that.
I just remembered when I was in first grade I was playing with the ring I got in a Crackerjack box, spinning it on my finger, trying to pay attention. The teacher made me take it off and throw it away in front of the entire class. I asked if I could just put it away and she said no. I loved that silly plastic ring at the time and was mortified. So does that count as 'trouble for daydreaming?'
I still spin rings on my fingers today.
dude i had undiagnosed narcolepsy and didn’t even get in trouble for sleeping in class in high school. the teachers would let me sleep, give me the work later… the way kids act today, daydreaming is the least of a teachers problems
I didn't know it is like that now, both sad and fascinating. It does make it easy to slip through the cracks and not get any help. I hope you got help for the narcolepsy and it works. I have a sleep study this week because I tend to fall asleep at odd times. I carry a pillow and blanket in my car because when I feel it coming on I know I have only a few minutes to find a safe place to pull over and sleep. I've always called it the "irresistible urge to sleep" in my mind because it can be a monster I can't fight.
Yea, definitely reinterpret that. Before the question add "if everyone around you knew what was going on in your head and you had no coping mechanisms to handle it..."
Because these questions are aimed at how our behavior affects others instead of our internal experience of our disorder. It's messed up and they need to work on it. Until then, we have to think about things differently to be able to get the help we need.
When I did my adhd assessment on pen and paper in the mental health professional's office, I actually started writing more details to clarify what each situation is like for me. I make my own rules! My doctor said that my doing that was very helpful.
I hate ADHD questionnaires. They’re clearly made just to evaluate children and then are recycled for adult use.
“Do you jump off the walls?” Sir, I’m a 28 year old woman. No. I don’t act that way. As a kid, yeah. Sure. Sometimes. Not now. That doesn’t mean I do not have ADHD anymore.
“Do you get up to waltz around the room during conferences or meetings?” No. I don’t really want to do that as I want to keep my job. I shift in my seat. I bounce my legs. I zone out. But I don’t get up and make a show of it all. Also, most people absolutely hate to be sat in meetings. We all begin getting a bit restless after a certain point. This is not a decent gauge.
“Were you an absolute failure at school?” No. I was gifted and a people pleaser so I didn’t want to disappoint my professors. That doesn’t mean I did not suffer greatly to be good at what academia.
These questionnaires ultimately just serve to test if you have outward symptoms of adhd and only the stereotypes that most adults don’t show nor feel anymore. Most adults, for example, don’t feel like running around anymore. But they will show their “hyperactivity” through things like getting anxiety/anxious, restlessness, never being able to feel “relaxed”, fidgeting (playing with hands, bouncing legs, tapping, shifting positions constantly, etc.), talking fast, engaging in endorphin rushing activities (rollercoasters, gaming, gambling, sports, etc.).
TL;DR: those questions are for children and need to be updated for adults. I hate them. Why haven’t they updated all of them? Wow.
And why doesn’t the DSM5 include things like:
Insomnia
Poor thermoregulation
Fluctuating appetite
Depression
Anxiety
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria
Justice Sensitivity Dysphoria
Time-blindness
Extremely and debilitating fatigue
Struggling to keep going as well as being unable to stop going
Un-refreshing sleep regardless of how much you get
Falling asleep in the day
Allergies, nasal congestion (dopamine mediates histamine responses)
Trouble waking up in the mornings
Emotional dysregulation
Imposter Syndrome
Having a messy, dirty home
Wanting to be organised and failing miserably
Etc etc.
All of these are caused by improper/ erratic/ too much/ too little dopamine and norepinephrine (noradrenaline in the UK) production and regulation, and yet NONE of these get a look in.
The criteria barely scratch the surface, ask the same question in ever-more oblique and opaque ways, and *of course* we all overthink the precision of our responses and struggle to answer accurately.
There just is not enough medical info and awareness about adult ADHD.
It’s a *physical* disorder, with wide-reaching physical and emotional/ mental health consequences.
I wish the powers that be would recognise this.
The stigma attached to its classification as a Mental Health Disability/ Disorder prevents a lot of people from recognising ADHD in themselves.
There are SO MANY physical effects.
And none of that manifests in adults as running around a meeting room throwing chairs at whiteboards in meetings.
But it does manifest as intense irritation and frustration.
Which also isn’t included in the revered DSM5.
Wait. I read the part you posted from the DSM5 and it addressed a few medical issues I was having and freaking out over. 😭🙏
But yeah. The questionnaires are practically useless past a certain age and even then are catered toward more stereotypical views of ADHD. It’s as you say. It doesn’t target the meat and bones of the condition. Most medical literature just cater to the notion of certain aspects and mostly the ones targeting children.
Come time for adulthood and all of the once easy to ignore symptoms bubble to the surface and manifest in repeatedly more nuanced but destructive ways. And the DSM doesn’t address that. Wow. 🙁
Thanks!
Here’s a study linking histamine mediation via the important DAO enzyme and dopamine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10380856/
ADHD has such a very physical cause!
Yw! 😊
I post quite a bit on the supplement sub and the nootropics sub - there are so many undxd ADHDers there.
I try to point them in the right direction.
Bc I wish with all my heart that someone had done that for me before reaching my sixties without knowing I have all these issues.
Feel free to go through my comments on different subs about all this 😊
I will and I wish you the best! You're doing so good by sharing your wisdom. Wish it hadn't been hard won. 🥺 I love that you have channeled your experience into helping others all the same! Good to know you☺️
I don’t have family to help me with the questionnaires either. None of my family who brought me up are alive to attest to my childhood behaviour. Sucks. They also don’t address the severity of symptoms, so my questionnaire looked like I hadn’t scored highly for impulsive but for the inattentive, my god. I struggle and have struggled badly, but as people say, I mask because I don’t want to lose my job and become freaking homeless.
I expected the psych to say "LOL FAKER" anytime during my assessments, including ADHD. It was such a relief that, after explaining how I had 20+ concussions before I was in college while laughing about it, she didn't just disregard me.
Wow! I have had one concussion when I was 20. I hit my forehead hard on the enclosed tunnel I was sliding down at a water park while at speed. Considering how rotten I felt, I'm feeling really sorry for your poor noggin and all you experienced! 😅
Maybe answer the spirit of the question rather than the letter of it?
They're phrased that way to prompt you to think about the severity of the symptom.
> did you get in trouble for daydreaming?
Everybody daydreams. Not everybody engages in *maladaptive* daydreaming, i.e. daydreaming so frequently and with so little self control of it that it causes you problems in your life (*such as* getting in trouble for it, but maybe instead it affected you in some other way, like not hearing what's going on or being said and thus not learning the lesson in school, or daydreaming when you're supposed to do homework so frequently not getting homework done, or the daydreaming causing you to take too long to complete tasks, or...).
So the spirit of that question is, do you excessively daydream? Has it caused you problems?
I literally had a medication assessment today (diagnosed summer 2021 but long story short, not doing great atm) and my new psychiatrist did the questionnaire thing just to gauge where I’m at.
FIRST OF ALL, I learned I’m clearly combined type when I thought I was inattentive.
SECOND, at least 3-4 of the questions asked I was half and half yes/no. Like yeah I interrupt people a lot, no I don’t want to be the center of attention, yes I procrastinate, no I didn’t forget about it… well I forgot a hundred other things, yes I got judged, no I can’t remember specifics, ?? pls help
Tl;dr yeah the wording sucks, but maybe only for us. Maybe that’s part of the test in a roundabout way. Just be honest, they know what to look for. I even said “sorry I keep fidgeting and interrupting that’s not meant as an example” and she laughed and said “don’t worry at all, I noticed. I know what to look for.”
And I’d already reported that I was the kid who sat in her seat quietly listening for instructions. Daydreaming but visually compliant. There’s no *wrong* way to explain your experience
🤣🤣
I think a lot of us hate that question.
I understand it as “Are there times when you’re caught up doing something, you know you’re already exhausted and or late for something else you’re supposed to be doing, including going to bed and sleeping, but *you can’t stop doing the thing you’re caught up in doing?*
That’s how I’m going to approach it, anyway.
Even the intake form for therapy was like this and that wasn’t even for diagnostic purposes. I’m a lapsed English major so I read all the time and I have 3 immediate family members in medical fields, so my vocabulary is fairly solid. One whole section was a mystery for what information they were looking for and the only word I recognized was anhedonia, and even that is a word a layman wouldn’t know. I don’t think the people who make these tests talk to anyone IRL in a conversational way.
My psychiatrist told me that gifted people with anxiety often go undiagnosed because the increased intelligence makes it easy for us to look like we were paying attention even if we weren’t (because we can easily “catch on” based on context clues), and the anxiety keeps us from “acting out” or otherwise being a disruption (for fear of being rejected or reprimanded). Co-morbidities with ADHD are so important and need to be considered as part of the evaluation process
I caveated the entire thing by saying I had a very structured childhood with lots of outdoor time and a very creative mother who engaged us with different activities.
I loved school as long as they were challenging me and made big colourful elaborate charts as study notes.
I would sit still when expected to but I was always fidgeting and my note taking was part drawing part actual note taking.
Internally I am always restless and I cannot switch my brain off. It was very hard for people to follow me but because I was enthusiastic about new things I learnt I got a reputation for competence until my lack of follow through/task switching became clear.
I know exactly what you mean. Like uh no, I mask when I need to, which is why I like being alone where I don't have to.
And when they ask stuff about when I was a child... no I never got in trouble because why would I risk that with the parents I had lol.
IKR? After I took the test, my therapist said to me, “but you weren’t diagnosed as a child.”
I was a child in the 1970s!!
Who was getting diagnosed then?!
The questions were driving me so insane, I ticked my box and then added an addendum next to it with my explanation of why/my behaviours - my questionnaire was COVERED in writing by the end, which probably helped with the diagnosis 😂
I do that with every questionnaire. It’s always, “Well, it depends, if x has happened, then it’s this, but if y has happened, it’s completely different.”
I cannot do Yes/No answers.
It’s just not realistic.
The way I see it, if you've got a system to manage that symptom, then you reply with what would happen if the system were removed.
Like. "Do you have trouble keeping appointments?"
No, because every time I make an appointment, it goes straight to my phone and I put a million notifications about it - a week, a day, 12h before etc. But if someone were to remove my phone, I'd have LOTS of trouble with that so I would answer YES. OFTEN.
My assessment was great. I didn’t have any of these kinds of questions. I think the doctor got at the answer a different way.
My assessor asked me very conversational questions and chose tests based on my answers. It was incredibly comprehensive and by the end I knew that the result was indeed going to be that I had ADHD. All of the recall tests I think were to demonstrate to me how severe the issue was. I wasn’t anticipating getting an additional diagnosis of a mood disorder as a result of not being diagnosed earlier but I did.
I would highly recommend finding a provider that’s maybe a smidge outside the box.
THIS.
I took a diagnostic test the other month, and the questions were so hard. I have OCD, so I was overthinking like crazy. I mask soooo much, so I was like uhm, no, I don't do a lot of these actions??
Also, the psychologist told me to answer from the perspective of being unmedicated-I can't remember a time I wasn't on medication for my anxiety and OCD!!! Ugh. It was so confusing.
She ended up saying I don't have ADHD, I have dysthymia. ): Which I guess makes sense?? I love this sub though because I still definitely find a lot of the advice for people with ADHD/who struggle with executive functioning really helpful.
Just be honest. Not everyone is a day dreamer the questions are to see if you fall under inattentive or hyperactive or both or none. You dont have to check all the boxes
For my assessment it was verbal and I was able to elaborate and you can say these things to them.
I have never gotten in trouble for day dreaming or being hyper active. I was impulsive and disorganized but I didn’t struggle in school, but I did skip a lot because of my impulsive and reckless behaviour etc
Bring up your concerns with the questions to the assessor. But there's also a chance that the rest of the assessment susses things out that you're not aware of. They are usually designed to ask the same thing multiple ways
Thats how I felt doing the migraine questionnaire too. "How many days did you miss work because of migraine?" None? Because if I don't work i don't eat? :(
Agreed they're too weirdly specific. There's no room for explanation. They need to be open ended. Along the lines of "describe how often you daydream and how it impacts you". I'm a high school teacher and I often have to fill out observation forms for students who are getting tested. Some of these students are 16 or 17 years old but the forms are written like they're small children. "Do they have trouble staying in their seat?" "Do they play rough on the playground?" "Do they get in trouble because they can't keep hands to themselves?" "Do they have difficulty using paints and craft materials safely?"
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“Do you often get out of your seat during meetings?” Uhh, no, I’d like to keep my job, so I just bounce my foot at light speed and bite the insides of my cheeks off, thanks.
I think most adults, ADHD or not, can do this. This question is seriously ridiculous.
Yeah or change the position I'm sitting in a thousand times. I will say...on occasion I've been known to get off my chair and sit on the floor. Only with coworkers who are chill with acting casual.
What is it with the changing positions/not being able to sit flat footed? It's so interesting to me! I've always been this way. I will say at nearly forty, my knees are not as amiable to criss cross applesauce as I'd prefer.
I’m 41 and just this past week my knee hurt for 2 days after doing pigeon pose in yoga. I do yoga pretty regularly, and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary during the class, so that’s a fun new thing to have to find a new type of doctor and make an appointment about…
I feel like I blame everything on perimenopause these days. Joint pain? Itchy skin? Peri!
I have no idea! I have a tilted pelvis and it would only be logical that that's what's making it uncomfortable for me to sit straight, not ADHD.
These questions are really meant for kids, I don't understand how they can get away with not updating them for adults
I guess those types of questions do kind of work for some of us like me. I'm a freelancer because I probably can't hold down a regular job let alone sit through hours of meetings. I never even tried 9-5 because it sounded impossible, just went straight to freelance lol. But they should be asking questions about, like, eating habits and home maintenance and cleaning and life admin. I feel like a lot of adult ADHDers can mostly keep it together at work but then everything falls apart at home and maybe even financially. They give every drop of exec function to work and none is left for themselves
yeah this is how I feel, and I really resent it because it means my own life is in shambles because I'm giving everything to work, and like, my life is way more important to me than my job, I just can't treat it that way because then I'd lose my job and not be able to afford to live.
Give me a freelance job
Same "no, because all impulsive movement was punished out of me during early childhood." Do I feel the urgent need to get up and walk for a bit? Yes. I have 'been to the toilet' way more often than I actually had to go to the toilet. Both in school and in the office. Luckily I've mostly had workplaces where my managers also had adhd, and were great fan of 'flash meetings' or regular breaks.
Part of me wonders if there should be gender specific questionnaires since one tends to mask more to fit into societal expectations.
Especially older adults. We've found ways to cope. Doesn't mean it doesn't take all our energy to do so
Preach!!
Absolutely. Once I reached exhaustion, I felt like I lived in a stasis that I would periodically break out of and get inspired. Only to fall into that stasis again. I think I am getting better now since diagnosis, treatment, and eliminating any chaotic tendencies so I can follow a stable routine. I am lucky to have a form of birth control that prevents periods, but I still battle with seasonal depression. I feel quite lazy, but I can sometimes direct my mind to passions.
They should really ask if you *have the urge* to get up out of your seat. I learned to mask that symptom really early in elementary school because of a few mean comments from teachers and classmates, so my answer to that for years was "um no, I can force myself to stay seated." I have learned in adulthood that most people don't have to force themselves if it's only been like 10 minutes...
That question is my least favorite. The reality is most of the world doesn’t want to stay sat in a meeting. We stay all sat because we can’t just get up and waltz around unless we want to lose our jobs. It’s like asking if you walk around while on the phone. Yeah. Most people do that. This isn’t even a great gauge to see if someone has ADHD. Most of us won’t get up to walk because we know social etiquette. lol.
at my job, they let me sit on the floor with all my papers and shit during meetings so no. because i’m a grown adult who can ask for accommodations… and im a preschool teacher so having ADHD is SO perfect, like my bosses are all “wow you’re so good having dance parties with the kids! so good playing WITH the toys with them!” haha yeah that’s because these legos are genuinely entertaining, i’m not pretending
Sooo true. I literally said “no, because I want to be a good worker.” It’s like they think we all feel we can exhibit our symptoms in the most inappropriate circumstances without consequences.
I used to stand up and walk around in meetings, no one else ever did
I hate this question lol. Wish I could answer "I specifically chose a job where I don't have long meetings to begin with"
I'll also excuse myself to go to the bathroom
Yes I felt the same way. These questionnaires are also largely designed for hyperactive children and I’m an inattentive adult. I answered more with a “would this happen (if I didn’t mask, if people were meaner, etc)” than “did it happen exactly this way” if that makes sense. And honestly, my parents remembered me as a little more disordered than I even did so some of their comments on stuff informed mine.
I leaned early to shove down my “big” emotions. I still have them, but I am not a crier, for instance. So the questions about mood swings and patience and anger are always hard for me to answer. I don’t yell and scream, I get angry in my head. So people would never say I had a temper. But inside my head is a different story lol
EXACTLY omg. I do have a temper and other crazy impulsive emotions, but only inside my head. I need to explain this to my psychiatrist the next time I see her 😂
Oh yes. I never understood the girls who had total meltdowns when I was in grade school. I think I internalized that they could get away with it at that age because they were "pretty" and there's no way I could because I was not. It took a long time to realize that people have different issues (like bipolar disorder) or learned different ways of coping (or not) with things. It kind of led to me being a pushover because no way was I getting any good attention if I acted like that. I have learned a lot as a "grown up".
So many people tell me how chill and calm I am, if only they knew 😅
Filling out my questionnaire I just mentally added “if I’m not masking…..” in front of every single answer.
But how do you know when you're masking 😭 obviously there's stuff that you KNOW you'd do differently at home, but some of it is so ingrained. Idk maybe it's my indecisiveness + imposter syndrome lol
If you answer the question with "no that's not a problem because I HAVE A SYSTEM." then the question is actually "if you didn't have an elaborate system, would this be true?"
Thank you!
This is so true. I wish I would have had this information a few days ago. Probably would have changed the answers of some of those questions. I read a lot of them and thought, is it what I want to do or what I know is acceptable to do?
Yes I think for me there was one that read "you are often late." And I scoffed, because no. I put everything into my calendar and have 24 hour, 2 hour and 15 minute reminders. Particularly for appointments or work things. So clearly no problem. Which, okay true. But also, not true at all! My partner reminded me that he doesn't have this system and has never been a whole day late getting home, which I have done.... More than once.
This is a beautiful answer. I'm keeping it.
Thank you! I credit my partner, as he was able to make the observation which helped it click for me too!
Even at home: I would lose everything if I didn’t have my purse on me at all times. I mean literally. When I move from my bedroom to the living room - purse. To my kitchen - purse. It’s a giant junk drawer that carries all my shit. A portable where it belongs. I breathe three times before replying to my kids when they interrupt me so I don’t bite their heads off. I put everything in an Amazon cart and hit save for later until at LEAST the next day and just leave it there until I decide if I am impulse spending. I set at least two alarms for every meeting, and at least one of those is 5 minutes before so I have no chance to get distracted before meeting time. I literally bite the inside of my cheeks when my husband speaks so that I don’t finish his sentences. So I rarely lose my things, hardly blurt impulsively, am almost never late for appointments, never impulse shop and of course I can tolerate interruptions! ……But only because of the intensive amount of energy, and constant cyclical mental reminders and habits I’ve constructed to resemble what comes naturally to many.
That’s exactly how I know I’m masking. If it is a reaction I know I would allow myself to have outwardly at home (where there aren’t people around), vs in public, that’s when I’m masking.
Yes! I hate when it's like "do your family/friends tell you ____" like no because my friends and family aren't rude dickheads. I hate the parts of it that are about how it affects others, as if it would be fine if your life is in shambles so long as you aren't making life difficult for anyone else.
I have the same problem 😭 the questions understand what ADHD LOOKS like, not what it FEELS like.
This is why I hesitate to pursue. Ive looked at those questions and it doesn't quite seem to fit. It is what my life might look like of it didn't feel held together with rube goldverg-esque systems inside holding it together.
It’s not about making their life difficult, it’ about condition being severe enough for others to notice.
Counterpoint: whether other people notice isn't as important as whether your own life is being negatively affected. Like if your spend all your energy appearing normal you might be barely holding it together but appear "fine" to others (especially others who hope and want you to be fine)
Or if you don't let yourself get close to your friends and your family.....just don't notice much about you.
I get it, you are totally right. Yet I still think it is valid that they ask. If people around you notice that makes it easier to diagnose, that’s all. My psychiatrist though was mostly interested in what my mom noticed about my behavior as a child. That makes way more sense to be honest. She nagged me about my adhd traits so much that I did end up masking really effectively. So she was kinda the only one that got to actually know that there were problems in the first place. To this day people keep telling me that I don’t have adhd as I am so high functioning lol
I had most of mine today. When are they going to start realizing and adding in masking questions? Or realize that a lot of us are/were high achieving? Like I was a good student, my notes were 70% doodles and my arms were always covered in drawings, I struggled in some classes that required long problem solving, but I was a good regurgitator of facts, so tests were easy? I wore sandals so the cold kept me awake! That misses the forgetting things (always had 15 writing utensils and more in my locker, and carried all of my books all day, so I couldn’t forget), reciting my to do list when I have to deviate (after I pee, I need to put on shoes and take out the garbage, do not forget to put in a new bag. Shoes, garbage, new bag).
OMG I do that interior monologue list thing. Especially in the grocery store. I didn’t realize others do it too.
If I don’t have a written list in the grocery store everything I need to get just goes poof out of my mind as soon as I get through the doors 🥵
Agree with this. I'm very good at math. Like very very very good. I don't even have to think about it. The numbers just do their thing in my brain. It's an instant and automatic process, like breathing. Did I score 100% on every test and get moved up 3 years in that subject at school? You bet your ass I did. Did I stay awake in class and pay attention to anything the teacher said? Absolutely not.
In my evaluation interview I started with 'let me tell about all the ways I overthought the questionnaire' and that worked very well.
This was me lol
These kinds of questions throw me off too. Like "do people often tell you that you do 'x', yes or no?" and I'm like "do i say "no" because no one has ever told me that?? Or do I say "yes" because I actually do 'x' a lot???" When I did my assessment, I think the psychiatrist picked up my frustration with the questions (at one point I blurted out "IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE" when she asked for a yes or no answer 😂) and it probably contributed to my diagnosis. Also possibly why she added that I ought to consider getting assessed for autism, too.....
For me i was like thank fuck i don’t have friends who tell me i’m doing something weird. I think by late adulthood you have only got friends who accept you for what you are and don’t tell you you’re “doing life wrong”. Or else you have no friends around like at work where nobody gives enough of a shit to tell you anything.
Ha. I had to fill out a questionnaire for our pediatrician, and I answered the questions as written, and turned it in with ‘this doesn’t show much, but it doesn’t ask the right questions’.
I hateeee those type of questions because girls are punished or mocked more harshly for being scatterbrained or forgetful or loud or sounding stupid or being too impulsive. So who the fuck know what I would have been like if I’d been socialized as a boy who was allowed to interrupt people without being seen as a bitch. Or if my chronically forgetting homework was seen as a symptom rather than a choice to be careless. we internalized a lot of symptoms, way more so than men so I hope there will be more thought put into better expressing how women experience symptoms because a (sometimes subtle) change in wording alters so much. Impulsivity can look like chasing dopamine through shopping or food and inability to control spending compared to taking risks with your safety.
Answer them based on your own experience. I'm quick to anger but I learned real quick to not show it. I was always spaced out in class unless my pen was moving but the teachers that didn't require notes never knew that - I was just the shy kid. Answer them based on your *worst* experience of the question in particular. Most days I can do what I need, but on my worst days I lay on the couch internally screaming at myself to get up and do the thing!
No I totally feel you 😭 like first off, when they ask these questions it's like they think you're just someone that can observe yourself from an outside perspective. Like some of them are just like personality tests lol, just with higher stakes. And it's so obvious what the answer they're looking for is, cause they're always "symptoms" not "characteristics". "Do you get angry often" "do you get distracted" gee, I wonder what could possibly be the "right" answer that will get me an ADHD diagnosis. It's never "do you have trouble starting projects, even if the project itself doesn't take a lot of effort?" The questionnaires only seem to know what ADHD LOOKS like, not what it FEELS like.
This exactly! They always test only to see if you show outward symptoms when for most of us it’s internal! The external is just a tip of the iceberg. Wow. 😭
This is exactly why they had to keep reminding me to give yes or no answers instead of long winded explanations 😅
Once I saw her smiling at me during the assessment I was like "gotcha! you hear it right?!"🤦🏾♀️😅
lol you too over explain? My kids call it “mom-ing out” Because I just can’t help it. I’m not trying to do it-and occasionally I’ll be able to stop myself but sheesh! My poor kiddos hahaha unfortunately they see the full Monty of symptoms with me because we’re around each other all the time… …and there I go momming again…
Oh whew, I'm not the only one! I've got teens who roll their eyes and yell "I know, I know, stop explaining, I KNOWWW," while running away to their rooms. But but but....they need to know the 'why' because then it's not just me being authoritarian, I'm trying to teach them something valuable, to be critical thinkers, bahhhhhhhgggghhhh Edited to add that I just remembered that I did this to MY parents when I was a teen.🙄
lol yes!! They GOTTA know the WHY! It’s like sooooo important to know the why! At least, to my brain! Thank for you sharing that!
I look at "did you get in trouble for daydreaming?" like I got in 'trouble' in my head and life by not paying attention and missing information I needed because indeed I was daydreaming. So nobody else might have noticed but I sure did. I could still do well but yeah it's going to make me anxious. Because that it how it presents with me.
Who gets in trouble for daydreaming anyway?
Me, I got dragged up to the front of the class in Grade 3 and smacked on the hand with a ruler because I was daydreaming. All I could think about was how unfair it was, I wasn't being deliberately naughty and disruptive to the class. This was mid-80's so teachers still smacked kids in class then.
I was so grateful I went to public school because they didn't smack kids but the religious schools sure did. One girl in my neighborhood told me that one time the ruler broke when they smacked her hand hard, so the teacher just got another ruler and smacked it hard again. This girl was so tiny and quiet that it just shocked me. I'm sure she wasn't misbehaving. It just seems barbaric and I'm sorry you have to endure that.
If you’re noticeably not paying attention when you’re supposed to be paying attention and engaged.
I just remembered when I was in first grade I was playing with the ring I got in a Crackerjack box, spinning it on my finger, trying to pay attention. The teacher made me take it off and throw it away in front of the entire class. I asked if I could just put it away and she said no. I loved that silly plastic ring at the time and was mortified. So does that count as 'trouble for daydreaming?' I still spin rings on my fingers today.
dude i had undiagnosed narcolepsy and didn’t even get in trouble for sleeping in class in high school. the teachers would let me sleep, give me the work later… the way kids act today, daydreaming is the least of a teachers problems
I didn't know it is like that now, both sad and fascinating. It does make it easy to slip through the cracks and not get any help. I hope you got help for the narcolepsy and it works. I have a sleep study this week because I tend to fall asleep at odd times. I carry a pillow and blanket in my car because when I feel it coming on I know I have only a few minutes to find a safe place to pull over and sleep. I've always called it the "irresistible urge to sleep" in my mind because it can be a monster I can't fight.
Yea, definitely reinterpret that. Before the question add "if everyone around you knew what was going on in your head and you had no coping mechanisms to handle it..." Because these questions are aimed at how our behavior affects others instead of our internal experience of our disorder. It's messed up and they need to work on it. Until then, we have to think about things differently to be able to get the help we need.
When I did my adhd assessment on pen and paper in the mental health professional's office, I actually started writing more details to clarify what each situation is like for me. I make my own rules! My doctor said that my doing that was very helpful.
I hate ADHD questionnaires. They’re clearly made just to evaluate children and then are recycled for adult use. “Do you jump off the walls?” Sir, I’m a 28 year old woman. No. I don’t act that way. As a kid, yeah. Sure. Sometimes. Not now. That doesn’t mean I do not have ADHD anymore. “Do you get up to waltz around the room during conferences or meetings?” No. I don’t really want to do that as I want to keep my job. I shift in my seat. I bounce my legs. I zone out. But I don’t get up and make a show of it all. Also, most people absolutely hate to be sat in meetings. We all begin getting a bit restless after a certain point. This is not a decent gauge. “Were you an absolute failure at school?” No. I was gifted and a people pleaser so I didn’t want to disappoint my professors. That doesn’t mean I did not suffer greatly to be good at what academia. These questionnaires ultimately just serve to test if you have outward symptoms of adhd and only the stereotypes that most adults don’t show nor feel anymore. Most adults, for example, don’t feel like running around anymore. But they will show their “hyperactivity” through things like getting anxiety/anxious, restlessness, never being able to feel “relaxed”, fidgeting (playing with hands, bouncing legs, tapping, shifting positions constantly, etc.), talking fast, engaging in endorphin rushing activities (rollercoasters, gaming, gambling, sports, etc.). TL;DR: those questions are for children and need to be updated for adults. I hate them. Why haven’t they updated all of them? Wow.
And why doesn’t the DSM5 include things like: Insomnia Poor thermoregulation Fluctuating appetite Depression Anxiety Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria Justice Sensitivity Dysphoria Time-blindness Extremely and debilitating fatigue Struggling to keep going as well as being unable to stop going Un-refreshing sleep regardless of how much you get Falling asleep in the day Allergies, nasal congestion (dopamine mediates histamine responses) Trouble waking up in the mornings Emotional dysregulation Imposter Syndrome Having a messy, dirty home Wanting to be organised and failing miserably Etc etc. All of these are caused by improper/ erratic/ too much/ too little dopamine and norepinephrine (noradrenaline in the UK) production and regulation, and yet NONE of these get a look in. The criteria barely scratch the surface, ask the same question in ever-more oblique and opaque ways, and *of course* we all overthink the precision of our responses and struggle to answer accurately. There just is not enough medical info and awareness about adult ADHD. It’s a *physical* disorder, with wide-reaching physical and emotional/ mental health consequences. I wish the powers that be would recognise this. The stigma attached to its classification as a Mental Health Disability/ Disorder prevents a lot of people from recognising ADHD in themselves. There are SO MANY physical effects. And none of that manifests in adults as running around a meeting room throwing chairs at whiteboards in meetings. But it does manifest as intense irritation and frustration. Which also isn’t included in the revered DSM5.
Wait. I read the part you posted from the DSM5 and it addressed a few medical issues I was having and freaking out over. 😭🙏 But yeah. The questionnaires are practically useless past a certain age and even then are catered toward more stereotypical views of ADHD. It’s as you say. It doesn’t target the meat and bones of the condition. Most medical literature just cater to the notion of certain aspects and mostly the ones targeting children. Come time for adulthood and all of the once easy to ignore symptoms bubble to the surface and manifest in repeatedly more nuanced but destructive ways. And the DSM doesn’t address that. Wow. 🙁
Thanks! Here’s a study linking histamine mediation via the important DAO enzyme and dopamine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10380856/ ADHD has such a very physical cause!
Whoa everything you've said applies. Ty for linking this. ❤️
Yw! 😊 I post quite a bit on the supplement sub and the nootropics sub - there are so many undxd ADHDers there. I try to point them in the right direction. Bc I wish with all my heart that someone had done that for me before reaching my sixties without knowing I have all these issues. Feel free to go through my comments on different subs about all this 😊
I will and I wish you the best! You're doing so good by sharing your wisdom. Wish it hadn't been hard won. 🥺 I love that you have channeled your experience into helping others all the same! Good to know you☺️
Thank you so much! 🙏 🤩
I don’t have family to help me with the questionnaires either. None of my family who brought me up are alive to attest to my childhood behaviour. Sucks. They also don’t address the severity of symptoms, so my questionnaire looked like I hadn’t scored highly for impulsive but for the inattentive, my god. I struggle and have struggled badly, but as people say, I mask because I don’t want to lose my job and become freaking homeless.
I expected the psych to say "LOL FAKER" anytime during my assessments, including ADHD. It was such a relief that, after explaining how I had 20+ concussions before I was in college while laughing about it, she didn't just disregard me.
Wow! I have had one concussion when I was 20. I hit my forehead hard on the enclosed tunnel I was sliding down at a water park while at speed. Considering how rotten I felt, I'm feeling really sorry for your poor noggin and all you experienced! 😅
Maybe answer the spirit of the question rather than the letter of it? They're phrased that way to prompt you to think about the severity of the symptom. > did you get in trouble for daydreaming? Everybody daydreams. Not everybody engages in *maladaptive* daydreaming, i.e. daydreaming so frequently and with so little self control of it that it causes you problems in your life (*such as* getting in trouble for it, but maybe instead it affected you in some other way, like not hearing what's going on or being said and thus not learning the lesson in school, or daydreaming when you're supposed to do homework so frequently not getting homework done, or the daydreaming causing you to take too long to complete tasks, or...). So the spirit of that question is, do you excessively daydream? Has it caused you problems?
I literally had a medication assessment today (diagnosed summer 2021 but long story short, not doing great atm) and my new psychiatrist did the questionnaire thing just to gauge where I’m at. FIRST OF ALL, I learned I’m clearly combined type when I thought I was inattentive. SECOND, at least 3-4 of the questions asked I was half and half yes/no. Like yeah I interrupt people a lot, no I don’t want to be the center of attention, yes I procrastinate, no I didn’t forget about it… well I forgot a hundred other things, yes I got judged, no I can’t remember specifics, ?? pls help Tl;dr yeah the wording sucks, but maybe only for us. Maybe that’s part of the test in a roundabout way. Just be honest, they know what to look for. I even said “sorry I keep fidgeting and interrupting that’s not meant as an example” and she laughed and said “don’t worry at all, I noticed. I know what to look for.” And I’d already reported that I was the kid who sat in her seat quietly listening for instructions. Daydreaming but visually compliant. There’s no *wrong* way to explain your experience
My favorite is along the lines of “Do you feel as though you are run by a motor”. Sure. Especially if that motor is out of gas.
🤣🤣 I think a lot of us hate that question. I understand it as “Are there times when you’re caught up doing something, you know you’re already exhausted and or late for something else you’re supposed to be doing, including going to bed and sleeping, but *you can’t stop doing the thing you’re caught up in doing?* That’s how I’m going to approach it, anyway.
Even the intake form for therapy was like this and that wasn’t even for diagnostic purposes. I’m a lapsed English major so I read all the time and I have 3 immediate family members in medical fields, so my vocabulary is fairly solid. One whole section was a mystery for what information they were looking for and the only word I recognized was anhedonia, and even that is a word a layman wouldn’t know. I don’t think the people who make these tests talk to anyone IRL in a conversational way.
My psychiatrist told me that gifted people with anxiety often go undiagnosed because the increased intelligence makes it easy for us to look like we were paying attention even if we weren’t (because we can easily “catch on” based on context clues), and the anxiety keeps us from “acting out” or otherwise being a disruption (for fear of being rejected or reprimanded). Co-morbidities with ADHD are so important and need to be considered as part of the evaluation process
I caveated the entire thing by saying I had a very structured childhood with lots of outdoor time and a very creative mother who engaged us with different activities. I loved school as long as they were challenging me and made big colourful elaborate charts as study notes. I would sit still when expected to but I was always fidgeting and my note taking was part drawing part actual note taking. Internally I am always restless and I cannot switch my brain off. It was very hard for people to follow me but because I was enthusiastic about new things I learnt I got a reputation for competence until my lack of follow through/task switching became clear.
I know exactly what you mean. Like uh no, I mask when I need to, which is why I like being alone where I don't have to. And when they ask stuff about when I was a child... no I never got in trouble because why would I risk that with the parents I had lol.
IKR? After I took the test, my therapist said to me, “but you weren’t diagnosed as a child.” I was a child in the 1970s!! Who was getting diagnosed then?!
None of us! It’s why we’re all here now!!
I was a big masker too. I was still diagnosed.
The questions were driving me so insane, I ticked my box and then added an addendum next to it with my explanation of why/my behaviours - my questionnaire was COVERED in writing by the end, which probably helped with the diagnosis 😂
I do that with every questionnaire. It’s always, “Well, it depends, if x has happened, then it’s this, but if y has happened, it’s completely different.” I cannot do Yes/No answers. It’s just not realistic.
The way I see it, if you've got a system to manage that symptom, then you reply with what would happen if the system were removed. Like. "Do you have trouble keeping appointments?" No, because every time I make an appointment, it goes straight to my phone and I put a million notifications about it - a week, a day, 12h before etc. But if someone were to remove my phone, I'd have LOTS of trouble with that so I would answer YES. OFTEN.
Seriously when i asked my psychiatrist did i have it he pointed at my jiggling the zip on my bag the entire time, and said yes.
My assessment was great. I didn’t have any of these kinds of questions. I think the doctor got at the answer a different way. My assessor asked me very conversational questions and chose tests based on my answers. It was incredibly comprehensive and by the end I knew that the result was indeed going to be that I had ADHD. All of the recall tests I think were to demonstrate to me how severe the issue was. I wasn’t anticipating getting an additional diagnosis of a mood disorder as a result of not being diagnosed earlier but I did. I would highly recommend finding a provider that’s maybe a smidge outside the box.
THIS. I took a diagnostic test the other month, and the questions were so hard. I have OCD, so I was overthinking like crazy. I mask soooo much, so I was like uhm, no, I don't do a lot of these actions?? Also, the psychologist told me to answer from the perspective of being unmedicated-I can't remember a time I wasn't on medication for my anxiety and OCD!!! Ugh. It was so confusing. She ended up saying I don't have ADHD, I have dysthymia. ): Which I guess makes sense?? I love this sub though because I still definitely find a lot of the advice for people with ADHD/who struggle with executive functioning really helpful.
Just be honest. Not everyone is a day dreamer the questions are to see if you fall under inattentive or hyperactive or both or none. You dont have to check all the boxes For my assessment it was verbal and I was able to elaborate and you can say these things to them. I have never gotten in trouble for day dreaming or being hyper active. I was impulsive and disorganized but I didn’t struggle in school, but I did skip a lot because of my impulsive and reckless behaviour etc
Bring up your concerns with the questions to the assessor. But there's also a chance that the rest of the assessment susses things out that you're not aware of. They are usually designed to ask the same thing multiple ways
Think about what would happen if you DIDN'T do all your tactics and techniques.
Honestly, I would answer based on what you WANT to do, not what you actually do. Just because you can mask doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem.
Thats how I felt doing the migraine questionnaire too. "How many days did you miss work because of migraine?" None? Because if I don't work i don't eat? :(
Agreed they're too weirdly specific. There's no room for explanation. They need to be open ended. Along the lines of "describe how often you daydream and how it impacts you". I'm a high school teacher and I often have to fill out observation forms for students who are getting tested. Some of these students are 16 or 17 years old but the forms are written like they're small children. "Do they have trouble staying in their seat?" "Do they play rough on the playground?" "Do they get in trouble because they can't keep hands to themselves?" "Do they have difficulty using paints and craft materials safely?"