Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Getting assessed and diagnosed
If you cannot remember much about being six, you are in the majority. Early childhood comes back poorly for most adults, while the teenage years are far easier to describe.
So do not sit in an assessment feeling you have failed a test because the early years are a blur. Bring what you can find instead: old school reports, a parent or older sibling who remembers, the year things started going wrong. What you recall from secondary school counts for a great deal, because that is the stretch most people can actually give an account of.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes (Quran 2:286). Forgetting is written into the prayer we were given, so it is hardly a fault to bring to an appointment.
لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفۡسًا إِلَّا وُسۡعَهَاۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتۡ وَعَلَيۡهَا مَا ٱكۡتَسَبَتۡۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذۡنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوۡ أَخۡطَأۡنَاۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحۡمِلۡ عَلَيۡنَآ إِصۡرࣰ ا كَمَا حَمَلۡتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِنَاۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلۡنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦۖ وَٱعۡفُ عَنَّا وَٱغۡفِرۡ لَنَا وَٱرۡحَمۡنَآۚ أَنتَ مَوۡلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرۡنَا عَلَى ٱلۡقَوۡمِ ٱلۡكَٰفِرِينَ
God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear: each gains whatever good it has done, and suffers its bad- ‘ Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes. Lord, do not burden us as You burdened those before us. Lord, do not burden us with more than we have strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our Protector, so help us against the disbelievers.’
Qur’an 2:286read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A long term follow up of children with ADHD into young adulthood found that symptoms persisted for a substantial proportion, and that what people said about themselves and what those around them said did not always agree. That divergence is one reason assessments ask for a second account rather than leaning on memory alone. It follows one large trial sample, so it describes that group rather than everybody.
Swanson JM, Arnold LE, Molina BSG, Sibley MH, Hechtman LT, Hinshaw SP, Abikoff HB, Stehli A, Owens EB, Mitchell JT, Nichols Q, Howard A, Greenhill LL, Hoza B, Newcorn JH, Jensen PS, Vitiello B, Wigal T, Epstein JN, Tamm L, Lakes KD, Waxmonsky J, Lerner M, Etcovitch J, Murray DW, Muenke M, Acosta MT, Arcos-Burgos M, Pelham WE, Kraemer HC, MTA Cooperative Group. (2017). Young adult outcomes in the follow-up of the multimodal treatment study of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: symptom persistence, source discrepancy, and height suppression.. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Distant memory is thin for everyone, so an honest account of what you do recall is worth more than a strained one.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Ask for a number first, then go hunting for exceptions. How is today on a scale of one to ten, and when was it last higher than that?
Check the licensing before assuming you cannot afford a good instrument. Some come with permission to photocopy once you have bought the manual.
'I set a reminder and still did not do it' is not a story about a bad reminder. It tells you the missing piece was never information, and a bigger, louder version of the same thing will fail in the same way.