Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
Far more people have ADHD than are ever assessed for it. If you have wondered about yourself for years, the odds that an assessment would be worth your time are better than you think.
The usual fear is being told you are making it up, or wasting a professional's morning. In practice adults are missed far more often than they are over-identified, especially when they are already being treated for anxiety or low mood. Take examples from childhood as well as now, and from more than one part of your life, because that is what an assessor is looking for.
Qur’an and Sunnah
You can ask those who have knowledge if you do not know (Quran 16:43). Taking a long standing uncertainty to someone qualified to look at it properly is the plain course here.
وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا مِن قَبۡلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالࣰ ا نُّوحِيٓ إِلَيۡهِمۡۖ فَسۡـَٔلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلذِّكۡرِ إِن كُنتُمۡ لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ
[Prophet], all the messengers We sent before you were simply men to whom We had given the Revelation: you [people] can ask those who have knowledge if you do not know
Qur’an 16:43read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A review of adults presenting with other psychiatric problems describes how often ADHD goes unrecognised in them, partly because the symptoms overlap with those conditions and partly because people do not see the traits in themselves. It is a narrative review rather than a count, so it describes a clinical pattern rather than measuring how many are missed.
Barkley RA, Brown TE. (2008). Unrecognized attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adults presenting with other psychiatric disorders.. CNS spectrums doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Recognising a pattern that has always been there is what makes it possible to get help built for it.
When not to
Online questionnaires can point you in a direction, but only a proper assessment can separate ADHD from the several other things that look like it.
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
When you meet a confident claim about ADHD, look it up before passing it on. A search of recent papers, limited to the last few years, takes a couple of minutes and often changes the picture.
Eating and body image are part of this for more people than you would think. Forgetting meals all day and then eating without stopping in the evening is a very ordinary ADHD pattern rather than a separate failing.
If you have not been assessed because of money, waiting lists or simply getting to appointments, that is a barrier and not a lack of seriousness on your part.