Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
Much of what matters most in an assessment never comes up unless you ask for it directly. Unplanned pregnancies, money trouble, sackings, near misses in the car: people very rarely volunteer these.
Put the questions on the form rather than waiting for a moment that feels right, since a questionnaire normalises them and takes the weight out of the asking. Keep the wording plain and free of judgement, and say why you are asking. What comes back is often the most useful material in the whole assessment.
Qur’an and Sunnah
He has been aware of you from the time He produced you from the earth (Quran 53:32). Nothing a person hesitates to say is new information to God, which takes some of the shame out of saying it to a clinician.
ٱلَّذِينَ يَجۡتَنِبُونَ كَبَٰٓئِرَ ٱلۡإِثۡمِ وَٱلۡفَوَٰحِشَ إِلَّا ٱللَّمَمَۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ وَٰسِعُ ٱلۡمَغۡفِرَةِۚ هُوَ أَعۡلَمُ بِكُمۡ إِذۡ أَنشَأَكُم مِّنَ ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَإِذۡ أَنتُمۡ أَجِنَّةࣱ فِي بُطُونِ أُمَّهَٰتِكُمۡۖ فَلَا تُزَكُّوٓاْ أَنفُسَكُمۡۖ هُوَ أَعۡلَمُ بِمَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰٓ
As for those who avoid grave sins and foul acts, though they may commit small sins, your Lord is ample in forgiveness. He has been aware of you from the time He produced you from the earth and from your hiding places in your mothers’ wombs, so do not assert your own goodness:He knows best who is mindful of Him
Qur’an 53:32read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review of ADHD in parents around pregnancy and the postpartum period concluded that this remains an unclear area. That is worth knowing before you assume anything about what a client's experience should have looked like. It supports asking rather than inferring.
Kittel-Schneider S, Quednow BB, Leutritz AL, McNeill RV, Reif A. (2021). Parental ADHD in pregnancy and the postpartum period - A systematic review.. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
People answer the questions they are asked and leave out whatever they assume will be judged.
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
ADHD tends to surface at the points where life asks for more organising: a new school year with seven teachers, the first term at university, a first job, a promotion into managing other people.
Girls get diagnosed later, and a good deal of the reason is social. A boy who plays the fool gets laughed with, while a girl who does the same is corrected by her friends within a week, so she goes quiet and disappears from view.
With ADHD the one dependable thing is that you are not dependable in the same way each day. A day when everything works and a day when nothing does can arrive with no reason you can find.