How Do You Know If It’s ADHD? Take the Quiz and Find Out

Oh Look, There’s a Squirrel!

You’re working when your BFF calls. You look out the window” “Oh Look, There’s a Squirrel.” You get off the call and take a picture of the squirrel. What a cute picture. Why not post it on Facebook? Thirty minutes later you’re still on Facebook. Does this mean you have ADHD?

A Topsy Turvey Life

My temporary job at Ohio State had ended. I got married and took on the raising of 5 kids who didn’t want a step mom. Didn’t help that my son. Stephen, aka Big Steve, had no interest in having siblings. (The family stuff would eventually work itself out in loving ways.)

The eight of us moved back to Denver: Eric, I, Patricia, Cathy, Jennifer and either Chris or Little Steve in an old cargo van we nicknamed Bondo. Bondo had no business on the highway. Big Steve followed behind, driving the U Haul, accompanied by Chris or Little Steve who took turns riding in the U-Haul.

We were still in Ohio when the U-haul had a problem. Our caravan stopped, and we waited for the U-Haul repair guys to arrive. Back on the road, we stopped again because the passenger door on the cargo van fell off. (Luckily I didn’t fall out. Moral of the story: Always wear your seat belt!

When the caravan reached Denver, we stopped at a Perkins Restaurant for a quick bite to eat before unpacking the U-Haul at our new place. The server brought Eric’s pancakes. As he reached for the syrup, the lid flew off. Eric was now covered with an entire bottle of maple-flavored syrup!

Welcome to Denver.

We settled in and I added taking care of my Mother who was deep into dementia from many small strokes, living alone, and needed much care. I was deeply depressed from no longer teaching at a university and going through menopause.

Neither Eric nor I had a job. No wonder I felt out of snyc!

Is It ADHD?

The grocery store was the worst. I’d make a list, lose it, make another grocery list, and then find the first list. Now I had two lists and one of them included tasks and errands. Once at the store, I wandered around, looking at everything — like I’d never been in a grocery story before. Oh right, don’t forget groceries for your Mother.

It was squirrels everywhere. I’d be gone a couple hours, coming home with maybe half of what had been on my two lists plus my Mother’s list.

When I mentioned this to a friend, she said, “You know, MaryJo, I think you have ADHD.” “Huh? What are you talking about?” I responded. She explained. I’d never heard of ADHD. I’d been holed up in the ivory tower of university life for years. But what she said made sense.

The next day I went to the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Found the books on ADHD, dragged 8–10 them over to a comfy chair and started reading. Most of them had a quiz toward the front of the book: “Find Out if You Have ADHD.” I took at least six quizzes. I got A+ on every quiz. Hmm, maybe I do have this thing called ADHD?

Found an ADHD counselor. She agreed: I have ADHD. She got a psychiatrist to prescribe Ritalin. I said “no.” She pushed. I agreed to try the drug. After a week, I threw it out. No Ritalin for me.

I began studying ADHD in adults, in kids. The pros and cons of it being classified as a mental health problem. What looks like ADHD but isn’t. (Lots, by the way.) The pros and cons of drug interventions. That it’s wildly over-diagnosed. What to do about it, in addition to the often recommended drugs.

Started teaching parents and teachers about ADHD and ways to help them at school. Put up a website. Ran workshops. Offered checklists. Wrote my own quizzes.

A Brain Scan Answers Some Questions

But wait, can you really diagnose ADHD by chatting with a person after they’ve taken a pencil and paper test? Probably not. I’ll get a brain scan. Now off to see a psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD and offers brain scans and computer tests.

He concludes that I don’t exactly have ADHD but I do have all the symptoms. My brain pattern isn’t consistent with an ADHD brain pattern, but I do have a brain pattern that would cause ADHD symptoms. So, for practical purposes, I have ADHD.

I ask him how I “got” ADHD. He replies, “Probably from a brain injury or trauma at birth.” Ah, that explains it. I was adopted after being born in the Salvation Army Hospital during World War 2 to a very angry and out-of-control Mom.

Turns out a high percentage of folks with ADHD are adopted.

Do You Have ADHD? Check Out the List

Wondering If You Have ADHD? Here’s a handy check list from the Mayo Clinic with additions, suggestions, and contrarian comments from me.

*Had ADHD as a youngster: We don’t all of a sudden get ADHD. If you didn’t have it as a child, you don’t have it now. Obviously you could still have some of the following “symptoms.” But you don’t get the label.

*Mind never stops: You are always thinking. You don’t understand how a brain could stop thinking. You thought everybody thought all the time. You love to tell stories. Have “brilliant” ideas every 10 minutes which you either forget five minutes later or decide the next day that what was brilliant yesterday is idiotic today. Often makes it hard to move forward,

Impulsiveness: You did a dumb thing on the spur of the moment. Regret it later and unmercifully beat yourself up. Obviously this dumb thing you did is proof of your stupidity and inherent “badness.” I threw my master’s thesis in the fire after it was finished but before it was accepted. Read this sad story here.

Problems prioritizing tasks: Since everything on your list is a priority, it’s hard to figure out what to do first. Instead, why not take the dog out for a walk?

Disorganization: You have piles of paper everywhere: notes from webinars, client notes, to-do lists, outlines for your next project, notes from finished projects that should be filed, old to-do lists, new to-do lists, bills to pay, bills you’ve already paid, random receipts, mail you’ve opened, mail you haven’t opened, sticky notes stuck to each other, New Yorker magazines you haven’t read yet— if only this magazine didn’t come every week! And books everywhere.

Poor time management skills: You’re often late except for the time you forgot which day the event was and got there a day early.

Problems focusing on a task: There are too many squirrels outside your window. They’re even in your computer, on the internet, in your kitchen where the snacks are. Tip: A hooded sweat shirt will block your peripheral vision, keeping you from seeing things out your office window. Read more about this neat trick here.

Can’t multitask: Not sure why the Mayo Clinic put this on the list. Dozens of studies have proven repeatedly that multitasking is a cruel joke. It has nothing to do with ADHD and should never be attempted. This may be the Clinic’s attempt to contradict our love of hyperfocus — hyperfocus is not considered part of a “balanced life” so is often in the “bad things about ADHD” lists. But it makes us happy and helps us finish what we enjoy. I’ve often wondered if the experts who create these lists have ADHD. I doubt it or they’d love hyperfocus. Having a balanced life has never been one of my goals anyway.

Excessive activity or restlessness. You’re at a symphony concert and everyone but you is sitting still with their hands in their lap. You’ve crossed your legs four or five times. Moved your hands from you lap to your legs to scratching the itch behind your ear, to clasping your hands to unclasping them. You do this throughout the entire concert even though they’re playing Bach, and he’s your favorite composer. Your husband is sitting next to you, nudging you with his elbow.

Daydreaming or spaciness. This refers to ADD without the H. (The H standing for hyperactivity.) Some folks don’t do excessive activity or feel restless. Instead they space out. In my experience adults, over the age of 40 or so may do both — that means me. (I have not done a statistical study on this so no proof with the appropriate footnote.) We are restless at concerts even though we aren’t bored. But we’re also able to sit in the comfy futon chair in our office and space out for hours.

Poor planning: Today we’ll do six errands, write three blog posts, attend a webinar, and cook a four course meal for 8 guests that includes a complicated dessert that uses four bowls, three sauce pans, and two baking dishes. (And this is the first time you’ve made this dessert.) We’re leaving on a trip Tuesday morning. We get up at 4 am Tuesday morning to pack because we never got around to packing on Monday. We have serious last minute-itis.

Low frustration tolerance: We tend not to do well with tasks, chores, jobs, even careers that don’t interest us or that we find boring. Most of us could never work in a factory even if the money were terrific. Sometimes something that’s broken will catch our interest, and we’ll hyperfocus until it’s fixed. Other times, our frustration causes us to toss the thing in the trash. Forget even thinking about fixing it.

Frequent mood swings: A year ago or so I decided to write two memoirs: one of my birth-father and one of my adoptive family. In the course of one week, my moods changed every day. Read this running commentary from brilliant to stupid and back to good idea.

Problems following through and completing tasks: Oh where to start? The libraries we could fill if writers followed through on all the books we were going to write. The Patent Office would have to hire hundreds of new employees if those of us who are inventors of finished making our widgets.

Explosive temper: (and emotional dysregulation in general): This one is complicated. Because “real” ADHD often comes from trauma at birth or a very young age, we can be triggered unconsciously by an event that “reminds” us of a past event. We blow up and often aren’t sure why, realizing later that such a response wasn’t warranted and made no logical sense.

Trouble coping with stress: Hmm, who am I to argue with the experts at the Mayo Clinic? But I would ask the question, “Doesn’t everyone have trouble coping with stress?” And if one doesn’t have trouble coping with stress, are they stressed out?

*Had a learning disability in school: Not everyone with ADHD had or still has a learning disability but it’s common. (And not everyone with a learning disability has ADHD.) Many kids will have trouble with reading. I had and still have dyscalculia — a fancy word for finding numbers incomprehensible. These are folks like me who got a D in arithmetic, a D in algebra, a D in geometry. Who majored in education in college because it was the only major that didn’t require math. For whom balancing a check book remains a deep mystery to be avoided at all costs.

*Change our Minds and Move often: Most of us have “change” as a middle name. ADHDers have often lived in more places than average, changed careers and jobs frequently, have many brilliant ideas about which they frequently change their mind. As an adult, I’ve lived in 7 states and Canada. In 8 different homes in Denver after college and graduate school, and 5 different cities and towns in Colorado.

Low self-esteem: How could one not have low self-esteem given the list above. And then add the Mayo Clinic’s warning that adults with ADHD also have tendencies toward poor school or work performance, unemployment, financial problems, trouble with the law, alcohol or other substance misuse, frequent car accidents or other accidents, unstable relationships, poor physical and mental health, poor self-image, and suicide attempts.

Unattainable goals: Where to start? The ridiculous goals you set on New Years? The goal you set to finish a book chapter by the end of the week? The goal to stick to your budget? But surely people who don’t have ADHD botch up their goals too?

My favorite goal is wasting two hours getting my allergy shot. The allergy shot office is not next door. The routine involves driving there, waiting one’s turn, getting the shot, waiting 30 minutes in the office to make sure you don’t die while driving back home. They said twice a week. I said “You gotta be kidding?” They said, “OK, once a week.”

One time I failed so badly at reaching this goal they had to back up and repeat the shot from last time. Another time, having missed last week’s shot, I drove out there on Monday. They’re closed on Mondays.

I ask again why I’m doing this. They repeat: “The shots will help prevent those 2–3 times a year bouts you have in the winter with asthma-induced bronchitis. They knock you out for a couple weeks at a time and sometimes longer. Sometimes these bouts eventually require taking steroids. You don’t like taking steroids. Oh, right! So I set another goal to get my allergy shot . . . tomorrow.

So now that you’ve checked “Yes, that’s me” to most of the above and maybe feeling discouraged, read “7 Reasons I Love ADHD Despite My Advanced Age and Gray Hair.” That should cheer you up and give you reason to be proud! The experts who make these lists, like the one above from the Mayo clinic, often ignore the positive aspects of ADHD. After all, they’re in the business of treating sick people.

I repeat, please read, 7 Reasons I Love ADHD. Read it a couple of times. Remember that, among other positive traits, we’re creative, intelligent, have empathy, and capable of greatness.

If you love taking self-tests and you’re an entrepreneur, read “Is ADHD Sabotaging My Business or Rocking It.” It’s a twofer: A quiz for negative attributes and one for positive attributes. Spoiler alert: Many entrepreneurs have ADHD. Read the post and find out why.

Notes 1. Mayo Clinic, “Adult Attention Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder,” https://mayocl.in/2YLWjn7.

2. Entries with an asterisk are those the author has added.