In their book Driven to Distraction, Drs. Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey include a questionnaire that can help determine if an adult has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The authors make no clear distinction between what is ADD and what is 'normal” so for the purposes of this completely unscientific experiment, we will go with one quarter (25 question) of the responses answered with 'yes”. If you meet this threshold then you could likely be diagnosed with the disorder.
[Note: If you are too impatient to answer all the question the you definitely have ADD.]
Feel free to leave your score in the comments section. The questions are as follows:
1. Are you left-handed or ambidextrous?
2. Do you have a family history of drug or alcohol abuse, depression, or manic-depressive illness?
3. Are you moody?
4. Were you considered an underachiever in school? Now?
5. Do you have trouble getting started on things?
6. Do you drum your fingers a lot, tap your feet, fidget, or pace?
7. When you read, do you find that you often have to reread a paragraph or an entire page because you are daydreaming?
8. Do you tune out or space out a lot?
9. Do you have a hard time relaxing?
10. Are you excessively impatient?
11. Do you find that you undertake many projects simultaneously so your life often resembles a juggler who's got six more balls in the air than he can handle?
12. Are you impulsive?
13. Are you easily distracted?
14. Even if you are easily distracted, do you find that there are times when your power of concentration is laser-beam intense?
15. Do you procrastinate chronically?
16. Do you often get excited by projects and then not follow through?
17. More than most people, do you feel it is hard to make yourself understood?
18. Is your memory so porous that if you go from one room to the next to get something, by the time you get to the next room you've sometimes forgotten what you were looking for?
19. Do you smoke cigarettes?
20. Do you drink too much?
21. If you have ever tried cocaine, did you find that it helped you focus and calmed you down, rather than making you high?
22. Do you change the radio station in your car frequently?
23. Do you wear out your TV remote-control switch by changing stations frequently?
24. Do you feel driven, as if an engine inside you won't slow down?
25. As a kid, were you called words like, " a daydreamer," "lazy," "a spaceshot," "impulsive," "disruptive," "lazy," or just plain "bad"?
26. In intimate relationships is your inability to linger over conversations an impediment?
27. Are you always on the go, even when you don't really want to be?
28. More than most people, do you hate waiting in line?
29. Are you constitutionally incapable of reading directions first?
30. Do you have a hair-trigger temper?
31. Are you constantly having to sit on yourself to keep from blurting out the wrong thing?
32. Do you like to gamble?
33. Do you feel like exploding inside when someone has trouble getting to the point?
34. Were you hyperactive as a child?
35. Are you drawn to situations of high intensity?
36. Do you often try to do the hard things rather than what comes easily to you?
37. Are you particularly intuitive?
38. Do you often find yourself involved in a situation without having planned it at all?
39. Would you rather have your teeth drilled by a dentist than make or follow a list?
40. Do you chronically resolve to organize your life better only to find that you're always on the brink of chaos?
41. Do you often find that you have an itch you cannot scratch, an appetite for something "more" and you're not sure what it is?
42. Would you describe yourself as hypersexual?
43. One man who turned out to have adult ADD presented with this unusual triad of symptoms: cocaine abuse, frequent reading of pornography, and an addiction to crossword puzzles. Can you understand him , even if you do not have those symptoms?
44. Would you consider yourself an addictive personality?
45. Are you really more flirtatious than you mean to be?
46. Did you grow up in a chaotic, boundariless family?
47. Do you find it hard to be alone?
48. Do you often counter depressive moods by some sort of potentially harmful compulsive behavior such as overworking, overspending, overdrinking, or overeating?
49. Do you have dyslexia?
50. Do you have a family history of ADD or hyperactivity?
51. Do you have a really hard time tolerating frustration?
52. Are you restless without "action" in your life?
53. Do you have hard time reading a book all the way through?
54. Do you regularly break the rules or minor laws rather than put up with the frustration of obeying them?
55. Are you beset by irrational worries?
56. Do you frequently make number of letter reversals?
57. Have you been the driver and at fault in more than four car accidents?
58. Do you handle money erratically?
59. Are you a gung-ho, go-for-it sort of person?
60. Do you find structure and routine are both rare in your life and soothing when you find them?
61. Have you been divorced more than once?
62. Do you struggle to maintain self-esteem?
63. Do you have poor hand-eye coordination?
64. As a kid, were you a bit of a klutz at sports?
65. Have you changed jobs a lot?
66. Are you a maverick?
67. Are memos virtually impossible for you to read or write?
68. Do you find it almost impossible to keep an updated address book, phone book, or Rolodex?
69. Are you the life of the party one day and hang-dog the next?
70. Given an unexpected chunk of free time, do you often find that you don't use it well, or get depressed during it?
71. Are you more creative or imaginative than most people?
72. Is paying attention or staying tuned in a chronic problem for you?
73. Do you work best in short spurts?
74. Do you let the bank balance your checkbook?
75. Are you usually eager to try something new?
76. Do you find you often get depressed after a success?
77. Do you hunger after myths and other organizing stories?
78. Do you feel you fail to live up to your potential?
79. Are you particularly restless?
80. Were you a daydreamer in class?
81. Were you ever the class clown?
82. Have you ever been described as "needy" or even "insatiable"?
83. Do you have trouble accurately assessing the impact you have on others?
84. Do you tend to approach problems intuitively?
85. When you get lost, do you tend to "feel" your way along rather than refer to a map?
86. Do you often get distracted during sex, even though you like it?
87. Were you adopted?
88. Do you have many allergies?
89. Did you have frequent ear infections as a child?
90. Are you much more effective when you are your own boss?
91. Are you smarter than you've been able to demonstrate?
92. Are you particularly insecure?
93. Do you have trouble keeping secrets?
94. Do you often forget what you're going to say just as you are about to say it?
95. Do you love to travel?
96. Are you claustrophobic?
97. Have you ever wondered if you're crazy?
98. Do you get the gist of things very quickly?
99. Do you laugh a lot?
100. Did you have trouble paying attention long enough to read this entire questionnaire?
(Via: Policy Review)
Update: Brad from Infinite Monkeys adds some useful information to the discussion as well as a more valid checklist for diagnosis.
1
Good grief, most of the population would be diagnosed with ADD if this test were the standard. The problem with ADD/ADHD is that most of the kids (and probably adults) diagnosed with it actually have some other problem. It may be a behavioural issue or a it may be a real neurological problem like autism.
posted on 02.16.2004 9:50 AM2
The idea of teaching self restraint to children went out the same window that teaching them self esteem came in. So if the child is a little hard to handle especially if the child is a boy, drug em.
posted on 02.16.2004 10:10 AM3
I answered "yes" 30 times to that test.
I read an article in Skeptic Magazine about two years ago with a point-counterpoint on ADHD. The "anti-ADHD" guy was considerably more convincing, citing an inability to accurately diagnose ADHD (the diagnoses vary widely from doctor to doctor). He argued that Ritalin is not a medicine to treat a disease, but rather a performance enhancing drug. Rather like steroids for your brain.
Pretty scary stuff.
posted on 02.16.2004 10:36 AM4
If you answered yes to 1/4 of the questions above I have a further set of diagnostic questions.
-Do you now feel compelled to write anti-medication posts as a way of denying that you have any of these problems?
-Do you find yourself seeking out anti-medication texts as a way of comforting yourself?
-Are you looking for other disaffected types to post comments confirming that it's all a bunch of hooey?
-Are you Joe Carter?
---Okay, I admit the comments above are kind of a low blow. It's just that these kinds of posts piss me off because they're based on a desire to view the world in strictly black-white terms, and are often based on ignorance or an unwillingness to do an honest evaluation of the issue.----
5
I believe we are three-fold beings...body, soul and spirit.
Often when one aspect is "in trouble" the others will likewise be so too. The key then is to properly diagnose which part needs the "cure".
Take depression. There are people who have legitimate chemical imbalances causing depression and these people need medication.
Of course, some depression is in the realm of the emotions (soul) and for some the only cure is Jesus (for the spirit). If you are in one of these two camps, the last thing you want or need is Zoloft.
The world seems to divide us into only two groups (combining the spirit/soul) and even then often uses medicine to treat an issue that is not related to the physical body at all.
So I have no doubt that Ritalin can be effective for someone who truly needs it. Nor do I doubt that it is overly prescribed for those who don't. It makes it not much different than many other drugs in our society today.
posted on 02.16.2004 12:13 PM6
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: If we can't treat mental disorders with medication, we shouldn't be giving disabled people wheelchairs. You have to use the right tool for the right job.
I would agree that Ritalin is seriously overprescribed, though. People make too many assumptions about ADHD based on stereotypes, so they don't know what to look for.
posted on 02.16.2004 12:25 PM7
If we can't treat mental disorders with medication, we shouldn't be giving disabled people wheelchairs. You have to use the right tool for the right job.
posted on 02.16.2004 12:43 PM