Suggested Diagnostic Criteria for AD/HD in Adults
If you have exhibited at least 12 of the following behaviors since childhood, and if these symptoms are not associated with any other medical or psychiatric condition, consider an evaluation by a team of AD/HD professionals:
- A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals (regardless of how much one has actually accomplished)
- Difficulty getting organized
- Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started
- Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through
- A tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark
- A frequent search for high stimulation
- An intolerance of boredom
- Easy distractibility (trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or conversation, often coupled with an inability to focus at times)
- Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent
- Trouble in going through established channels and following proper procedure
- Impatient with low tolerance of frustration
- Impulsive, either verbally or in action (as an impulsive spending of money)
- Changing plans, enacting new schemes or career plans, and the like; hot-tempered
- A tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; a tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about, alternating with attention to or disregard for actual dangers
- A sense of insecurity
- Mood swings and mood lability, especially when disengaged from a person or a project
- Physical or cognitive restlessness
- A tendency toward addictive behavior
- Chronic problems with self-esteem
- Inaccurate self-observation
- Family history of AD/HD, manic-depressive illness, depression, substance abuse, or other disorders of impulse control or mood
Source: The Hallowell Center, Sudbury, MA. Web: www.drhallowell.com
If you have exhibited at least 12 of the following behaviors since childhood, and if these symptoms are not associated with any other medical or psychiatric condition, consider an evaluation by a team of AD/HD professionals.Article Limit Reached
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