Is this ADD/ADHD. Please help.

[arsenik]

Hello everyone. I’m male 26 years. I’m really confused whether I have ADD or not. I have collected my past struggles and would like to present it. Feel free to comment on the same, so that I can be more confident of the diagnosis :-
Symptoms I have observed since long time:-

Academic:-

– I can’t focus on the subject at hand. My focus gets shifted. Any internal thoughts, external distractions can drift me away from the work at hand.
– Have working memory problem. like it affects when solving the numerical problems. I forget what I need to do next or what my goal of problem is. then I have to again go to the start to get the flow. This causes me to leave th problem half-solved. No matter how hard I memorise,I forget when at exams. This takes huge time to solve the problems.
– I just cannot compete the task or the problems within the given amount of time. this causes huge stress at the last moment.
– I have to read multiple times the problem to get the context of it. To get the summary. My minds racing like anything.
– In lectures, my attention gets drifted away and cannot pay attention on the teacher. I go away daydreaming. My mind wanders all over the place. Hence I have difficulty in getting the subject.
– I make high listening errors. somebody is talking to me and my mind gets drifted away. Hence people assume that Im ignoring them, not interested in them.
– My mind is always foggy causing great difficulty to maintain the cognitive levels.
– I just cannot perform when on stress. Get easily burnt out.
– My mind wanders a lot when on a specific task. I just cannot filter the internal chatter to focus on the task at hand.
– Only when the subject is highly interesting, I can focus on it. Then I have no difficulty to study and complete it.
– I start multiple tasks,but I cannot complete them. Its like there are multiple things pulling me in every direction. One min Im thinking and doing X task and second min, Im doing something different.
– I have difficult time to follow the steps to solve a certain type of problem. To follow the directions.
– I suck badly at performance. I have every knowledge about the subject, I have practiced it hard,memorised it. But at that point of time I cannot do it.
– I can’t pay attention to the details. Something small but important gets missed out.
– Have very hard time with the paper work. It causes great confusion.
– Im easily confused when on task. Don’t know what to do at that moment.
– I have very difficult time doing the arithmetic calculations in my mind.
– I have to do multiple attempts on calculator to solve the same problem.
– Have hard time to maintain alertness. Daytime sleepiness is huge.
– Once some stimulating thing takes over me, I have hard time to stop my flow of thoughts and focus on somewhere.
– I have great difficult in the application problem solving. Using set of formulas to solve the problem at hand. I have to practice till I memorise it and only then I can solve it.
– I have to check and recheck all the things repeatedly. And even after it I don’t have the confidence that the solution is correct.
– Uncontrolled mind wandering when studying. This can be very random thought which pulls me out of the task at hand.
– Not enough clarity while writing answers. Missing out some of the imp points.
– Forgetfulness. Answers, tasks and things.
– Being great in connecting things, but having difficulty in going to the depth of the subject.
– Difficulty to follow through the tasks and completing till the end.
– If something is not that interesting or stimulating, I drift off to sleep.
– Not able to grasp things easily. Orally as well as written. Need more time to understand it.
– Having to write down everything while studying. Unable to remember by just reading.
– Doing things without thinking of the cause and effects. Impulsive.
– Daydreaming a lot.

Work:

– Have problems with short term memory. Cant retrieve what was imp and on task.
– Having great problems to finish the task in the given timeline/deadline.
– Coming to start many times,but unable to move forward. This causes being stuck in the situation.
– Very high procrastination until the last moment. And still not able to complete it.
– Making many careless mistakes in work and never getting the error-free results.
– Have trouble organising priorities,tasks to complete the specific project in the expected time frame.
– If the work is uninteresting, I just cannot do it. Only when it is interesting I can go for it.
– Making repeated mistakes.
– Need high motivation to start or do anything.
– Difficulty to estimate the time required to complete the task.
– Being impulsive-speaking/doing without thinking.
– Highly disorganised.
– feeling zoned out or spaced out. During work, conversations.
– Feeling unmotivated or apathetic easily.
– High boredom experienced.
– Even very small things/problems can cause high stress.
– Very high mood swings. Going from excitement to apathy in a few seconds.
– Difficulty to wind down.Be disconnected from the stressful situation.
– Unable to put brakes to the mental traffic to make some effective work done.
– inner restlessness. Like building lot of pressure inside unable to flow through .
– Having great difficulty with time management. Being consistently late.
– Consistently fidgeting not calm inside.
– Having high inertia static. Need a lot of stimulation to get started.
– Im more trapped or more sensitive to my internal thoughts or any external stimulations, rather than the task at hand. e.g..-work,conversation.
– Trouble getting started.
– Difficulty in completing projects.
– Being hyper focused/ over focused on a certain task.
– Have difficulty prioritising tasks.
– Always multitasking.
– Always need some supervising. I cannot trust my work.

Health:-

– Having difficulty to go to sleep. racing thoughts .
– Having very low self-esteem.
– Unable to focus on the ONE thing . Being wandered.
– Feeling of guilt, underachievement, frustration,discouragement.
– Unable to attain the goal I have planned to reach as I get drifted away from the distractions.
– Difficulty while driving. My focus gets drifted away. Thoughts come.
– Feelings of depersonalisation. Where I was completely separated from the real scenario.
– Lot of confusion and unable to use my mind when in social environment.
– OCD. Checking the things again and again.
– Depression and anxiety problems.
– Social shyness phobias.
– Complete chaos in my mind.
– Unable to remember roads and navigate myself.
– Worrying endlessly.
– Lot of internal restlessness.
– Sense of insecurity and fear.
– Inactiveness, dullness.
– social anxiety.
– Scared to take new risks.
– Impulsive shopping and spending.
– Easily feeling overwhelmed.

Relationships:-

– Being careless and not listening.
– Being irresponsible .

[Penny Williams]

The only way to know for sure if you have ADHD or not is to get a thorough professional evaluation. There are several conditions that overlap with ADHD and sometimes look like ADHD.

You can start with a self-test:

[Self-Test] Could You Have Adult ADHD / ADD?

That can help you know if you might be on the right track. Then, seek an evaluation:

Who Can Diagnose ADHD?

Penny
ADDitude Community Moderator, Author & Mentor on Parenting ADHD, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism

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