ADHD Symptoms in Adults
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How Do You Know If You Have ADHD? Some Hints

"...You buy another organizing system, to organize your last five organizing systems." It's funny because it's true. (And sad, and frustrating, and empowering...) Here, adults reflect on the many ways ADHD makes itself impossible to ignore. What were your early warning signs?

15 Comments: How Do You Know If You Have ADHD? Some Hints

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  1. I have just been diagnosed at 22 years old and tried elvanse for the first time today. The results were great from the meds my leg wasnt jumping constantly and I could sit at my desk at work for more than a hour without feeling like I have to get up, everything felt quieter and calmer too. However now I’m at home I’m still thinking to myself I dont have ADHD, how can I tell I have ADHD? Like how my mind is it’s normal for me, would meds have a differant effect if I didnt have ADHD? Iv been told all my life I have so much energy and people have always brought up ADHD and in one part of my brain I know I have ADHD but the other side of my brain just doesnt believe it, anyone got any tips?

  2. Then there was fhyd time I was sitting in my parked car, talking to my dentist’s secretary on my cell phone. We decided to schedule an appointment for me to be seen. I had her hold on the line for several minutes while I looked for my cell phone to put the appointment in my calendar, while commenting to her via the cell phone that “my phone has to be here somewhere. I’m sitting in the car! It has to be in arm’s reach!”

  3. I thought the stop light story was a bit silly, until the following happened to me. I pulled up to a stop light and patiently waited for it to turn green. Eventually I figured out that I couldn’t see the light. I’m tall, the roof is low, the light was high….

  4. You know you have ADHD when you’ve had to reset your password to this site countless times. I swear I was looking and looking for my cell phone, which I was holding. I appear to be a dingbat to other’s but I really work hard to have a sense of humor, that’s imperative. I earned my master’s degree, have a nice paying job, but lordy, I can drive myself crazy.

    Great article. I have done each one of the examples.

  5. How about this? I have reminders set for everything. When they go off I get annoyed and reset them for the next day or another time. Really important reminders I set a special tone so it really grabs my attention to get it done. Those annoy me worse and I put them off too. How can I change this behavior?

  6. How about this? I’m in the middle of calling someone, and then hurry and hang up before they answer, because I forgot who I was calling. Or even better (i.e. worse), they answer the phone and I ask who’s speaking. It gets less painful once you give up trying to hide your ADHD.

  7. O Brother!! ALL of these Ring sooo True for me… and then it gets even more complicated because they are also readily attributable to my Definitely having Complex-PTSD from early childhood developmental trauma Abuse.

    Mariah’s STRUGGLES
    are Definitely better Understood too, though. As a child or adult with ADD (ok ..so now it’s called ADHD despite having NO hyperactivity making the disorder obvious), ADD alone was/is Enough her to have so many mis-behavior lapses!! To top it off, Mariah DID also have a traumatic childhood even though I did miraculously successfully parent (single). Praise God!!!

  8. I use NOTES on my iPhone everyday ! I add dates for appointments, articles to read later, thoughts about planning, business ideas, little weirdo type of to do lists, need to buy on amazon or eBay lists, need to check on buying physically in the store lists, places or stores I need to physically go check out (like Guitar Center and Pianos), or jotting down authors, peoples quotes I am intrigued with to read and/or watch their life story on YouTube (Honest Abe, Jamie Dimon, David Jones Bowie, Jack Welch, Jim Cramer ) etc etc etc all kinda of madness and grace belong in my notes. Thank Gashhhhh for Notes. Oh, and if you didint know this already, you can “Lock” your “personal” notes (you know, the emotional / conspiracy ones) if you want too. But, no really, this is the generation of transparency, so who really gives a…Beeeep. =) For anything that seems to be “all in good manners” is when disillusionment seeks a variety of the upmost truest most deepest forms of EQ, and IQ.

  9. You know you have ADHD when you’re positive that if you just focus and work fast, you can get this simple task done in an hour. Four hours later, you have absolutely no idea what happened…

  10. ^^^this one^^^

    Wow all of these happen to me! In the shower i forget if i washed my hair and do it 2-3 times which turns into OCD.

    I’ve been diagnosed with OCD but am sure i have adhd … is it common to have both of these behaviors or disorders?

    I tick the box of every symptom of adult adhd…

    Thanks!

    1. Absolutely common! I was finally diagnosed with ADD combined type this year at 33, along with OCD and sensory processing disorder. I had been diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder prior to that. After taking medication for ADD my depression is gone and anxiety is diminishing as I am able to manage life! There are many cooccuring issues with ADD. Best od luck to you!

  12. I like this list, but it is missing one that I heard the other day from someone else who also has ADHD. “You know you have ADHD when you have more alarms set to remind you to go to bed, than you do to wake up in the morning.”

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