Although the list we found in Honey, Are you Listening? (Fowler and Fowler, 1995) prompted us to seek additional help, you can find a similar helpful list on adult ADHD symptoms in the excellent foundational work, Driven to Distraction (Hallowell and Ratey, 1994). Their work provides a list of 20 items with which they say the chronic disturbance (to which I say how polite of them to use such a term) is present if the adult can say yes to at least 15 of the items.
1. A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals.
2. Difficulty getting organized.
3. Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started.
4. Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through.
5. Tendency to say what comes to mind with necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness
6. A frequent search for high stimulation.
7. An intolerance of boredom.
8. Easy distractibility, trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune our or drift away with an ability to hyperfocus at times.
9. Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent.
10. Trouble in going through established channels, following proper procedure.
11. Impatient; low tolerance for frustration.
12. Impulsive, either verbally or in action.
13. Tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly
14. Sense of insecurity.
15. Mood swings, mood lability.
16. Restlessness
17. Tendency toward addictive behavior
18. Chronic problems with self-esteem
19. Inaccurate self-observation.
20. Family history of ADHD, manic depressive illness, or depression.
I like the list my husband individualized for himself:
1. Got into trouble throughout child and teen years as a mouthy smart-aleck.
2. Had a difficult time paying attention in school.
3. Impulsive for me began with a capital I.
4. College transcripts contained more incompletes or with-drawns than passed class with a C or higher.
5. I don’t want to share the number of risky ventures I got into.
6. I don’t want to describe them, either.
7. I was lazy and called lazy.
8. I wanted to dig a huge hole in the dirt in the backyard and take comfort in it.
9. I was only organized when the task was really important to me.
10. I often cried as a child.
11. Mother didn’t like it when I sang for her friends, “ Casey was hit with a bucket of s*** as the band played on.”
12. I didn’t understand why; she was the one who taught me the song.
13. I frequently did not feel accepted by my dad, but I knew dad’s mother loved me.
14. I learned to cook out of necessity, but I did not clean the kitchen well, and neither did mother.
15. I always felt different and alone.
16. I started smoking cigarettes at an early age.
17. When I like to do something like cook or garden, I can focus on it, but I only read one book completely while I was in high school.
My husband found that when he could put a name to some of his consistent behaviors and uncomfortable memories, he could view ADHD as a framework and sense of perspective.
I believe the insecurity remains along with the tendency to worry and what I see as toxic thinking described by Hallowell and Ratey. The past associated with ADHD is not easily unraveled or put to rest. However , the future holds greater promise due to the teeny steps of improvement I have seen in the past few years.
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