Possibly. There are some who use the standardized surveys too literally in my opinion. Sometimes the questions that represent the person's struggles are not asked in the surveys, yet their life story reads like ADHD. It's also hard to remove other issues that confuse the diagnosis, such as sleep deprivation. If one is chronically sleep deprived, it can look like ADHD when it's not, so it's hard to diagnose if there are known sleep problems. (Of course ADHD can cause sleep problems, so it can be hard to get great sleep for this example.) Getting the other conditions under better management may help to sort out the diagnosis. That said, if other conditions that commonly exist with ADHD are not well managed with typical treatments, I would recommend assessing for ADHD as an underlying problem. For example, I talk with many parents of my patients who have struggled with anxiety for years and never really get it under control until they talk to their prescriber about ADHD possibilities and start treatment for ADHD. Advocate for yourself. Learn about ADHD from reputable sources, like CHADD and ADDA. I've been answering a lot of questions like this on BlueSky and will probably do a post with helpful resources. Stay tuned!
And I was answering as if you have ADHD but testing fails to show it. The flip side is that you do not have ADHD but have tested positive. Sleep, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and other conditions can look like ADHD. They should all be ruled out.
As I read this list it appears everyone has ADHD. This can’t possibly be the case. How do you differentiate between modeled & learned behaviors, personality traits & dysfunction due to ADHD?
That's why it's important to get officially diagnosed by someone trained in assessments. There are many behaviors that anyone can have some of the time, but if it impacts daily life in a significant way, then treatments can be beneficial.
Can someone be tested multiple times and still be misdiagnosed?
Thank you.
Possibly. There are some who use the standardized surveys too literally in my opinion. Sometimes the questions that represent the person's struggles are not asked in the surveys, yet their life story reads like ADHD. It's also hard to remove other issues that confuse the diagnosis, such as sleep deprivation. If one is chronically sleep deprived, it can look like ADHD when it's not, so it's hard to diagnose if there are known sleep problems. (Of course ADHD can cause sleep problems, so it can be hard to get great sleep for this example.) Getting the other conditions under better management may help to sort out the diagnosis. That said, if other conditions that commonly exist with ADHD are not well managed with typical treatments, I would recommend assessing for ADHD as an underlying problem. For example, I talk with many parents of my patients who have struggled with anxiety for years and never really get it under control until they talk to their prescriber about ADHD possibilities and start treatment for ADHD. Advocate for yourself. Learn about ADHD from reputable sources, like CHADD and ADDA. I've been answering a lot of questions like this on BlueSky and will probably do a post with helpful resources. Stay tuned!
And I was answering as if you have ADHD but testing fails to show it. The flip side is that you do not have ADHD but have tested positive. Sleep, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and other conditions can look like ADHD. They should all be ruled out.
Thank you!
As I read this list it appears everyone has ADHD. This can’t possibly be the case. How do you differentiate between modeled & learned behaviors, personality traits & dysfunction due to ADHD?
That's why it's important to get officially diagnosed by someone trained in assessments. There are many behaviors that anyone can have some of the time, but if it impacts daily life in a significant way, then treatments can be beneficial.