Letterlife logo Letterlife logo
ADHD Test Sign Up
Eng

Do I have ADHD?

Are you suspecting ADHD and don’t know where to start?

Today most people are aware that both children and adults can have ADHD. The question of whether ADHD is the cause when life isn’t working out is asked more frequently, both in and out of schools and healthcare settings. Walking around wondering if you have ADHD or not can be both confusing and stressful. It’s important to remember that everyone has some ADHD-like traits, and a diagnosis is only relevant if you experience significant difficulties that disrupt your life or if you are at risk of developing serious consequences from your innate ADHD symptoms. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Take our quiz

ADHD Diagnosis

A diagnosis is essentially a description of a set of symptoms grouped into a syndrome (another word for diagnosis). The purpose of a diagnosis is mainly to ensure that the right person gets the right support and treatment—meaning the interventions are evidence-based. Therefore, a diagnosis itself is not the ultimate goal, although for many, receiving a diagnosis can be a relief and a crucial puzzle piece in understanding why life has been so challenging or why previous treatments haven’t worked.

For girls and women, ADHD symptoms can look different compared to boys and men, which is why ADHD is often missed in women. Here is a simple guide to help you understand more about ADHD, especially in women.

What is ADHD?

ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and the symptoms are divided into three main categories: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), is a presentation of ADHD where inattention is the primary issue, although symptoms from the hyperactivity and impulsivity groups can also be present. ADHD is a congenital neuropsychiatric condition, and the diagnosis is based on 18 different criteria from two symptom groups: inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. The symptoms must have been present since childhood and must clearly impact daily life negatively.

Inattention (6 out of 9 symptoms are required for an ADHD diagnosis):

  1. Difficulty maintaining attention – You start a task but quickly get lost in your thoughts, making it hard to complete projects.
  2. Often makes careless mistakes – You frequently miss important details, never read an entire instruction before starting, or write down the wrong date in your calendar.
  3. Seems not to listen – When someone talks to you, you might nod and smile, but then realize you haven’t absorbed anything they said.
  4. Difficulty following instructions – Even clear, step-by-step instructions like following a recipe or completing a task from your boss feel overwhelming and impossible.
  5. Difficulty organizing – You never seem to have control at home or work. If you don’t focus all your energy on being structured, the laundry piles up, papers accumulate, and to-do lists grow unchecked.
  6. Avoiding tasks requiring sustained effort – Starting your taxes or focusing on a boring work meeting has always felt like insurmountable obstacles. Or tasks with long term goals and no immediate “reward” (like home renovations or continued learning courses). 
  7. Frequently loses things – Wallets, keys, and phones tend to disappear mysteriously, often when you’re in a rush.
  8. Easily distracted – You sit down to work, but the sound of a text message, a bird outside the window, or a random thought easily steals your focus.
  9. Forgets daily activities – You forget to reply to important emails, buy milk on the way home, or book that doctor’s appointment.

Hyperactivity/Impulsivity (6 out of 9 symptoms are required for an ADHD diagnosis):

  1. Difficulty staying still – It’s hard to sit still in meetings without fidgeting, playing with your phone, doodling, chewing your hair, or shifting positions.
  2. Feeling restless – Even when you try to relax, it feels like your body is constantly in motion, and when you try and rest your mind is still focused on all of your to do list and you struggle to simply relax.
  3. Talks too much – You interrupt others, speak too quickly or too much, even when you try to hold back.
  4. Answers before the question is finished – You jump into conversations before others finish talking, in a rude and disruptive way, even though you don’t mean to.
  5. Difficulty waiting your turn – Standing in line or waiting for something feels so unbearable that you’re willing to do almost anything to skip the wait.
  6. Interrupts others – You have a hard time letting others finish speaking and often take over conversations.
  7. Can’t relax or rest – Even when you have time to relax or are on vacation, you feel the need to keep busy.
  8. Always on the go – You constantly juggle multiple tasks and are on the move from morning until late at night.
  9. Acts without thinking about the consequences – You make impulsive decisions like buying things you don’t need, starting new projects before finishing old ones, or saying something you later regret.
What about for Women?

For adult women, the challenges posed by ADHD can lead to missing work deadlines because you get stuck on unimportant tasks, or feeling completely overwhelmed by demands that others consider a normal part of life. 

Having elaborate systems and strategies in place to mitigate one of the above criteria, is also a clue that ADHD may be present. Non-ADHDers don’t need several reminders for a task or double or triple checking a document to make sure they don’t miss something

Although emotional rollercoasters, time blindness, procrastination, and excessive self-criticism aren’t included in the official diagnostic criteria for ADHD, these are often the issues that lead women to seek help with the question of whether they have ADHD.

This is Not ADHD

Symptoms that resemble ADHD can also be caused by other conditions like stress, burnout, trauma, anxiety, or depression. While we know that ADHD is often overlooked in girls and women, we must also consider that today’s digital society may place entirely different (and sometimes unreasonable) demands on people in general, and on women in particular.

For a woman, managing to juggle work, children (sometimes with their own diagnoses), aging parents, and social relationships, all while trying to live healthily, exercise regularly, and stay informed can feel like a recipe for burnout—whether you have an ADHD diagnosis or not. The same goes for our girls and young women, who are bombarded with distractions and distorted ideals through their phones and their algorithms.

 All these overwhelming (and artificial?) demands can certainly feel overpowering, and the consequences of not questioning them can mimic ADHD. Stress and challenges created by a fast-paced society should not be met with diagnoses and medications. However, the suffering is real nonetheless-which is why we built Letterlife, so that it doesn’t matter if you have a formal ADHD diagnosis or not. It’s enough that you recognize yourself in the problems to benefit from the tips and advice we’ve created together with our users. This approach—ignoring diagnoses and labels and instead focusing on self-care—is actually evidence-based too!

Create your Letterlife account!
Why is a Diagnosis Important?

Living with ADHD without a diagnosis or the right explanatory model for your difficulties often leads to misunderstandings, both from yourself and from others around you. Our research shows that women are diagnosed with ADHD at least 4 years later than men. When you don’t get the right diagnosis, there’s a risk of falling into negative cycles of self-criticism and overcompensation, leading to what’s known as comorbidity. This means that the feeling of being different and never measuring up negatively affects your relationships, education, and career to the extent that you develop mental health issues like depression, anxiety, or eating disorders.

Also, for some, medication is a part of the toolbox they chose to utilize and you need a formal diagnosis to be presented with the option of medication”

But remember, much of the risk for comorbidity can be prevented even without a formal diagnosis, as understanding how your own brain works and having support from those around you is incredibly important for self-esteem and long-term mental health.

Why Can It Be Harder to Diagnose Women?

ADHD in girls and women has long been an area where society has had less knowledge, and most of the research conducted on ADHD has focused on caucasian boys and men. Additionally, girls, on average, seem to grasp earlier what is expected of them by those around them and find ways to hide and mask their difficulties. Hormones during the menstrual cycle, as well as different life phases like pregnancy and perimenopause, can also cause ADHD symptoms to change, making it harder for both women and those around them to recognize that it might actually be ADHD.

Other Conditions That Can Resemble ADHD

There are many other conditions that occur more frequently in people with ADHD, known as comorbidities. These include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, EIPS (formerly called borderline), substance abuse, and bipolar disorder. The tricky part is that these conditions are more common in people with ADHD and can also be mistaken for ADHD. Sometimes, people without a correct diagnosis may develop these conditions after struggling for a long time without proper support.

What to Do If You Think You Need an ADHD Assessment

If you recognize yourself in ADHD symptoms, if these difficulties have been present your whole life, and if you have clear challenges in multiple areas of life (home, work, social) that have caused you to struggle for long periods, it might be worth investigating whether ADHD could be an underlying explanation. If your country has public, social or universal healthcare you can often start by contacting your nearest outpatient health care clinic to request a referral for an assessment. There are also many private healthcare providers that conduct ADHD assessments, but be sure to check references carefully to make sure that they have adequate experience and competence to diagnose as well as common comorbid conditions.

A thorough ADHD assessment should include a series of self-assessment questionnaires, detailed interviews with you and your relatives conducted by a psychologist, (usually) neuropsychological tests measuring your brain’s various functions, and a comprehensive medical examination to ensure there aren’t better explanations for your symptoms, and to rule out any other mental health conditions that need to be treated first. Only after this can the assessment team determine whether you have ADHD.

I Already Know I Have ADHD—Do I Really Need an ADHD Assessment?

Since ADHD isn’t a mysterious illness that you need to worry about unknowingly “carrying around,” but rather just a different way of functioning, it shouldn’t take so many assessments and diagnoses. Unfortunately, our society has boxed itself into a corner where diagnoses are required for access to certain support and medications.

Imagine if we could create a society based on the knowledge we’ve gained from ADHD and autism research—a society where we recognize that all brains are different, and some even more so. If you think you can manage without an assessment and without medication, we believe that’s something to be encouraged. That’s why Letterlife is designed to be independent of whether you have a diagnosis or not. We want you to have control over your own health and be able to navigate life even if you don’t have a diagnosis or are stuck in years-long waiting lists for an assessment. Apart from the medications, there’s nothing you can’t manage yourself even without a diagnosis. So take back control of your life and minimize the parts that are dependent on healthcare! Together, we have the knowledge and the power to make great strides!

When Others Talk Nonsense! Our 5 Best Comebacks!

  1. ADHD looks different in everyone. If you’ve met one person with ADHD, you’ve met one person with ADHD.
  2. ADHD isn’t a disease—it’s a brain that processes information about the body and the world in a slightly different way.
  3. The latest research shows that women with ADHD are often overlooked, which is costly for both the individual and society.
  4. The most important thing about a diagnosis is that people who would otherwise become dependent on care can take more personal responsibility. It’s a win-win for both the individual and society.
  5. Women and men are two variations of the same species, and today neither research nor healthcare takes biological differences and hormones, which affect both symptoms and treatment outcomes, into account.

With the help of leading ADHD experts, Letterlife supports you with research-based methods, personalized strategies, and tools tailored for you.