Not sure if you have ADHD? You’re not alone. Over 1 in 4 adults suspect they have undiagnosed ADHD.
An ADHD diagnosis process is the first step toward treating your symptoms.
At our clinic, we have provided thousands of ADHD assessments for people across different age groups, including women with ADHD. In this guide, I’ll break down common ADHD assessment questions and provide more details about the ADHD diagnosis process.
What is the ADHD Diagnosis Process?
The ADHD diagnosis process typically involves interviews, symptom questionnaires, a review of childhood and adult experiences, and an evaluation based on DSM-5 criteria. Healthcare professionals, including nurse practitioners, assess how symptoms affect daily life and rule out other medical or mental health conditions before making a diagnosis.
Interviews will include ADHD assessment questions about time management, concentration, emotional regulation, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness.
ADHD is diagnosed using the DSM-5 criteria, which identify symptoms related to inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. While symptoms can vary, most individuals with ADHD experience a combination of challenges across these areas.
Here’s a quick summary of the symptoms under each category:
Inattention Symptoms
- Difficulty with details and careless mistakes at school, work, or other activities
- Difficulty regulating attention
- Challenges sustaining attention during conversations
- Issues with follow-through on life tasks, work duties, or relationship obligations
- Disorganization
- Avoidance of tasks requiring extended mental effort, like schoolwork
- Forgetfulness of items needed for day-to-day tasks, like cellphones, pens, notes, etc.
- Easily distracted
Hyperactive-Impulsivity Symptoms
- Fidgets or squirms in their seat
- Stands up and leaves in situations where expected to remain seated
- Feelings of restlessness
- Loud or boisterous in leisure activities
- Often feels an internal restlessness that makes slowing down difficult
- Excessively talkative
- Answers questions before the person asking has a chance to finish
- Trouble waiting their turn
- Intrudes or interrupts others
Typically, mental health practitioners will diagnose ADHD for:
- Children up to the age of 16 who have 6 or more symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity
- Teens over 17 and adults who have 5 or more symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity
But how do they determine whether a patient is experiencing these symptoms? That’s where ADHD assessment questions come in.
What Are Common ADHD Assessment Questions?
Common ADHD assessment questions focus on attention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, emotional regulation, childhood behavior, family history, and daily functioning. The goal is to understand how symptoms have affected different areas of life over time and whether they meet the criteria for ADHD.
ADHD assessment questions may include:
- Is anyone in your family diagnosed with ADHD?
- Were you previously diagnosed with ADHD as a child?
- Do you find it hard to follow through on tasks or sit still?
- Do you often interrupt people during conversations?
- Do you often make careless mistakes?
Overall, ADHD assessment questions center around an individual’s experiences with symptoms like trouble concentrating, inattentiveness, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and restlessness, as well as their overall health history from childhood up until adulthood.
While online assessments and questionnaires use rating scales (i.e., mostly true, sometimes true, never true), in-person assessments will generally include more room to elaborate on your experiences.
Dr. Phil Ferreira-Lay, a registered psychiatrist, highlights how ADHD assessments differ from other tests in the medical field:
“We don’t have a scanner into which we can put people that will then tell us, definitively, whether someone has ADHD or not. Instead, what we have to do is rely on gathering information, so that together we can best understand the current difficulties, the needs, make a diagnosis if applicable, and then discuss and agree upon a treatment plan.”
Genetics
Family history is one of the most important factors discussed during an ADHD assessment. Research suggests ADHD is highly heritable, meaning symptoms often run in families.
ADHD has a heritability rate of 74%, meaning 74% people with ADHD have family members with ADHD as well. A health practitioner may ask you questions about ADHD in your family, including whether a first-degree family member has been diagnosed or suspected of having ADHD.
Common ADHD assessments about family history include:
- Has anyone in your family been diagnosed with ADHD?
- Does anyone in your family suspect that they have undiagnosed ADHD?
Related Conditions
ADHD assessments often include questions about whether you suspect you have, or whether you’ve been diagnosed, with other conditions.
Common ADHD assessment questions about comorbidities include:
- Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental health condition like anxiety and depression?
- Have you ever been diagnosed with a learning disability like dyslexia?
- Do you or anyone in your family have any personality disorders like bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder?
- Have you ever experienced anxious or depressive symptoms, like overthinking or thoughts about self-harm?
Some mood disorders and learning disabilities often show up together with ADHD. If you have one of these conditions, your chance of having ADHD is higher.
Childhood History
An adult with ADHD may have been diagnosed as a child. A common misconception I’ve seen across adult patients is that ADHD is for kids and doesn’t continue into adulthood.
But most of my practice is for adults with ADHD!
Unfortunately, the symptoms don’t go away in adulthood. They merely evolve. For example, instead of having trouble concentrating on school tasks, that trouble concentrating might carry over to your workplace.
Common ADHD assessment questions about childhood history include:
- Were you ever diagnosed with ADHD as a child?
- Did teachers, family members, or friends ever joke or suspect that you had ADHD?
- Did you ever have comments about misbehavior or inattention on your report card as a child?
- Did you have trouble focusing on tasks or sitting still as a child?
- Did you ever get into any accidents or experience injuries due to hyperactivity and reckless behavior?
Most ADHD assessments will inquire whether you received a diagnosis in your childhood. Beyond that, they may ask you about your behavioral traits as a child, including whether you could focus at school, performed well on your report cards, or had any accidents due to hyperactivity and reckless behavior.
Work Life
ADHD symptoms can appear during your work hours in the form of disorganization, missed deadlines, inattentiveness in important conversations, and time management problems.
Many adults tell me they spent years believing they were simply disorganized before realizing their struggles with deadlines, task management, and focus were actually symptoms of ADHD.
Common ADHD assessment questions about your work may include:
- Do you switch jobs often?
- Do you often miss deadlines at work?
- Do you struggle to prioritize tasks and manage your time at work?
Mood and Mental Health
ADHD affects mood and mental health because it causes emotional dysregulation. Many of my patients experience difficulties managing extreme highs and lows in mood.
That’s why mood and mental health questions are common in most ADHD assessments.
Common ADHD questions about mood and mental health include:
- Do those close to you feel like they’re “walking on eggshells?”
- Are you quick to feel emotional or angry?
- Do you feel irritable from lack of sleep or insomnia?
Who Performs an ADHD Assessment?
ADHD assessments can be performed by qualified healthcare professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, neurologists, physicians, and nurse practitioners. The exact professional involved may vary depending on the province, healthcare system, and available services. While some psychotherapists and coaches may have experience with ADHD, they aren’t legally able to offer a legitimate diagnosis.
Get Diagnosed for ADHD Today!
One of the most common things I hear after an assessment is relief. Whether someone receives an ADHD diagnosis or not, finally having an explanation for lifelong challenges can be incredibly validating.
ADHD assessments are your first step to treating your symptoms. At West Coast Adult ADHD, our nurse practitioners can assess ADHD, provide diagnoses, and prescribe ADHD medications when appropriate. They work with adults across British Columbia to help identify symptoms and create personalized treatment plans.
FAQs
- What questions will I be asked in my ADHD assessment?
Your ADHD assessment will include questions about your inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive, and hyperactive behaviors, childhood diagnosis history, family history, and relationship behaviors.
- How can I be diagnosed with ADHD?
You can be diagnosed with ADHD by a nurse practitioner if they determine that you have five or more symptoms under the DSM-5 criteria list of symptoms for inattentiveness and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Symptoms include trouble concentrating, forgetfulness, issues with following through on tasks, and excessive talking.
- Who can diagnose ADHD in Canada?
Only certified, registered psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, neurologists, nurse practitioners, and medical doctors can diagnose ADHD in Canada.
- What are the signs of ADHD?
Signs of ADHD can include impulsivity, brain fog, disorganization, excessive worrying, forgetfulness, and inattentiveness.
Resources
- Survey about adults who suspect they have been misdiagnosed with ADHD
- CDC article about ADHD diagnosis criteria
- Video about ADHD assessment from a psychiatrist
- Medical study about ADHD heritability
- Center for ADHD Awareness in Canada
- British Columbia health insurance plan information
- Ontario’s health insurance plan information