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Reverse engineering my ADHD test

nullpt.rs

161–170 of 247 posts

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#161
post #2

I took a similar ADHD test. It seemed so easy and simple that I always wondered how it was actually supposed to catch me. Good to know that neurotypical people mostly likely test differently than I did.

This was part of how my ADHD was diagnosed. I did a full day of testing at a specialist center. First I had a conversation with a nurse, then a psychologist, then they had me do a similar test (but in a controlled environment and I also had face tracking and a motion sensor monitoring my movement). After the test, I was given lunch and a dose of adhd medication and about an hour break, then they had me do the test ag…

It's been a trip hearing how much testing others have gone through. IIRC, we had all of one conversation with our psychiatrist (albeit one we had already been seeing for a while) and got our diagnosis. But then it wasn't exactly subtle ADHD.

For our autism assessment a couple months ago, our therapist (whom we've been seeing for about a year at that point?) had us take one or two relatively short multiple choice assessments or the like and that was enough to diagnose us as on the spectrum. Did you know: Not all autistics struggle with eye contact? Some of us (ourselves included) are actually pretty good at it. One reason it's called a spectrum!

The previous time with our mental health professionals factored into their diagnoses, though, not just the tests. The takeaway: Book a therapist and psychiatrist both if you don't already and get those balls rolling.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#162
post #81
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD also evolutionary advantages, so there is unlikely to be a single gene that encodes for it.

What are they? Are there papers on this?

A psychiatrist told me that people with ADHD perform better under extreme pressure and chaos. No idea if that's true. Personally I don't even think of ADHD as a deficiency. It's just a trait that is not compatible with modern society and workplace.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#164
post #27

> At the end, she told me she would review my exam and have the results ready in a few days. Yeah man I can go ahead and let you know early if you want.

I know this is a joke, but I'd be careful about assuming: I had a trained therapist diagnose me with ADHD ... incorrectly . It turns out, there are other conditions out there that can appear to be be ADHD. If a trained therapist can confuse them, outside observers certainly can too, so it is possible that "very ADHD-acting" person you know might not have it. (Or, especially for females, the reverse can be true, as no…

It was originally called ADD. Then they forced the H in there for hyperactivity. And now they say there is non-hyperactive ADHD, but... they don't call it ADD.

So the first rule of getting attention for your paper is to re-define common terms...

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#165
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise is one hell of a drug, to be honest. I suppose you shouldn't exercise for a few issues in particular, but in general, boy.

Jumping on this conversation a bit: I was recently diagnosed and am still very much in the "what helps?" and "what parts of my personality/habits are connected to this and which aren't?" stage. Do either of you by any chance know a healthy online space to discuss this with others?

I found Finally Focused by James Greenblatt to be quite helpful. He makes sure key minerals and vitamins are in a good range before prescribing stimulants.

This sometimes solves the problem by itself, or it reduces the levels of stimulants needed.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#166

So they got so bered in ADHD test that they hacked the whole website administering the test. They are truly one of us. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W99n083E0IA&pp=ygUeZnJlYWtzIGd...

Yep, I was thinking that the results of the report might as well be irrelevant

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some friends I've known for over a decade clearly have ADHD, and I'm not going to tell them unprompted. I feel like it is very disrespectful, especially when the conversation is about something completely different. Also, I'm not a medical professional, and it is possible that their ADHD-like symptoms are caused by something else. That being said, if they ask if I think they have ADHD, or any other form of neurodiver…

Speaking as someone who only got our ADHD diagnosis in our late thirties and our autism spectrum diagnosis at forty fucking two, please consider just telling them. That could be years or decades of social, pharmacological, and even legal assistance that they deserve and need and aren't otherwise getting.

Resonate and agree with this 100%.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russel Barkley is a pioneer in the field of ADHD research. I have heard of such a claim, but not from Russel Barkley. Could you provide a link of Russel Barkley making the claim please?

It's somewhere in this talk (broken down as a playlist). It's been a while since I've watched it but I do recall him saying that they can see physically differences in the brain of adhd folks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhbAK1pdPM&list=PLzBixSjmbc...

Seeing physical differences in brain volume, connectivity or activity between groups of many adhd folks and non-adhd folks is one thing and that can be done. However, performing a clinical diagnosis of adhd in an individual, solely based on a brain scan, is a completely different thing.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#169

The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends. Thanks friends. I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to mi…

For years I heard I was ADHD from my parents, and while some questions when I got diagnosed no longer applied, weeks later, I reflected on them. One in particular was alluding to something to the effect of "has anyone ever told you to stop you're doing too much" which yeah, I was running at full speed all the time when I was younger, probably more than all my cousins.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#170
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand this is your personal medical info, but could you drop any hints as to the nature of the misdiagnosis? I've learned late in life that I am neurospicy and learning from other's experiences in this domain has been quite helpful.

I listen to a lot of psychiatry podcasts, and they generally think that ADHD is being seriously overdiagnosed at this point. Executive dysfunction, especially that which was not impairing as a child, has a lot of potential causes. Anxiety, depression (yes, ADHD can cause these, but these can also cause executive dysfunction in people without ADHD), OCD, Bipolar (manic people in particular often attribute worsening of…

People are way too happy when they find out that the treatment is taking speed every day for their whole life, as if this isn't going to take its toll on the body and that the brain is not going to adapt to this.
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