Someone assumed I have ADHD

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Everywhere I go a mess surrounds me, my handbag in full of stuff what I always seem to need, and whenever I stay at someone's the table by the bed gets cluttered. When I stay in a hotel my bed is always covered with clutter too, and the sheets are all a mess.
Also I get in such a muddle with money, directions, dates, appointments, errands, equipment, luggage, the list goes on. Often when I have to do something I forget the most important thing, like if I had to hand in a resumè for a job, I would forget to bring the resumè, so I have to make sure the resumè is placed in my handbag the night before, as I usually remember things later in the day more than the mornings. It's like my mind is so easily distracted, especially if I'm excited or nervous, and I do become easily stressed.

Then just this week my boyfriend's relative asked if I had ADHD. I said I didn't know. I didn't want to go into the ASD because most people don't believe that I have that, and nobody's ever pointed that out to me. But this is the second or third time that someone I don't know very well has pointed ADHD out to me. I asked him if he knew anyone with ADHD, and he said a few years ago he worked with teenagers with ADHD, and that a lot of them were just like me. For some reason I loved being suspected of ADHD, and I just feel like opening up to the world about it. Could this possibly be ADHD? Sometimes I feel like I have ADHD and just AS traits. But when I ask this sort of thing, most people just associate it with being a girl on the spectrum. But ADHD does sum up me pretty well.

Have you thought of getting tested for it?

I would not be surprised at all if you have ADHD.

*edit* I meant to say to this, me too:

Every morning I feel like I have to start all over again on remembering things. I have no idea what is going on. If I need to remember to do something in the morning, I absolutely have to put it aside for that the night before (put it in the car or my bag). There is just no way I will remember it in the morning.

I do the same things. Wow. I have been wondering if I have ADD with OCD and SPD (sensory processing), depression, and GAD, with autistic traits myself with going so far as saying it is AS. But then I have heard too that all these things are just associated with being a girl with AS, just as you said. When I was a little kid I had a long attention span. Nowadays, I forget things that I just had in my hand, will be eating something really good and set it down somewhere and then remember I was eating something good but can't remember what it was or where I left it. I have never been very good at all at time management and with "keeping it all together". My house is a mess. I am the queen of disorganization and I try and try and try, but never can get it going. I spend a lot of time doing the things that I am interested in (like WP) and sewing and stuff. I have difficulty switching from one thing to another and get overloaded and distracted. It makes me crazy and I am preparing myself to go see someone about all this. A specialist because I want to get to the bottom of this and it's gotten so bad that I am thinking I should try some sort of stimulant.

How do they test for ADD/ADHD anyway?

Mine was about 18 years ago so I don't remember a lot of details about it but they gave me a lot of different tests.

Pretty sure there was a standard written IQ test. And I remember doing a matrices test.

Think there was a personality inventory, probably the Minnesota multi-phasic.

A test where they asked me questions verbally (I remember one was "Why do people have to pay taxes to the government?" and I blurted out that I don't think people should have to and they gave me a really weird look and just moved on to the next question. lol )

A test where they read me some very short stories out loud and afterward I had to explain what the story was about. I didn't do too tell on that one.

Another memory test, this is the main one I remember because it made me cry. They called out a list of numbers. I had to add each new number to the previous number they called out. I couldn't do it.

I think there may have been a test where you have to put a story together in pictures.

Probably some other small tests I don't remember. It took awhile.

They talked to my mother and asked her questions about how I was as a child (was 18 at the time). Also asked me a lot of questions about how I was doing in college, why I had come to be evaluated, and how I was feeling about life in general. I think there was also a written test about how I was feeling.

Hmm. Interesting. Sounds tiring.

Yeah, it was very tiring. I liked the matrices test and I think there was some other kind of spatial/geometry type of test that I liked. The rest of it was awful though.

I heard a lot of people remember things in the morning when they're refreshed, but I find myself completely absent-minded in the morning, even though I sleep well most nights. I get emotionally exhausted at night from all the decisions I make throughout the day, and concentrating on stuff like numbers. I don't get exhausted from socializing though.

And yes I do want to be tested for ADHD, but I don't quite know how to go about it. Some doctors might say that ADHD don't exist simply because these sorts of traits are common in humans. That's true, but its when you have a lot of these traits that overlap and interfere with your daily life and you need a bit of support, and some of your learning skills are affected, ect.

I probably have ADHD. I often don't "think before I speak."

I do get tired from socializing--especially if it's all the same crap.

Within a social context, frequently, the amount which could be discussed without offense is really minimal. People tend to stick to pop-cultural type things--the latest fads--even people with doctorates. It's almost as if many people need a "vacation" from discussing substantive things.

I'm like that. I just have no idea of anything when I wake up in the morning. I remember really basic stuff like what day it is, if I have to go to work or not but sometimes even that takes some effort to think about.

I start off kind of sluggish in the morning and build up energy through the day. Usually hit a peak or get an energy surge in the evening around 10-12 pm. I think that is common for people with ADHD




It's true, the traits of ADHD are normal human traits...what makes it a disorder is when the traits are severe enough to impair your functioning, and/or are not age appropriate. The age appropriate aspect of it mostly applies to children in the sense that certain cognitive skills are delayed in developing...BUT it also applies for adults in terms of memory problems. People with ADHD tend to have the same kinds of memory problems that all people have as they get older (around mid 50s and up).

I'm in the US, so I don't know how to tell you to go about getting tested where you are. I went through vocational rehab here.