Guide to adult ADHD

"They missed the diagnosis"
Like many women with ADHD, 42-year-old Lori McCoy* suffered from another psychiatric disorder, low-grade depression. As a child she was bright but struggled in school.

“Hyperactivity was the focus then. Inattention wasn't looked at, so they missed the diagnosis,” she says. In 1999, when Lori's five-year-old son was diagnosed with ADHD, she attended a parent support group of the Calgary chapter of CH.A.D.D. (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder). “I was not a big fan of group situations, but going to that meeting was the best thing I have ever done.”

As Lori learned more about ADHD, she began to wonder whether the condition might explain some of the difficulties she had experienced in school, at work, in her marriage and with depression.

She called the psychologist who had seen her son. “I need some help. I've either been reading too much or my eyes have opened up,” said Lori, who proceeded to do 20 hours of testing.

How is ADHD diagnosed in adults?
The process usually involves a clinical interview that includes screening tests to see if you qualify for assessment; the assessment includes other tests and the use of rating scales to assess current symptoms. Also, information from parents, siblings, old report cards and your own recollections are used to determine if you had ADHD symptoms as a child.

The hallmark symptoms of adult ADHD, identified by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey, authors of Driven to Distraction (Touchstone, 1995), include: a sense of underachievement; difficulty getting organized; chronic procrastination; many projects going simultaneously and trouble with follow-through; a frequent search for high stimulation; intolerance of boredom; easy distractibility; trouble focusing attention; and a tendency to tune out in the middle of a conversation. (It's important to rule out medical causes, such as hyperthyroidism, which may cause ADHD-like symptoms.) If you had chronic symptoms as a child or have them as an adult, the final step is to determine if they are having a significant negative impact on your life today.

If you suspect that you or someone in your family has ADHD, ask your family doctor for a referral to a psychologist or psychiatrist experienced in treating adults with ADHD.

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