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Today's episode has been a long time coming. I hope that this is helpful to you guys. I've been wanting to do a symptoms quiz for a long time, so I do have a quiz for you to help evaluate your executive function skills.
I will give you the link at the end to take the quiz. It's just 21 questions and if you answer yes to many of those questions, you can consider this result when seeking professional support or a diagnosis.
Get the Adult ADHD Symptom Questionnaire here
What you'll learn:
Understanding the various symptoms of adult ADHD
Knowledge about the three types of ADHD
How to self-assess ADHD symptoms using a 21-question assessment tool
Strategies for managing ADHD symptoms and the value of support systems
"60% of children do not outgrow ADHD and what I have a lot of people tell me when they're diagnosed later in life is now everything makes sense."
Useful links mentioned:
Free Resource list
Learn To Thrive With ADHD on YouTube
JOIN Goal Setting The ADHD Way Webinar
Listen to the Episode:
Or watch the video on Youtube
Click here to read the transcript:
Welcome to Learn to Thrive with ADHD. This is the podcast for adults with ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms. I'm your host, Coach Mande John. I'm here to make your life with ADHD easier. Let's get started.
All right. Welcome to episode 28, ADHD symptoms in adults. This one has been a long time coming. I hope that this is helpful to you guys. I've been wanting to do a symptoms quiz for a long time. So, I do have a quiz for you. I will give you the link at the end to take the quiz. It's just 21 questions and if you answer yes to many of those questions What I would do is print that out and I will tell you exactly what you want to do with that.
So adult ADHD With adult ADHD, you will have trouble paying attention. You might act on impulse or have too much energy. This can be physical or mental energy. Can you grow out of ADHD? You will have ADHD as a child if you have it as an adult. You just may not find out until later in life. They say that 60 percent of children do not outgrow ADHD and what I have a lot of people tell me when they're diagnosed later in life is now everything makes sense.
So, adult ADHD symptoms. Symptoms can range from mild to serious and can change over time. They can be dependent on the situation. For example, you might do really well at work as far as staying organized and staying on top of things, but you might have challenges at home or vice versa. So, let's talk about the adult ADHD challenges.
Procrastination is a major problem. Following directions. For me, this looks like game directions. If somebody pulls out the sheet of game directions and starts to read them over, I just gloss over because I know that I'm not going to follow that information. I learn as I go. So, if you're given multiple step directions, do you have trouble remembering information?
This is your working memory failing you. If you're not able to remember things on a list, Information people told you, that kind of thing. Organizing tasks. Do you have challenges with that? Do you have trouble with concentration? Is anger a problem? Do you struggle with boredom? Do you feel that you have more anxiety or depression than normal?
Is impulsiveness an issue? Are you doing impulsive shopping? Are you making impulsive decisions? Basically, are you doing anything without thinking it through? Do you have mood swings? Do you talk too much? Do you have low self-esteem? Are there relationship problems? Do you have restlessness? This could be physical restlessness or mental.
Is there substance abuse or addiction issues? Do you lack motivation? There are three types of ADHD. Number one, inattentive. You might be distracted or have trouble paying attention. You might be disorganized and often lose things, or you might have trouble following directions. This used to be called ADD.
So, if earlier in life you might have been diagnosed with ADD, it's likely you are inattentive. Number two, hyperactive. You may act impulsively or be overactive. You might feel restless or have a hard time sitting still or talk a lot. You might interrupt or have a hard time waiting your turn. And number three is combined.
This is the most common type. You will have symptoms of both the other types. Not necessarily all the symptoms, but as it's called, a combined aversion of some of the symptoms. ADHD positives. You're energetic. You're empathetic to others. You're innovative and creative. You're able to focus on things that really interest you.
So, there are some benefits. All right, now I'm going to go over the assessment questions with you. I will give you a link where you can go and take this assessment and print it out for yourself. But when you're answering these questions, what I want you to do is answer yes, sometimes, or no.
Number 1, do you often find it hard to focus on tasks like work or school?
Number 2, do you make frequent mistakes in your daily activities?
Number 3, do you struggle to stay organized with tasks or belongings?
Number 4, do you forget things frequently in your daily life?
Number 5, are you often restless, fidgety, or do you find it hard to stay seated?
Number 6, are you distracted by activity or noise around you?
Number 7, do you talk excessively or interrupt others often?
Number 8, do you have difficulty concentrating on what people say to you?
Number 9, do you find yourself finishing the sentences of people you're talking to?
Number 10, are you impatient and find it hard to wait your turn?
Number 11, do you tend to make quick decisions without thinking them through?
Number 12, do you have difficulty managing your time?
Number 13, do you have challenges with knowing how long things take or being aware of the passing of time?
Number 14, do you often have difficulty meeting deadlines?
Number 15, do you feel that you can't plan and prioritize effectively?
Number 16, do you have difficulty starting tasks?
Number 17, do you have difficulty finishing what you start?
Number 18, do you find it difficult to pay attention to boring or repetitive tasks?
Number 19, do you experience mood swings or emotional challenges?
Number 20, do you feel that you experience more anxiety or depression than normal?
Number 21, do you find it difficult to unwind or relax when you have time to yourself?
What these questions are looking for is how you are doing with your executive function skills. And if you're answering yes to most of these questions, then you probably have some challenges with executive function, and that's definitely something to get some support with.
Get help. If you answered yes to the majority of these questions, take this to a professional for some support if you want a diagnosis.
So why would you want to get a diagnosis? This is if you want confirmation. If you want to try medication, if you have accommodations available through your school or work, those would all be good reasons to get a diagnosis. But definitely, no matter what, get help. You don't have to go it alone. There are tools and skills that you can still learn.
It's not just you. When you go and you get into groups of other ADHD people, you start to see that things that You have struggled with for a long time that you thought you were the only one struggling. There are a lot of other people that are struggling with this as well. It's almost never that a client will tell me something that I haven't heard from someone else.
It's always something that they think that they're the only one struggling and actually, it's all of us that are having trouble with most of these things. So, you matter. You do not have to struggle. So, do you need support now? That is exactly what I put the ADHD Academy together for. It's so that you can have affordable coaching.
If you like private coaching, there's always working with me one on one. If you work with me one on one, you also get the ADHD Academy as part of your package. And in there is group coaching. courses to build those executive function skills, other resources, and a community. We even have a WhatsApp group for daily accountability where we stay in touch that way.
Okay, so I talked about how I would tell you how you can take the quiz that you can print out at the end. So, what I'd like you to do is look in the show notes if you're listening to the podcast or in the description if you're watching this on YouTube. And what I want you to do is click on the link that says take the quiz.
And there you can answer those 21 questions. And if you're answering yes to more than half of those questions, what I would do is print that out and take it to a professional. Depending on where you are, whether you're in the United States or you're overseas, there are different rules, but here in the United States you can take it to your general practitioner, and they can help you from there.
They can refer you to whoever you might need, or they can even diagnose you. So, that is something you can do, but what this quiz is really going to help you do is start a conversation. Once they see that you are having struggles with a majority of these things or more than half of these things, that is where your doctor can step in and rule out any other things that might be going on besides ADHD or get you the support that you need with your ADHD.
So, definitely seek support, seek help. So, I wanted to take the last bit here to talk about the webinar that I have coming up. Right now, the working title is Goal Setting the ADHD Way. Finally, a way to break down and achieve goals that works for your ADHD brain. You will find the link in the description or the show notes for how to sign up for that webinar.
I have done goal setting in 2024 in a way, like, I've never done it before and I am sharing that with people now, but I am putting that all together in a webinar for you and teaching you step by step. How I did this, how you can do this. My brain is loving this method of getting to my goals. And just to share with you what that looks like, I am doing daily habits towards my goals.
And these habits are so small that it's more difficult to not do them than to do them. And if that's something that sounds good to you, if you have always wanted to be a person who fill in the blanks, then this is going to be the webinar for you. It's going to be free. I'm going to share with you all of my tips and what you want to do is go to the link in the description or the show notes so that you can get on the list so that when this comes out, I can get that to you.
I can get you invited to that webinar. All right, you guys, thank you for being with me this week. I hope that if you are having symptoms that you seek the help that you deserve, and I will see you guys next week.
Thank you for your time and especially your attention today. If you haven't looked into the ADHD Academy, you'll want to do that. This is my membership with bingeable courses, weekly live coaching, new courses every month, a community of like-minded people, and more. Be sure to head over to www.learntothrivewithadhd.com/membership to get the details. See you next week.
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