An unofficial, uncomfortably specific, behavior-based ADHD diagnosis test, which may not all apply to you personally, are not necessarily ADHD-specific, and is by no means a comprehensive list, written by a self-dx #ADHDer and proud member of the #DREADpirate crew: A Thread
0/

- Do you often create piles to keep things in sight so you don’t forget to do something with them? (i.e., leaving schoolbooks on desk in a pile as opposed to put away on a shelf)
1/

- Have you left behind a trail of started-then-abandoned methods of organization, each started in hopes of getting your life together, then dropped because you missed a few days (or weeks) and now it’s sense of authority has diminished?
2/

- Has the exhilaration and false lure of “freedom” from said lack of authority left you drowning by trying to keep track everything in your faulty working memory?
3/

- Are you often anxiously early, or find yourself unable to do anything until it's time to leave for an event, because otherwise you know you will be late?
- Do you often have significant trouble starting/staying focused on/finishing tasks (whether or not they are enjoyable)?
4/

- Do you find it difficult to put tasks in order, prioritize, etc., despite your best efforts?
- Do you your senses seem more sensitive than the average persons’? Do lights often seem too bright at the store/school/while driving/etc.?
5/

- Do you have trouble picking which sound/object is “most important”? (All stimulus seems equally loud/important) Does it take you significant amounts of time to recover from a busy environment (that may not be considered “busy” by others)?
6/

- Are your thoughts often equally as loud as other people speaking? Do you find yourself losing track of what is being said (even while trying to pay attention) because of your thoughts?
7/

- Do you often lose track of what you’re saying as you’re saying it, frequently forget important details, frequently misplace/lose important objects (phone, keys, books, schoolwork, etc.), or often feel as though you’ve forgotten something?
8/

- Do you find yourself jumping from one interest to the next, so absorbed in an interest that you lose track of time to the point of forgetting to eat/go to the bathroom? If you don’t have an interest you’re currently absorbed in, do you often feel painfully bored/depressed?
9/

- Do you frequently, unintentionally leave things undone? Do you frequently abandon projects/interests in favor of a new interest? Does this frustrate you to no end? Do you constantly wish you could Just Do It?
10/

- Does there often seem to be something better/more urgent you could be doing rather than the thing you need/want to? Do you find it difficult to stay “on track”, despite your best efforts? Does everything seem equally urgent, making it difficult to prioritize?
11/

- Does your brain “turn on” at night? Do you feel energized/awake/etc. right before bed? Do you have trouble winding down at the end of the day? Do you often feel unfulfilled at the end of the day, feeling like you should have been able to do more?
12/

- Is your brain unusually active at night? Do you frequently get disturbing/scary/unusual etc. thoughts with no real basis as you’re trying to fall asleep? (i.e., overanalyzing social situations, “what if my family dies in a horrible accident”, etc.)
13/

- Does your sleep schedule feel “slightly to the left” of what it “should” be?
- Does your mind/thoughts feel like a broken record/a radio with sticky knobs/a TV but someone else has the remote?
14/

- Did you learn to read unusually early? Did you teach yourself to read? Do you find it difficult to read now (eyes skip around, can't focus, etc.)? Did/do you read dictionaries/encyclopedias, etc. for fun?
15/

- Do you have deep and passionate interests, but often unable to adequately/eloquently express/discuss/talk about them when asked?
- Do your emotions feel deep, often inexplicable, intense? Are you told you are “too much,” “intense,” etc.?
16/

- Are you often told to “calm down,” “get it together,” etc. when it feels like you’re bursting at the seams? Have you resorted to apathy as a way to cope with that?
17/

- Have you been told you don’t empathize well because of this, despite still feeling everyone else’s emotions equally as strongly as your own? Do you seem to empathize in a way that doesn’t compute with others (specifically NTs)?
/18

- Do you often wonder how everyone else has their life together? Are you cracking under the pressure of just existing? Do people commend you for excellence, then cock their heads in confusion when you collapse, exhausted from the effort of barely holding yourself together?
/19

- Do you push yourself to your limit, fearing that otherwise you’ll be accused of being lazy, then still receive the “lazy, doesn’t care” label?
/20

- Do you find that doodling, bouncing your leg, fiddling with a pencil, etc. helps you focus? Does listening to repetitive audio help you focus/soothe you? (Playing the same album or song over and over, putting on a particular movie/YouTube video to ignore so you can focus)
/21

- Do you have the subconscious urge to put paper in your mouth? (Bookmarks, printer paper, etc.)
- Do you deeply fear rejection? Does even the subtlest implication of rejection/disappointment/etc. send you into an adrenaline-boosted panic/keep you up at night?
/22

- Do you spend inordinate time and effort trying to impress/please people you don’t even really care about (and even more so people you do care about)?
- Do your shoes or certain clothing often feel oppressive to the point of complete distraction?
/23

- Do you often sit cross-legged in chairs when possible? Does this feel more natural than sitting “normally”?
- Do you often notice every sound in the vicinity except the person you’re trying to listen to?
/24

- Do you feel a buzzing, restless energy inside you when sitting and listening to lectures (such as at church/in a class?) Do you desperately want to pay attention, but someone is clicking a pen in the back of the room so you can't?
/25

- Do you often set out to do something specific, then find yourself doing something else? Do you often feel a physical resistance to doing a task, so you do other, also-important tasks to compensate? (i.e., need to fold laundry, washes dishes and takes trash out instead)
/26

- Did you skim/skip to the end of this thread because the mere thought of wading through big paragraphs of text makes your brain bluescreen?

If so, you might have the Can’t-Sit-Still Disorder!
/fin

Update: I WARNED Y'ALL IT WOULD BE UNCOMFORTABLY SPECIFIC

Reading this a few months later, I can't believe that
1. I'm still getting notifications for this, (I'm so glad!!)
and also
2. I can't believe I wrote this at all?? I wrote it all in one sitting, in about 15 minutes if I remember correctly?

I'm overdue for reevaluating this and writing some commentary on it in light of the fact that I now know I'm autistic

"Okay, I have ADHD, what now??"

Check out #askADHD and #NeurodiverseSquad

Follow these people: @ADHD_Alien @blkgirllostkeys @dreamsofskies @SNeurotypicals @ADHDsurprise @ADHDelaide @danidonovan @elisekumar and a bunch of other ppl I've forgotten

(We all kinda follow each other so it's not hard to find others; just look through the ppl we follow)