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Suggested Diagnostic Criteria for AD/HD in Adults

If you have exhibited at least twelve of the following behaviors since childhood and if these symptoms are not associated with any other medical or psychiatric condition, consider an evaluation by a team of AD/HD professionals. Click on The Hallowell Center for more information.

1. A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals (regardless of how much one has actually accomplished).

2. Difficulty getting organized.

3. Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started.

4. Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through.

5. A tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark.

6. A frequent search for high stimulation.

7. An intolerance of boredom.

8. Easy distractibility; trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or conversation, often coupled with an inability to focus at times.

9. Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent

10. Trouble in going through established channels and following “proper” procedure.

11. Impatient; low tolerance of frustration.

12. Impulsive, either verbally or in action, as an impulsive spending of money.

13. Changing plans, enacting new schemes or career plans and the like; hot-tempered.

14. A tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; a tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about, alternating with attention to or disregard for actual dangers.

15. A sense of insecurity.

16. Mood swings, mood lability, especially when disengaged from a person or a project.

17. Physical or cognitive restlessness.

18. A tendency toward addictive behavior.

19. Chronic problems with self-esteem.

20. Inaccurate self-observation.

21. Family history of AD/HD or manic depressive illness or depression or substance abuse or other disorders of impulse control or mood.