Do I Have ADHD? ADHD Symptoms & Signs from ADHDers

The first question we asked as our suspicions grow and our ADHD journey begins is do I have ADHD. I began asking lots of seasoned ADHDers about the most prominent symptoms of their ADHD and how it affects their daily lives. Let's look at 30 real-life examples, symptoms and signs from real-life ADHDers.

The ASRS v1.1 and ASRS-5 Tests for adult ADHD can be found here:

Welcome to the wormhole folks!

00:00 - Intro
00:36 - 30 Symptoms of Adhd from ADHDers
04:18 - The real cost of these ADHD symptoms
06:35 - What are your top ADHD signs & symptoms?

#doihaveadhd #adhd #welcometothewormhole

[Janet-tz-qz]

My husband has ADHD, depression and was on medication for many years. When we moved and he had to get a new Doctor. Unfortunately because my husband was nearly 68, the Doctor said ADHD medication was not recommended for someone his age and he wouldn't renew his prescription. The Dr didn't even offer to wean him off the meds! He left him with no meds and had him go. God so kind a friend recommended us to mushrooms (psilocybin) precisely. After his experience with shrooms five years ago till now there's no more ADHD, depression and mental disorder. Shrooms are life changing. There is no way you can put into words what it feels like..

[hobytube]

A symptom of mine: Constant burnout from overcommitting and having to work harder than normal people to keep up with everything.

[andreasilliou]

Im binge watching videos bout adhd for the past week. This is a new level of adhd to get hyperfocused on adhd

[Imperial_Squid]

One of the things that made me first think I had ADHD was someone saying "for neurotypicals attention is a 1-10 scale, for ADHDers it's a dice roll or a 15"

[pixelmotte]

A lot of my "symptoms" are actually coping strategies and overcompensation for symptoms, like checking if I have my keys in my pocket when I leave the house, sometimes up to 3 times, despite only just putting them in my pocket.
Sometimes I even check if I'm wearing all my clothes, despite never having forgotten to put clothes on.

[auroraglowworm]

I am diagnosed ADHD. There is a symptom that I don't hear others talking about. I can be thinking of a thought, then forget it as I am thinking it and just be left with the feeling of it, or I try to hold onto a thought to talk about when it is my turn to speak and then it's completely gone before I can talk about it.

[jillustration]

- not being able to put anything in a drawer ever, because the moment it's out of sight I forget it exists. (for example I can't put perishables in my veggie box in the fridge because it's opaque and the food will go bad, so I have to keep them on a shelf and I put longer lasting packaged stuff in the drawer instead)

- on bad days, leaving my apartment, and having to go back up again the moment I'm on the street or when I'm already on the way somewhere because I forgot something essential. My record is going back and forth 5x

- as a consequence of this spending at least 20 mins anxiety checking my pockets and bag before leaving, going through my list of essentials in my head up to 10x

- still in a similar vein, hating having to get ready when someone else is present in the room, even if they'e not talking to me, because their mere presence distracts me so much that I'm basically guaranteed to forget something

- ignoring messages and emails because "I'm busy" meaning to answer later and then completely forgetting about them, sometimes for months. this has cost me friendships and got me into trouble at work several times. I have to either reply to messages immediately or leave them "unread" sometimes helps, but not as much because I'm good at ignoring those too

- loosing interest and abandoning a project the moment it gets momentum and some attention (eg on social media) basically incapable of consistently posting in order to build a following for a potential 2nd stream of income

- becoming super involved, genuinely passionate and active in one online community or another and then dropping off the face of the earth from one day to the next when my interest wanes. feeling hella guilty about it but unable to stop it or rekindle interest on command.

- saying "yes" to too many things when in a good mood only to very quickly get overwhelmed with all the appointments I've made because I didn't factor in time to recuperate

- completely incapable of forming longterm healthy habits. If I'm very motivated I might be able to keep it up a couple of months but I will inevitably loose steam and something else will have captured my interest more. constantly regretting not having continued the thing. restarting same thing over and over again, each time basically from zero.

- conversely, being able to get so thoroughly obsessed with something that I am able to sometimes reach relatively high levels of skill or knowledge in a VERY short amount of time. unfortunately everything else in my life suffers when this happens tho. but eyyy I'm queen of random factoids and weird hobbies!

- always feeling like I have no time for myself and all the things I want to do when I am under contract and actually have structure, and hating the structure, but completely falling apart the moment I don't have it anymore and never getting any of the things I wanted to do "if I had time" done anyway, once I do actually have time to do them.

- experiencing almost physical pain when I have to force myself to do something I don't want to do and procrastinating the thing until panic mode sets in, suffering anxiety the whole time because I STILL DIDN'T DO THE THING.

- leaving short novel length comments on things when my interest is peaked or I feel like I have something to XD

I could go on and on and on but I'll leave it here for now....

[jliller]

First symptom I can remember having of ADHD (in 6th grade), which got me sent to the school speech therapist instead of a psychologist, in my own words: my mouth has trouble keeping up with my brain.

But the biggest sign is simply that my brain doesn't turn off. Ever. I've mentioned this many times over the years in conversations, especially any time the idea of "mindless work" comes up, and literally nobody ever suggested to me I should look into ADHD.

[kikywarokka]

This hit me hard, and I am crying as I am writing this.
I got diagnosed with ADHD just yesterday, at the age 47, and now everything suddenly makes sense! It is like a huge relief knowing that I am actually not a lazy human and a complete failure.
Thank you so so so much..! ❤❤
My symptoms are: queen of procrastination, doom scrolling (I have a frozen shoulder as the effect), hyper fixation, someone is talking to me and I only focus on what I am going to say coz I am worried I might forget them, I pay for my grocery and I leave it at the cashier until the cashier call me and sooo oooon....

[deliobaoduzzi]

Great list of symptoms . I don't have your capability with words but i would add a certain naivety in different fields, an outstanding intuition, a strange type of empathy, to much trust on others, not understanding many important schemes unless someone explain them to us, a critic is seen as an offence etc etc

[cgaylecg]

Also... I got to the end of the video, and I'm almost I'm tears. I've never ever been so perfectly described before. Every point you mentioned is me....

[mattwilson]

bloody hell, you just described my life.

[EstellaLynn]

Lol I do almost all of these! I was diagnosed at age 29. All of my 20s, I was trying to figure out why I had chronic memory issues. Despite my mom being a nurse, she never figured it out. I figured it out myself from research and pursued a diagnosis. 1.) looking for my glasses and forgetting I was wearing glasses 2.) Not hearing when people are speaking directly to me 3.) Asking for people to repeat things multiple times so that I can comprehend what they were saying 4.) Unable to sort or organize items so my place is chronically messy 5.) Impulsively shopping or impulsively buying food from food cravings 6.) Cant remember phone numbers even for family 7.) Cant remember most peoples names, including most celebrities 8.) Overly chatty and sharing all of my thoughts without a filter or saying nothing at all 9.) Playing with my hair all of the time 10.) Being really bad at math (it is common for adhd females to have problems in math) 11.) Obsessively researching interests instead of doing responsible adult things lol

[Powkiddy]

After watching one of your videos last night, I took online ADHD test and I scored high now after watching this one. I definitely have ADHD. Thank you.
Seriously, though, if I do have ADHD, it would explain so much .

[Maria-ygkj]

My favorite personal moment was realizing that sometimes the professor/lecturer asks the class rhetorical questions that aren’t meant for me to jump in on their train of thought… that was a big one. If someone stops talking to think or take a breath my brain wants to put words in their mouth to continue the conversation but sometimes that’s just interrupting and I’m not always right about what they meant to say. I try to be more aware and practice patience, because I don’t want to influence their wording of their thoughts and opinions with my own

[redbettyco]

I was also late diagnosed at 36. It runs in my family, my mother always told me growing up I seemed to have it (she called it mild because I got good grades in school), school was so easy i didn't have to pay attention, i was the class clown, getting kicked out of classes in high school but easily got straight A's - later to realize it was only due to me having to keep pace with older sister who didn't have adhd and got straight A's. competition was always a driving force to do things. I became an alcoholic, not knowing i had adhd, but i used it, to quiet my mind, to shut it off at night, for 20 years tell i pretty much perfected that hobby. quit but now realizing how much alcohol helped provide me concentration, ability to focus and work. Now facing / struggling with nearly, if not every single one of the things you mention in this video. 36 years to finally learn that others actually can relate to this, not knowing even the smallest things are familiar to others with adhd has been freeing yet difficult. thanks for your vids, just came across them recently.

[srahm]

Like your glasses, each lens in a pair of glasses represents a unique perspective. One may see the world as a CIRCLE, with all its fluidity and interconnectedness, while the other may see the world as a SQUARE, with its structure and precision. Together they create a unified view that embraces both creativity and logic, and it will allow you to see the world in all its complexity.

[AnnaSenPrice]

Just been diagnosed aged 55 🥺 …. Almost everything you’re saying rings true. My life is 2/3 over, and it has been a rough ride :-/

[jerryb]

I’ve been binge-watching ADHD videos here for the last week or so while I await my diagnosis. There are lots that made me cry, sometimes tears of joy as I discovered how many people are going through the same thing when I thought I was alone and totally misunderstood but with no way of explaining how I felt to people in terms they’d understand.
Your explanation is so clear and emotion-free that I feel I could use this to perfectly demonstrate just what my life is like, as I recognise all but one or two of your examples.
Your medication video mirrors others I have watched but again in your calm and rational way clearly shows the difference of how you -and I -are without meds and how I hope I may be one day. It gives me hope i never thought was possible.
I'm 60, but there's no need to recount my life story and struggles here because you've just summarised it pretty much perfectly.
Thanks and keep up the good work.

[petemoss]

Here's this guy on the video, that I don't know, telling me about myself, almost spot on EVERY SINGLE TIME! You sir, have earned a subscriber! :)