What I wish I’d known before going through an ADHD assessment
If you’ve spent months, or years, wondering whether ADHD might explain some of your experiences, deciding to pursue an assessment can feel like a really big step.
And then you start wondering: What actually happens during an ADHD assessment? What are they going to ask me? What information do I need? What if I don’t remember my childhood? What if I don’t “look ADHD”? What if I don’t explain myself properly?
These were some of the questions I had when I started learning about the assessment process.
An ADHD assessment isn’t just a questionnaire
There are screening questionnaires that can be useful when you’re initially exploring ADHD. But an assessment is much more than completing a checklist.
A clinician is trying to build a picture of your experiences across your life.
That means looking at things like attention, impulsivity, executive functioning and other ADHD related difficulties, but also considering when those difficulties began, where they occur and how significantly they affect your life.
Your childhood matters
One of the things that can feel confusing about adult ADHD assessment is that ADHD doesn’t suddenly begin when you’re an adult.
The clinician will generally want to understand what you were like earlier in life.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to arrive with a perfect childhood record. You may not remember everything. Your parents might not remember everything. Your school reports might not mention anything about ADHD. That’s okay.
Think about patterns rather than trying to produce a perfect timeline.
Were you forgetful?
Easily distracted?
Always losing things?
Daydreaming?
Struggling to organise yourself?
Leaving things until the last minute?
Constantly starting projects and not finishing them?
Needing enormous amounts of pressure to get things done?
Or perhaps your difficulties looked completely different.
“But I did well at school”
This is something I think deserves particular attention. Academic success doesn’t automatically rule out ADHD.
You can get good grades and still have significant executive functioning difficulties. You might have relied on deadlines. You might have worked much longer than other people. You might have needed intense pressure to complete assignments. You might have been able to focus on subjects you enjoyed while struggling enormously with everything else.
The outcome doesn’t always show you the amount of effort required to get there.
Talk about your actual life
An assessment isn’t a test where you’re trying to get the “right” answers. The most useful thing you can do is be honest about your actual experiences.
Not what you think ADHD is supposed to look like. Not what you’ve read online. Not what you think the clinician wants to hear.
Your experiences.
The things you struggle with. The strategies you’ve developed. The things that work. The things that don’t. The things that other people might not notice.
Masking and compensation matter too
Adults can develop an enormous number of strategies to compensate for ADHD.
Calendars. Reminders. Lists. Multiple alarms. Leaving things in very specific places. Working under intense deadline pressure. Constantly checking things. Over-preparing. Creating complicated systems.
These strategies can be helpful. But they can also hide the amount of effort required to function.
So don’t assume: I can’t have ADHD because I’ve developed ways to manage myself
The question can also be: How much effort does it take for me to manage myself?
You don’t have to remember everything
If the thought of an assessment makes you panic because you don’t have a perfect memory of childhood, you’re not alone.
You can start gathering whatever information is available. Old school reports. Reports from teachers. Comments family members remember. Examples from childhood. Old diaries or journals. Anything that helps you identify patterns.
But don’t feel like you have to create a perfect archive of your entire childhood. You are a person, not a case file.
What I found difficult
For me, one of the hardest parts of assessment was trying to explain things that I’d spent years considering normal.
How do you explain something you’ve never thought about? How do you describe an experience when you don’t know whether other people experience it too?
That’s why preparing examples can be useful.
Instead of thinking: Do I have ADHD?
try thinking:
“What happens when I have to organise a complicated task?”
“What happens when I’m bored?”
“What happens when I have lots of things to remember?”
“What happens when I’m under pressure?”
The answers to those questions can tell you much more.
An assessment isn’t about proving you’re struggling enough
I think this is one of the biggest fears people have.
“What if I’m not ADHD enough?”
“What if they think I’m making it up?”
“What if I explain it badly?”
You don’t need to perform ADHD. You don’t need to make your difficulties sound worse than they are. And you don’t need to have every possible ADHD trait.
You’re there to explore whether ADHD is an appropriate explanation for the patterns in your life.
What happens after the assessment?
The outcome will depend on the individual assessment and clinician.
You may receive a diagnosis. You may not. You may receive recommendations for further support or assessment.
Whatever the outcome, the information you have gathered can still help you understand yourself and what kinds of support might be useful.
🎧 Listen to Episode 11
This post accompanies Episode 11 of the That AuDHD Teacher podcast, where I talk specifically about ADHD assessment, what I experienced, what I wish I’d known and some of the things that helped me prepare.
If you’re considering an ADHD assessment, I hope this gives you a little more idea of what to expect.
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