What is the ADHD Self-Report Scale?

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a serious mental health condition in childhood. Kids suffering from ADHD will undergo difficulty in sustaining attention in a single task. They are more hyperactive and also show more impulsive behavior. ADHD will be mostly treated in the early stages itself; therapies will help calm the child’s mind and regains attention in things they do. But in some cases, ADHD is also observed in adulthood. This Adult Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a mental health condition that shows persistent problems in paying attention and impulsive reactions to the surroundings.

Though we say that as Adult ADHD, the symptoms will start exhibiting from early childhood, sometimes it is not diagnosed as ADHD until the child becomes an adult. Usually, hyperactivity and attention deficit are misconceived as a child’s natural behavior, and the impulsive nature is considered normal tantrums. The ADHD Self Report Scale is a psychometric tool used to diagnose and assess the severity of ADHD in adults.

Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults:

People with ADHD in childhood have fewer symptoms as they age. But not in all cases; some people will develop even more complicated symptoms in adulthood than children. In adults, the main features of ADHD may include difficulty paying attention, impulsiveness, and restlessness. Symptoms can range from mild to severe.

Many with this mental disorder did not know that they are suffering from ADHD. Still, they struggle to move on with their day-to-day activities, they lose attention in things they do, they tend to lose a lot of energy in unwanted things, nothing productive at the end. Since they lose focus on a particular thing, they usually miss deadlines or forget meetings with friends and finally prioritize their activities.

The major symptoms of ADHD in adults are,

Lack of Focus: The most revealing symptoms of ADHD in Adults in this one, they are easily distracted from work, lose attention in tasks, or look for things that are not related to the task they are performing.

Hyperfocus: On the flip side, people with ADHD focus too much on one thing that they lose track of time and end up missing bigger things.

Disorganization: All of us look disorganized at times, but people with ADHD cannot clear the mess they incorporated into their daily lives. They cannot prioritize tasks, so they end up missing important meetings or targets.

Time Management issues: They cannot utilize time effectively; they may procrastinate on important tasks, show up late for important events, or ignore assignments they consider boring.

Trouble Multitasking: The main success behind multitasking lies in how well you can carry on two or more tasks with the same concentration level as though you are doing it alone with the fullest of focus. People with ADHD find it difficult to finish a single task at a time, losing their focus, then multitasking for them is a total mess.

Impulsivity: Impulsivity is second nature for people with ADHD; they tend to interrupt others during a conversation. They don’t show much patience in listening to details when someone is conversing with them. They react so quickly that they don’t care about its consequences.

How does an ADHD self-report scale work?

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in adults is more like other mental disorders. They can be diagnosed and assessed by psychometric tools. The World Health Organization(WHO) suggests the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale as a standardized and well-validated tool for assessing ADHD symptoms in adults. This Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale consists of 18 items; the questionnaire is framed around the core symptoms of Adult ADHD given in the DSM IV and the difficulties the participant faces.

The participant will take around 10 to 15 minutes to finish this self-administered test; they can even take this test in the presence of a mental health practitioner in a primary care setup. The 18 items of the Adult ADHD self-report scale are divided into 2 parts, Part-A & B.

Part-A has 6 questions that are the most predictive symptoms of ADHD based on ASRS v1.1. The remaining questions are in Part-B, which are the additional cues to the participant’s mental condition.

The 18 questions are measured against 5 standard responses like "Never”,”Rarely”,”Sometimes,””Often,””Very often,” with regarding to your experience in the past 6 months. Take the test below to find it out in realtime.

How is the ADHD test scored?

The score of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale is calculated very simply by a Likert Scale method. Part A's scores are calculated separately; mostly, it determines whether you have ADHD symptoms; Part B’s score also adds strength to your results. If you score more than 4 in Part A, you have a high possibility of Adult ADHD symptoms.

Conclusion

ADHD is a serious condition that should be given immediate attention in children; it causes serious damage to your productivity and harmony of life in adults. Knowing what you are going through is very important to get a solution to your problems, so take-up the ASRS test and diagnose your severity of ADHD symptoms and bring back the lost inner harmony.