[puika]

unless I misunderstood what little I know of ADHD, shouldn't these symptoms have been there all your life, not just 6 months prior? I score 4/6 on the scale without question, but I wasn't functioning like this before (maybe 2/6), only these last few years, with no change in environment or routine

[dns_snek]

> shouldn't these symptoms have been there all your life, not just 6 months prior

Yes. If you're getting diagnosed as an adult the general guidelines are that symptoms should be clearly traceable to teenage years and the earlier it is, the stronger the evidence is.

People experience ADHD-like symptoms later in life for any number of reasons, like anxiety and stress at work, home, or school. That's one of my peeves with how short the diagnostic process seems to be in certain countries (US and UK specifically), they don't seem to be particularly thorough when it comes to those things.

[never_inline]

> People experience ADHD-like symptoms later in life for any number of reasons, like anxiety and stress at work, home, or school.

Can you provide some research on this?

[eatitraw]

6 months is a reasonable cutoff for a screening tool because it allows for changes in the environment. E.g. you might cope well in high school, but you move to university and suddenly your old strategies don't work anymore and your life is falling apart.

For the full assessment with a psychiatrist, they do look at one's entire life history.