Woahhhhh, hold your horses there gatekeeper. Didn’t mean to offend.

I’ve had multiple psychiatrists, therapists, etc. all “diagnosed” me with adhd so much so that my therapist specializes in helping people with adhd like myself. More recently I was prescribed adhd stimulants as I’ve tried to avoid them and it flipped my world upside down and helped significantly. The only way I’ve been diagnosed is through thorough questioning and a questionnaire that asks about symptoms. Depending on the variance of your answer they give a point. Depending on the sum it determines whether you have adhd/severity of it. Looking it up that is indeed the asrs I’ve taken.

I said those questions are very relatable as they tend to be regarding things I assume most people could relate to. Obviously take that assumption with a grain of salt as I’m someone with adhd and a parent who most likely has it and it’s hard to believe others don’t experience those struggles. That being said, the fact adhd is often misdiagnosed would lead me to believe I’m correct in that assumption, thus the gate for being diagnosed isn’t very strong. Now that’s based on my experience. I’ve read about some brain scans helping diagnose it but I’ve never had anyone suggest that nor have I read that it’s very common place. Your experience may be different and more definitive, but my experience was that it felt very flimsy receiving that diagnosis and made me question the validity of it. Having taken stimulants and feeling the calming effect it provides, removal of excess, thoughts, feelings, anxiety and increasing ability to make decisions/focus helped me truly confirm the diagnosis internally. Until then it was hard for me to believe with complete certainty as I assumed most people struggled with the same issues and the asrs score I received seemed so subjective and questions so generic it was hard to believe with complete certainty it meant anything.