Next step
Could this be ADHD?
What clinicians actually look at — pattern, persistence, impact across settings — and a reflection sheet to take with you. No score, no result.
What this feels like
Something made you ask the question. Usually it is recognising yourself in a description and feeling both relief and suspicion at once — relief that there might be an explanation, suspicion that you are reaching for an excuse. Both of those reactions are reasonable. Neither of them is evidence.
What might be going on
Clinicians do not look at a symptom list. They look at four things together:
- Pattern — inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity meeting established diagnostic criteria, rather than isolated difficult days.
- Persistence — a long-standing pattern with roots in childhood, not something that started last year.
- Impact across settings — NICE requires at least moderate impairment, happening often, in two or more important settings: social, family, educational or occupational.
- What else could explain it — anxiety, depression, sleep problems, thyroid problems, hearing difficulties and chronic stress all produce overlapping pictures, and some of them occur alongside ADHD too.
Try this now
A reflection sheet, not a test
The sheet below is deliberately unscored. There is no total, no percentage, no “likely / unlikely”. It exists for one purpose: to help you give a clinician concrete examples instead of general impressions, because concrete examples are what an assessment runs on. Your answers stay in your browser.
Work through the prompts, writing short, concrete examples rather than yes/no.
For each one, note roughly when it started and whether it shows up in more than one part of your life.
Add anything else going on: sleep, mood, alcohol, other health conditions, medication.
Copy the finished sheet and take it to the appointment. It is the part people always forget to prepare.
Reflection sheet
No score comes out of this. It is a way of turning impressions into examples a clinician can work with. Answer only what applies.
Your one next action
Your one next action
If you want to pursue this, the first step is usually a doctor you can actually reach, who can refer you onward — a psychiatrist, or a paediatrician for a child. In Nigeria the usual starting points are federal neuropsychiatric hospitals, teaching hospitals, and university medical centres. Expect a wait, and expect to travel if you are outside a major city.