William H. Reading, MD
Psychiatric Disorders
Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
Individuals with Attention Deficit Disorder/ Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder will have at least six of the following symptoms, which start in childhood and are persistent over time. It may first be diagnosed in adolescents and adults but the symptoms will have been present since childhood.
- Failing to give close attention to details in uninteresting activities
- Making careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities or compensating by double-checking
- Having difficulty sustaining attention in uninteresting activities, daydreams
- Not seeming to listen when spoken to directly or ‘zoning out’ in an unexciting conversation or lecture
- Becoming involved in a second or third activity before finishing the first
- Procrastinating
- Misplacing or losing things or compensating by always putting things in the same place
- Being easily distracted by extraneous stimuli when working on an uninteresting task
- Being forgetful with uninteresting daily activities
- Fidgeting with hands or feet
- Feeling tortured with boredom or idleness
- Children: Running about or climbing excessively in inappropriate situations
- Children: Having difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly
- Adolescents or Adults: Feeling restless
- Being constantly "on the go" or acting as if "driven by a motor"
- Talking excessively
- Blurting out answers before questions have been completed
- Having difficulty awaiting turn or waiting in traffic
- Interrupting or intruding on others in conversations or other activities