Re: Are these symptoms of ADD?

[Patte Rosebank]

If most of your difficulties are with reading and writing, then you may have dyslexia, not ADD. Sometimes, the symptoms of both may be similar. And sometimes, people have both dyslexia and ADD.

To get a better idea of whether or not it’s ADD, you should take some of the informal tests on this website.

Click on “Tools” in the left sidebar, and try the “Virtual Doctor” test. Then try the other diagnostics in there. These are purely “first step” tests. If you score high on them, print out the results and ask your doctor for a referral to a mental health specialist, who specializes in adult ADD.

If you score high enough that it’s likely you may have ADD, take the results to your doctor, and ask for a referral to a specialist.

This is important, because only a specialist can properly diagnose it and rule out any other possibilities (since many symptoms overlap with those of other conditions, such as dyslexia, depression, anxiety, and bipolar) or rule in any co-morbidities (since ADD often brings along some friends).

It’s also important to specify that the specialist must be familiar with adult ADD, because many specialists still refuse to accept the fact that it does, in fact, exist, and is NOT something that kids just grow out of.

Bring your “first step” test results with you when you see your doctor, so you’ll have some evidence to support your suspicion you may have it.

Of course, if it turns out that you may have dyslexia instead of ADD, you should still get a referral to a specialist—one who specializes in treating dyslexia. Dyslexia is a recognized learning disability, so there are definitely supports out there to help those who have it. If your son has it, then he will be eligible for learning supports to help him in school. ADD is a recognized learning disability too, but it’s still quite misunderstood, compared with dyslexia.

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