Many parents having difficulties with their child wonder whether the child might have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (also sometimes referred to as Attention Deficit Disorder). Many adults also wonder if they have AD/HD. In this age of pharmaceutical treatment for all kinds of mental health issues, people may wonder if some kind of pill might alleviate the problem and make life easier for everyone. Conversely, some people fear the diagnosis means professionals will start pushing medication when they are concerned about using meds. When it comes to AD/HD, medication can actually be very helpful to those who are in need of it, or there are also therapy and coaching interventions and strategies that can be helpful as well. But before you get to all of that, the problem is, how do you determine whether the problems you or your child are having are actually caused by the condition known as AD/HD and not by something else? Is it AD/HD or is something else going on?
Correct diagnosis is essential in the early stages for treatment to then be targeted and effective. When diagnosis is off the mark from the start, treatment is then incorrect, problems don’t alleviate, and people are even more frustrated than when they started the quest for help. Treatment based on a misdiagnosis of AD/HD might end up doing more harm than good for you or your child.
Many of the symptoms typically associated with attention and hyperactivity difficulties are problems that can also be seen with other mental health issues, such as: general, test, or social/school anxiety; depression; learning disabilities; emotional and behavioral disorders; family stress; medical conditions, and psychosocial or environmental stressors, to name a few. This makes it impossible to have an accurate diagnosis without an evaluation. An evaluation should ideally include testing and not only behavioral checklists, because while such checklists are an important part of an evaluation, in and of themselves they can result in misdiagnosis – since as we’ve just seen, the behaviors could all be there (and thus all ‘checked’) but be there and being caused by something other than AD/HD.
