My newer therapist had me do screening questionnaires for multiple conditions and says she “feels strongly” that I have ADHD, but I didn’t meet the diagnostic criteria of childhood symptoms. She basically wanted to shoehorn in something from childhood like my behavioral issues in order to get me a diagnosis.

I had some behavioral issues as a child for sure (getting in trouble for breaking rules, social conflict) but was always a very high academic achiever. I have also been seeing mental health professionals since i was a very young child and did multiple diagnostic screenings in elementary and middle school (nothing ever came up except plain old GAD/depression. Although I have more in common with autism symptoms than the average person but all on a subclinical level).

Procrastination issues started in high school and escalated from there, although I was always able to pull a passing grade out of my ass. While I struggle motivating myself to do my chores, hobbies, etc., I don’t have any issues staying on task at work or doing other tasks when they are crucial to my survival. I am a web developer so I stare at a screen all day long and am fine with it.

When it comes to things like reading books, my attention span is completely destroyed, but it didn’t used to be that way. I used to read books all the time as a child and this issue didn’t start for me until the invention of the iPhone. I kind of feel like everyone has this problem in the internet age though? It’s proven that as your brain adapts to shorter tasks/skimming, you lose the ability to do longer tasks.

I definitely have some dopamine related issues but is it possible to develop actual ADHD as an adult ?