The ADHD spectrum includes problems with hyperactivity, impulsive behavior and inattention present before the age of seven. Some people think that if someone has ADHD, they are unable to sustain attention. That's wrong. ADHD is a condition of variable attention. Someone with ADHD can often go to a penny arcade and play video games for hours on end, even racking up the "high score" for a given machine. Paradoxically, this is because people with ADHD are commonly able to hyperfocua on material that is stimulating. ADHD manifests itself by an inability to perform unstimulating tasks such as cleaning your room as a child, or paying the monthly bills as an adult. ADHD sufferers find such tasks so noxious they notoriously procrastinate and put them off. Then they must do them or else, thus artificially creating a highly stimulating "do or die" situation where they can focus.
Why do some kids have such difficulties concentrating and others don't? We don't know for sure. We do know that the medications that treat ADHD affect Dopamine and Norepinephrine. There are many different ways that one can wind up with symptoms of ADHD including brain damage and environmental influences. There is a heavy genetic component to the condition.
Symptom checklists and assesment instruments are helpful, but ultimately ADHD is a condition that a doctor diagnoses clinically using his judgment and experience in the context of a patient-doctor interaction.
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