Last fall, I heard something that floored me: The tests we have for ADHD in adults don’t work very well.

As an adult with ADHD, I think about this all the time because our diagnosis is so stigmatized and so misunderstood. It’s overdiagnosed. It’s underdiagnosed. Everybody has it. Nobody has it.

If only there were a silver bullet or some test that could definitively say yes or no.

So, I asked the two Chicago School faculty members who got me thinking about this after their presentation at the CHADD conference last year: Jessica Rosenfeld, a clinical psychologist, and Reneh Karamians, a neurorehabilitation psychologist.

They explained why adult ADHD diagnosis is so difficult, and how new scan technology holds promise for spotting ADHD in the brain.

For more on this topic

Listen: Is ADHD genetic? We asked a Harvard scientist
Listen: Understood Explains: ADHD in adults

For a transcript and more resources, visit Hyperfocus on Understood.org. You can also email us at hyperfocus@understood.org

Listen to Everyone Gets a Juice Box, a new podcast from Understood.org where host Jessica Shaw has honest talks with parents raising kids who learn and think differently.

Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.