Quizzes

Is It ADHD, or Something Else?

Trouble concentrating has several explanations that look alike. Answer 8 questions to see whether attention, sleep, mood, stress or a medical cause fits what you describe, and what to raise first.

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Reviewed by Dr. Eva Lassey, PT, DPT · Last updated August 27, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Trouble concentrating is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Inattentive ADHD, chronic short or broken sleep, depression, anxiety, sustained stress and a handful of ordinary medical problems all produce it, and they are hard to tell apart from the inside.
  • This eight-question quiz does not score you for ADHD. It sorts what you describe toward whichever of those explanations best fits the pattern, and tells you what to raise first.
  • The questions that do most of the work are about timing and context rather than symptoms: whether the difficulty is lifelong or recent, whether it lifts on a rested week, and whether it applies even to things you enjoy.
  • If your answers point at sleep, mood, stress or a physical cause, that is worth acting on before an ADHD assessment — not instead of one. Untreated sleep apnea, anemia and thyroid problems each mimic inattention, and each is found with a test.
  • These conditions also co-occur with ADHD often enough that finding one does not rule out the other. Adult ADHD guidance treats them as things to be distinguished, not assumed either way.3

Is It ADHD, or Something Else?

0 of 8 answered

1. How long has concentration been the problem?

2. How do you feel on waking, after a full night?

3. What happens with something you genuinely enjoy?

4. Alongside the concentration, have you noticed:

5. Anything physical changed in the last year?

6. If your best friend described your school years, they would say:

7. On a genuinely good week — rested, low demands — concentration is:

8. Has anyone checked the physical basics recently?

How this compares with a validated screener

What this quiz is, and is not. These questions, and the way they sort answers, are ours. They are not a validated instrument, and this quiz does not score you — it points at whichever explanation best fits the pattern you described. That is a starting point for a conversation, not a substitute for a clinician's assessment. Free, validated brief screeners do exist — the ASRS-v1.1, developed with the World Health Organization, is the one most widely used with adults3 — and a clinician will use one alongside history, and information from more than one setting, before reaching any conclusion.

A diagnosis in adults also requires that several symptoms were present before age 12 and that they cause difficulty in more than one setting, which no questionnaire can establish on its own.2

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Frequently Asked Questions

How is this ADHD quiz scored?

It is not scored. There is no point total. Each answer is associated with one of five explanations for trouble concentrating — attention, sleep, mood, stress or a medical cause — and the quiz reports whichever one your answers lean toward, or tells you when two are too close to separate.

How do you answer the questions?

Each question offers four descriptions of a situation and you pick the one that sounds most like you. They ask about timing and context — whether the difficulty is lifelong or recent, whether it lifts on a rested week — rather than asking you to rate symptoms by frequency.

How many questions are in the quiz?

Eight. All of them are shown on the page at once, and the result appears after the last one is answered.

What does the quiz ask about?

How long concentration has been a problem, how you feel on waking, whether the difficulty applies even to things you enjoy, what school was like before age twelve, and whether anything physical has changed in the last year.

Can this quiz tell me whether I have ADHD?

No. It is not a validated instrument and it cannot diagnose. It points at which explanation best fits what you described so you can raise the right one first. Several of the alternatives — sleep apnea, thyroid problems, anemia — are settled with a test before anyone considers ADHD.

Sources

  1. Kessler RC, Adler L, Ames M, et al. The World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): a short screening scale for use in the general population. Psychological Medicine. 2005;35(2):245–256. doi:10.1017/S0033291704002892 (PMID 15841682)
  2. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2022. Asperger's disorder was folded into autism spectrum disorder in DSM-5 (2013) and remains so in the text revision.
  3. Kooij JJS, Bijlenga D, Salerno L, et al. Updated European Consensus Statement on diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD. European Psychiatry. 2019;56:14–34. doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2018.11.001 (PMID 30453134). Sets out the conditions that overlap with adult ADHD — sleep disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, and thyroid and other medical causes — and that have to be distinguished from it rather than assumed.

Medical disclaimer. This page is for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider about your child.