So I was going over my statistics for my site and saw that several people are interested or looking for information on if a person with ADHD can control an ADHD test. I am going to assume here is that they are not interested in controlling the test via ESPN. Ok, just kidding ESP. I know bad joke. That line was in a movie wasn’t it? By controlling I am sure they mean being able to dupe the test or get through the test without showing signs of being ADHD.
Its been my experience that you can. The problem with the test is the test its self. I am sure there are several tests out there, but the test I have knowledge of is a computer based test, which is kind of like a video game. Video game? Video games = challenge = Hyper-focused. Hyper-focused is when an ADHD person is so focused or so channeled (pay attention to this word channeled for future posts) on one subject or one detail that they cannot hear or nor pay attention to anything outside that deep concentration of the mind.
When an ADHD person is in hyper-focus they can accomplish anything. This is also why ADHDer’s procrastinate in doing things is because they like the pressure or challenge as they can then easily get into hyper-focus.
Anytime I am presented with a challenge a video game, a test, or whatever else I can pay attention. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have ADHD (right brained). This goes back to the part of ADHD people don’t understand, we think in pictures or images. So until we can see the image in our head, not just any picture but the big picture, we cannot grasp the topic. I have several posts about on this subject so feel free to read those. Anyway the point I am getting at is if you want to create a test for ADHD then you have to create a test that does not provide visual and does not give a big picture view or present a challenge, but rather a test that is opposite all of these.
Most people think that ADHD people are lazy and when hard work comes they trail off into day dreaming. This isn’t the case. ADHDer’s trail off because of several reasons (here are a few):
1. Either the topic you are discussing is a detail that doesn’t matter so we checking out until a relevant topic comes along. Most of the time we aren’t checking completely out we are hyper-focusing shutting out your discussion in order to concentrate on the bigger picture. I challenge ADHDer’s and non-ADHDer’s to get a book on systems thinking to help you understand how we think.
2. We are not able to get a mental image of the big picture of what you are talking about. Again since we are right brained,think and see in images or pictures, if we can’t get that mental image then we struggle. Since most of society, school systems, and organizations are set up for the majority, left brained, then we struggle in these environments and situations. Again another challenge is to read the “Thinking in Pictures”. This is the book I highly recommend everyone read.
3. Another reason is we just go into hyper-focus to try and solve the problem or learn something. Or brains work differently than left-brained people who are vertical thinkers. The best way to understand this is to read “Lateral Thinking” by Debono.
I can say for me, most of the time I am all three all at once. So to wrap things up, yes, we can control the test or maybe its more appropriate to say we can controller ourselves during these tests via hyper-focusing on test/challenge. If you really want to test for ADHD make sure you don’t present it as a challenge, no video games/computer games, make it no visual (so wordy) and make it extremely overly detailed and boring. Oh, and make sure there are no patterns in the questioning, make it random. Or better yet just sit the person in a class room in the any U.S. public school system, with only one recess and watch if they trail off or day dream.
Or go the reverse, put the person in a room and have them come up with a way to solve world hunger, fix Dell’s struggling business model, or end pollution, but from a strategic way and via brainstorming and being innovative, creative, and inventive. Those that trail off, struggle, or come up with the incremental idea’s are those without ADHD (left-brained).
Hope this helps.