Adult ADHD Self-Check

The WHO screener

Developed by WHO with Harvard researchers (Kessler et al., 2005) — the most widely used adult ADHD screening scale worldwide.

Private by design

Your answers stay in your browser. The result is calculated locally and encoded only in the URL you see.

Free, no signup

The ASRS is published by WHO for free use.

The attention side

• Finishing the last 10% — Projects lose all flavor at 90% — the final checks, cleanup, and handover feel like a wall. You probably have several almost-done things lying around right now.
• Getting things in order — Multi-step tasks (moving, expenses, trip planning) stay untouched — not because you cannot do them, but because ten steps shout at once and none volunteers to go first.
• Remembering appointments — Promises evaporate — not from not caring; the memory simply never replays on its own. The little jolt of shame when someone reminds you is an old acquaintance.
• Starting effortful tasks — The more thinking a task needs, the harder the ignition: you suddenly need to wash dishes, check the phone, tidy the desk — anything but open that document.
• Careless mistakes — On boring tasks your error rate spikes — skipped words, wrong cells, messages to the wrong group. Not an ability problem; attention simply walks off the job when bored.
• Sustaining attention — Ten minutes into repetitive work the mind wanders off; you surface later realizing the screen went unread. Coffee does not fix this kind of tired.
• Listening in conversation — You nod along while the mind has already left; "mm-hm, right" covers the gap until someone asks about the details.
• Misplacing things — Keys, earphones, documents take turns going missing — not lost, just parked wherever was convenient in the moment, and that place changes daily.
• Distracted by surroundings — A nearby chat, movement outside the window, one phone glow — your attention has radar and everything pings it. Open offices are your personal hard mode.

The restless-impulsive side

• Fidgeting when seated — Meetings, long rides, cinemas — anywhere stillness is required, your leg bounces, your pen spins, your posture cycles. Sitting still is genuinely tiring work.
• Driven by a motor — Rest for others is recharging; your idle still burns fuel — a nagging pull to do something, unease when nothing is happening, a mind still on the highway at bedtime.
• Leaving the seat — Halfway through long meetings you start hunting for exits — water, bathroom, anything. It is not thirst; the cost of staying seated is compounding by the minute.
• Restless inside — The inner churn wears you down more than any visible fidgeting — outwardly seated, inwardly a string winding tighter, with a vague urge to snap or bolt.
• Unable to unwind — Free time arrives and you cannot use it — doomscrolling past midnight is not enjoyment, it is failure to stop. Doing nothing makes you nervous.
• Talking too much — When the conversation lights up you talk faster and longer, and only on the way home does it land: nobody else got much airtime today. The warmth is real; so is the missing brake.
• Finishing sentences — You see the end of their sentence before they do, and your mouth beats your manners — completing, correcting, jumping in. You regret it afterward; in the moment it is barely a choice.
• Waiting your turn — Queues, elevators, loading spinners — thirty seconds of waiting itches like an hour. You will take the long way around just to avoid standing still.
• Interrupting others — They are clearly busy, but your thing "just takes a second" and it has to be NOW — because "later" means "forgotten". You see their expression only after the interruption lands.