One of the most challenging questions for the mental health profession in recent decades has been the simplest: why are so many more children diagnosed with “special needs” today than when we were children? There is no definitive “good” or “correct” answer to that question, but as many adults are discovering, many too late, have suffered because they were misdiagnosed as children.

The ‘special needs’ checklist for adults

If you have 6 or more of the following symptoms, consider speaking strongly with your doctor about the possibility that you have a disability such as ADHD that is preventing you from reaching your full potential. You:

• Does he misspell, even when given enough time to correct himself?

• Does it take a long time to get to the point in a conversation, or particularly in an argument?

• Are you often accused of speaking too loud or too soft?

• Do people make fun of you for using a lot of ‘filler sounds’ (ie ‘uh’, ‘um’, ‘you know’)?

• Do you have messy writing with lots of crossing outs and overwriting?

• Do you find yourself reading the same sentence or paragraph over and over again because it didn’t make sense the first time?

• Do you often mispronounce words even though you know the correct pronunciation?

• Do you frequently fail to complete all the tasks assigned to you at work, even if you have a checklist?

• Do you often have to ask for instructions to be repeated after the task was supposed to be underway?

• Do you make many careless mistakes to the point where you are accused of not caring?

• Confused letters and numbers that look similar?

• Do you write letters, memos, or instructions in a disorganized and confusing way?

• Do you regularly lose important things, even after trying hard to keep track of them?

• Don’t understand charts and graphs?

• Do you lose track of, underestimate, or overestimate how much time has passed or how much time a task will or should take?

• Do you get lost often?

• Do you mix your right and left regularly?

Why get diagnosed now?

You may feel that it is too late for you: at age 35 or older, it may seem like you are beyond the reach of most forms of intervention. But the truth is that many adults with mild to moderate disabilities only discover their condition because they recognize their own traits in the diagnostic tests their children receive. For adults in that situation, receiving a formal diagnosis can be a huge psychological step forward in their lives: from seeing themselves as “unlucky” or “destined to fail” to seeing themselves as having a definite challenge. that they can understand and overcome.

The inherent power of having a name to give your problems, or, more fundamentally, recognizing that your problems have a definite source, is often incredibly liberating for an adult with a learning disability. There is a lot of knowledge about these disabilities; once you understand that it applies to you, you can harness it to great effect.