ADHD Diagnosis Criteria Explained By People Who Actually Have It
You've read the ADHD criteria a dozen times and still aren't sure if you actually qualify.
Skye and Robbie Waterson and sit down with the DSM-5 itself and read through the inattentive criteria line by line, the same list a clinician would use for an actual diagnosis. They score themselves against each one in real time, and they don't agree on most of them.
The conversation covers why the criteria were written for children and then loosely translated for adults, why "close attention to detail" means something different for someone who triple checks every payment versus someone who doesn't notice errors at all, and why your own family's version of "normal" can hide a pattern you've had your whole life. Skye also explains the difference between primarily inattentive, primarily hyperactive, and combined type, and why subclinical scores still matter even if you never meet the full six-symptom threshold.
If you've ever wondered whether you "really" have ADHD or just relate to some of it, this episode shows you exactly what's being measured and why that question is harder to answer than it sounds.
What We Cover:
- The actual nine inattentive criteria from the DSM-5, read directly from the manual
- Why the same criterion can apply to one person and not the other, even with shared ADHD
- How the criteria shift between children and adults
- Why family normal can mask a lifelong pattern
- The difference between subclinical and clinical, and why it still matters
About ADHD founders for ADHD founders.
Interesting in working together? You can click here to receive a free bottleneck audio session and learn more about what we do. https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/unstuckaudiosession
Diagnosed with ADHD at the start of her PhD, Skye Waterson spent years researching what actually works and writing about it for thousands of founders. The pattern she kept finding: ADHD business owners don't have a focus problem, they have an operations problem, because the whole business runs through their own head. Now she and her husband, former programmer Robert Waterson, work as fractional COOs for those founders. They find the bottleneck, hire the fix, and build the system that holds.
Subscribe to our Newsletter - https://unconventionalorganization.substack.com/
Follow us on Instagram - @unconventionalorganisation
Visit our website - https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/
More description
You've read the ADHD criteria a dozen times and still aren't sure if you actually qualify.
Skye and Robbie Waterson and sit down with the DSM-5 itself and read through the inattentive criteria line by line, the same list a clinician would use for an actual diagnosis. They score themselves against each one in real time, and they don't agree on most of them.
The conversation covers why the criteria were written for children and then loosely translated for adults, why "close attention to detail" means something different for someone who triple checks every payment versus someone who doesn't notice errors at all, and why your own family's version of "normal" can hide a pattern you've had your whole life. Skye also explains the difference between primarily inattentive, primarily hyperactive, and combined type, and why subclinical scores still matter even if you never meet the full six-symptom threshold.
If you've ever wondered whether you "really" have ADHD or just relate to some of it, this episode shows you exactly what's being measured and why that question is harder to answer than it sounds.
What We Cover:
- The actual nine inattentive criteria from the DSM-5, read directly from the manual
- Why the same criterion can apply to one person and not the other, even with shared ADHD
- How the criteria shift between children and adults
- Why family normal can mask a lifelong pattern
- The difference between subclinical and clinical, and why it still matters
About ADHD founders for ADHD founders.
Interesting in working together? You can click here to receive a free bottleneck audio session and learn more about what we do. https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/unstuckaudiosession
Diagnosed with ADHD at the start of her PhD, Skye Waterson spent years researching what actually works and writing about it for thousands of founders. The pattern she kept finding: ADHD business owners don't have a focus problem, they have an operations problem, because the whole business runs through their own head. Now she and her husband, former programmer Robert Waterson, work as fractional COOs for those founders. They find the bottleneck, hire the fix, and build the system that holds.
Subscribe to our Newsletter - https://unconventionalorganization.substack.com/
Follow us on Instagram - @unconventionalorganisation
Visit our website - https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/
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