this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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Yesss! Same problem with other tests like ADHD: questions are like "do you often get up and walk around the room in unfitting situations?"
I mean I have the urge but I learned to mask for my whole life. Obvs I'm not DOING it, I just have the strong urge and stopping me takes up all my attention. But that's not part of the question?
Oh this is a huge problem in autism tests too ! "Unfitting/Inappropriate situations" : Buddy, if I knew when the situation was not appropriate for this, I basically wouldn't be autistic ๐คฃ
This goes hand-in-hand with the questions where I'm like, "Well, I did that a lot as a child, but I don't do it anymore now." It'd be nice if the tests provided clarification at the top to indicate if we're supposed to respond "yes" to things that we used to do. Considering that childhood behaviors give more clues than adult ones, it makes sense to answer from the past. But at the same time, the test is using the present tense, so to be technically correct I should answer with what I do today. Right? Maybe they should say, "Do you, or have you ever, done blah blah blah?" The fact that this stuff isn't spelled out goes to show that neurotypicals designed these things.
I imagine that having a big ol', multi-paragraph explanation of these sorts of details might end up skipped by NTs, which maybe plays part in why these tests don't bother with that - designers are seeing it from the NT angle. However, I don't imagine such a text would scare off autistic people - more information to help us navigate an important, novel task? Yes, please! I will read that wall of text as if my life depended on it, because the ambiguous questions leave me stuck far longer than they probably should and any additional clarification would be welcome.
At the very least, maybe the laziest way (from the designers' standpoint) to resolve this, would be to include optional "additional information" boxes so we can relieve these anxieties by explaining the conditional nature of some of our answers. Yeah, a simple scale is easier for documentation and diagnosis, but that sort of simplicity doesn't track with how brains (and many things) actually work. Humans are complicated. Neurodiversity is complicated. Anything related to mental health at all is complicated. Perhaps we shouldn't be looking for the simplest route to understanding each others' brains, but the route that more accurately conveys our brains' nuanced topography.
I am fascinated to try to imagine what an autism test developed by an autistic autism researcher would be like. I suspect it would be a wild ride.
"Would you like spend the next eight hours discussing my extensive collection of model trains?"
"If you were to hand write a complete description of the texture of your least favorite food, how many pages of paper would be required?"
One of the tests I did for my assessment did actually have multiple options like that! "Only when I was a child" "only as an adult" "as a child and an adult", not exact wording but the answers were to to that effect!
I think the ability to "mask" weighs somewhat against a diagnosis.
Like with annoyance and concerted effort I can sit still when it is absolutely critical. However I still get up and walk around in unfitting situations, often without realizing I am. Until someone mentions how weird it is. Or mentions they would prefer I keep knives out of my reach because they are scared when I start flipping one around and give me some safer "toy" to fidget with in trade.
A lot of these are things most folks are inclined to do., but the inability to control is the thing, not the urge in the first place.
Yes. The definition of normal is the ability to tolerate suppression. To be clinical, the disorder must actually disrupt your life. If the stress of masking is a life disruptor, that's also a criteria, but just not doing shit you have an urge to do is normal no matter what people say.
The fact that you have to mask something in a situation like that is the point, not the severity. You may mean well, but you're gatekeeping mental health issues by saying "if you are still able to control yourself, you are not sick enough". That is something that still prevents a lot of people from getting the help they need.
There's a balance to be struck.
People with entirely normal urges think they are somehow divergent, because they see others act on urges and people make it clear that was "weird" for the urge to be acted out and mistake having the urge for being the "weird" thing rather than the expression.
I want to get up and walk around and listening to this person talking is a waste of my time. That's a perfectly normal urge. The inability to either supress the urge, or the inability to recognize it as a problematic social interaction when it would be, that's where problems come in.
Yes, this! Masking isn't considered in a lot of these questions. Especially when it's like "have other people told you that you do this thing". No they haven't but yes I do do that thing but I know it's looked down on so I internalize it and nobody can see I do the thing! Why is this about what others can see?
I hate multiple choice, I always want to scribble "depends on circumstances" answer ๐ am I alone, or with someone I trust, a complete stranger, another country, a medical setting? It all changes the answer!
Would you be ok to share a link of that kind of adhd test ?
Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS), is the one I used . It's important to know that this isn't any "test". It's just a screening tool that helps when used in dialogue with a health professional. This post in question showing why that is important.
Other comment is correct: I was referring to the ASRS self screening for adults developed by the WHO. This is only meant to give you an indicator if you should talk to a health professional, not a diagnosis.
https://kairoscope.org/pages/screener_asrs