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Aren’t a lot of these diagnoses also based on whether they impact your work/personal/school life?

E.g. if you have ADHD and it benefits you in those areas, you may no longer meet the diagnosis criteria IIRC?



As someone with ADHD, but who hasn't kept super abreast of official developments in its diagnosis:

My understanding is that while this may have been the case at one time, it is not now.

I believe that there are something like nine symptom clusters for ADHD, and a standard diagnostic measure is whether you have at least X of them at a moderate level, or Y of them at a severe level. Something along those lines, anyway. And the clusters include things like "time blindness", "task initiation", "task perseverance", etc.

(Again, this isn't based on any recent and specific knowledge, but amalgamated recollections of some things I've read on the subject over the past several years.)


Criterion D:

> There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, academic, or occupational functioning.

That criteria is not optional.

(Someone please correct me if I’m wrong)

Edit: Same applies to Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Criterion F:

> The anxiety, worry, or physical symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

So if the disorder positively impacts all areas of your life, you can’t be diagnosed with the disorder. Which kind of makes sense.




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