Free online ADHD test in English

It is based on the ASRS v1.1, the six-question screener developed by the World Health Organization to identify adults whose answers are consistent with ADHD.

About two minutes. It is six questions about how you have felt over the past six months.

Yes. The test is anonymous: your answers are not linked to your identity and no email is required to see the result.

The test is in English, but therapy at Therapsy is available in 14 languages, so you can discuss your result with a therapist who speaks your native language.

The ASRS is validated for adults aged 18 and over, so the result would not be reliable for younger people. But if focus or restlessness are making school or daily life hard, talking to someone helps at any age: Therapsy works with young people too. Book a free first call together with your parents, or ask a trusted adult to contact us.

No. A screening tool indicates whether your answers are consistent with ADHD, but only a licensed clinician can make a diagnosis. In adults this requires a structured assessment that reviews your history and rules out other explanations.

The first three questions look at attention and organisation – finishing what you start, keeping things in order, remembering commitments. The last three look at restlessness – the difficulty of sitting still, waiting, slowing down. Knowing which of the two areas emerged for you is useful: adult ADHD often looks less like visible hyperactivity and more like a quietly overloaded mind.

If few traits emerge, that does not rule ADHD out and does not explain everything you may be feeling. If several emerge, it is worth exploring properly with a professional rather than settling for a self-diagnosis. Therapsy offers a free first call with a licensed therapist who speaks your language.

A high score means your answers are consistent with patterns worth exploring, not that you have ADHD. Many adults arrive here after years of wondering. The recommended next step is a conversation with a licensed professional – at Therapsy the first call is free.

The ASRS was built around the more visible, external symptoms – restlessness, interrupting, feeling driven by a motor. Many women (and many men too) present differently: internal distraction, mental overload, and years of quiet compensation that keeps scores low. A below-threshold result combined with a lifelong sense of struggling more than you should is still worth discussing with a professional.

Often, yes – and this test does not measure it. Many adults with ADHD describe emotions that arrive fast and strong, frustration that is hard to recover from, and a marked sensitivity to criticism or rejection. It is not part of the official diagnostic criteria, but it is one of the most common experiences people report. If you recognised yourself in this more than in the questions, mention it in a first call.

Yes – and this is exactly what an assessment checks. Several things can produce a very similar picture:

• Poor sleep. Chronic insomnia and sleep apnea are among the most common causes of daytime attention problems.
• Anxiety. A mind busy with worry has little attention left over.
• Depression. Low mood slows concentration, memory and initiative.
• Stress and trauma. Prolonged stress affects precisely the functions this test measures.
• Medical causes. Thyroid problems and low iron or vitamin B12 can mimic attention deficits – a blood test can rule them out.
• Living in a second language. Working and handling bureaucracy in a language that is not your own consumes real cognitive resources; the fatigue can feel very much like ADHD.

A proper assessment does not just count symptoms: it looks for the explanation that fits your whole story.

A questionnaire measures how things are now; a diagnosis needs more. In adults, a clinician looks for three things: a story that starts in childhood (symptoms present before age 12, even if nobody named them at the time); impact in more than one area of life (real problems in at least two settings, such as work and relationships); and no better explanation (sleep, anxiety, depression, a medical condition or current life circumstances). ADHD also overlaps with autism more often than people expect, and the two can occur together – if you have wondered about both, say so in your first call.

It can do two opposite things. Expat life can imitate ADHD: living in a second language, without your old routines and reference points, consumes attention and working memory all day long – some people who were perfectly organised at home find themselves scattered and exhausted abroad. And expat life can reveal ADHD: many adults discover it precisely after moving, because the structures that had been quietly compensating for it stayed behind – family reminders, familiar routines, a job that fit. Telling these two stories apart is exactly what a first conversation with a professional is for.

Honestly: adult ADHD assessment in Italy is not always easy to access. Public services for adults are few, waiting lists are long, and navigating them in a second language makes everything harder. This is one of the reasons Therapsy’s network includes both psychologists and psychiatrists who work in your language: assessment, therapy and – where appropriate – medical management can happen within the same network. The first call is free.

Yes. Bring your documentation to a first call: our network includes psychiatrists who can advise on assessment recognition and continuity of care in Italy. Prescribing rules for ADHD medication here are specific and prescriptions issued abroad are not automatically valid, so organising continuity early is worth it.