5 minute ASRS screening test here (pdf, not some data harvesting online monstrosity):
https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/adhd-questionnair...
Precisely because you can code 12 hours non-stop, you chances to have undiagnosed ADHD are actually higher.
"Attention Deficit isn't an inability to focus, it's an inability to exert executive control over focus". This is the best ADHD description I have read. Of course, here in HN[1]
Just knowing what you're dealing with is quite useful. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses you must contend with. I learned to harness my random bursts of energy, but also to control their scope.
Some things that helped: progressively removing "noise" from my life, having a maximum number of "in progress" projects, committing to smaller deliverables.
ADHD has a kind of wrong name in that it has "Attention Deficit" when really paying attention is not the problem, regulating attention is the problem.
We often struggle with either paying too little attention or too much attention.
Thanks for your comment. I see this in my son, who shows signs of having ADHD. He is able to hyper focus on areas of interest which seems contrary to having ADHD. Less desired areas of interest are much harder for him to deeply focus. I try to see this as an advantage and hope that someday he will be able to exploit his hyper focus and learn to manage his distracatablity.
Consider that it's difficult to separate ADHD from a lifetime of bad habits and a "lack of willpower". Willpower being brought up in the standard medical context of "the prefontal cortex being able to override other areas of the brain to serve long-term goals and resist impulse."
Isn't the "lack of willpower" directly related to the underlying medical condition?
Over-diagnosing is a real problem, it's the opposite end of "victim blaming", but it's also a dangerous extreme.
There are people who can't focus on anything who don't have ADHD. Willpower is directly trainable through a number of things - working memory exercises, physical exercise, practicing it, meditation, etc.
That still doesn't mean it isn't ADHD. In fact the best results come from a treatment of cognitive behavioral sessions and medication.
Certainly, some cultures have features where the symptoms are less obvious than other cultures.
The spin on that article doesn't quite sit right with me (and note the editor has issued a correction, as well) but there are certainly some things there I'd agree with. Logically, ADHD must be a disorder neither of the individual nor of their environment, but of the interaction between the two that arises when the expectations of society don't match the behaviour of the individual. So whether you should try to 'fix' the individual or society is an ethical question not a scientific one. Practical considerations may lead to 'fixing' the individual with medication, but in some cases a change to their environment may be achievable to the same effect. e.g. an adult with mild to moderate ADHD symptoms may be lucky enough to get a job they're so interested in that they don't have any problems with focus.
I'm also guessing it's not helpful to frame these debates in a binary fashion. All psychological problems exist on a spectrum so there will always be a group in the middle for which e.g. diet or learned coping strategies work well enough. Then there will be a more extreme group for whom those tools fail. And a group in between those two who might struggle along for years looking like they're doing fine, but in the long term burn out in the absence of a comprehensive treatment.