Informal ADHD Research
Viewable Data
Charts I've made based on the data from previous (closed) surveys. Click the titles to open them.
Do people with ADHD more commonly have a certain blood type? Are they more likely to have positive or negative blood types?
How does ADHD affect menstruation and vice versa? What are the impacts of birth control, menopause, and ADHD medications?
Curious how ADHDers, neurotypicals, and autistics compare on the Big Five personality traits? See how they compares in areas like openness, agreeableness, and emotional stability!
Upcoming Data
Charts that I haven't made yet, probably because I'm procrastinating. These surveys are closed.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)
How common is rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) in people with ADHD? What triggers it? How do ADHDers compare to neurotypicals in RSD symptoms?
Comorbidities
"Comorbidities" are conditions that coexist in a person, such as anxiety, autism, IBS, and fibromyalgia. What are the most common comorbidities among ADHDers?
Sign up for New Survey Alerts
Interested in participating in the next ADHD survey? Enter your email to join my survey sign-up list. You'll be notified when I post one! (Whenever that may be.)
PS -
You'll never receive any spam mail from me - pinky promise!
Why I started making surveys
When I was diagnosed with ADHD, I wanted to learn as much as I could about it. As a science nerd, I'd hoped to find countless ADHD research studies from scientific journals so I could learn about my brain: How do my hormones affect my ADHD symptoms? What kind of ADHD medication works "best" for ADHD adults? How is ADHD different in women?
... But guess what?
Research on ADHD is severely lacking, especially if you're not a young white boy living in America. (The classic ADHD stereotype.) Anyone can have ADHD. And yes, that includes women, girls, people in the LGBTQ+ community, undiagnosed ADHD adults, non-Americans, Black people, brown people, disabled people — even people who were labeled "gifted" in grade school. Yet, historically, formal research has focused on a very specific demographic: little white boys from American middle-class families. (No hate, though. I'm the mom of an American little boy who is 75% white and probably has ADHD like his mom. Our "class" is debatable, though.)
While things have improved with time—scientists are starting to include a broader variety of test subjects!—it doesn't undo what we've already learned about neurodivergence. Much of what we understand about ADHD today is based on decades of exclusive, non-diverse study subjects.​ As much as I'd like to, we can't just cancel academia and start from scratch. Change takes time.
So what can we do about it now? That's where my surveys come in.
How it works
Given the hot-mess state of modern ADHD research, I decided to take matters into my own hands by creating inclusive surveys to explore ADHD and other mental health topics. Once I'm curious about a topic, I usually ask my Twitter followers about it to gauge their interest. If it seems like it'd be popular enough, I get to work:
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Design survey questions and logic flow, paying careful attention to precise wording and inclusive options for questions.
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Test the survey on a few volunteers. Ask for feedback and fix anything they noted (typos, confusing wording, technical errors, offensive questions, etc.)
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Share it with the internet!
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After the survey is closed, analyze the data in my free-time and search for data correlations. But, correlation doesn't equal causation! So any correlations found in my data are either explicitly presented as just a correlation (as opposed to a hard fact), or they're further researched by me so I can confirm my hypotheses and reasoning.
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Finally, I design visualizations of the data as informational charts and graphics.
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Yes, I do it all on my own. No, I have no idea why I do this to myself.
How to participate in surveys
In the past, I've posted the survey links to Twitter and my YouTube community, but now you can sign up for email alerts when a new survey opens! Scroll up to find the sign-up form!
Disclaimer
Please note that the data collected from these surveys is not valid for scientific research. It is for informational purposes only. Because the survey population is not fully controlled or verified, the resulting data may not accurately reflect reality. Additionally, the survey and data have not been peer-reviewed. What in the ADHD? will not be held responsible for any actions taken based on the information presented in this section of the website.