I have an anxiety disorder so I'm on medication. I don't get anxiety...I have full blown agorophobia attacks that render me helpless. To me there's a difference. So is there a difference between add and just easily distracted? The teachers say no but in my opinion one is a result of chemical imbalance and the other is human nature. Am I wrong here?

I think there can be other things that make people distracted, other than ADD. For instance some sort of sensory issue. Usually with ADD there are a bunch of symptoms that go together, like not being organized, losing track of time, not completing work, etc.

Um-- there are also temporary things that can CAUSE behavior and sensory/cognitive functional impairments that look IDENTICAL to ADD.

Sleep deprivation and chronic stress can both do it.

I think most people who have lived with a high-needs infant can identify with that statement. I'll say that the experience gave me a profound compassion for those individuals that live that way all the time. Wow.

No, they are many reasons other that ADHD for being easily distracted. AD(H)D is particular diagnosis, but being easily distracted is just one symptoms of this syndrome. Two other reasons I can come up with for being easily distracted in a classroom setting is if one bored/unchallenged or if one has a learning difficulties that makes it hard to follow directions.

Both my kids have been checked out for ADHD and neither of them has the disorder, but both had teachers worried because they seemed "distractable". My daughter has language processing difficulties and the conclusion was addressing the LD should help the distractablilty. (This was addressed in 3rd grade & she is in college now.) My DS on the other hand often finds himself very BORED at school, also resulting in daydreaming, doodling, staring out the window thus missing important info and looking like he has ADHD to untrained teachers.

Teachers are not the experts here and should not be making any diagnosis of ADHD.

I am usually thinking about something else. I can do interesting or difficult stuff that requires full attention or mindless stuff that I can do while mentally absent but I am not good with boring stuff requiring attention. I think it may be a maladaptive habit from childhood but I suppose I could have ADD (didn't exist when I was a child). But diagnosis is for doctors of various types not teachers.

Sensory modulation issues especially can mimic ADHD. I found a table somewhere online that compared bored gifted with sensory and ADHD symptoms. There is quite a large overlap.

As far as I'm aware there has to be a high level of a wide range of symptoms in more than 1 environment before they can diagnose ADHD.

But if the ONLY issue is "easily distracted" then I would approach a sensory integration trained OT first and have them do the SIPD tests to check for sensory issues before testing for ADHD as sensory issues may give a false positive for ADHD if the person testing isn't familiar enough with SI.

Just had a conference with DS7's teacher in which she asked me if he has so much trouble focusing at home...he almost never has trouble focusing at home, unless, of course, I'm asking him to do something he finds boring, like a stack of cut and paste worksheets.

I'm interested in these responses, because I consider both DH and myself to be highly distractible. We were never diagnosed ADD or ADHD. We are old enough that it wouldn't have been considered. I've often wondered if I have ADD or if I'm just a multitasker. I too make a ton of mistakes when I am doing tedious work.

Thank you for the responses. I have an appointment with my sons pediatrician to have him seen as his teacher thinks there is something going on. My son can "space out" and be very disorganized but this is the same kid who can keep all his logos and science toys in a very particular order lol.

My daughter was misdiagnosed with ADHD, so this is a sensitive subject for me. There are many psychiatric conditions and even medical conditions that can cause inattention. So inattention on its own is not diagnostic. Depression and anxiety are other disorders that can cause symptoms that are very similar to ADD. Specific symptoms that are similar among many disorders include: irritability, forgetfulness, problems with organization, attention, and making decisions. Autism spectrum disorders also have symptoms of inattention and difficulty with organization. It is best to consult an expert! Imo, teachers are a good resource for identifying problems, but not experts. He could just be a smart boy bored with the classroom work.

So no, inattention isn't always ADD!

This! My DS once was in a class where he could use 5% of his brain power to passively follow the classroom instruction while doing other things that were of actual interest to him (this looked like distraction, until the teacher quizzed him and he got every answer right).
Other factors to add to your list are sleep deprivation, seasonal allergies and anxiety.

Amen.

Well, the major issue resulting in over/misdiagnosis with ADHD is the tendency to ignore the stipulation that those diagnosed suffer from symptoms that "interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, academic, or occupational functioning," and that "several inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms are present in two or more settings." With "several" in this case meaning 6 to 9 symptoms.

It's an exceptionally high bar.

As a (hugely reductive) rule of thumb, if the child in question can focus on more than one non-passive (ie. TV) preferred activity for a sustained amount of time... they generally don't meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.

Which is not to say that they won't be misdiagnosed...

From a cognitive process standpoint, the deficits in ADHD are primarily in dysregulated attention and dysregulated inhibition. Downstream of these, you then get difficulties with organization, initiation, etc. If a person is distracted in a situation in which any reasonable person would be inattentive, then that's not particularly dysregulated. (Aka, purpose for which the word "boring" was invented.)

And moomin's excellent point that the symptoms must present an impairment in actual function.

And, as another note, plenty of other psychiatric conditions include distractability as a symptom!