That's where the math ends and clinical diagnosis starts because those number games take you only so far. Furthermore, ADHD is classified into different subtypes so it was never a question of meeting all 9 but only the subset relevant for your own subtype. It's also not diagnosed by ticking of the trait list from the DSM with your doctor but by using recognized clinical questionnaires.
The personal questionnaires, aside from the fact that they're ridiculously easy to game and hardly ever throughly verified, are pointed to answer the crtieria defined by the DSM.
If the DSM isnt what defines ADHD, what is?
The DSM is an international expert collection of acknowledged diseases - it just answers briefly the "what is this?" question, nothing more while the medical societies in your respective country implement the actual guidelines on how to diagnose and treat the diseases by using the recent scientific conclusions. So a MD isn't using the DSM to diagnose and treat you - this is a common misconception.
Yes I understand that. My point is all these guidelines and their implementations are based on the definitions of the DSM.