Understanding Adult ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults often looks different than in children. It's not just about "being hyper"—it affects how you organize, focus, and regulate emotions.

Inattention

Unlike childhood daydreaming, adult inattention often manifests as "zoning out" during conversations, extreme difficulty starting boring tasks ("task paralysis"), or losing track of time ("time blindness").

Hyperactivity

In adults, this often becomes internal restlessness. You might feel like you're "driven by a motor," have racing thoughts, talk excessively, or simply cannot relax even when you want to.

Impulsivity

Acting without thinking: interrupting others, making impulsive purchases, quitting jobs abruptly, or driving recklessly. It's a failure of the brain's "brake system."

Common Adult Symptoms

Executive Dysfunction: Trouble checking the steps needed to complete a goal (planning, prioritizing, starting).
Time Blindness: A chronic inability to estimate how long tasks take or arriving late despite trying hard to be on time.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD): Emotional pain that is extreme and unbearable, triggered by perceived rejection or teasing.
Hyperfocus: Intense, unbreakable concentration on things that interest you, to the exclusion of everything else (even eating/sleeping).

Management Strategies

Body Doubling

Work alongside someone else. Their mere presence serves as a visual anchor, keeping you focused on your task.

Pomodoro Technique

Work for 25 minutes, break for 5. It breaks daunting tasks into bite-sized, non-threatening chunks.

The "Ohio" Rule

Only Handle It Once. If an email/task takes < 2 minutes, do it immediately. Don't pile it up.

Externalize Brain Functions

Stop trying to "remember everything." Use calendars, alarms, and whiteboards. It's not cheating; it's accommodation.

ADHD Symptom Checker (ASRS-v1.1)

Part A: The Screener

1. How often do you have trouble wrapping up the final details of a project, once the challenging parts have been done?

2. How often do you have difficulty getting things in order when you have to do a task that requires organization?

3. How often do you have problems remembering appointments or obligations?

4. When you have a task that requires a lot of thought, how often do you avoid or delay getting started?

5. How often do you fidget or squirm with your hands or feet when you have to sit down for a long time?

6. How often do you feel overly active and compelled to do things, like you were driven by a motor?

Part B: Symptom Checklist

7. How often do you make careless mistakes when you have to work on a boring or difficult project?

8. How often do you have difficulty keeping your attention when you are doing boring or repetitive work?

9. How often do you have difficulty concentrating on what people say to you, even when they are speaking to you directly?

10. How often do you misplace or have difficulty finding things at home or at work?

11. How often are you distracted by activity or noise around you?

12. How often do you leave your seat in meetings or other situations in which you are expected to remain seated?

13. How often do you feel restless or fidgety?

14. How often have you difficulty unwinding and relaxing when you have time to yourself?

15. How often do you find yourself talking too much when you are in social situations?

16. When you're in a conversation, how often do you find yourself finishing the sentences of the people you are talking to, before they can finish them themselves?

17. How often do you have difficulty waiting your turn in situations when turn taking is required?

18. How often do you interrupt others when they are busy?

Screening Results

Score Breakdown

Recommendation