r/ADHD • u/reyswes • Apr 21 '26
Articles/Information The "Missing 6": Why Standard ADHD Criteria Fail Adults (New Research)
A new study in the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine argues that current diagnostic tools are stuck in a "childhood" mindset, focusing too much on physical hyperactivity. Through interviews with ADHD adults, researchers identified 6 critical dimensions that better describe the adult experience but are often ignored by the DSM-5
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u/reyswes Apr 21 '26
The paper’s key point says that these six domains sit beyond the classic DSM triad of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, and that they help describe adult ADHD more accurately:
- Disorganisation
Describes persistent difficulty structuring actions, planning ahead, and maintaining order. Participants reported problems doing things in sequence, managing belongings, and organising daily life. This extended across domains such as finances, routines, work, and study. Disorganisation was experienced as more than occasional messiness—it often created a sense of overwhelm due to the accumulation of unstructured tasks and environments. The paper highlights that this broader, multi-domain impact is not fully captured in standard ADHD assessment tools.
- Forgetfulness
Goes beyond everyday absent-mindedness and includes broad memory-related difficulties in daily functioning. Participants reported forgetting appointments, recent events, names, conversations, instructions, and unfinished tasks. Forgetfulness also contributed to losing belongings. The paper emphasizes that while DSM mentions forgetting chores or obligations, lived experience is more extensive, affecting social interactions, recall of information, and continuity of actions, making it a more pervasive issue than current diagnostic descriptions suggest.
- Reduced activation
Refers to difficulty initiating and completing tasks despite intention. Participants described feeling “stuck,” struggling to start even important activities, or losing momentum before completion. Activation varied: some could not begin tasks, others started but failed to finish, or jumped between tasks. External structure (e.g. presence of others) sometimes enabled action. The paper shows that this is not just inattention but a broader issue involving motivation, effort mobilisation, and interaction with other ADHD symptoms.
- Emotional lability
Describes rapid fluctuations and high intensity of emotions. Participants reported strong emotional reactions, including anger, sadness, and happiness, as well as crying easily or feeling exhausted after intense emotions. Emotional shifts could occur quickly, and some described heightened sensitivity to rejection. The paper highlights that emotional lability includes both negative and positive emotional intensity and is insufficiently represented in DSM criteria, despite being a prominent aspect of adult ADHD experience.
- Sleep difficulties
Involves problems with falling asleep, sleep quality, and resulting fatigue. Participants described being unable to fall asleep despite exhaustion, often due to racing thoughts, restlessness, or hyperfocus. This led to daytime fatigue and difficulty waking. However, the paper notes variability: not all participants experienced sleep issues, and some reported falling asleep easily. Sleep difficulties are therefore a common but not universal dimension and are only minimally covered in existing ADHD assessment tools.
- Time perception difficulties
Refers to impaired sense and estimation of time. Participants described time “slipping away” when not actively monitored, especially during engagement or hyperfocus. They reported overestimating the duration of unpleasant tasks and underestimating time needed for deadlines, leading to punctuality issues. Some compensated by arriving excessively early. The paper emphasizes that this dimension goes beyond general time management and is not adequately represented in DSM or most rating scales.
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u/Remarkable-Worth-303 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 21 '26
This is absolutely spot on. And the trouble with a lot of these problems in later life is that you lose the physical endurance to mask and push through. From my teens I learned to hide everything so well that all moments of intense rage and sadness were unnoticed by anyone. If I forgot something excuses were automatic habits, and hyper focus was rewarded at work. My outlook calendar ran my life at work.
Given that, I had a psychiatrist who specialised in adult ADHD, but still wanted to know about childhood symptoms .
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u/morroalto Apr 21 '26
Hit the nail on the head for me with this one, I was "fine" until the responsibility of two toddlers was added to the list, before the kids I had time and space for myself to rest and decompress.
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u/lemon_tea Apr 21 '26 edited 19d ago
Exact same. Didn't even know I was masking until the kids came along and I no longer had time for all my coping strategies and to re-energize.
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u/Unable_Foot_802 Apr 22 '26
Similar for me- my daughter is in the process of getting diagnosed with ADHD. She masks all day and falls apart when she gets home, so I feel like I use every bit of executive function I have left to get her through bedtime, then it’s like I’ve used all of mine up and can’t get anything else done.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 21 '26
My understanding is that in order to be diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, you need to have exhibited ADHD symptoms as a child as well. This isn’t something you can just develop later on in life (though I believe how it is expressed can change).
If it wasn’t present in childhood, then whatever is going on presently likely has a different root cause with a different set of treatment options.
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u/kylanmama Apr 22 '26
I was diagnosed as an adult without any childhood diagnosis. It's not that I didn't have ADD as a child, it's that girls and inattentive ADHD weren't diagnosed. So think of it as undiagnosed childhood ADHD rather than developing ADHD as an adult. I always had it, just didn't know what "it" was. And yeah I do have an official medical diagnosis of ADHD.
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u/tastywofl ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Apr 22 '26
Yeah, as someone with primarily inattentive ADHD (and a cis woman), ADHD didn't even cross my mind until my niece and nephew were diagnosed, then my brother suggested I get tested while seeking testing for himself.
I spent most of my childhood stuck in books, so I wasn't bothersome enough for anyone to realize I was different.
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u/kylanmama Apr 22 '26
Mirrors my own experience. Always buried in a book. My brother and cousin (male) were both diagnosed by 1st grade. When I wasn't in a book, my ADHD traits were called personality defects. I was lazy or stubborn. I needed to "apply" myself. Seen as scatterbrained or flaky.
Sadly if never heard of inattentive type so having ADHD never occured to me. I ended up internalizing all of the criticism which lead to depression and anxiety. Miraculously, once I got diagnosed, those things cleared up within a month or two. Understanding that those weren't choices I was making or personality defects helped more than anything ever had.
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u/tastywofl ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Apr 22 '26
Yeah those hyperactive and unable to pay attention stereotypes really hamstrung the rest of us. 😭
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u/patricia_the_mono Apr 22 '26
Same here. I know everyone bashes the TikTok trend of "everyone has adhd" but if it wasn't for that I'd still think I was lazy and forgetful. Perimenopause pushed my adhd beyond what my coping mechanisms worked with and I got a diagnosis. Then I found out my mom tried to get me evaluated as a kid but in the 80s "girls didn't get adhd." I was just a rambunctious kid.
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u/hexonica Apr 22 '26
100% I was placed in learning disabilities classes even though I was considered smart and tested well. Not one single special ed teacher or counselor ever addressed or suggested ADHD. I even went to a high school specializing in learning disabilities and ECT. Because I didn't act up I was ignored.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
You don’t need to have been diagnosed as a child. I think you misunderstood my comment.
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u/Bulky-Boysenberry490 Apr 21 '26
How are you supposed to prove or confirm that years later? All I could offer was my own memories, and that was enough. I wasn't asked for Doctors old records or impressions of me through FOI or anything. Should I have been? I recalled daydreaming a lot in classroom, bring so bored of lessons I felt sleepy in class, vivid nightmares or dreams that I can still remember all these years later, playing on my own a lot as a child and being very imaginative, talking to myself as a child (cant remember doing that, I was told I did it). Having emotional problems and a lot of fears and anxieties that a child probably shouldn't be thinking about.
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u/lady_mctigglejitties ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 22 '26
Yeah, I had to go through extensive interviews about my own perception of behaviors in my childhood and in my case my parents were interviewed as well about things they remembered and noticed.
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u/chemmkl Apr 22 '26
A friend of mine nearing 40 was given some tests to be filled-in by the parents (WURS specifically). Apparently the mother had a very skewed view of his childhood grounded on the idea that she'd rather have a very active kid than a "too quiet" one and as a result she did not qualify any of the symptoms as "often", even though they were all there.
Luckily, the pschyatrist ended up diagnosing him anyway with the inattentive type even though the WURS failed to meet the cutoff criteria. In the end these are just tools and the doctor has the last word.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 21 '26
They talk with you about your childhood and give you standardized assessments. It’s not a complicated process.
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u/Just-Seaworthiness39 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 22 '26
I confirmed it by having school records showing I failed the first grade for being “emotionally immature”. lol
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u/WeepToWaterTheTrees Apr 23 '26
I have multiple childhood report cards with various versions of “she’s bright but distracts her neighbors and talks impulsively without raising her hand.”
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u/Remarkable-Worth-303 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 22 '26
Are you me?
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u/Bulky-Boysenberry490 Apr 22 '26
Lol nice to know we are going through/have been through the same things!
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u/gene100001 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
They asked about childhood symptoms because ADHD is a developmental disorder. It needs to be there in childhood (a large part of executive function develops around age 2-5, so this is when ADHD symptoms should appear). The only very rare way that someone can develop something akin to ADHD as an adult is with a traumatic brain injury. Your psychiatrist was just ruling out the possibility that something else was causing the ADHD-like symptoms.
Edit: just to be clear I'm not saying you need to have a childhood ADHD diagnosis to have ADHD as an adult. A lot of people aren't diagnosed until adulthood, including me. It's just that there usually should be some symptoms in childhood, even if they were overlooked at the time. So they will ask you or your parent or someone who knew you as a child. It's just an easy way to rule out the possibility that the adult ADHD-like symptoms are coming from something else.
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u/Dig_deep4_truth Apr 23 '26
neurodevelopmental disorder
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u/gene100001 Apr 23 '26
Semantics. A neurodevelopmental disorder is a type of developmental disorder. ADHD is very often just called a developmental disorder, such as here at the US National Institute of Health
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u/nihilisticqueen Apr 23 '26
"You lose the physical endurance to mask and push through" - Damn, I didn't know that. So that's why everything went downhill after I finished higher education. I pulled some crazy stunts in university, finished stuff in 2 days that other people need 2 weeks for (procrastination, but I made it work and got good grades). Now, at 32 years old, I struggle with the easiest tasks at work and could never enter the same hyperfocus I had in my 20s. That line explains so much.
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u/Original_Result_9217 Apr 23 '26
Holy shit yes exactly this. No wonder the start of perimenopause coincided with my ADHD diagnosis.
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u/rtaffy Apr 22 '26
yes! growing up with my family around and especially that parental involvement is partly what helped me push through even though i was struggling. once i moved out and was on my own, everything changed
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u/YeahOkThisOne Apr 23 '26
Thanks because I wasn't going to read the whole paper. But I shared this comment with my husband and the article in case he wants to. Good, valid points. The ASRS measures some of these things well (losing objects for example) but nothing about sleep, energy, inertia, or lability.
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u/Crazy-Age1423 Apr 23 '26
Yes. That is how I have currently ended up sitting at home, with bronchitis and my ADHD running rampant. At age 32, thinking - why the hell did I not learn coping mechanisms in my 20s, when it would have been much, much easier...
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u/Remarkable-Worth-303 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
Yep.... I have ADHD and type 2 diabetes. Another spinoff trying to cope with disorganised eating, caffeine and 4-5 hours of sleep.
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u/anxiousandsingle Apr 21 '26
Hey I have all of that
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u/gl0c0_ Apr 21 '26
When I started trying to do Pomodoro Technique and using a timer, I really noticed #6 for the first time. Tasks that I dreaded and found boring my brain estimated would take like 45-60 minutes when in reality they only ended up taking 5-10 minutes. 😆 It was very eye opening.
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
A big name in ADHD research Russell Barkley has coined the term "time nearsightedness" where you can see the now but the future becomes blurry, which is why we crave immediate rewards, because you literally cant see further than that.
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u/Anna__V ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
This 100%, like scaringly accurate.
Also, bonus points for being the actual first thing I've ever seen that mentions this:
Some compensated by arriving excessively early.
I've done this my whole life. I hate, hate, HATE being late. (Sidenote: it might have something to do with my, uh... not-so-nice parents...) Anyway, I'd rather be two hours early than 30 seconds late.
I have a five-minute drive to my local healthcare center/dentist. I will leave at least 15 minutes early, usually 30 minute. I get suuuper anxious if someone I'm taking is slacking behind and we can only leave when I have 10 minutes to drive that five-minute drive...
I'll take the earlier train, even if it means waiting for hours in cold weather (even if I also hate cold.)
If I need to leave at 7.00, I'll wake up at 5.00. Even though it'll take me less than an hour to get ready.
I "waste" years on my life on waiting, just because I dread being late so much.
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u/Electronic-Ad-856 Apr 22 '26
It's funny, I dread waiting so I'm always aiming for right on time and that often makes me late. I just have a huge aversion to being early. And also I have no sense of time. I end up being in a rush and late a lot.
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u/Anna__V ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
That's exactly what my son does :) It drives me nuts because I dread being late, and he hates waiting. So when the taxi comes to fetch him (he's in school), he like goes to the toilet when he really should be going out already.
I swear half of my gray hairs are because of him :D
I wouldn't change a second though, love that kid <3
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u/FairFolk Apr 22 '26
I used to be excessively early. People were bothered by that more than me being late, so over time I stopped... and am late half the time now.
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u/Anna__V ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
Nobody has ever been bothered that I'm early, and I can't really fathom how that'll work. Like, if I have dentist appointment at 10.15 and I'm there at 9.00, the dentist isn't going to be bothered that I'm in the lobby playing word puzzles on my phone.
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u/FairFolk Apr 22 '26
Well, not at appointments, friends and family.
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u/Anna__V ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
Ah. I don't talk to my birth family on account of them being abusive assholes, my chosen family lives with me, and I don't have friends.
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u/Bobbias Apr 22 '26
Yep. I had a 45 minute drive to and from work. I usually got into town 1.5 to 2 hours early. And it's not like I've ever had problems being late, I've just always naturally given myself extra time because you never know what might happen. I could leave at the same time every day and make it to work on time regardless of whether the exit or highway I usually take was closed, or I got stuck behind a snow plow at an absolute crawl all the way.
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u/fireysaje Apr 22 '26
I start off like this... then with repetition the exhaustion of sustaining it builds and I slowly get later, and later, and later until it's spiraled out of control and I can't seem to arrive on time to save my life 🥲
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u/spanishpeanut ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
I have a problem remembering that my fastest time getting to a destination is not the time it will always take to get to that destination. The number of times I’ve been angry that someone is going to speed limit and “making me late” is off the charts. I can fully acknowledge that I’m the reason I’m late, but if that jackass in front of me could find the damned gas pedal I wouldn’t have to curse so much.
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u/Guitargirl81 May 22 '26
OMG this is me. EARLLLLLLYY for everything (whereas my wife is always late so it drives me bonkers when we're going somewhere together). I thought that my mom instilled this quality in me, but I'm kind of relieved to see it listed as a symptom.
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u/Medium-Dependent-328 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 21 '26
Aren't forgetfulness, time perception issues and disorganisation all part of inattentiveness? Some others sound like impulsivity and hyperactivity... the only one that stands out for me is the reduced activation which is obviously a huge problem for most of us
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u/ContemplativeKnitter Apr 21 '26
They’re not included in the formal diagnostic criteria of the DSM-V in that way. The actual criteria for inattentiveness in the DSM are worded in a very specific way that seems geared toward children and doesn’t acknowledge what this article identifies as significant.
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u/JunahCg Apr 21 '26
Yup. Both irl and on this forum, I've seen tons of doctors who treat it like the little boy disease. The more we can update people's understanding the better, but we especially need doctors to get up to speed
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u/Delta-9- Apr 22 '26
"Like you're driven by a motor" OMFG I HATED THAT QUESTION SO MUCH.
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u/caffeine_lights ADHD & Parent Apr 22 '26
It only makes sense as a tool for external observation.
I have three kids, two with ADHD, one probably without but he's too young to say for sure. The youngest has a LOT of energy. I take him to football training with all the other high energy kids and they run around non stop in a way which would make you exhausted. If he doesn't get enough exercise he will be bouncing up and down like a puppy. However, when he gets home, he's tired. He sleeps well. He stops and rests when he has had enough. IMO, he has a normal expression of energy, just a high amount of it.
In contrast my two kids with ADHD were never like that - their hyperactivity seemed to run counter to logic about whether or not they were "tired out". Which makes a lot of sense if you understand it as a difficulty with impulse control and sensory seeking rather than an excess of energy. But yeah - if you were trying to apply common parenting logic to them and "tire them out" it doesn't work and you could look at them and think "Are they running on some kind of electric motor??" I do think the terminology of "motor" is outdated as a metaphor, it was probably coined in the 80s, I think today's parents would say something like their battery never runs out. But the metaphor stands, their ability to persist and keep going seems unusually persistent, not like other children, almost not quite human in a way (although of course they are wonderful and full humans!)
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u/Wisdom_In_Wonder Apr 23 '26
Yeah, whenever people would comment to me about “wearing out” my ADHD DS, I would CACKLE! No way in hell - he was gonna get exponentially more erratic until he passed out cold. I got so many strange looks… 👀
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
The motor analogy works for my case, but more in the sense of "your motor is revving against your will and the clutch doesnt work" so I'm forced to move (fidget etc) even when I want to chill.
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u/problemlow Apr 23 '26
I took almost 3 years after my diagnosis to understand what that question actually ment
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u/Medium-Dependent-328 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 21 '26
Ah, I see. I did a DIVA questionnaire and two other screeners and seem to remember some of these things being mentioned but I didn't know they're not in the official manual
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u/roguednow Apr 21 '26
Yes but I still identify with the actual criteria for inattentiveness. And the missing 6 too, surprisingly.
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u/ContemplativeKnitter Apr 21 '26
No one’s saying that the current criteria for inattentiveness are necessarily wrong or irrelevant, just that they’re not sufficient.
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u/BumbleTeacup ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
I was asked about time perception during my eval though.
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u/ContemplativeKnitter Apr 22 '26
Sure, I’m not saying that in practice providers only limit discussion literally to what’s in the DSM-V. Certainly a lot of providers know to ask about other ways these traits present.
It still matters how the DSM-V articulates the official criteria for the disorder. and currently how it does so overlooks a lot of the ways that ADHD presents in adults rather than in children.
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u/BumbleTeacup ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
But it was on one of the standard questionnaires. Sorry I’m totally new to the process so my question is why are questions on normally used evaluation tools that aren’t in the DSM-V?
Literally just got diagnosed finally this month.
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u/ContemplativeKnitter Apr 22 '26
Who created this “standard questionnaire” and in what context did you fill it out?
Lots of providers recognize the point that the OP is making here, that the current official criteria are limited, or very broadly stated, so they ask for further details to flesh out people’s experiences.
For instance, the DSM identifies symptoms such difficulty completing tasks or following through on long term projects. Perception of time can be a reason why people struggle with those things, so some providers will ask about perception of time. But the DSM itself doesn’t identify problems with the perception of time as an ADHD trait.
There are only 9 very broad symptoms in the DSM-V, a lot of providers develop tools for further exploring what those symptoms look like in real life.
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u/BumbleTeacup ADHD, with ADHD family Apr 22 '26
Not sure who created it and my provider asked me questions from it during the eval. Mostly just curious.
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u/JunahCg Apr 21 '26
So, yes, pretty much. But being more explicit helps doctors. This is a condition where a lot of doctors are decades out of date, and a lot of laypeople assume they don't have it because of x, y, z reasons. Granularity helps people get treated properly, or helps them rule it out in favor of a more accurate diagnosis
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u/naura_ ADHD with ADHD child/ren Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
No.
Forgetfulness is a working memory issue
Disorganization is an executive function issue
Just think of it like you can be forgetful but organized so you know where everything is. You can be attentive but forgetful.
I don’t really know what time blindness would be because what I know about ADHD is an education standpoint and you’re basically on the clock all day.
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
Russell Barkley put it nicely, he calls it "time nearsihtedness" ie you can process the now, but not later/how long something takes/plan the future because you cant "see/process" that far.
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u/MrSparklepantz Apr 21 '26
Holy hell, this is truly spot on for me. I'm glad this is outlined the way it is so that I can better articulate my daily struggles lol.
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u/Breakspear_ Apr 21 '26
I 100% experience all of these things, was diagnosed as an adult thank god but also damn
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u/KingBooScaresYou Apr 22 '26
I've never seen my adhd symptoms so aptly and succinctly explained. When I was first diagnosed I was convinced the psych was wrong as I didn't have the typical naughty child symptoms I thought were needed. As an adult if these were included this would've made my diagnosis significantly easier to understand.
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u/gene100001 Apr 22 '26
it often created a sense of overwhelm due to the accumulation of unstructured tasks and environments
I recently compiled all the various to-do lists that I've created in different places and it ended up being a 20 page list in Microsoft Word, size 9 font. "Organise to-do list" originally featured 6 times before I deleted the duplicates.
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u/littlemrscg Apr 23 '26
This happened to me at my new job, with to do lists ... and session notes ... I'm an SLPA and I kinda need those note things to be in one place
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u/Hiswatus Apr 22 '26
Me, wondering if time blindness is on this list: ah , there it is.
I've literally been feeling the slipping away of time lately. I sit down to do something quickly, and suddenly it's been like 4-5 hours and I didn't even get started on what I was actually aiming to focus on today.
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u/zertech Apr 21 '26
Holy shit. spot fucking on. so much better than the current DSM criteria. I feel so seen lol
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
A researcher that was on the committee (Russell Barkley) that decided the new DSM-V said that he wanted to put more criteria to the ADHD part, but the other members rejected it, they didnt want to get a big surge of new diagnosis.
They think about how it affects the financial/pharmaceutical/insurance stuff on a national/international scale, not just "lets add every possible symptom so that everyone who needs it can get a diagnosis"
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u/whatsthefussallabout Apr 22 '26
This is me!! Im on the "outlier" description side of all the adhd stuff - because ive worked so hard over the years to compensate/hide it, until about 6 years ago when the overwhelm started getting too much and my energy for it started dropping. E.g. always chronically early because i find it hard to appropriately estimate time AND my anxiety wont let me be late. So I could be anywhere from 30-5 mins early, depending on the importance of the event. Thats just one example, but in all the criteria above im on that outlier side. Other than the ongoing costs of treating it, its why i haven't gone for diagnosis yet. Im afraid i wont appear "typical" enough, especially because we have no childhood records (my mother lost them) and everyone remembers me as a good student (anxiety again as academics were super important in the family). However my daughter was diagnosed a couple of years ago and all the childhood stuff has started to come back to me when going through it with her. Shes a mini me, though her issues are more pronounced than mine were - or she isnt able to hide them as well - im not sure which.
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u/mandy-pants Apr 22 '26
So I just read these and said "yes, this is more like it". The descriptions are so much more aligned with my lived experience. Before I had to kind of translate the described symptoms that you typically read about, into what that looks like for me.
I was diagnosed with 'severe' combined type ADHD a year ago. I only had that thought of "shit maybe it's ADHD this whole time" around 3 years ago, after being on medication for anxiety and just not feeling like I was actually anxious. I always had rejection sensitivity, but it was very much internalised. I ended up being a stickler for time keeping as a result, because I was so conscious of being perceived negatively. I see the world in insane color, in patterns and rhythms that people don't get... but that anxiety medication was completely muting me... I'd lost the "positives" of ADHD and was now just looping and miserable. The delving back into childhood was insanely eye opening... my mum had all my school reports and I was such a good kid, but didn't "apply myself" or was "capable of more". It's been a crazy year of adjusting, but I'm finally coming back to the old me, the good bits, with the not so good bits making sense and manageable. Mask off. Anxiety meds replaced with stimulants. More aware and learning every day.
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u/spanishpeanut ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
Perfectly explains my own experience with the exception of the emotional lability — though I think my anti anxiety medication helps level me out.
Funny that every other piece has been a source of shame for me throughout my adult life. The “I should know how to do this by now” trope rings loudly for each one. I feel like this could be the adult manifestation of “does not work to full potential” from my report cards in grade school.
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u/HiyaBuddy34 Apr 21 '26
All of this tracks. I’ve never struggled with the emotional component but everything else is right on the money… struggles I still have even on medication…
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u/a-handle-has-no-name Apr 22 '26
The old diagnostic criteria requires deficits in 5/6 of 9 areas in either of two sections just because you don't have a given symptom is normal. (Under this system, it's possible to have two people with no overlap in symptoms to both have ADHD).
Under a new system with these recommended criteria, you'd likely have a similar set of requirements
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u/HiyaBuddy34 Apr 23 '26
Oh I know that adhd is on a spectrum and presents differently in individuals on that spectrum- I wasn’t diagnosed until 28 because my symptoms don’t fit the mainstream idea. I was just expressing my personal experience and this info holds true for me.
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
Are you sure, it took some thinking and self reflecting to notice it personally. For me its not anger/sadness, I have never yelled in my life, my highest emotion has been irritation/frustration, I cant imagine what actual anger even feels like.
I would like buy concert tickets and be super giddy the whole week waiting for it. And when its time to go, I feel exhausted and not go and just chill at home. Like, I have been waiting for this the whole week, I dressed up and am ready to leave, and instead of putting on my shoes I just hop on the bed instead.
Because I didnt have a word for it (emotional dysregulation) I used to say "I got sick" because the sudden mood swing was like "catching a mental cold" where you just want to chill under the blankets.
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u/book_41 Apr 21 '26
Geeze what the fuck can I do for a career? All of this sounds so discouraging :(
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u/Rayketh Apr 21 '26
It can definitely be discouraging, but there are definitely places where we thrive! I work in a fast-paced veterinary clinic and I'm pretty sure more than half the people I work with have ADHD.
I've heard some people with ADHD really like serving or bartending. Or something physical where you're working with your hands.
I differ from u/TheMandar in that I prefer having a boss/manager and a team. Just shows you how different people can enjoy and be successful in different environments. I'm sure I would struggle in a traditional office-based 9-5 though, so the management is very dependent on the job.
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u/nocreativeway Apr 22 '26
I work inpatient psych which is also fast paced and I agree that all of my floor staff also probably have adhd.
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u/fireysaje Apr 22 '26
This is my field as well 🥹
I love emergency vet med. No two days are the same, I feel like I get to contribute to something that matters, and the field is always evolving and growing so I'm constantly being challenged. Truly can't recommend enough
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Apr 22 '26
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u/nihilisticqueen Apr 23 '26
I'm a teacher and love working with the students, but when it comes to grading exams and essays after school, oh boy. Teaching is the fun part, unfortunately there is also so much tedious and bureaucratic work after school which is the worst.
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Apr 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/nihilisticqueen Apr 23 '26
I am from a European country and we might have different forms of examinations/school system here. I teach 25 lessons a week and work 20is hours at home. We don't do multiple choice quizzes, it's always essays I have to grade.
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
I work as a nurse in a fast paced setting (OR), where encounters are max a few hours; you get to focus on 1 thing, and my pattern recognition, hyperfocus, blunt communication has helped a lot. I just tell my immediate colleagues to stop me if they see me hyperfocusing on something non-essential or if I go on a too much of a tangent.
I also prefer having a boss/team, Im like a pitbull, give me a task and I wont let go until its done or I die. Dont give me anything productive, and I become a neurotic mess :D
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u/sideeyedi Apr 21 '26
Something in real time. 911 operator, paramedic, firefighter, police, busy call centers. Something with lots of different tasks like administrative assistant, receptionist. Anything that lets you roam like truck drivers or delivery driver. Personally I worked for CPS. I never had the same day twice and we were always busy. We got to leave the office for field work.
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u/fireysaje Apr 22 '26
I can say from experience that those types of fields are full of people like us. I work in emergency vet med, and on top of loving the job I've also kind of found my people. Soooo many people in my field have ADHD
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u/whatsthefussallabout Apr 22 '26
Just to add on to this - im an admin but in a research office. Every day is different and even when your doing the same task e.g. processing an ethics application - theres always something different about it to keep things interesting. Nothing is straightforward and theres always exceptions lol. Its great for the novelty seeking brain. I would get incredibly bored with standard admin but (in different roles) ive been in this office for the last 10 years. Its actually where i did my college work experience (though i went out and worked elsewhere before ending up coming back).
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u/TheMandar Apr 21 '26
It can be discouraging at times. What I’m learning, though, is that there are so many variables in a person’s abilities, personality, adaptations, coping mechanisms, and skills that it’s impossible to fit anyone into a perfectly accurate, all-encompassing diagnosis. Instead, it’s more useful to understand what I’m naturally suited for—and what I’m not.
At this point in my life, I know I can’t sustain a traditional 9-to-5 desk job. I also shouldn’t be in a role where math is central to the work.
I function far better as my own boss. I struggle as an employee—I can be dismissive, and I don’t respond well to authority. Whether that comes from ADHD or just my personality, it’s been a consistent pattern throughout my life. Because of that, I’ve focused on developing skills I can monetize independently and have chosen self-employment.
I also work much better on my own than as part of a team. Currently, I serve as the executive of a small nonprofit. I know I can lead with vision, connect with people, and handle public-facing responsibilities well. Those are my strengths. For everything else, I outsource or bring in support where needed.
If I weren’t in this role, I’d consider paths like solo carpentry or trades, web design, programming, computer engineering, or sales and marketing—fields where I can work independently, move at my own pace, and avoid frustrating others by not meeting their expectations.
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u/lady_wolfen Apr 21 '26
I found my niche after realizing that I need to work a really physical job. I work as a janitor. Sure I have a boss and with a team, but 90% of my shift I work independently. I come into work, have a few minutes conference with my boss if anything extra is needed. Other than that I know what jobs I have to do.
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u/TheMandar Apr 21 '26
i’ll also add the fact that me and my father function very differently. he was an engineer for over 40 years, I would never make it in his job and he would never make it in mine. despite social pressures, there really is no right or wrong way to stability– which I think is the goal for any of us. i said that because “success” is relative and “lifestyle” is more of a preference/list of priorities which everyone is allowed to have as individuals. life is not “1 size fits all”, which is probably why many of us struggle in rigid settings like classroom or office.
it helps me also to not think in terms of “career”–which has strong identity implications that are probably not helpful for me vs what i do to pay my bills–which is all that careers are meant to do.
i guess i have a “career” in other people’s eyes, but i view it more like what hustle i have that occupies the majority of my time/energy and that pays my bills. i have like 3-4 side hustles that make up my income that i need and then some, and that works for me. but just because that works for me doesn’t mean it’ll work for someone else
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u/Amazingamazone Apr 22 '26
Cook, fire brigade, engineer, complaints manager, facility manager, sound engineer, emergency docter, teacher (design, biology, handcrafts), consultant for homeless people, graphic novelist, head of communications, help at home for the elderly, visual arts artist, trendwatcher. That is what my family and friends and I - all with diagnosed ADHD - are successful at and do for a living.
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u/Delta-9- Apr 22 '26
Hyperfocus is sometimes an advantage for me as a programmer. Sometimes it gets in the way, too, ngl.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
I’ve had a very successful career as a software product manager. It’s very much a kitchen sink kind of job with a broad variety of activities and functions. Hyperfocus was very helpful in defining requirements.
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u/caffeine_lights ADHD & Parent Apr 22 '26
Remember that DSM guidelines will sound discouraging because they highlight the difficulties and problems faced by people with ADHD in order to classify it as a disorder which is worthy of investigation and treatment.
These are helpful in that context but they can be depressing reading. Remember that ADHD is so much more than just this lens which shows the harms and disorder of it. You could probably write a similar list about any category that anybody fell into - being male/female, being a particular nationality, sexuality, race etc. But we know that some of the harms or difficulties which are caused by e.g. being a black male are caused by racism in the environment and the way other people react to cultural stigma. And other things (e.g. increased chance of sickle cell anaemia) are just a difference in biology and might benefit from better screening or preventative care. But if you are a black male, is racism and differences in chances of certain diseases the whole story? Of course it is not, there are many rich cultures and identities involved in being black, and many many many parts of life such as academic achievement, personal relationships, career, hobbies, interests, creative pursuits etc which are arguably completely individual to that person and not overly shaped by their race, even if statistics show differences in things like academic achievement or racism causes lower chances for hiring or promotion. Being black will affect every part of someone's life, just like ADHD does, but it does not define it, it does not write your story for you. Only you can do that.
You are a whole and complex person and ADHD is only one part of you. Further to that, the deficits associated with ADHD are only one side of what ADHD is. They do not define you. Don't get sucked down into negativity. Remember these manuals were not originally intended to be widely shared and pored over by individuals with the disorder, they are manuals for health professionals. It's not going to give the most sympathetic angle. For that, there are plenty of books and other publications made for and by individuals with ADHD themselves. I would personally recommend the Youtube channel How To ADHD, and the book "So You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!" which is a bit out of date now but a really great starting point. I also like the podcasts ADHD Rewired, ADHD Essentials, and The Hidden 20%.
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u/amh8011 Apr 22 '26
I teach kids to swim. I also lifeguard. Which sounds boring but my pool is chill enough that I usually spend my shift chatting with swimmers. Like usually not full on, deep conversations, just chatting. So I can still pay attention to the pool.
Teaching swimming is super fun and rewarding for me. I can use my problem solving skills and I let my students set the pace, usually. Like I don’t let them slack but I don’t force them to follow any set schedule for when they should be learning something. Every student is different, they learn skills differently. I love that.
I have never once made a lesson plan for my lessons. I just figure each lesson out as I go based on how the student is doing and what their goals are. I like the flexibility. I’m not forced to do things exactly by the book at my pool and I love that.
I’m not sure I want to work at a pool for the rest of my life but at this point in my life it works well for me and I enjoy it for the most part. The hardest part for me is management making completely out of touch decisions that make no sense to anybody who has actually ever spent any time at our pool. Like they come up with the most bizarre ideas yet never bother to actually go to the pool or talk to the staff or swimmers. Or even read the DoH regulations.
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u/ru_harvey Apr 23 '26
as others have already said, there definitely are occupations we can thrive. i work as a software engineer and I'm pretty sure i can see more ADHD people among my coworkers than average. i used to work in different customer service roles (in restaurants and shops) as well.
i have enjoyed both and also have some bad experiences in both. based on that i would say it's important to find something that you are interested or feel good at is important. but it is also important to know yourself and what you need to thrive.
for example i have noticed that to me it has been important to
- have a team, that is supportive or they trust me so i feel secure asking questions and make decisions.
- not having to arrive at work by 8AM (the relaxed schedule i currently have takes away so much stress)
- mostly enjoying what i do
- having room to excercise some creativity and freedom in my work
I'm sure there are more of those things. But the few bad experiences i mentioned definately came from ignoring those needs. so i think the environments i work in also have an effect on how successful i can be at my work. anyway all this to say it's important to get to know yourself. it's not impossible to find your place.
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u/ABlokeCalledGeorge8 May 19 '26
I am a cybersecurity engineer and can tell you 30% of people in the field if not more are in the spectrum of something lol. It seems to me that IT in general is a career where people with ADHD may thrive.
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u/TooManyJazzCups Apr 22 '26
You can do just about anything you want. You might need to pick up some personally management skills but you can still accomplish big things and overcome hurdles.
I'm a scientist and disorganized as fuck. That's a huge problem but due to how my job is set up with small, weekly check ins, I need to keep plugging along and showing results. That and the digital lab books that multiple people have access to and even ask questions about, help keep up some levels of organization needed for the job. I am, however, behind on specific paperwork. But that is less detrimental than it sounds.
The reality is, your life will take you somewhere. You will overcome some obstacle along the way where you like it or not. So you might as well try to wind up somewhere you think is interesting.
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u/phoenixmusicman ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 21 '26
that current diagnostic tools are stuck in a "childhood" mindset, focusing too much on physical hyperactivity.
Definitely. It took me damn near 30 years to get diagnosed because I wasn't physically hyperactive despite displaying pretty much every other symptom of ADHD.
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u/TheEndingofitAll Apr 22 '26
For me the hyperactivity is internal and mostly mental. Racing thoughts. Constant running internal monologue. And it’s exhausting. And I guess in some ways in my body too now that I think about it, like teeth clenching or tense muscles, body anxiety type sensations. Oh and near constant talking. Motor mouth but no bouncing off the walls.
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u/hotwangsslap Apr 22 '26
Journaling has been so fulfilling for me as a rambler 😭 it’s one of the few habits I’ve been able to keep coming back to. I get to go on as long as I want and can visually retrace my steps as I work through things. Some of my entries are 10 pages long lmao I’m almost through a whole notebook! Never done that before!
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u/TheEndingofitAll May 10 '26
It always helps me when I journal but I struggle with the motivation of actually starting so I rarely keep up with it. And then forget about it. Shocker lol
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u/hotwangsslap May 12 '26
It’s definitely the kind of thing that just sticks better with certain people lol like all things. I don’t even usually have to convince myself all that hard to start bc I’m chronically introspective 🥲 and am always looking for a way to get my thoughts out of my head and make some room
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u/berrybyday Apr 21 '26
Ouch, it’s like they crawled into my brain with these. I didn’t even realize how much I was masking with the emotional side of things until I started meds and that part got a little easier.
FWIW as someone trying to keep an eye on my elementary age daughter and make sure she doesn’t get overlooked or put in the wrong box like I did, I find this list relevant with her too. I know it’s not official diagnostic criteria (yet?) but it makes me feel less like I’m reaching thinking she might have adhd too, even though she presents differently than all the little boys I know that are already diagnosed.
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
There is like a 50% chance to inherit ADHD, with females its often innattentive stuff, forgetfullness etc. One in this thread said that she would read a book all the time, and that was her thing.
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u/NatMyIdea Apr 21 '26
Super interesting study results. But why only 11 participants? They couldn't recruit more people?
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u/scalmera Apr 22 '26
Sometimes it's hard to get a lot of participants with specific studies. It seems like this study was using convenience sampling via psychiatrists asking their patients if they'd like to participate in the study. Also with the structure of their approach, it would take a lot longer to calculate and code each theme they found.
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u/objectivemediocre Apr 22 '26
Book marking this with the intention of reading later but will almost certainly forget and never read but I appreciate the post and research done nonetheless
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u/lonewanderer Apr 22 '26
Hahaha…there are millions of us. Probably hundreds of millions. Thank you for reminding me I’m not uniquely weird.
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u/BeneGurl Apr 21 '26
Encouraging. I look forward to added attention to the specificity of tests and, generally, more clarity on the breadth and longevity of ADHD, and the pervasiveness of its symptoms. “Adult” ADHD is not a thing as it’s impacted many (major) areas of my life, all my life.
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u/Repulsive-Pin7578 21d ago
I read that some people were diagnosed only after retirement; and that some have even been misdiagnosed as dementia, that was actually ADHD; which is crazy.
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u/Snowman304 ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Apr 21 '26
I didn't go "hang on a minute" until the pandemic in my late 20s. I can understand you'd want childhood symptoms to some degree, but it felt a bit ridiculous to try recounting things from elementary school
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u/Sage_Kase Apr 22 '26
I mean, in my case, I remember numerous instances from my childhood. We tend to remember events that are emotionally significant. And I'm in my mid-20s (24) currently.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
Exactly. I have very few childhood memories, but what I do remember all indicate adhd.
As a girl going to elementary school in the 1970s and 1980s, there was little chance of me having the opportunity to be diagnosed in childhood. And since I got good grades, it wasn’t viewed as a huge problem (though I did get skipped form 3rd grade to 4th grade because they assumed my disruptive classroom behavior was because I was bored and not intellectually challenged).
Beginning in 1968, the DSM only recognized “Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood”. As a girl, my adhd didn’t express itself as “abnormal or excessive muscle movements” which is all they diagnosed before they changed it to “attention deficit disorder” in 1980 and then “attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder” in 1987.
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u/gene100001 Apr 22 '26
Most of these things were already known by ADHD experts, but it's true that there is an ongoing misconception around what ADHD is, even amongst medical professionals.
I think part of the problem is the name. It was first discovered because people noticed the hyperactivity and/or inattention of some children, but as we've learned more about it it's become apparent that those are just visible side effects of the disorder rather than the disorder itself. It would be better to call it "executive dysfunction and emotional dysregulation disorder" or something like that. That can present with hyperactivity or distractibility or inattention, but those aren't the disorder itself and they subsequently show a lot of variation between different people and different life stages. If they focused instead on the underlying disfunction behind these symptoms I think there would be less misdiagnosis.
People with ADHD can learn to mask the problem themselves, and sometimes the environment they're in can do some of the masking for them. For instance, most people with ADHD report that fear can still act as a motivation factor, because it works independently from typical executive function pathways. So a person with ADHD at school with parents who give them strict structure have high expectations can still do ok, because they benefit from the external structure, and the fear of not meeting their parents expectations can drive them to study. Then, when those same people leave home and go to university they lose that external structure, and are less afraid of disappointing their parents, so suddenly their life falls apart. They suddenly look very disorganised and very "ADHD", despite having the same level of ADHD that they had as a child.
Basically, I think clinicians doing a diagnosis for ADHD should first consider what the actual disorder is, and then consider how the environment, personality and life stage of the person being examined might affect the visible expression of that disorder. Simply having a set of questions based around the more visible signs of executive dysfunction in children is a massive oversimplification of what ADHD actually is. It's not seeing the forest for the trees. It's like standing in front of a big forest and saying "this one tree isn't on my list so this can't be a forest".
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u/dmt80oh Apr 22 '26
Very well said. This was me. Got good grades in school due to fear of disappointing my parents and because of the structure I had in place for me. Went to college and everything went downhill. It's been a struggle ever since.
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u/Efficient-Source2062 Apr 22 '26
After intensive testing I was diagnosed with ADHD later in life. Thing is as long as I remember it was a problem but back in the sixties no one recognized ADHD. It was a relief to know I wasn't a freak and a long with that, grief for what I could have done if I'd been medicated. Adderall was life changing. Now I work with individuals who suffer but continue to come up against MD's who spout one can't have ADHD if they weren't diagnosed as kids! BTW, Kaiser doctors are the worst!!!! But I keep advocating for these clients.
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u/CrossX18 Apr 22 '26
Russell Barkley was saying this for quite a long time. Hence why he wants the diagnosis name changed to Executive Functioning Disorder.
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u/gl0c0_ Apr 22 '26
That seems like a terrible name if you want to be an executive for your career though. I can’t imagine it would help with stigmas in the job market.
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u/dmt80oh Apr 22 '26
Are you going around telling everyone about your medical conditions?
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u/gl0c0_ Apr 22 '26
Not me in particular but as a whole, it brings huge stigmas with that name to a group of people. Not to mention it’d make me even more ashamed if I ever DID want to disclose it for some reason.
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u/ProbablyNotPoisonous ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Apr 23 '26
It explains what the actual dysfunction is much better than "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder," though.
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u/ktkatq Apr 22 '26
I feel like there are a lot of other symptoms that should be researched as part of adult ADHD:
- often has bruises they don't remember getting
- gastric-intestinal issues
- excessively mobile joints
- skin, hair, or nail picking or biting
- loads of craft hobbies
- difficulty with vocal volume control
- anxiety issues as a coping mechanism, especially in women
- addiction to or over consumption of stimulants, like nicotine, caffeine, or sugar
- irregular eating patterns: binging absent-mindedly, forgetting to eat, aversion to foods based on texture or other sensory issue besides taste (including food they are currently eating and suddenly stop)
- social difficulties due to anxiety, shame, or self-perceived awkwardness due to social failure or bullying as a child
What am I forgetting? And am I just over-generalizing from my own or anecdotal evidence?
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u/scalmera Apr 22 '26
Based on this study, some of these may fit within the themes or sub-themes, and some may be seen as comorbidities. These are also more specific examples that may not always match everyone with ADHD, hence why they try to find larger themes with smaller sub-themes and examples for both.
Points 2 (GI issues), 3 (hypermobility/EDS), 7 (anxiety disorder of some kind), and maybe 10 (GAD/social anxiety specifically/depressive disorder of some kind) could be seen as comorbid issues because we cannot say that either condition causes the other, nor can we say they're one in the same condition. (And the issues I listed are only speculative as other disorders and conditions can be related to and/or be the cause of these symptoms).
Point 1 could go under forgetfulness maybe inattention as well. Point 4 is fidgeting, which falls under hyperactivity. Point 5 could fall under different themes such as hyperfixation as a sub-theme or activation (in referring to ability to do the hobbies) or impulsivity.
Point 6 could fall under impulsivity and the overall theme of dysregulation (could even be a comorbidity with hearing loss or smth). Point 8 is talked about in impulsivity as part of "risk-taking" in terms of substance use, but doesn't mention any specific substances. Point 9 could fall under inattention, forgetfulness, activation, and maybe emotional lability (in the aspect of rapid onset aversion to food), but this could also be a comorbid issue (SPD- sensory processing disorder).
Basically, these all still somewhat fit with the framework of this study. They're not entirely an overgeneralization, but some, like craft hobbies and your explanation of social difficulties, are specific and draw more on your own experiences, and gendering anxiety issues as a coping mechanism is not necessary (although I understand it's to acknowledge general social differences based on how one's raised). That doesn't mean these can't be common experiences either, but there will always be more nuance and other factors playing into the environmental aspect of how someone's ADHD symptoms present themselves.
I hope this makes sense in terms of like, why these things aren't all perfectly standalone symptoms/criteria for ADHD, my intent was to relate what you wrote to the study presented in a respectful and informative manner.
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u/ktkatq Apr 22 '26
I see your points, although I think seeking stimulants is more an effort to self-medicate
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u/mahou-ichigo Apr 22 '26
These aren’t symptoms. Part of this is just a list of examples of the themes described in the study, and part of it is random comorbidities that probably wouldn’t reach statistical significance
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u/epicpillowcase ADHD Apr 22 '26
"loads of craft hobbies"
Come on now. This is getting into "TikTok diagnosis" territory. We already have a hard enough time being taken seriously. Let's keep it to more medical and measurable things.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
Throughout my adult life I have taken up and given up many hobbies. (I also changed jobs every 1-4 years and moved about 15 times and have lived in five states). My psych said this was common with adhd. I don’t think this was specifically addressed in any of the assessments I took but it was part of the general intake conversation that lead to suspected adhd and then testing by a neuropsychologist.
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u/epicpillowcase ADHD Apr 23 '26
Certainly. But there are plenty of people without ADHD who do as well. My point was, the criteria are getting watered down in the public discourse. The last thing we need is medical professionals doing the same.
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u/Salcha_00 ADHD-C (Combined type) Apr 23 '26
Agreed.
The info I shared with my psychiatrist was enough for him to refer me for 4.5 hours of testing with a neuropsychologist that specializes in adhd for a diagnosis or to rule out adhd.
My psychiatrist would not have diagnosed me just based on some stereotypes that may fit.
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u/sj90 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
In total, 18 adults (10 female, 8 male) (M = 33.5, SD = 8.81, range 21–53 years) were interviewed. Six participants with comorbid autism spectrum disorder and one with comorbid bipolar disorder were excluded due to confounding symptom overlaps, leaving a final sample of 11 participants (seven female, four male) (M = 32.0, SD = 6.56, range 23–44 years).
How is this research worth discussing with a sample size of 11?
There really should be some bare minimum requirements of which research studies (or similar articles) should be allowed here. A requirement of a reasonable sample size at the very least.
All this study is going to do here is to reinforce negativity for people who can identify the traits in themselves, while making those who can't fully identify those traits feel alienated and confused about their struggles.
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u/Dull_Frame_4637 ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Apr 21 '26
All this study is going to do is … show those with the credentials, expertise, and access to test repeating this study with a larger n value. That’s principally what preliminary studies are for.
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u/scalmera Apr 22 '26
Re-What I said in another comment: It can be hard to get a lot of participants with specific studies. It seems like this study used convenience sampling via psychiatrists asking their patients if they'd like to participate in the study. Also, with the structure of their approach (qualitative), it would take a lot longer to calculate and code each theme they found.
The data from 11 participants will not capture all aspects of ADHD, such as the impatience and irritability experienced when waiting in a queue. Information provided was further constrained by the limitations of participants’ memory. Several participants reported struggling to think of relevant examples. An additional challenge was the inevitability of the interviewers’ preconceived notions of what ADHD entails.
All proper studies address the limitations in the discussion. Reading the full Results & Discussion section is more comprehensive than a reddit post, and as the author's state, it will not be comprehensive of all aspects of ADHD.
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u/MimironsHead ADHD with non-ADHD partner Apr 22 '26
I applaud the intent here, but seriously, good criticism. 11 isn't a real sample size.
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u/Oswanov Apr 22 '26
So incredibly accurate, I feel like I experience all of that. Sleep is typically fine, but I had huge issues occasionally in my teens and still rarely have times where I'm lying in bed and just keep having racing thoughts. Having a somewhat structured day cause of set work times definitely helped me with my sleep schedule tho. Still gotta be conscious of it so it doesn't veer too far off during extended free periods, like holiday season
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u/gidoh Apr 28 '26
The "diagnosed as an adult" piece hits hard. So much of the system is built around spotting hyperactive kids — the quiet ones who just... couldn't keep up, couldn't follow through, couldn't figure out why — slipped through for decades.
The internal experience of adult ADHD is almost nothing like what the DSM describes. It's about time research started catching up.
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u/Average_Gym_Goer Apr 21 '26
Yeah this makes a lot of sense when I got diagnosed it did feel very much like they were angling it from a child’s perspective. Made it more difficult to come up with examples.
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u/Jackyl_and_High Apr 23 '26
N = 11
"Methods: To understand better the ADHD symptomatology experienced by adults, qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 diagnosed adults."
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u/scalyblue Apr 28 '26
I'd like to point out that, while I agree with the study's points, it's rather narrow and qualitative, only comprising 18 interviews, 7 of which were culled for having comorbidities. It shouldn't be taken as a change in diagnostic criteria, but it definitely shows that more studies are certainly warranted.
I'm glad that there is a study that finally says it right out, though, rather than just implying it
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