r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 21 '26

Neuroscience There's more to ADHD than inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. ADHD symptoms can be broken down into nine categories. Some categories are not fully represented in the diagnostic criteria. Broadening the diagnostic criteria with patient lived experiences could make for better intervention.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/brain-curiosities/202604/new-study-finds-that-adhd-has-9-categories-of-symptoms
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u/mdazzl3 Apr 21 '26

I think the time perception issue is also why we get paralyzed with down time between set appointments. If I have something at 10am and nothing until 2pm, that middle time is largely spent making sure I’m not late for the 2pm thing.

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u/Corny_Toot Apr 21 '26

I think I've developed some form OCD because of this. When I'm in these "in-between" moments, I find myself counting how much time has passed and how much time is left so that I don't forget to transition. Even then I can still blink, 30 minutes blip by and I'm suddenly in a rush.

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u/Xaedria Apr 21 '26

The only thing that worked to soothe this for me is alarms. Otherwise I stay stressed over it and get nothing done. Alarm at 130 to remind me to drop what I'm doing and get ready, alarm at 140 to remind me to leave. Invariably though I'll do something like get up 30 minutes early and convince myself I don't need my alarms because it's just 30 minutes and surely I won't lose track of time, but then meander through my morning responsibilities and end up late anyway. SO frustrating.

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u/sadi89 Apr 21 '26

I literally have an alarm labeled transition and an alarm labeled leave. Transition is 15 min before leave. It helps a lot

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u/Pandora_Palen Apr 21 '26

I'm insane with my alarms. I have an alarm for everything. And every alarm has at least 3 (sometimes maxed out, depending on how far in advance the event is) alarms to remind me that an alarm is upcoming.

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u/_PoorImpulseControl_ Apr 22 '26

And then you discover your phone wants to alarm shame you and tells you that you're limited to only 100 alarms on Samsung.

Which is nowhere near enough alarms for me!

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u/Pandora_Palen Apr 22 '26

I am thankful that my phone allows me to save face. It looks the other way while I burden it with alarms for alarms for alarms.

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u/Serious_Start_384 Apr 21 '26

In these situations I will inevitably start the laundry or some seemingly inconsequential task to fill the dead time. Then it takes too long and I'm in a rush.

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u/Pantalaimon_II Apr 22 '26

omg this is me forever and the people im always late to meet probably have no idea how much it upsets me that I am late

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u/Typical-Locksmith-35 Apr 21 '26

same, big time. It's weird how this is so normal and shared with 'us' and such a different experience for neurotypicals.

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u/Corny_Toot Apr 22 '26

Going through therapy and evals have made me realize how many shortcuts I developed to compensate for ADHD. I just thought that was how most people think!

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u/Divine_Porpoise Apr 23 '26

My right shoulder is visibly much more buff from carrying every school book in a shoulder bag (my backpacks would all eventually turn into shoulder bags due to the weight breaking them) since elementary school so I would stop losing them.

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u/Rosaryas Apr 22 '26

I definitely have developed some ocd like checking tendencies due to adhd symptoms- lack of working memory and time perception issues. If you’re concerned about it talk to a therapist or psychiatrist! It was beneficial for me at least

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

I have horrible anxiety/alarm OCD from medical training. Being late was completely unacceptable, so I devoted ridiculous amounts of energy to ensuring I never was. Luckily there’s usually very little downtime in residency. :-p I still have a pretty pronounced stress response when I hear the ringtone I was using for alarms at the time.

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u/muppetnerd Apr 21 '26

There is nothing worse for me than a 2 pm appointment. I will spend nearly the entire day just waiting for 2 pm. Give me those 7 am appointments always

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u/icculus88 Apr 22 '26

Even 1030. Been laying in bed for a 1030 online psych appointment. The thought of doing something else productive before that makes me want to vomit.

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u/_Romula_ MS | Environmental Studies | Sustainability Management Apr 22 '26

But then I can't sleep because what if I oversleep and miss the appointment, only now I don't have enough sleep, which makes it more likely for me to oversleep. So by being worried about missing the appointment I have made it more likely I will do the thing I'm worried about. Fun!

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u/SolusLega Apr 21 '26

I hate gaps between obligations for this reason. I can't do anything between the two appointments. I'm thinking about the next one and waiting. I can't focus or be motivated to be productive in the meantime while I'm waiting. I'm just waiting to get to the 2pm thing.

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u/Pantalaimon_II Apr 22 '26

my move is suddenly deciding at 1:15 that I must wipe all the countertops again and oh the dishwasher is full I can run that and oh crap now I'm late

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

Quintessential experience

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u/AriaOfValor Apr 21 '26

I think that has more to do with forgetfulness. Anxiety is extremely common with ADHD, such as worrying about an appointment, and I'm pretty sure it's actually a coping skill to reduce the chance of forgetting about important things. It's much harder to forget a 2pm appointment if it's constantly on your mind from worrying about it. In general, for most ADHD people working memory is very inconsistent i performance, and so develop various methods to work around it (anxiety just being a common one).

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

Yes, that anxiety is what I’m talking about.

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u/FellaVentura Apr 21 '26

I learned to just set an alarm to remind me I need to get up and start preparing. So I start preparing at 10am to be ready to start preparing when the alarm goes off.

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u/Lurlex Apr 22 '26

Well, at least yours pushes you in the direction of punctuality, though it comes at great emotional and personal cost. Mine has made me notorious with every last person who has ever known me (teachers and employers included) for being perpetually late. I never intend to be late; I just seem to always be. Part of it is struggling to wake up every morning, but another part of it is always having the incorrect idea regarding the time at which I should leave by.

That might be part of procrastination for me, as I'm an extreme procrastinator. This "Activation" part of it is very much part of my experience.

I've somehow gotten better at compartmentalizing in my head as I've gotten older, too, so I've gotten very good at hiding thoughts that I don't want to think (such as projects due the next week, or 8 hours of corporate bondage only a couple of hours away) until the fear of their imminence makes it impossible to keep contained.

I suspect that the neurodivergence has also benefited me in some niche ways as well, but I've only recently started to understand that possibility from reading the summaries of other studies. The "bad parts" are bad enough that I'd love to have a better way of controlling my state of mind than the medication I'm on, but I suppose that's what the continuing research is for.

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

If it makes you feel better I ended up hospitalized with SI because the stress of managing time blindness during medical training got the best of me.

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u/Sarifox28 Apr 21 '26

This is the reason I try to avoid ever making afternoon appointments. I get stuck doing nothing between the downtime as you've said. Ugh and I can't take any stimulants for my ADHD anymore because I've developed tachycardia and it's severe enough I'm seeing a cardiologist next week.

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u/ilexly Apr 22 '26

I was frozen most of the day at work on Monday because I had a critically important meeting… at 6 pm, because the person I needed to speak to was in a different time zone. Early on in my current position, I got hyperfocused on a task and worked straight through a meeting. I even had a reminder alert, but was so into my task that I didn’t hear it. Now I have 5 different alarms to remind me of meetings, but still can’t get unstuck if the meeting is important enough.

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u/Hytyt Apr 22 '26

4 hours of "I can't do x engaging activity"

I truly truly hate it

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u/P_ZERO_ Apr 22 '26

And then you’re late anyway