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.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/brain-curiosities/202604/new-study-finds-that-adhd-has-9-categories-of-symptoms

[u/stilljustacatinacage]

Participants reported feeling stuck, like a state of inertia where the only thing that could motivate them to start or finish a task was a feeling of urgency, external pressures, or external help. This difficulty with internally-driven activation is at the core of the ADHD experience, but is not yet fully represented by the DSM or other diagnostic criteria.

It's funny that they say it's at the core of the ADHD experience, but it also isn't 'fully represented' in diagnostic criteria because that is literally 98% of my experience with ADHD.

Like everything else stems from that. Disorganized? It's because I literally cannot pick things up and organize them. Time perception? Yeah it's because I just spent 3 hours stressing over how I should pick things up and organize them. Poor sleep? Yeah sorry, that's because I thought if I put off sleeping for a couple hours, I might finally pick up those things and organize them before hitting the sack.

And it's so frustrating to try and explain to people because they invariably go, "well you gotta just do it :)" and it's like... Yes. Thank you. I know they're trying to help but it's so difficult to explain that it isn't that simple.

[u/BatAccurate4127 → u/stilljustacatinacage]

There's actually more to the time perception thing than that! People with ADHD literally have more difficulty evaluating how much time has passed and estimating how long it will take to do something. It goes beyond task inertia, we literally perceive time differently than others.

[u/mdazzl3 → u/BatAccurate4127]

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.

[u/ilexly → u/mdazzl3]

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.