Repose Blog
By Dr Pragya Sharma · Published 8 September 2026
Can't focus, always behind, and you recognise yourself in every ADHD reel? Here's how adult ADHD differs from anxiety, poor sleep and burnout, and how a proper assessment works.
You open a work email, read it twice, and close it without replying. There are 23 browser tabs open, a half-finished task from Monday, and a reminder you've snoozed four times. Somewhere in your third reel of the evening, a creator lists the signs of adult ADHD, and you recognise yourself in almost every one.
It's a fair question to ask. It's also a question a 60-second reel can't answer. Distractibility, restlessness and mental noise show up in ADHD, but they also show up in anxiety, depression, poor sleep, burnout and several physical conditions. The difference between them isn't academic. It decides what actually helps.
This piece is about telling them apart, and about what a proper adult ADHD assessment looks like when it's done well.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition. That word matters: it means the pattern begins in childhood, before the age of 12, even if nobody named it at the time. It doesn't suddenly start at 32 because work got harder.
In adults, it tends to look less like the fidgety child climbing furniture and more like this:
Starting many things and finishing few, especially tasks that are boring but important
Losing track of time, dates, keys, documents, and conversations mid-sentence
Chronic lateness despite genuinely trying
An inner restlessness rather than visible hyperactivity
Acting or speaking on impulse: interrupting, impulsive spending, quick decisions later regretted
The strange ability to hyperfocus on something interesting for hours, alongside an inability to begin a simple form
The distinction that matters is chronicity and pervasiveness. ADHD symptoms have been there for as long as you can remember, and they cause real problems in more than one area of life: work or studies, relationships, finances, home.
Indian data suggests adult ADHD is more common than most people assume. A 2024 systematic review found prevalence estimates ranging from 5.5% to 25.7% across different Indian populations (Mishra et al., 2024). Screening positive and having ADHD are not the same thing, and that gap is exactly where most confusion lives.
Here is where people most often get stuck. Several conditions produce the same surface symptom, a mind that won't stay on task, for very different reasons.
Anxiety. When you're anxious, attention is hijacked by worry. You can't focus on the report because part of your mind is rehearsing tomorrow's conversation with your manager. Treat the anxiety, and concentration often returns. You can read more on our generalised anxiety page.
Depression. Low mood slows thinking, drains motivation and makes every task feel heavier. Unlike ADHD, this usually has a clear "before", a time when you worked well. See depression.
Poor sleep. Six hours a night for months impairs attention in anyone. Insomnia, irregular shift work and untreated sleep apnoea are some of the most common ADHD look-alikes I assess. See sleep difficulties.
Burnout and chronic stress. Sustained overload wears down the brain's capacity to plan and organise. This too has a "before", and it tends to ease when the load does. See stress and burnout.
Other causes include thyroid problems, hormonal transitions such as the perimenopause, the effects of alcohol, cannabis or other substances, some medications, specific learning difficulties, and the after-effects of trauma. Mood conditions such as bipolar disorder also need to be carefully considered, because the treatment approach differs.
One more thing, and it's important: ADHD often coexists with these conditions rather than replacing them. An adult can have ADHD and anxiety, especially after years of missed deadlines and being told to "just try harder". Ruling out differentials isn't about picking one label. It's about building an accurate picture of everything that's contributing.
Short questionnaires such as the WHO's Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) are useful screening tools. They tell a clinician that ADHD is worth looking into. They can't tell you whether you have it, because they can't check the two things that define the diagnosis: whether the symptoms began in childhood, and whether something else explains them better.
Social media adds another layer. Content about adult ADHD has helped many people finally seek help, which is a good thing. But when the "signs" listed are so universal that almost every tired, overstretched adult recognises themselves, the reel is describing modern life, not a neurodevelopmental condition.
A self-diagnosis also carries a quiet risk. If the real issue is depression or a sleep disorder, the right help gets delayed while you work on the wrong problem.
There is no blood test or brain scan for ADHD. The gold standard for diagnosis is a thorough clinical assessment by a trained specialist, one that is systematic rather than impressionistic. At Repose Clinic, that assessment has four parts.
1. A detailed psychiatric interview. We start with you as a whole person: current difficulties, mood, sleep, stress, physical health, substance use, family history, and how your days actually go. This is where most differentials are first picked up.
2. DIVA-5, a structured diagnostic interview. The Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults (DIVA-5), developed by the DIVA Foundation and based on DSM-5 criteria, is one of the most widely used structured interviews for adult ADHD worldwide. Repose Clinic uses it under licence.
DIVA-5 goes through each ADHD symptom one by one, with concrete real-life examples, and asks about each one twice: once for adulthood, and once for childhood. It then looks at how much those symptoms have affected different areas of life, such as education, work, relationships, finances and self-confidence. That structure is what separates a careful diagnosis from a checklist. It makes sure every criterion is examined properly, not assumed.
3. Standardised rating scales. Validated questionnaires, completed by you and sometimes by someone who knows you well, measure the severity of symptoms and track them over time. They support the clinical picture; they don't replace it.
4. The childhood picture, with outside help where possible. Because ADHD must begin in childhood, we look for evidence from those years. A parent or older sibling can often join part of the assessment. Old school report cards are surprisingly useful, and many Indian readers will know the remarks: "Intelligent, but careless." "Talks too much in class." "Can do better if he concentrates." Bring them if you still have them.
Only after all of this, and after considering the conditions that can look like ADHD or sit alongside it, is a diagnosis made or not made. Both outcomes are useful. A clear "no" often points towards the real, treatable problem.
When ADHD is confirmed, care is built around the specific difficulties it causes you, not around the label. That usually includes understanding how your attention works, practical structure for work and home, cognitive behavioural therapy adapted for adult ADHD, and, where it's appropriate, medication that is prescribed and monitored carefully. Any coexisting anxiety, low mood or sleep problems are treated alongside.
What usually doesn't help is more willpower. Many adults with undiagnosed ADHD have spent decades being told to try harder. Most were already trying harder than everyone around them.
Struggling to focus is real, and it deserves to be taken seriously. But the answer to "is this ADHD?" isn't found in a reel or a 10-question quiz. It's found in a careful assessment that looks at your whole life, including your childhood, and asks what else could be going on.
If this sounds familiar, the right next step is an assessment with a psychiatrist. You can book a consultation at Repose Clinic in Mohali and Chandigarh, or online from anywhere in India. If you're unsure who to see for what, this guide on therapists, psychologists, counsellors and psychiatrists in India may help.
Written by Dr Pragya Sharma, Consultant Psychiatrist. This article is for general information and isn't a substitute for a personal assessment.
Reference
Mishra S, Chaudhary V, Saraswathy KN, Shekhawat LS, Devi NK. Prevalence of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in India: a systematic review and a cross-sectional study among young adults in Delhi-NCR. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2025;60(4):785–796. doi:10.1007/s00127-024-02697-z