Adult attention deficit | ADHD

At 32, Ira Devyani Sanyal, an HR consultant in Bengaluru, prided herself on her love for precision. But then the lapses began: missed follow-ups, half-written emails, meetings she chaired but struggled to track. “I used to be like this as a child,” says Ira. “My teachers called it carelessness. But I thought I had outgrown it.” A workplace counselling session revealed otherwise. As she described her routines to the therapist, she prescribed a formal evaluation. The diagnosis put a name to her struggles of the past decade: ADHD, or attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, a neurodevelopmental condition that affects attention regulation, impulse control and executive functioning.

India is seeing a rise in ADHD diagnoses among adults aged 18 and above. A 2024 study published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology examined 1,665 young adults aged 18–25 in Delhi-NCR and found that 14 per cent screened positive for ADHD symptoms. A broader review within the same paper placed adult prevalence in India between 5.48 per cent and 25.7 per cent. Clinicians at AIIMS Delhi’s psychiatry OPD report a noticeable rise in young adults aged 20–27 presenting with attention-related concerns. It is the same at Mindscape, a mental health clinic in New Delhi run by psychologist Upasana Chaddha, where the waiting room is increasingly filled with young adults—many of them college students or early professionals—coming in for ADHD evaluations.

Most adults diagnosed with ADHD believe their condition has appeared in adulthood. But, as Dr Chaddha points out, “ADHD does not start in adulthood. Symptoms are present earlier but not recognised. Now, with better awareness and diagnostic tools, more young adults are coming in to get evaluated.” India is now beginning to study and measure adult ADHD more systematically than before. Such research, according to a 2025 review in a SAGE journal, is increasingly focused on prevalence and clinical patterns. “Earlier, we were very alert to attention issues in children, but we did not extend the same vigilance to colleges or workplaces,” says Dr Harish Shetty, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist. “There was an assumption that if ADHD existed, it would have been picked up in childhood.” However, ADHD does not always manifest into overt hyperactivity—its most recognisable symptom—during childhood. It can also appear as forgetfulness, incomplete tasks, poor organisation or “careless mistakes”, behaviours often dismissed as personality traits or lack of discipline. In quieter children, especially those who manage well academically, these signs are easy to miss.

The outcome is, as Dr Samir Parikh, chairperson of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Healthcare, says, “We somehow end up staying between two extremes with ADHD—either we overdiagnose or we underdiagnose.” Adds Dr Sachin Bagla, psychiatrist at Fortis Bengaluru, “As individuals grow older and life becomes more complex, the demands on attention, organisation and emotional regulation increase. That is when longstanding difficulties become more visible, showing up as procrastination, forgetfulness, last-minute work patterns, reliance on caffeine or screens, and emotional dysregulation.”

Distraction getsattention

One reason why ADHD is appearing in conversations today is social media. Indian creators like Sana Khan (@adhd.india), Riya Kothari (@adhd_ coach_india) and other mental health influencers are using formats like short-form videos, reels and explainers to make the condition more visible, while breaking down everyday behaviours—procrastination, forgetfulness, impulsivity—for viewers to connect patterns in their own lives to possible underlying issues.

While these videos are not diagnostic tools, they have become an entry point. Among the youngest voices in this space is 18-year-old Aaria Verma, who began sharing her experiences on YouTube after her own diagnosis. “A lot of symptoms get missed because you don’t realise that a part of your behaviour could be linked to a condition,” she says. “When you talk about it, people start recognising patterns in themselves.”

Clinicians, though, caution against equating accessibility with accuracy. “A lot of people are coming in convinced they have ADHD after watching something online, but that is not always the case,” says Chaddha. Adds Bagla: “Not all attention problems in adults are ADHD. Anxiety, depression and lifestyle factors like excessive screen use can impair focus in similar ways. That is why a proper evaluation—looking at childhood patterns, screen habits, addictions and underlying mental health issues—is essential to make a diagnosis.”

Part of the problem also is that ADHD is not diagnosed the way most people imagine. There is no single blood test or scan to confirm it. “You cannot diagnose ADHD from a reel, a self-test,” says Dr Parikh. “You must look at the person’s life over time—how they function under structure and without it.” A person who suspects ADHD should see a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist familiar with neurodevelopmental conditions. Their assessment will involve history-taking, symptom-mapping and use of diagnostic criteria such as those described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. When possible, inputs from parents, caregivers, teachers or partners can help.

Self-diagnosis, on the other hand, can be misleading. Many traits associated with ADHD—difficulty concentrating, impulsivity, restlessness—are experiences most people have at some point. But undergoing a symptom occasionally is not the same as having a clinical condition. The difference lies in persistence, severity and impact on daily functioning. “The kind of lifestyle we lead today also affects attention—constant multitasking, rushing, switching between tasks,” says Parikh. “Making a mistake because I am distracted in the moment does not mean I have ADHD, it may just mean I did not have the right attention at the time.” That balance—between recognition and over-attribution—is central to how ADHD is understood today. “ADHD needs to be identified early when the clinical condition is evident, and intervention should begin at the right time. But we must also distinguish between clinical ADHD and lifestyle-linked attention issues,” says Parikh.

Treating adhd

Doctors recommend a mix of behavioural therapy, environmental redesign and, where clinically indicated, medication. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), in particular, has emerged as a central pillar of treatment. “The aim is not to ‘fix’ a person, but to create systems that help them function, learn and work more effectively,” says Dr Rajender Singla, senior consultant, neurology, at Sarvodaya Hospital, Faridabad. CBT for adults includes executive function strategies: learning how to split large tasks into smaller steps, externalising memory through planners and reminders, creating fixed routines, reducing competing distractions, building pause techniques before impulsive reactions, rewards upon completed tasks, accountability check-ins and short breaks.

Medication, meanwhile, has evolved from ‘sedating’ or ‘dependency-creating’ psychiatric drugs to stimulants (like methylphenidate) and non-stimulants (like atomoxetine) to increase dopamine and norepinephrine levels. These hormones and neurotransmitters improve focus and impulse control.

Sanyal is already feeling the difference post diagnosis and treatment. For her, therapy is “learning how to work with my brain instead of against it”. Her condition has not disappeared, but she has learnt to tame the beast. n