The ADHD Map
ADHD rarely shows up as one isolated problem.
Start from something you actually experience, in your own words. The map shows what it may connect to, what commonly appears alongside it, what may help and where to get support.
Starting from an experience
At work
Unstarted admin, missed deadlines and the scaffolding around the job rather than the job.
01
What you’re experiencing
At work
02
What it may connect to
Everyday ADHD language
03
What may help, and where next
Reasonable adjustments, Access to Work, Getting assessed in the UK
Start with these
The most useful connections first
What this most likely connects to
Concepts that describe the experience. None of this identifies what is happening for you.
Everyday ADHD language (Our note)
Disclosure, adjustment and Access to Work each mean something specific, and mixing them up makes the conversation harder.
What may be worth trying now
Things people commonly find useful. Not treatment.
Reasonable adjustments (Source)
Adjustments are requested barrier first — the difficulty, when it happens and the change that would reduce it. Employers have duties where the Equality Act definition is met, which depends on substantial and long-term impact rather than on a diagnosis label.
What to understand next
Including the things that can look like this and are worth ruling out.
I can’t focus (Our note)
Interruptions, open-plan noise and verbal-only briefings are where inconsistent attention is felt most at work.
Getting assessed in the UK (Our note)
Adjustments are based on function, so they do not require a diagnosis — but many people ask both questions at the same time.
I keep forgetting things (Our note)
Most workplace slips are capture failures: actions agreed out loud, with nothing leaving the room in writing.
When professional support may be appropriate
Nothing here is a diagnosis. A qualified professional is the only route to one.
Access to Work (Source)
Access to Work can provide a grant or support where a condition affects your work. Eligibility is assessed case by case and is not decided by having a diagnosis.
Everything below is the same set of connections in full, grouped by the kind of relationship.
Commonly described alongside
I can’t focus
Experience · Our note
Interruptions, open-plan noise and verbal-only briefings are where inconsistent attention is felt most at work.
You can concentrate for hours on some things and not at all on the thing that matters today.
I keep forgetting things
Experience · Our note
Most workplace slips are capture failures: actions agreed out loud, with nothing leaving the room in writing.
Plans, messages and errands disappear rather than being deliberately dropped.
I lose track of time
Experience · Our note
Missed deadlines are more often a duration-estimate problem than a motivation problem.
Time feels like now and not-now, so hours and deadlines behave unpredictably.
Everything feels overwhelming
Experience · Our note
Too many simultaneous priorities and no agreed order is the most common reported cause of workplace standstill.
Everything arrives at the same volume, so nothing can be ranked or sequenced.
May help with
Reasonable adjustments
Strategy · Source
Adjustments are requested barrier first — the difficulty, when it happens and the change that would reduce it. Employers have duties where the Equality Act definition is met, which depends on substantial and long-term impact rather than on a diagnosis label.
Changes to how work is done — written instructions, protected focus time, staged deadlines — requested barrier first.
Why we say this — the evidence
- Supports the claim that
- That employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments where a person meets the Equality Act definition of disability, and that adjustments are considered individually.
- Sources
- Reasonable adjustments for disabled workersGOV.UK · Official government guidance · UK · Trusted UK practical and pathway guidanceAdjustments for neurodiversityAcas · Official government guidance · UK · Trusted UK practical and pathway guidance
- What this does not prove
- That ADHD automatically meets the definition, or that any specific adjustment must be agreed.
- Our confidence
- Well established in guidance · last checked September 2026
Learn more
Getting assessed in the UK
Assessment and support · Our note
Adjustments are based on function, so they do not require a diagnosis — but many people ask both questions at the same time.
GP referral, Right to Choose and private routes, and what an assessment involves.
Everyday ADHD language
ADHD concept · Our note
Disclosure, adjustment and Access to Work each mean something specific, and mixing them up makes the conversation harder.
“Task paralysis”, “time blindness”, “hyperfocus” — useful shorthand, none of it diagnostic criteria.
Where to get support
Access to Work
Assessment and support · Source
Access to Work can provide a grant or support where a condition affects your work. Eligibility is assessed case by case and is not decided by having a diagnosis.
A government scheme that can fund workplace support. Assessed individually; a diagnosis does not decide it.
Why we say this — the evidence
- Supports the claim that
- That Access to Work can provide support or a grant, with eligibility assessed individually.
- Sources
- Access to WorkGOV.UK · Official government guidance · UK · Trusted UK practical and pathway guidanceAccess to Work: eligibilityGOV.UK · Official government guidance · UK · Trusted UK practical and pathway guidance
- What this does not prove
- That you will qualify, or what would be funded.
- Our confidence
- Well established in guidance · last checked September 2026
Looking for an assessment?
Clinics you can look at
If you want to be assessed privately, we keep plain records of UK clinics: who they are, who they assess, how much they charge and what that price covers. No ratings, no rankings, and nobody pays to be listed.
- See the clinic records
Every clinic we have researched, listed alphabetically, with the facts we could source and the ones nobody publishes.
- Compare private assessment in the UK
What private assessment involves, what it costs and what to check before you pay.
- Work out which route fits you
NHS, Right to Choose or paying privately — a few questions, no account, nothing stored.
Nothing on this map is a diagnosis. See every source we use, and its limits.