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
I keep forgetting things
Plans, messages and errands disappear rather than being deliberately dropped.
Why you keep forgetting, and what helps
01
What you’re experiencing
I keep forgetting things
02
What it may connect to
Working memory, Working memory, Remembering to do things later, Inattention, Other reasons concentration slips
03
What may help, and where next
External cues, Two-minute self-check, One capture place, External cues, ADHD assessment 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.
Inattention (Source)
NHS information on ADHD in adults describes forgetfulness, losing things and difficulty following through among the features of the condition. It does not establish why that happens for any individual.
Working memory (Source)
Working-memory difficulties are supported at group level in adult ADHD research, across both verbal and visuospatial tasks. That is about test performance in groups, not about what happened to one specific intention.
Working memory (Our note)
Often the intention was hard to hold at the time rather than lost later. That distinction is our framing, not a clinical one.
What may be worth trying now
Things people commonly find useful. Not treatment.
External cues (Tip)
One capture place, in view, beats several clever systems.
One capture place (Tip)
One place everything goes, chosen because there is only one candidate rather than because it is clever.
External cues (Tip)
Objects left in the way and alarms with the content written in them. Visibility usually beats tidiness.
What to understand next
Including the things that can look like this and are worth ruling out.
Two-minute self-check (Our note)
Check whether the pattern is lifelong.
I lose track of time (Our note)
If time did not register while it passed, appointments and deadlines are easier to lose along with it.
Other reasons concentration slips (Our note)
Poor sleep, anxiety, low mood, thyroid problems, iron or B12 deficiency and perimenopause all affect memory. A recent, general change is worth a GP appointment rather than a strategy.
When professional support may be appropriate
Nothing here is a diagnosis. A qualified professional is the only route to one.
ADHD assessment in the UK (Our note)
If the pattern is lifelong and costly, an assessment conversation is a reasonable next step.
Everything below is the same set of connections in full, grouped by the kind of relationship.
May connect to
Inattention
ADHD concept · Source
NHS information on ADHD in adults describes forgetfulness, losing things and difficulty following through among the features of the condition. It does not establish why that happens for any individual.
The clinical term for difficulty sustaining attention, following through and organising — one of the core features described in ADHD guidance.
Why we say this — the evidence
- Supports the claim that
- That forgetfulness, losing things and difficulty organising and completing tasks are among the features NHS information describes for ADHD in adults.
- Source
- ADHD in adultsNHS · Authoritative health information · UK · UK clinical and official authority
- Our confidence
- Well established in guidance · last checked September 2026
Working memory
ADHD concept · Source
Working-memory difficulties are supported at group level in adult ADHD research, across both verbal and visuospatial tasks. That is about test performance in groups, not about what happened to one specific intention.
Holding a plan in mind while acting on it. Out of sight is often genuinely out of mind.
Why we say this — the evidence
- Supports the claim that
- That adults with ADHD show moderate group-level working-memory differences across verbal/phonological and visuospatial domains.
- Sources
- ADHD and working memory in adults: a meta-analytic reviewAlderson RM and colleagues · Systematic review or meta-analysis · International · Systematic reviews and meta-analysesADHD in adults: good practice guidance (CR235)Royal College of Psychiatrists · Clinical guideline · 2023 · UK · UK clinical and official authority
- What this does not prove
- That a forgotten intention was never stored, or that working-memory scores explain any single lapse.
- Our confidence
- Reasonably supported · last checked September 2026
Working memory
ADHD concept · Our note
Often the intention was hard to hold at the time rather than lost later. That distinction is our framing, not a clinical one.
Holding a plan in mind while acting on it. Out of sight is often genuinely out of mind.
Remembering to do things later
ADHD concept · Our note
Most of what people call forgetting is an intention that never came back at the right moment. Naming that separately from memory for facts is our framing, not a clinical distinction.
Bringing an intention back at the right moment, unprompted — the part that fails when something is out of sight.
Can look like
Other reasons concentration slips
Related pattern · Our note
Poor sleep, anxiety, low mood, thyroid problems, iron or B12 deficiency and perimenopause all affect memory. A recent, general change is worth a GP appointment rather than a strategy.
Poor sleep, stress, low mood, anxiety, pain, grief, some physical conditions and some medications all affect concentration. ADHD is one explanation among several.
Commonly described alongside
I lose track of time
Experience · Our note
If time did not register while it passed, appointments and deadlines are easier to lose along with it.
Time feels like now and not-now, so hours and deadlines behave unpredictably.
Can contribute to
I can’t start
Experience · Our note
A task you have to remember before you can begin it has two failure points instead of one.
You know what needs doing, you want it done, and the first move still does not happen.
May help with
External cues
Strategy · Tip
One capture place, in view, beats several clever systems.
Leaving the task visible and physical so it does not depend on remembering to remember.
One capture place
Strategy · Tip
One place everything goes, chosen because there is only one candidate rather than because it is clever.
One note, one notebook, one inbox — so remembering does not depend on holding it.
External cues
Strategy · Tip
Objects left in the way and alarms with the content written in them. Visibility usually beats tidiness.
Leaving the task visible and physical so it does not depend on remembering to remember.
Shows up at
At work
Life context · Our note
Verbal instructions, corridor requests and unwritten actions are where this costs most at work.
Unstarted admin, missed deadlines and the scaffolding around the job rather than the job.
Learn more
Two-minute self-check
Assessment and support · Our note
Check whether the pattern is lifelong.
A short pattern check. Not a diagnosis, nothing stored.
Where to get support
ADHD assessment in the UK
Assessment and support · Our note
If the pattern is lifelong and costly, an assessment conversation is a reasonable next step.
The three routes to an assessment, and how they differ in wait and cost.
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.