How do I know if I might have ADHD as an adult?

Many adults notice a lifelong pattern of inconsistency: time-blindness, chronic disorganisation, difficulty starting tasks, emotional overwhelm, and a sense of needing pressure to function. A helpful question is whether these patterns have been persistent, costly, and present across different areas of life.

Is it worth seeking help without a diagnosis?

Yes. Therapy can help whether you’re diagnosed, self-identifying, waiting for assessment, or simply noticing ADHD-style patterns. Support doesn’t have to wait for a label.

What’s the difference between ADHD and anxiety?

They can overlap. Anxiety often drives overthinking and threat scanning. ADHD often involves attention and executive function differences, which can then create anxiety as a secondary consequence. Therapy helps clarify what’s primary and what’s secondary so the work is targeted.

Can ADHD cause emotional overwhelm or rejection sensitivity?

Many adults with ADHD experience strong emotions and intense reactions to criticism or perceived rejection. Therapy supports steadier emotional regulation and reduces the shame cycle that often follows emotional spikes.

Does therapy help ADHD, or is it only medication?

Medication can be helpful for some people, but therapy addresses the day-to-day and emotional impact: planning systems, task initiation, overwhelm, procrastination cycles, self-esteem, burnout, and relationships.

How do I stop procrastinating when I really care about the task?

In ADHD, procrastination is often about task initiation and emotional avoidance, not laziness. Therapy focuses on reducing friction, making starts easier, managing the emotional load of beginning, and building structures that don’t rely on last-minute panic.

What if I’ve spent years masking and I’m exhausted?

That exhaustion makes sense. Masking often involves constant monitoring and overcompensation. Therapy helps you recover from that strain, reduce self-criticism, and build a more sustainable way of living.

ADHD Therapy

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental difference that affects attention regulation, impulse control, motivation, and emotional regulation. For many adults, the hardest part isn’t intelligence or capability — it’s inconsistency. You can know what you need to do, care about it, and still find yourself unable to start, or unable to stay with it.

Many people who seek therapy for ADHD look like they are coping. They may be high-achieving, responsible, and reliable for others, while privately living with overwhelm, late nights, last-minute pressure, and a steady background sense of “I’m behind.”

At Hampstead Psychology, we offer thoughtful, evidence-based therapy for ADHD in Hampstead and online. We help you understand your profile, reduce shame and burnout, and build practical ways of living that fit how your brain works.

This page is for information and does not replace a clinical assessment, diagnosis, or medical advice.

When ADHD starts to take over

You might recognise some of these experiences:

Starting tasks feels strangely hard, even when the task matters to you.
You can hyperfocus for hours on the “right” thing, but drift through everyday admin.
Time disappears, deadlines suddenly arrive, and you underestimate how long tasks take.
You procrastinate, then sprint under pressure, then crash and feel depleted.
You lose items, forget appointments, or rely on reminders and last-minute fixes.
Your mind feels busy, and it’s hard to hold multiple steps in working memory.
You interrupt, speak impulsively, or act quickly — then replay it later with regret.
Your emotions feel close to the surface: quick frustration, quick overwhelm, quick shame.
You’re highly sensitive to criticism or rejection and can spiral afterwards.
You’ve spent years masking, over-preparing, or people-pleasing to cope — and you’re exhausted.

If this fits, it’s not a character flaw. ADHD often creates a gap between insight and execution, and over time that gap can generate anxiety, shame, and burnout. Therapy helps you close that gap in a realistic, compassionate way.

How ADHD can show up

Inconsistent focus and task initiation

ADHD isn’t simply a lack of attention. It’s often difficulty directing attention reliably. Routine tasks can feel unbearable to start, while interesting tasks can become all-consuming. Therapy helps you work with task initiation and attention shifts without relying on last-minute panic.

Time-blindness, planning, and overwhelm

Many adults with ADHD struggle with planning, prioritising, and sequencing. It’s common to underestimate time, lose track of steps, or feel overwhelmed by “life admin.” The goal isn’t perfect organisation. It’s a system that reduces friction and actually gets used.

Emotional intensity and rejection sensitivity

ADHD can involve strong emotional surges, quick overwhelm, and a heightened sensitivity to criticism or perceived rejection. People often cope by masking, withdrawing, over-explaining, or becoming self-critical. Therapy supports steadier emotional regulation and kinder self-relationship.

Masking and burnout

Many adults have coped by pushing harder, overcompensating, striving, and hiding difficulties. That can “work” externally while creating internal collapse over time. Therapy helps you reduce the cost of coping and build sustainability rather than pressure.

word adhd is made of wooden cubes on a gray background with stethoscope and medicine mask.

Related difficulties we often see alongside ADHD

ADHD often overlaps with anxiety, low mood, stress and burnout, insomnia, perfectionism, self-criticism, and relationship strain. Some people also notice compulsive habits around scrolling, food, shopping, or stimulation-seeking, especially when tired or overwhelmed.

Sometimes these difficulties are separate. Sometimes they’re understandable consequences of years of coping, masking, and living under pressure. Therapy looks at the whole picture while keeping the work targeted.

Assessment vs therapy: what we offer

Some people come with an ADHD diagnosis. Others are exploring the possibility, waiting for assessment, or simply recognising the pattern in themselves.

Therapy can be helpful in any of these situations. If you’re diagnosed, we can work directly with the practical and emotional impact of ADHD. If you’re exploring ADHD without a diagnosis, therapy can still help you understand your pattern, reduce overwhelm, and build strategies that fit. If you are seeking a formal diagnosis, we can discuss appropriate routes and what information may be useful to bring to the relevant services.

Why ADHD can feel so hard even when you “know what to do”

A painful part of adult ADHD is the gap between insight and action. You can understand the plan and still struggle to begin or sustain the effort. This often relates to executive functions: task initiation, working memory, prioritising, shifting attention, and regulating effort over time.

ADHD brains are also often more responsive to meaning, novelty, urgency, and immediate feedback, and less responsive to “should.” Over time, many adults develop a secondary cycle: shame about falling behind, panic-driven overworking, exhaustion, avoidance, and then more shame. Therapy helps you step out of that cycle and build a more reliable foundation.

How therapy for ADHD helps

At Hampstead Psychology, we use approaches that are widely used in evidence-based psychological practice. Depending on your needs, this may include CBT, ACT, compassion-focused work, and schema-informed therapy.

In practice, therapy for ADHD often combines practical scaffolding with psychological change. We work on reducing friction in your day-to-day life: realistic planning systems, time awareness, task initiation strategies, prioritising, managing overwhelm, and recovery after disruption. We also work with the emotional load that so often comes with ADHD — self-criticism, shame, perfectionism, rejection sensitivity, and burnout.

The aim isn’t to make you “try harder.” The aim is to help you work with your brain and build a life that feels more manageable and less punishing.

What to expect from sessions?

We start by understanding your experience in context: where things go well, where they unravel, what drains you, what helps, and what you’ve already tried. From there, we build a shared map and a clear direction for therapy.

Sessions are collaborative and active. You’ll leave with insight that feels usable and practical experiments to try between sessions, reviewed and refined over time. We keep the work compassionate, because progress with ADHD often comes from steady adjustments rather than pressure.

How long does therapy take?

This varies. Some people want focused work around procrastination, emotional regulation, burnout, or confidence. Others need longer, especially when ADHD has shaped self-esteem, relationships, or long-standing coping patterns.

We review progress together so therapy stays purposeful and aligned with your goals.

Appointments in clinic and online

We offer ADHD therapy in person in London and online across the UK. Many people choose online sessions for convenience and flexibility, and it can work extremely well for ADHD-focused therapy.

Take the next step

If ADHD has been shaping your life through overwhelm, inconsistency, shame, or burnout, you don’t have to keep managing it alone. With the right support, ADHD becomes something you can understand clearly and work with — so life starts to feel steadier, more manageable, and more like yours again.

Contact Hampstead Psychology to enquire about ADHD therapy in London or online.

Useful Links: Anxiety, Stress and Burnout, Insomnia and Sleep Problems, Fees, Meet the Team, Contact.

Take the next step

If you are worried about immediate risk to your safety, call 999 or go to A&E. If you need urgent support but it isn’t an emergency, contact NHS 111 or your GP. You can also contact Samaritans on 116 123 (24/7).

Meet The Team

At Hampstead Psychology, all of our psychologists have extensive training to doctoral level and decades of experience in their field of expertise. You will be matched with a psychologist that has the knowledge and skill to help you understand and overcome your problem - not just in the short term but for good.