Inattentive ADHD

The short answer

Inattentive ADHD is the everyday name for ADHD, predominantly inattentive presentation. It means your main difficulties are with attention, organisation and following through, with few or no obvious signs of hyperactivity. It used to be called ADD. Because it does not cause much disruption, it is often overlooked in children and only recognised in adulthood.

If it sounds familiar, a free adult screening or child screening is a good first step. A screening is not a diagnosis, but it helps you decide whether a full assessment is appropriate.

The three ADHD presentations

ADHD is one condition. When it is diagnosed, the clinician also describes which kind of symptoms are most prominent. The diagnostic manuals used in the UK describe three presentations.

These describe how ADHD looks for you at the time of your assessment. They can change over time, but it remains the same condition. Our guide to what ADHD is covers the three core areas in more detail.

Inattentive ADHD and ADD

Many people still search for "ADD". Attention deficit disorder was an older name, used before the diagnosis was renamed ADHD. Today there is no separate diagnosis of ADD. Someone who would once have been told they had ADD would now usually be diagnosed with ADHD, predominantly inattentive presentation. If you were told you had ADD years ago, it is the same condition under its current name.

What inattentive ADHD looks like in children

Children with inattentive ADHD are rarely the ones disrupting the class. They are more likely to:

• Daydream or look out of the window, and miss instructions
• Start work and not finish it, or rush and make careless mistakes
• Lose books, kit and homework again and again
• Take a long time to get ready, and drift off in the middle of routines
• Seem not to listen, even when spoken to directly
• Be described as "away with the fairies", lazy or not trying

These children often know they are falling behind, and that can affect their confidence. See our guide to ADHD symptoms in children for how ADHD can show at home and at school.

What inattentive ADHD looks like in adults

In adults, the same patterns tend to show up in work and life admin:

• Task paralysis: knowing what needs doing but being unable to start
• Losing focus in meetings, conversations or reading
• Forgetting appointments, bills and messages, and the costs that follow
• Hyperfocus on things that interest you, and real difficulty with things that don't
• Feeling mentally tired from the effort of keeping on top of everything
• Being told you are bright but underachieving

Our guide to adult ADHD symptoms covers the wider picture, including restlessness and impulsivity.

Why inattentive ADHD is often missed

• It is less visible. A child who daydreams causes less concern than one who cannot stay in their seat.
• It gets mistaken for something else: laziness, low motivation, anxiety, low mood or a learning difficulty.
• People compensate. Bright children and adults often cope through extra effort, until the demands outgrow their strategies.
• It is often how ADHD presents in females, who also tend to mask their difficulties. Read more about ADHD in females.

Years of struggling without an explanation can be draining. Some people reach a point of exhaustion often described as ADHD burnout.

How inattentive ADHD is assessed

Inattentive ADHD is assessed in the same way as any other presentation. NICE guideline NG87 says ADHD should not be diagnosed from a questionnaire or test alone. A full assessment looks at:

• Your current difficulties, and how much they affect daily life in more than one setting, such as home and work or school
• Whether the difficulties were present in childhood: the diagnostic criteria require several symptoms to be present before the age of 12
• Other things that can look similar, such as anxiety, low mood or sleep problems

An ADH-Me assessment includes a clinical interview with one of our ADHD specialists, validated rating scales and the QbCheck online test, which measures attention and impulsivity objectively. This is especially useful for inattentive ADHD, where the signs are easy to miss in conversation. For children in South and West Wales, an ADHD specialist from our team can also observe them at school. Read about private ADHD assessment in Wales and what it costs.