ADHD Glossary

Terms that ADHD texts use without explaining, in plain language, with what they look like in daily life.

9

90 percent syndrome: Tasks that are almost finished but never handed in. One of the costliest patterns in ADHD.

A

Abandoned messages: Messages written and not sent, or read and not replied to. The reply gets given in the mind, not in practice.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): An approach that works on acting according to your values together with a disturbing thought, instead of getting rid of it.
Accessibility: A service or environment being usable by everyone. Cognitive accessibility is the most neglected dimension from the point of view of ADHD.
Accountability partner: A person you regularly report what you have done to. One of the cheapest and most effective ways of building external structure.
Activity scheduling: Dividing the day in advance into concrete activities. It keeps free time from filling itself up on its own.
Addiction risk: The chance of becoming dependent on the medication. There is strong data that prescribed ADHD treatment does not increase the risk of addiction and even reduces the risk of substance use.
ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder): A neurodevelopmental condition involving the regulation of attention, impulses and activity. The name is misleading: attention is not lacking, it can't be steered. Hours for what interests you, three minutes for what you need to do. It begins in childhood and, in the great majority of people, continues into adulthood too, only looking different.
ADHD as identity: Seeing the condition as part of one's identity rather than as an illness. It is common within the community, but it is not an approach everyone adopts.
ADHD coaching: Structured support focused on building everyday systems. Not therapy: it doesn't dig up the past, it sets up this week's plan.
ADHD moment: An everyday incident in which a symptom shows up in a funny or absurd way. Like a phone found in the fridge.
ADHD tax: The bill, paid in money, for forgetting, procrastinating and disorganization. Late-payment fees, the charge for a missed appointment, a second charger bought, vegetables gone bad. Each is small, but the yearly total is a serious figure. Naming it helps: this is not clumsiness, it is a predictable cost of the condition.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACE): A framework in which difficult early experiences are measured. It can both accompany ADHD and produce a similar picture.
Advice fatigue: The tiring state of being constantly exposed to suggested solutions. Most of the suggestions have already been tried.
Aerobic movement: Sustained movement that raises the heart rate. Because it gives a short-term boost in attention, it can be placed right before work.
Affect labeling (Naming emotions): Putting what you feel into words. It looks simple, but it measurably lowers the intensity of the emotion.
Afternoon crash: A marked drop in attention and energy in the middle of the day. It can coincide with the hour when the medication's effect wears off.
Alexithymia: Difficulty recognizing and describing emotions. It is seen more often in ADHD and autism.
All-or-nothing day: A plan that breaks down in the first hour of the day cancelling the whole day. When the morning alarm is missed, the day is written off.
All-or-nothing thinking: The thought that if I can't do it fully, I won't do it at all. It makes the value of work done halfway invisible.
Amphetamines (Amphetamine derivatives): The second main group of stimulant medications. They act through a different mechanism from methylphenidate, so if one does not work, the other can be tried.
Analysis paralysis (Overthinking): Losing the decision itself while gathering information to make it. As you weigh the pros and cons of each option, the number of options grows and none of them looks good enough. The outcome is usually not choosing, which is a choice too. It can happen with small decisions as well: researching for two hours which movie to watch and then going to sleep.
Anterior cingulate cortex: The area responsible for conflict monitoring and noticing errors. Weak error monitoring is linked to this region.
Anticipatory anxiety: Tension felt in advance because of a task that is coming up. It lasts longer than the task itself and feeds procrastination.
Anxiety: Staying on guard against a future danger. It is the condition that most often accompanies ADHD, and sometimes it covers ADHD up.
Anxiety disorder: Conditions in which anxiety is widespread and severe enough to impair functioning. One of the groups that most often accompany ADHD.
App hunting: The search for a new productivity app itself turning into a tool for procrastination. The search is the stimulant, not the using.
Appetite suppression: The most common side effect of stimulants. Arranging mealtimes around the time of the medication is a common solution, but the decision is made with the physician.
Appointment chain: A task requiring several appointments that depend on one another. When one link drops, the whole chain has to be rebuilt.
Approval seeking: A strong need for outside feedback. An expected outcome in someone who has been criticized for a long time.
Arousal level (Arousal): The nervous system's current level of alertness. If it is too low, focus doesn't happen; if it is too high, it scatters. In ADHD this level fluctuates a lot during the day.
ASRS: The World Health Organization's screening scale for adult ADHD. It is short and widely used; it is a screening tool and does not diagnose.
Assessment report: A written summary of the process and the findings. This document is usually what you need to ask for accommodations at school and at work.
Atomoxetine: A non-stimulant ADHD medication. It works through noradrenaline, and its effect settles in over weeks, not instantly.
Attendance flexibility: Not being penalized for being unable to attend class on bad days. The most concrete answer to inconsistent performance.
Attention anchor: A constant stimulus used to tie attention to one place. Chewing gum, worry beads, a monotonous sound in the background. It doesn't work for everyone, but for those it works for, it works very well.
Attention drift: Focus jumping elsewhere involuntarily. The drift itself is normal; the problem is a delay in coming back.
Attention residue: A part of the mind staying behind on the previous task after switching from one task to another. That is why you go back to the start of the text after you check a notification and return. The residue lasts especially long with tasks left half-done, so instead of taking a break, finishing a small piece and then getting up is cheaper.
Attention training: Efforts to strengthen attention through exercises. Improvement occurs in the exercise itself, while transfer to daily life remains limited.
AuDHD: An informal abbreviation used for autism and ADHD occurring together. The needs of the two conditions sometimes run against each other.
Autism spectrum: A developmental condition defined by social communication and repetitive patterns of interest. It commonly occurs together with ADHD, and both can now be diagnosed at the same time.
Autoimmune diseases: Conditions in which the immune system reacts against the body's own tissue. Some studies examine their link with ADHD; no firm causality has been established.
Automatization: A task becoming something that doesn't require attention through repetition. It forms more slowly in ADHD, which is why even simple routines require effort for a long time.
Autopay: Bills getting paid without needing to remember them. The single step that lowers the ADHD tax the most.
Avoidance: Taking refuge in something else so as not to think about a demanding task. The difference from procrastination is this: procrastination delays the time, avoidance erases the subject from the mind. Not opening the bill, not reading the result, never seeing that folder. It brings relief, and precisely for that reason it grows.

B

B12 deficiency: Insufficient vitamin B12. It is part of the assessment because it can come with cognitive slowing and fatigue.
Barnum effect: General descriptions that could fit anyone feeling personal. This is one reason ADHD lists feel so familiar.
Basal ganglia: A group of structures responsible for regulating movement and habit. Structural and functional differences are reported in ADHD.
Bedtime procrastination: Deliberately delaying going to sleep. The state of not wanting to give up the night when no time is left for yourself during the day.
Behavior contract: Putting expectations and what follows from them in writing. It moves the argument off memory and onto paper.
Behavioral activation: An approach of starting the behavior before your mood improves. It reverses the expectation of "I'll do it when I feel like it."
Behavioral addiction: Behaviors such as gaming, gambling or screens turning into an addiction pattern. Because they give instant reward, the risk goes up in ADHD.
Behavioral parent training: A program that teaches parents to set up consistent limits and a reward system. One of the interventions with the strongest evidence in childhood ADHD.
BEP (Individualized Education Program) (IEP): A written education plan prepared according to the student's needs. Goals, methods and supports are defined in it.
Binge eating: Episodes of uncontrolled eating of large amounts in a short time. Linked to impulsivity and emotion regulation.
Bipolar disorder: A condition with depressive and elevated periods. It can be confused with ADHD; the difference is in duration and cycle: here it is weeks, in ADHD it is hours.
Blind spot item: An object that is in your field of view but goes unnoticed. This is what it is when the thing you were looking for turns out to be on the desk.
Body doubling: Working with someone nearby. The person isn't helping you, may even be doing other work, they're just there. The reason isn't fully known but the effect is strong: starting gets easier, and returning after getting distracted gets quicker. It works over a video call or in a silent study room too.
Body signal blindness (Interoceptive awareness): Noticing signals of hunger, thirst, the bathroom and fatigue late. Frequent in ADHD and directly affects health.
Bogus treatments: Methods marketed as solutions despite having no evidence. ADHD is one of the areas where such promises abound, because of desperation.
Borderline personality organization: A picture marked by emotional swings and instability in relationships. It can be confused with the emotional side of ADHD; telling them apart takes a clinical assessment.
Boredom intolerance: Being unable to endure boredom. In ADHD it is experienced not as an ordinary dissatisfaction but as a feeling that has to be avoided.
Box method: Putting the things you cannot gather into a temporary box and sorting through them later. It aims for a livable order instead of a perfect one.
Brain dump: Writing down everything on your mind without sorting it. The fastest way to lower mental load, and the sorting comes afterward.
Brain fog: A state in which thinking blurs and words come late. It is not a medical diagnosis, but a shared description of many different conditions.
Brain rot: Consuming low-value content for hours. It is used jokingly, but the lost time it describes is real.
Budget blindness: Not being able to keep track of where the money goes. The financial counterpart of time blindness.
Bupropion: A medication that is primarily an antidepressant and is used in ADHD in some cases. The decision to use it off-label rests with the physician.
Burnout: The collapse that follows working beyond your capacity for a long time. It comes earlier in ADHD because even an ordinary-looking day is spent on masking and compensating. The symptom looks like laziness: even the simplest tasks become impossible.

C

Caffeine: A common substance with a mild stimulant effect. In ADHD some people use it on their own; it does not replace prescribed treatment and can disrupt sleep.
Capture habit: The reflex of writing down whatever comes to mind somewhere right away. Because ideas disappear fast, it makes the difference.
Cardiac monitoring: Tracking pulse and blood pressure before and during stimulant treatment. A routine safety step.
Career zigzag: Changing jobs and fields often. Read as indecision, but usually the result of stimulation seeking and mismatched jobs.
Careless mistakes: Getting something wrong that you know how to do because you did it fast. Misreading a question in an exam is the classic example.
Central executive: The management layer of working memory that allocates attention. It is at the center of Baddeley's model, and most ADHD debates look here.
Cerebellum: A region that, besides coordinating movement, is now understood to play a role in timing and attention as well.
Chaining: Breaking a complex task into small steps and teaching them in order. The teaching counterpart of getting past task paralysis.
Chronic lateness: Being constantly late despite having the intention. The combination of time blindness and the habit of squeezing things into the last minute.
Chunking: Holding information in mind by dividing it into meaningful groups. Like grouping an eleven-digit number in threes.
Circadian rhythm: The body's internal clock of roughly twenty-four hours. In ADHD, this clock often shifts later.
Clean clutter: The place is full but not dirty. A common state in ADHD, and because it isn't understood from outside, it draws judgment.
Clonidine: Another non-stimulant medication with a mechanism similar to guanfacine. It can also come up where sleep problems and tics are involved.
Closure blindness: Not noticing that a task is finished and continuing needlessly. Often seen together with hyperfocus.
Clutter: The places of belongings becoming undefined. Not from laziness but from decision fatigue: the "where" question for each item is a separate decision.
Cognitive accessibility: Text, forms and interfaces being understandable and having few steps. Short sentences, clear headings, visible progress.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): A time-limited, homework-based therapy approach that works on the link between thought patterns and behaviors. The version adapted for ADHD is less about digging into childhood memories than about building today's system: planning, procrastination, time estimation. It doesn't replace medication, it works alongside it, and results are better in people who use the two together.
Cognitive flexibility: Being able to change behavior when the rule changes. When it is low, the person keeps trying a method that doesn't work for longer.
Cognitive inertia: The tendency of the mind to stay in its current state. It explains both being unable to start and being unable to stop at the same time.
Cognitive load: The amount of information held in mind at one time. When the limit is exceeded, performance drops suddenly, not gradually.
Cognitive reframing: Changing the emotional effect of a situation by interpreting it from a different angle. One of the basic tools of therapy.
Cognitive reserve: The spare capacity the brain has in reserve against strain. It grows with education, interests and social ties.
Combined treatment (Combination treatment): Carrying out medication together with therapy or skills training. In the long term it gives better results than medication alone.
Comorbidity (Co-occurring conditions): The presence of more than one condition in the same person. ADHD rarely comes alone: anxiety, depression, learning difficulties and sleep problems often accompany it. It matters because looking at only one and skipping the other sends treatment in the wrong direction too.
Comparison trap: Measuring your own difficulty against how someone else appears. Because everyone's compensation strategies are hidden, the measurement is wrong from the start.
Compensation strategy: Covering a difficulty with another skill. Overworking, lists, leaving early. It works, and it comes at a high cost.
Competence fallacy: The assumption that being able to do a task once means it can always be done. It ignores fluctuations in skill.
Conduct disorder: A persistent pattern of behavior that violates the rights of others. It calls for early intervention.
Connective tissue flexibility (Hypermobility): Joints being more flexible than normal. Research continues into how it relates to ADHD and autism.
Conners scales (Conners rating scales): A family of behavior rating scales used with children and adults. There are forms for the parent, the teacher and the person themselves.
Context-dependent memory (Contextual memory): Remembering information together with the environment where it was learned. The reason studying in the same room and taking the exam in the same room works.
Continuous performance test (CPT): A computerized test that measures attention during a long, boring task. Its result is counted as supporting data, not as decisive.
Conversation monopolizing: Filling the conversation without realizing it. Excitement and the fear of forgetting work together.
Crisis performance: Being able to work unexpectedly well in emergencies. It explains some career choices and is not a sustainable way of working.

D

Default mode network: The brain network that works when you are doing nothing. Normally it goes quiet when you switch to a task; in ADHD its quieting is delayed, and mind wandering intrudes.
Delay discounting (Reward delay): The value of a distant reward dropping quickly. A small comfort today outweighs a big gain three months from now. Everyone has it but in ADHD the curve is much steeper. Intermediate rewards that bring long-term goals into today are therefore not childish, they are functional.
Delayed sleep phase: A constant backward drift of bedtime. The mind switches on after midnight, and getting up in the morning gets heavier. It has nothing to do with laziness; it is the body clock shifting. There is also a voluntary part: a person who can't find any time of their own during the day not wanting to let go of the night.
Depression: Persistent low mood, loss of interest and a drop in energy. It is common alongside ADHD and needs to be told apart.
Designated spots at home: Every object having a fixed, visible place. The organizing principle that works best when object permanence is weak.
Developmental history: Tracing the symptoms from childhood to the present. This is why report card comments, family accounts and old memories are asked for.
Developmental trauma: The effect on development of long-lasting adverse experiences in childhood. Its symptoms can overlap with ADHD, and telling them apart takes expertise.
Diagnostic criteria: The list of symptoms and conditions that must be met before a diagnosis can be made. The number of symptoms, their duration, the age of onset and their effect on functioning are assessed together.
Diagnostic relief: The easing that a diagnosis brings. Learning that what you took for years to be a character flaw has a name.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): A structured program that teaches emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills. Used for the emotional side of ADHD.
Differential diagnosis: Ruling out other conditions that could produce a similar picture. Sleep disorders, thyroid problems, anxiety, depression and trauma are the ones checked most often.
Difficulty saying no: Accepting everything asked of you. Arises when rejection sensitivity and the search for instant reward work together.
Difficulty staying seated: Getting up where you are expected to sit. Seen in meetings, in class, at meals, and in adulthood an excuse is found: getting water, checking the phone.
Difficulty transitioning: Being unable to move from one task to another. Getting up from a finished task and sitting down to one not yet started meet the same resistance. The dead time in between usually vanishes into the phone. A small transition ritual, such as getting up and fetching a glass of water, helps because it marks the shift.
Digital detox: Planned time away from screens. It does not become a lasting solution. Friction design is usually more sustainable.
Digital treatment: Interventions in the form of prescribed apps or games. Some have received approval; their effects are limited, and they are positioned as part of a comprehensive treatment.
Dimensional approach: Looking at ADHD not as present or absent but along a spectrum. Symptoms show a continuous distribution in the population.
Disclosure decision: Choosing whom to tell about the diagnosis, when, and how much. Disclosing at work can bring accommodations, but it cannot be taken back.
Discontinuation (Tapering off): Reducing and stopping the medication in a controlled way. With stimulants, physical withdrawal is not expected, but the symptoms come back.
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD): A picture with frequent and severe angry outbursts in children. It was defined to reduce the overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Distractibility: Outside stimuli easily grabbing attention. The difference from inattention: here attention is not absent, it keeps going somewhere else.
Distress tolerance: Being able to carry an uncomfortable feeling without making it go away. A central skill because it breaks the avoidance cycle.
DIVA: A structured diagnostic interview used for adult ADHD. It asks about each criterion separately for childhood and for adulthood.
Divided attention (Split attention): Sharing attention between two tasks at the same time. Its capacity is limited in everyone; in ADHD the difficulty is not the sharing but being able to return to both after sharing.
Doorway effect: Forgetting what you went for after leaving a room. A change of environment resets working memory; something everyone has, but more often in ADHD.
Dopamine: A messenger molecule in the brain's reward and motivation system. Not a "happiness hormone" but a "this is worth doing" signal. Because this signal is processed differently in ADHD, boring but important tasks don't look appealing enough, while anything new and fast looks far too appealing.
Dopamine fasting: An attempt to deliberately stay away from stimulation. It is a popular concept, and its scientific basis is not as strong as claimed.
Dopamine hunger: The feeling that the reward signal is not enough. Restlessness, unease and pointless scrolling are signs of this state.
Dopamine menu: A pre-prepared list of stimulation that works for you. So that when you are stuck, you do not have to figure out what to do in that moment.
Dopamine transporter: The protein that pulls dopamine back out of the synaptic gap. It is one of the targets most often examined in ADHD genetics research.
Double-blind study: A research design in which neither the participant nor the person administering the treatment knows who is getting the real medication. One of the methods with the highest level of evidence.
Drug interaction: Two medications changing each other's effect. Everything you take, herbal products included, needs to be mentioned to the physician.
DSM-5: The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual. The ADHD criteria are defined here, and symptoms are required to have started before the age of twelve.
Duration of action: The total time the medication works. It is central to dose planning because it determines which hours of the day are covered.
Dyscalculia: A difficulty working with numbers and numerical relationships. It also makes managing time and money harder.
Dysgraphia: A difficulty in the process of writing. It affects handwriting, organization and the speed of getting thoughts onto paper.
Dyslexia: A difficulty decoding reading and writing. It can be confused with ADHD because in both, reading is slow and tiring.
Dyspraxia (Developmental coordination disorder): A difficulty planning and carrying out movements. It is brushed off as clumsiness but truly slows down everyday tasks.
Dysthymia (Persistent depressive disorder): A long-lasting, milder but constant low mood. The person usually takes it for their own character.

E

Eating disorder: Conditions in which eating behavior and body perception are disturbed. In ADHD, binge eating in particular is more common.
EEG: A recording of the brain's electrical activity. It is used as a research tool in ADHD; it is not accepted as a diagnostic test.
Effect size: A numerical measure of how much difference a treatment makes. It shows the difference between "statistically significant" and "noticeable in life."
Effective dose: The dose that reduces symptoms with acceptable side effects. It is found by response, not by body weight.
Elimination diet: An approach of removing certain foods and watching the symptoms. An effect is reported in a small subgroup; it is not a general recommendation.
Email paralysis: The inbox filling beyond the point where it can be looked at. Because every opening is a new pile of decisions, the inbox is abandoned entirely.
Emotional dysregulation (Emotional flooding): Emotion rising fast and taking over behavior. It is not in the diagnostic criteria, yet most people who live with it say it is the hardest part.
Emotional eating: Turning to food for reasons other than hunger. In moments of distress and restlessness it works as a quick source of dopamine.
Emotional inertia: Being unable to get out of a feeling once you are in it. Anger or sadness does not fade on its own; it takes an intervention from outside.
Emotional intensity: Feeling emotions at a higher intensity than most people do. Joy and anger both arrive at the same enormous scale.
Emotional permeability: Being quickly affected by the emotions around you. Tension in the room passes straight into the body.
Emotional regulation: The distance between feeling an emotion and acting on it. In ADHD emotions don't come less, they come faster and higher, and take a long time to come down. It is often overlooked because it isn't in the headline of the diagnostic criteria, but most people who live with it say it is the hardest part.
End-of-day reset: Ending the day with a short tidy-up. It leaves a clean surface to start the next day.
Endophenotype: A measurable intermediate trait that sits between a symptom and a gene. Reaction time variability is one example.
Energy budget: Planning daily energy as a limited resource. It comes from the chronic illness community, and it finds an echo in ADHD as well.
Energy vampire task: A task that uses a disproportionate amount of energy even though it is short. Making a phone call, filling in a form, writing an appeal.
Epigenetics: The regulation of gene activity without any change in the gene sequence. It is one of the fields that explain how the environment gets into biology.
Error monitoring: The mechanism of noticing a mistake you've made immediately. In ADHD the signal is weaker, so correction is delayed.
Evidence-based treatment: The approach of preferring methods whose effect has been shown by research. In ADHD, medication and behavioral interventions fall within this.
Exam accommodations: Extra time, a separate room or the right to take breaks. Requested with an assessment report.
Excessive talking: Talking nonstop and fast. It usually comes with excitement or with fear of forgetting the topic.
Executive attention network: The brain network that directs attention and resolves conflict. It is supposed to work in alternation with the default mode network.
Executive function coaching: One-on-one support that teaches the student planning and follow-through skills. Becoming increasingly common at university.
Executive functions (Executive function): The mental management team that carries a task from start to finish: starting, sequencing, holding in mind, braking the impulse, estimating time, finishing. ADHD is, to a large extent, this team working irregularly. Not a lack of knowledge or desire but a lack of execution: the gap between knowing what to do and doing it.
Exercise effect: The positive effect of regular movement on attention and mood. The effect is real, but it does not replace medication.
Exposure: Gradually facing a situation that is being avoided. It comes from anxiety treatment and is used in ADHD for avoidance behavior.
External reminder: Putting remembering on the environment rather than on memory. An alarm, a piece of paper, a bag hung on the door. Not a trick, but good design.
External scaffolding (Structuring): Building the missing internal order from the outside. Visible lists, fixed times, things with set places, promises made to someone else. The logic is simple: instead of forcing the weak thing to get stronger, an external structure is built that does that job. It is like wearing glasses, not a cheat.
Externalizing memory: Handing remembering over entirely to paper and devices. In ADHD, it is not a tip but a core strategy.
Extra time: Additional time given in an exam. To balance out the effect of processing speed and fluctuating attention.

F

Fading interest: Interest dropping once the novelty in a relationship is over. The feeling has not vanished; the stimulation has lessened. Telling the two apart can save the relationship.
Failing to keep promises: Being unable to keep a promise made in good faith. The counterpart in relationships of the gap between intention and execution.
False negative: A test missing someone who does have the condition. Common in people who mask and in those with the predominantly inattentive presentation.
False positive: A positive test result in someone who does not actually have the condition. The most common problem with short screenings.
Fidget tool (Fidget toy): A small object turned in the hand. In some people it gathers attention; in others it becomes a new distraction.
Fidgeting: Shaking a foot, spinning a pen, constantly shifting position in your seat. Movement doesn't disrupt attention, it often gathers it.
Finishing resistance: Being unable to do the last five percent of a task. The novelty is gone, the reward has been collected, and only drudgery is left.
Five-minute promise: Promising to work for just five minutes. Because starting is the most expensive step, it usually lasts longer than five minutes.
Flexible working hours: Leaving the start and finish times of work up to the person. Decisive for people whose focus window falls outside the morning.
Focus window: The time span in which a person can really work productively. In ADHD it is narrow and can fall at unexpected hours of the day.
Follow-up visit: A check-up held at regular intervals after treatment has started. Dose and side effects are adjusted here.
Following instructions: Getting lost in the middle of a multi-step instruction. The first two steps are done, the third drops out of working memory.
Food dye debate: Findings that some additives may increase hyperactivity. The effect is small and is not seen in everyone.
Forgetfulness: Everyday tasks slipping out of mind. In ADHD it isn't a memory disease, it is the joint result of prospective memory and attention.
Forgetting to drink water: Not noticing the signal of thirst. The most common and easiest-to-fix form of body-signal blindness.
Forgetting to take medication: Not being able to remember the very medication that would let you remember. The best-known irony of ADHD treatment and a typical example requiring an external reminder.
Friction design: Making the desired behavior easy and the undesired one hard. Leaving the phone charging in another room is a friction decision.
Front-row rule: Seating the student close to the teacher. A classroom arrangement that is simple but has a measured effect.
Frustration tolerance: The capacity to cope when things do not go your way. When it is low, small obstacles produce disproportionate reactions.
Functional impairment: Symptoms causing real harm at school, at work or in relationships. It is the sine qua non of a diagnosis: symptoms alone are not enough.
Functional neuroimaging (fMRI): Watching brain regions while they work. It shows differences in group averages, but it does not diagnose a single person.
Future me: The imaginary person you hand today's tasks over to. They are always trusted too much, and they always turn out to be the same person.

G

Gamification: Adding game elements such as points, levels and streaks to tasks. The effect is real, but it usually fades once the novelty wears off.
Gene-environment interaction: Genetic predisposition producing outcomes together with environmental conditions. Predisposition is not destiny, the environment writes part of the story too.
Generalized anxiety: A constant state of worry that is not tied to any particular subject. Common in ADHD; it can be fed by the on-edge feeling that missed tasks pile up.
Genome-wide association (GWAS): Association research carried out by scanning the genomes of thousands of people. Several regions have been identified for ADHD, and none of them is decisive on its own.
Good days, bad days: Performance differing greatly from day to day. It makes planning hard because which day will be which is not known in advance.
Good enough: Accepting a solution that is not flawless but works. The antidote to perfectionism, and the principle that works best in practice.
Guanfacine: A non-stimulant option. It is used especially for impulsivity and emotion regulation, either on its own or in addition to a stimulant.
Guilt cycle: Feeling guilty for not being able to do something, then being even less able to do it because of the guilt. Procrastination feeding itself.

H

Habit stacking: Adding a new habit onto an existing habit. Like "after I make the coffee, I take my medication."
Habituation: A repeated stimulus becoming unnoticed. This is why visible systems lose their function over time: the paper stays on the wall but is no longer seen.
Health maintenance: Keeping up regular check-up and screening appointments. Because it slips in ADHD, overall health outcomes are affected.
Heredity (Hereditary transmission): The passing of a trait down in a family. ADHD is one of the most heritable psychiatric conditions, with estimates around seventy-five percent.
Hidden ADHD: The condition going unnoticed in a person who looks completely organized from the outside. The appearance that masking and high intelligence produce together.
High-functioning label: An informal phrase used for people who look successful from the outside. It describes not the size of the difficulty but the degree to which it is hidden.
Hobby graveyard: The accumulation of pursuits begun and abandoned and of supplies bought and unused. The curiosity is real; the sustaining mechanism is missing.
Homework tracking system: Tracking homework visibly between school and home. Closes the prospective memory gap from the outside.
Horizontal surface problem: Every empty flat surface filling up in a short time. Table, chair, bench. It arises from storage clashing with visibility.
Household management: The set of invisible tasks that keep a home running. Small one by one, and added together equal a full-time job.
Hyperactivity: Excessive movement. In childhood it shows in the whole body; in adulthood, in most people, it moves inward: shaking a foot, constantly changing position, not being able to stop the mind. Someone who looks calm from the outside can be hyperactive too, which is why diagnosis is delayed.
Hyperfocus: Being so absorbed in something that time, hunger and your surroundings vanish. The most often misunderstood side of ADHD: people say "so you can focus after all." The issue is not being unable to focus but being unable to choose where the focus goes. It can be productive, or it can mean not having had a drink of water ten hours later.
Hyperfocus crash: The exhaustion that comes after a long hyperfocus. No water drunk, no food eaten, and the body sends the bill later.

I

ICD-11: The World Health Organization's classification of diseases. It defines ADHD in a similar way and departs from the DSM on some details.
Identity diffusion: Feeling like a very different person in different settings. When masking goes on for a long time, which version is really yours becomes blurred.
Immediate feedback: A response that comes right after the behavior. Delayed praise or warnings almost never work in ADHD.
Implementation intentions (If-then planning): Deciding in advance in the form of "if this happens, I will do that." Because it lifts the burden of deciding in the moment, it clearly works in ADHD.
Impostor feeling (Impostor syndrome): Believing you do not deserve your success and will be found out one day. Very common in people who mask.
Improvement criterion: Which change to look for before treatment counts as successful. The difference in daily life is what matters, not the score on a scale.
Impulsive spending: Shopping that is unplanned and usually regretted afterward. Online shopping being reduced to a single click greatly increases this behavior.
Impulsivity: Doing or saying something before thinking. Interrupting, filling the cart, suddenly and quite seriously considering quitting your job. The brake is not missing, it arrives late: it kicks in after the action has already started. That's why the best fix is not more willpower but putting a physical delay in between.
Inattention: Missed details, instructions left half-followed, things getting lost. The first cluster of the diagnostic criteria and the most persistent one in adulthood.
Inbox zero: A method that aims to empty the inbox completely. For some it is a lifesaver, for others a new source of perfectionism.
Infinite scrolling: A never-ending flow of content. With no natural stopping point, the stop signal is left to a mechanism that was already weak.
Informed consent: Understanding and accepting the benefits and risks of a treatment. Asking questions is part of the process, not an objection.
Inhibitory control (Inhibition): Being able to stop an automatically arising response. The cornerstone of executive functions, and most theories of ADHD look for the core deficit here.
Inner restlessness: The feeling of being unable to stay still, experienced inside rather than in the body. The engine is running but the car is parked. It makes rest difficult: sitting doesn't relax you, it even makes it worse. Walking, turning something in your hands or moving while working lowers this energy.
Inner speech: Steering behavior by silently talking to yourself. In Barkley's theory it is at the center of executive functions; in ADHD its development is delayed.
Intense bonding: Attaching to a new relationship quickly and deeply. A pattern that comes with the stimulation of novelty.
Intention card: Keeping what is to be done written at eye level. It leaves remembering to your field of vision rather than to memory.
Intention-behavior gap: The distance between wanting and doing. This is the problem at the center of ADHD, and it is closed not with motivation but with structure.
Interest burst: Suddenly and intensely attaching to a subject. Learning everything for weeks and then never returning.
Internalized stigma: Adopting a negative judgment that comes from outside. The mechanism behind the sentence "that's just how I am."
Interrupting: Cutting in before the other person finishes. There is seldom an intention to be rude; the person rushes because the sentence will be gone if it isn't said.
Inverted U curve (Yerkes-Dodson): Performance first rising and then falling with arousal. Too little anxiety doesn't help, too much spoils things; the productive range is in the middle.
Invisible labor: The part of running a home and a relationship that is held in the mind. Carrying the question of who will do what and when can be more tiring than doing the work.
Invisible work: Tasks that are not noticed when done and are seen right away when not done. Most housework and caretaking is like this.
Iron and ferritin: The association of low iron levels with attention problems and restlessness. It can be checked during an evaluation, but supplements are not taken on your own.
Iron deficiency: A drop in the level of iron in the body. It has a place in the differential diagnosis because it can produce fatigue and attention problems.

J

Job fit: What the work requires lining up with the person's strengths. With ADHD, choosing the right job is more effective than trying to get better at the wrong one.

L

Landing spot: A fixed place where things are dropped as soon as you come home. The one effective barrier against losing keys and wallet.
Last-minute syndrome: Starting a task only when time gets tight. The focus provided by anxiety takes the place of the missing motivation.
Late diagnosis: A diagnosis made in adulthood. It is especially common in women and in those with the predominantly inattentive presentation; before it comes a long period of self-blame.
Laundry chair: The place where clothes considered neither dirty nor clean get collected. It seems like a joke, but it is a practical third category that appears where a binary classification isn't enough.
Learned helplessness: Giving up on trying after repeated failure. The belief that "it won't work anyway" blocks real attempts too.
Learning disability (Learning difficulty): A difficulty in a specific area of learning, independent of intelligence. Common alongside ADHD.
Leaving things unfinished: Leaving started tasks before they are finished. The home often turns into archaeological layers of unfinished projects.
Lisdexamfetamine: An amphetamine derivative that becomes active after it is processed in the body. Its effect starts slowly and lasts a long time.
Long-acting: A form that releases the active ingredient slowly throughout the day. It has the convenience of a single dose, an important advantage for someone who has trouble remembering.
Losing things: Constantly misplacing things like keys, phone and wallet and not being able to find them. The result produced together by a lack of object permanence and of automatization.
Low self-esteem: A low sense of your own worth. It is not a direct symptom of ADHD but a consequence of years without treatment.

M

Masking: Constantly putting in effort to hide symptoms. Pretending to take notes, leaving half an hour earlier than everyone else, never letting anyone see the mess. It works in the short run and is expensive in the long run: since no problem is visible from outside, no support comes, while exhaustion builds up.
Maturation delay: Brain development lagging a few years behind in certain areas. It is not that it never catches up, it catches up late.
Meal routine: Anchoring meals to set times. It gains importance alongside appetite suppression.
Medical model: The view that defines the condition as a disorder in the person. It provides access to treatment, but when it stands alone, it does not question the environment.
Medication holiday: A planned break from treatment. In some cases it is applied on weekends or vacations; it is not suitable for everyone and is not done on your own.
Meeting summary: Sharing the decisions in writing at the end of the meeting. It helps everyone, and with ADHD it becomes essential.
Melatonin: The hormone released with darkness that signals the transition to sleep. In ADHD, its release can start late.
Menopause: The effect of falling estrogen on attention and memory. In some women, ADHD symptoms become noticeable during this period.
Menstrual cycle effect: Changes in hormone levels altering ADHD symptoms across the cycle. A topic only now being researched and increasingly discussed in the clinic.
Mental load: The weight not of the work done but of the work held in mind. Who needs what and when, which bill is coming up, who hasn't been replied to. It is invisible, so no one keeps account of it. When working memory is already struggling, writing most of this load down externally is not an option, it is a necessity.
Mental simulation: Picturing a task in your head before doing it. It feeds motivation and planning; when it is weak, the future stays abstract.
Meta-analysis: A method of combining many studies on the same subject and drawing a common conclusion. It reduces the misleading effect of any single study.
Metacognition: Noticing and managing your own way of thinking. Being able to say "I've scattered right now," "I always underestimate how long this takes." It can be learned and is one of the most useful skills in ADHD, because instead of individual solutions it lets the person see their own pattern.
Methylphenidate: The most widely used stimulant active ingredient in ADHD. It works by slowing the reuptake of dopamine and noradrenaline. It comes in short-acting and long-acting forms.
Micromanagement: Closely supervising every step. It seems to provide structure but usually backfires because it lowers autonomy.
Migraine: Attacks of recurring and severe headache. Its co-occurrence with ADHD is reported in studies.
Mind wandering: Attention detaching from the task and drifting to inner thoughts. In ADHD it is more frequent and lasts longer; it has also been linked to creativity.
Mindfulness-based approach (Mindfulness): Exercises in bringing attention to the present. In ADHD it shows a small but real effect; the classic long sitting format doesn't suit everyone.
Missed diagnosis in women: Symptoms in girls going unnoticed because they are expressed outwardly less. Dreaminess and inner restlessness stand out instead of hyperactivity.
Missing appointments: A noted appointment being missed anyway. Even when a calendar alert comes, something intervenes and the reminder disappears.
Missing what you hear: The mind leaving at some point while the other person talks and missing the rest. Not disinterest, an involuntary slip of attention.
Misuse: Using the medication for a purpose other than treatment. With prescribed and monitored use the risk is low; the real risk lies in giving the medication to someone else.
Monday fallacy: The belief that everything will be fixed from scratch on a particular date. It produces a legitimate-looking reason for procrastination.
Mood swings: Mood changing rapidly over the course of a day. What separates it from bipolar disorder is duration: hours here, days and weeks there.
Morning inertia: Remaining nonfunctional for a long time after waking up. The alarm rings, the body gets up, the mind arrives an hour later.
Morning light: Getting out into natural light after waking up. A drug-free way, with demonstrated effect, of shifting the internal clock earlier.
Motivational interviewing: A conversation method that aims to draw out the person's own wish to change. It does not try to persuade.
Movement break: A planned short bout of movement between lessons. Set up as a need for gathering attention, not as a punishment.
Multitasking: Doing more than one task at the same time. The brain is actually switching quickly, not running in parallel. Every switch has a cost, so multitasking is not a skill but a tax.

N

Neurodivergent: A mind that works outside the common pattern. An umbrella term that covers conditions such as ADHD, autism and dyslexia.
Neurodiversity: The view that there is no single correct model of the human brain and that differences are part of diversity. It doesn't define conditions such as ADHD and autism only through deficits. It doesn't ignore the difficulties; it also reads them as a mismatch between the person and the environment.
Neurofeedback: A method of regulating brain waves through feedback. Research is ongoing; results are inconsistent, and it is not accepted as a treatment that replaces medication.
Neuroplasticity: The brain's capacity to change with experience. It is the biological ground on which therapy and habit work succeed.
Neuropsychological test: A battery of tests that measure attention, memory and executive functions. It does not make the diagnosis on its own; it fills in the details of the picture.
Neurotechnical fit: The approach of fitting the environment to the person. The alternative to trying to fit the person to the environment, and usually less wearing.
Neurotransmitter: Chemical messengers that carry signals between nerve cells. In discussions of ADHD, the ones that come up most are dopamine and noradrenaline.
Neurotypical: A person with the neurodevelopmental pattern considered common. Its opposite is used as neurodivergent.
New notebook effect: The temporary motivation a clean start gives. It is real but short. Unless a structure is built, it ends on the third page.
Nicotine: An addictive substance with a short-term effect on attention. It is considered one of the reasons for the high rate of smoking in ADHD.
Non-response: The medication not producing the expected effect. It is normal for the first medication tried not to work; usually the second group is tried.
Non-stimulant treatment: Medication options other than stimulants. It comes to the fore when a stimulant cannot be tolerated, when anxiety is prominent, or when there is a risk of misuse.
Noradrenaline: A messenger involved in alertness, attention and getting ready to respond. A large share of ADHD medications work through this system.
Note-taking support: Handing out lecture notes in advance or allowing the lecture to be recorded. For when listening and writing at the same time is hard.
Novelty fade: A new system working with first enthusiasm and being dropped soon after. The problem is not in the system but in the stimulation that novelty provided running out.
Novelty seeking: The tendency to move toward what is new. It speeds up learning and makes finishing harder. It is markedly high in ADHD.
Now and not now: Dividing time into only two categories. The most common short description of time perception in ADHD.

O

Object permanence: Keeping in mind that things out of sight continue to exist. In ADHD it weakens toward objects and tasks: food that goes into the cupboard disappears, a bill that goes into the drawer isn't even counted as unpaid. That's why clear boxes, open shelves and visible lists are not decoration, they are a system.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): Involuntary thoughts and the repeated behaviors performed to soothe them. It can occur together with ADHD and changes the treatment plan.
Off-label use (Off-label): Prescribing a medication outside its approved area of use. Legal and common, but the physician must establish the justification.
Omega-3: A supplement for which a small positive effect has been reported in some studies. Its effect is not comparable to that of medication treatment.
One-touch rule: Not putting down something you've picked up without putting it where it belongs. It stops piles from forming at the source.
Online co-working room (Virtual body doubling): A setting where people turn on their cameras and work quietly together. The remote version of body doubling.
Onset of action: The time until the effect of the medication starts to be felt. Measured in minutes for stimulants and in weeks for non-stimulants.
Open loop (Unclosed loop): An unfinished task continuing to take up space in the mind. Also known as the Zeigarnik effect; because the number of open loops is high in ADHD, the load gets heavier.
Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD): A pattern of constant resistance to authority and anger. One of the behavioral pictures that most often accompany childhood ADHD.
Optimal stimulation: The level of stimulation at which a person works best. In ADHD this level is high, so a quiet, empty environment sometimes doesn't make focusing easier, it makes it harder.
Over-preparation: Preparing forever instead of starting the work. Buying a new notebook, building a system, doing research. All of it feels like real work.
Overcommitment: Taking on work beyond capacity. At that moment it all seems possible because future tiredness can't be factored in.
Overcorrection: Building an excessive system after a mistake. The new system is usually so detailed that it cannot be sustained.
Overdiagnosis debate: The claim that ADHD is diagnosed more often than it should be. On the other side stands the burden of those who went undiagnosed for a long time; both can be true at the same time.
Overdose risk: The danger of taking more than what is prescribed. Because stimulants affect the heart and blood pressure, the dose is not increased on your own.
Overlearning: Continuing to repeat a skill after you have learned it. The number of repetitions needed for routines to become lasting is higher in ADHD.
Oversharing: Giving more personal information than the other person expects. A mix of impulsivity and the wish to connect.

P

Panic attack: A sudden, intense attack of fear. It comes with a racing heart, shortness of breath and a feeling of losing control.
Panic productivity: Suddenly becoming able to work when the deadline approaches. The temporary focus that anxiety provides fills in for the missing internal motivation. It works, which is why it gets used again and again. The price is paid in health, and over time the same panic produces less work.
Paper pile: A heap of papers that can neither be thrown away nor filed. Every paper that needs a decision waits in the pile.
Paperwork: Official documents, applications and form processes. Because they are multi-step, delayed-reward and unclear, they are the type of task most often put off in ADHD.
Parentification: The partner getting stuck in a caregiver role. Wearing on both sides, and the topic most often worked on in couples therapy.
Peer support: The support that people living with the same condition give one another. It does not replace professional support, and it clearly reduces loneliness.
Perfectionism: Preferring not to do something at all unless it can be done flawlessly. One of the most often hidden reasons for procrastination in ADHD.
Person-first language: Saying "a person with ADHD" instead of "an ADHD person." To avoid reducing identity to the diagnosis. Who prefers which expression varies.
Personality disorder: Conditions in which long-lasting and pervasive patterns of behavior impair functioning. Some can be confused with ADHD.
Phone avoidance: Putting off making or answering calls. Hard because it is an interaction that can't be planned, can't be avoided and requires an immediate answer.
Phonological loop: The part of working memory that holds auditory information by repeating it. Keeping a phone number in mind by murmuring it is this.
Physical restlessness: The feeling of energy that builds in the body and needs to be discharged. Moving relieves it temporarily.
Pile blindness: No longer seeing clutter that has sat in the same place for a long time. The everyday result of getting used to it.
Placebo: A treatment with no active ingredient, used for comparison. The method for telling whether medication studies show that a drug really works.
Planning: Breaking an outcome into steps and putting them in order. In ADHD the goal is clear, but the steps in between are invisible.
Planning fallacy: The tendency to always estimate your own tasks as shorter than they are. Everyone has it; in ADHD it multiplies when combined with time blindness.
Polygenic: Depending on the small contributions of many genes rather than a single gene. For ADHD, there is no such thing as an "ADHD gene."
Pomodoro: A method based on working for a set time and then taking a short break. Because the time is visible, it works against time blindness.
Post-diagnosis grief: The wave of sadness that comes after a diagnosis. The thought of "if only this had been known earlier." A natural stage that usually turns into acceptance.
Post-event rumination (Replaying): Playing a past social moment over and over in your head. Usually an embarrassing moment is the one chosen, and it disrupts sleep.
Post-reward emptiness: The feeling of pointlessness that comes after a big task is finished. A known side effect of goal-driven motivation.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Persistent hypervigilance, avoidance and re-experiencing after a traumatic event. It can look like an attention problem.
Prefrontal cortex: The brain area in the forehead region, responsible for planning and inhibition. It is the center of executive functions and the focus of ADHD research.
Prenatal risk factors: The linking of smoking, alcohol and certain stresses during pregnancy to ADHD risk. There is an association, but it has not been shown to be a direct cause.
Prep box: Keeping everything needed for a frequent task in one place. It removes the gathering stage before starting.
Prescription monitoring: Stimulants being dispensed on a special prescription, with a record kept. In most countries, Turkey included, this means a red or green controlled-drug prescription.
Presentation types: The three presentations of ADHD: the one where inattention predominates, the one where restlessness and impulsivity predominate, and the combined type in which both are seen. A person doesn't stay in the same type for life; the picture can change with age. The inattentive type in particular goes unnoticed in women for a long time.
Preterm birth: Findings that being born before term raises the risk of ADHD. The risk goes up, but most children born early do not develop ADHD.
Prevalence: How often a condition occurs in the population. For ADHD, around five percent is reported in children and around two and a half percent in adults.
Processing speed: The speed of understanding incoming information and responding to it. It has nothing to do with intelligence. When it is low, the person understands the question but the answer comes late.
Procrastination: Putting off something that needs doing, even knowing the outcome will be bad. It gets mistaken for laziness but is the opposite: usually the importance of the task is understood very well, which is exactly why it is hard to go near. Underneath lie boredom, uncertainty or fear of failure.
Productive procrastination: Doing another task while avoiding the real one. The house gets cleaned most when a deadline approaches.
Prospective memory (Forward-looking memory): Remembering to do something in the future. "Take the trash out on your way out" is exactly this, and it is the type of memory that falls short most often in ADHD.
Protein first: The recommendation to start the day with a protein-heavy meal. The evidence is limited, but it comes up because it reduces blood sugar swings.
Psychoeducation: Teaching the person and those close to them how the condition works. The first step of treatment, and its effect is underestimated: understanding directly reduces guilt.

Q

Quiet withdrawal: Pulling out of a relationship without explanation. The result of avoiding a difficult conversation, not of bad intent.

R

Racing the timer: Timing yourself and racing against yourself. By turning a boring task into a game, it lowers the threshold for starting.
Racing thoughts: Thoughts chasing each other and not stopping. It especially increases when you get into bed and delays sleep.
RAM (Guidance and Research Center): The official unit where educational assessment and referral take place. Most school supports pass through here.
Randomized controlled trial (RCT): Research in which participants are randomly assigned to groups. The gold standard for showing whether a treatment really works.
Reaction time variability: The same person's response speed fluctuating widely from trial to trial. It is one of the most consistent measurement findings in ADHD.
Reasonable accommodations: Adjustments made so a person can work on equal terms. A tool for leveling the field, not a privilege.
Rebound (Rebound effect): Symptoms becoming noticeable again for a short time when the medication wears off. Usually seen in the late afternoon and managed through the dose schedule.
Receptor: The receiving structure a messenger binds to. Its number and sensitivity vary from person to person.
Recovery time: The rest needed after an intense task. If it is not planned, it imposes itself as burnout.
Reinforcement: A consequence that follows a behavior and makes it more likely to be repeated. In ADHD, reinforcement needs to be immediate; when it is delayed, the link is not made.
Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD): A disproportionate, sudden pang of pain in response to the possibility of rejection, criticism or disappointment. An unanswered message or a sentence with a changed tone is enough. The intensity can feel like a physical jolt and it usually passes quickly, but until it does, the decisions made can be lasting. It is not an official diagnostic label, but a widely used description.
Relationship asymmetry: One side moving into the position of constantly reminding and organizing. Over time a parent-child dynamic replaces equality.
Remote work: Working from outside the office. It makes controlling stimuli easier but also reduces structure; the effect goes both ways.
Rereading: Reading the same paragraph over and over and taking in none of it. Eyes on the line, attention elsewhere.
Residual symptoms: Symptoms that lessen with treatment but do not go away completely. This is expected; the goal is not to bring them to zero but to regain function.
Resilience: Being able to bounce back after hardship. Not an inborn trait but a capacity that develops through relationships and experience.
Response inhibition: Being able to cancel an already started action at the last moment. Swallowing the sentence about to leave your mouth or pulling back a hand that is reaching out is this.
Response monitoring: Tracking whether the treatment is working through rating scales and everyday observation. "I feel fine" alone is not a sufficient measure.
Restless legs syndrome: An uncomfortable sensation in the legs that creates an urge to move them. It disrupts sleep, and its co-occurrence with ADHD is known.
Retrospective memory: Remembering something that happened in the past. Usually intact in ADHD; the problem is not in storing the information but in retrieving it at the right moment.
Reuptake: The pulling of a released messenger back into the cell. Stimulant medications slow this pulling back, which prolongs the signal.
Revenge bedtime procrastination: The behavior of getting your payback from the night for not having been in control of the day. At the cost of knowingly sacrificing the next day.
Reward circuit: The brain network that makes something worth doing. In ADHD, its response to delayed reward is lower.
Reward crumbs: Small rewards sprinkled into the middle of a long task. They solve the delayed reward problem in a practical way.
Reward pairing (Temptation bundling): Doing a disliked task together with something you like. A podcast with the dishes, an audiobook with a walk.
Risky behavior: Making dangerous choices without weighing the consequences. Driving fast, unplanned spending, sudden decisions.
Rotten week: A stretch in which none of your systems work and everything falls apart. It usually arrives together with sleep debt, illness or stress.
Rubber duck method: Solving a problem by explaining it to a lifeless listener. It comes from software development, and explaining puts thoughts in order.

S

Screen time: The time spent in front of a screen. It has not been shown to cause ADHD, but it can make symptoms more pronounced.
Screening tool: A short scale that picks out people who may be at risk. A high score is not a diagnosis; it is a reason for a detailed assessment.
Second brain: An arrangement in which notes and systems stand in for memory. The concept comes from the general productivity field, and in ADHD it is more of a necessity.
Second opinion: Consulting another physician. A legitimate and common step when you are unsure about a diagnosis or a treatment.
Selective attention: Picking out what is needed from within a crowd. Like being able to follow a single voice in a café. When it weakens, every stimulus comes in at the same volume.
Selective interest: Being flawless in a subject that interests you and nonfunctional in one that doesn't. It looks like inconsistency from outside; it is actually how the system works.
Self-advocacy (Speaking up for yourself): Being able to ask openly for what you need. A precondition for getting accommodations at school and at work.
Self-care gap: Basic care tasks falling behind. Not a moral matter, an executive function matter. It needs to be told apart from depression.
Self-compassion: Treating yourself the way you would treat a friend. Not empty comfort; it is an approach whose effect on reducing procrastination has been measured.
Self-criticism: A harsh inner voice that never lets up. In ADHD, it is the internalized recording of years of criticism from others.
Self-diagnosis: A person identifying themselves with ADHD based on what they have read. A good starting point for seeking an assessment, but not enough for treatment.
Self-instruction: Carrying out a task by saying the steps aloud or inwardly. A technique taught in therapy and shown to work.
Self-medication: Turning to substances to ease symptoms. Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol or others. A common pattern in people who have not been diagnosed.
Self-monitoring: Noticing your own behavior while you are doing it. When it is weak, the person finds out afterward that their voice had risen or that they had interrupted.
Sensory overload: Inputs such as sound, light, crowds and touch becoming impossible to tolerate all at once. Supermarkets, open-plan offices and public transport are frequent triggers. The result is a wish to escape that looks like grumpiness from the outside. Headphones and breaks are not a cure but they really work.
Separate accounts method: Keeping fixed expenses and spendable money in separate accounts. It limits the impact of impulsive spending.
Separate exam room: Taking the exam in a setting with fewer stimuli. Makes a difference for people who struggle with selective attention.
Sequencing: Knowing in what order steps are to be done. Dropping the pasta in before the water boils while cooking is the main example of where sequencing slips away.
Serotonin: A messenger linked to mood, sleep and impulse control. It is not at the center of ADHD, but it comes up in the conditions that often go along with it.
Shame: The feeling that you yourself are wrong, not just something you did. In ADHD it builds up through repeated failures, and it is one of the quietest targets of treatment.
Sharing lived experience: Telling what you have lived in a way someone else can use. The difference from advice: it does not set rules, it gives examples.
Short fuse: Anger that flares quickly. It usually passes quickly too, but what gets said in the meantime can last.
Short-acting: A form of medication whose effect lasts a few hours. It has to be taken again during the day, and you can adjust at which hours you want it to work.
Shower resistance: Showering or brushing teeth feeling disproportionately hard. Because it is multi-step, sensory-loaded and the reward is delayed.
Shutdown checklist: A fixed check done to end the workday. Because it closes open loops, it lowers the mental load of the evening.
Side effects: Other effects that appear alongside the intended effect. With stimulants, the most commonly reported are decreased appetite, delayed sleep, dry mouth and headache.
Silent win: A task that nobody notices but that is big for the person. The reason motivation boards exist.
Single-channel rule: Work coming from one place only. When messages, emails and verbal requests get mixed, none of them can be followed reliably.
Single-list rule: Keeping all tasks in one place. Multiple lists don't work, because they add the decision of which one to look at.
Skill ceiling: The feeling of a limit that effort cannot get past. It is usually the limit of the wrong method, not of the person.
Skill fluctuation: Doing the same task very well one day and not at all the next. The most misunderstood side of ADHD: inconsistency is mistaken for unwillingness.
Sleep apnea: Breathing stopping again and again during sleep. It is always considered in the differential diagnosis of daytime attention problems.
Sleep debt: Accumulated lack of sleep. It directly impairs attention, emotion regulation and impulse control, and it can mimic ADHD symptoms.
Sleep disorder: A persistent problem falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up rested. Very common in ADHD, and it directly makes symptoms worse.
Sleep hygiene: The set of habits that make sleep easier. A fixed schedule, a dark room, screen-free time. It is not enough on its own, but it lays the groundwork.
Sleep inertia: The foggy, groggy period after waking up. It can last longer in ADHD.
Slow morning: A preference for starting the day long and with little stimulation. For people with morning inertia, it turns out to be more productive than forcing it.
Slow release (Extended release): A formulation that keeps the level of the medication in the blood steady for a long time. It reduces the ups and downs.
Small task fallacy: Putting off a five-minute task for weeks. The duration is short, the threshold for starting is high, and the two are separate things.
Small win: A step that looks insignificant from the outside but is truly hard to get over. Making the phone call, sending the form, taking a shower.
Snap decisions: Making a long-term choice in an instant. Resigning, moving, ending a relationship. The decision sometimes turns out right, but the process is still risky.
Social anxiety: Fear of being judged by others. Common in ADHD; past social mistakes combine with the likelihood of repeating them.
Social cue: Nonverbal signals in a conversation, such as tone of voice, pauses and facial expressions. They slip by when attention is elsewhere and lead to misunderstandings.
Social media effect: ADHD content spread through short videos increasing both awareness and misinformation. Many people start here and get the right diagnosis, and many are misled.
Social model: The view that looks for disability not in the person's deficit but in the environment's mismatch. The framework that the demand for accommodations rests on.
Social skills: The ability to carry on a back-and-forth interaction. In ADHD the knowledge is usually there; it is the in-the-moment application that stumbles.
Somatic symptom: Psychological strain showing up in the body as pain or discomfort. Headaches and stomach complaints are common.
Spaced repetition: Repeating information at gradually widening intervals. One of the methods that most increases how long learning lasts, and it works especially well in ADHD.
Staged submission: A large assignment being handed in in pieces. Structurally prevents the last-night pile-up.
Starting over from scratch: Rebuilding from the beginning instead of continuing a half-finished task. Because the cost of remembering where you left off feels heavier than the cost of starting again.
Stigma: Being excluded or looked down on because of a diagnosis. It makes disclosing the diagnosis harder and delays getting support.
Stimulant medications (Stimulants): The most frequently used group of medications in ADHD treatment. They work by strengthening the signal in the brain's attention and reward circuits, which is where the name stimulant comes from. They don't change personality and don't teach skills: they make it easier to build the system. Prescribing, monitoring and dosing are the doctor's job.
Stimulation hunger: Restlessness that increases when the environment goes quiet. The reason the phone fills empty moments so quickly.
Stimulation seeking: The brain producing stimulation itself when it isn't being stimulated enough. Three tabs at once, a series on in the background, an unnecessary argument, changing plans at the last minute. The discomfort here is not simple boredom, it is a feeling that is hard to tolerate.
Stimulus control: Changing the environment so that it makes the behavior easier. Putting the phone in another room is more reliable than straining willpower.
Stimulus threshold: The limit at which a stimulus begins to be noticed. It varies from person to person and is not constant during the day either.
Streak protection: The motivation to keep an unbroken count of days going. It is a strong driving force, and the risk of quitting when the streak breaks is just as high.
Strengths-based view: Describing the condition not only by what is lacking but also by what it brings. Creativity, composure in a crisis, making unusual connections.
Striatum: A deep brain structure that is part of the reward and habit circuits. It is one of the main stops where the dopamine signal is processed.
Structured interview: An assessment carried out in a set order with fixed questions. It reduces the differences between assessors.
Subscription leak: Forgotten and unused subscriptions continuing to be paid. Cancelling is put off because it requires a decision.
Substance use disorder: Alcohol or substance use getting out of control. The risk is high in ADHD; treated ADHD lowers that risk.
Subthreshold ADHD: Having marked difficulties even though the diagnostic criteria are not fully met. The need for support is real, and the diagnostic box is too narrow.
Sugar myth: The belief that sugar causes ADHD or noticeably increases its symptoms. Controlled studies do not support this.
Support education room (Resource room): A setting at school where individual or small-group support is given. A common practice in Turkey.
Support network: The sources of help around a person. In ADHD, it can matter more than individual effort.
Sustained attention: The ability to stay with a single task for a long time. One of the areas that drops most clearly in ADHD in measurements, especially if the task is boring and repetitive.
Switch cost: The time and accuracy lost while going back and forth between two tasks. A measurable loss, larger than it feels.
Symptom overlap: Different conditions producing similar symptoms. Anxiety, trauma, sleep debt and depression can look like an attention problem.
Synaptic pruning: The clearing away of little-used connections during development. It is the basis of theories about delayed maturation in ADHD.
System clutter: The buildup of apps and notebooks that were set up and then abandoned. Each of them worked for two weeks, then was forgotten.

T

Tab pile: Dozens of open tabs. Each can't be closed because closing means forgetting; object permanence in the browser.
Target symptom: A specific behavior that is expected to improve with treatment. Not "getting better" but a concrete goal such as "not interrupting in meetings."
Task breakdown: Splitting a big task into pieces you can start. The piece has to be "absurdly small," otherwise the same resistance comes back.
Task initiation: Being able to make the first move of a task. The place where executive functions stumble most: everything is ready, nothing starts.
Task paralysis (Freezing): Being unable to start although you know exactly what to do. From outside it looks like unwillingness, from inside it feels like freezing: the body doesn't move. Breaking the task into an absurdly small first step, such as just opening the file, often unlocks it.
Task persistence: Being able to stay with a task once started. The second obstacle after the initiation barrier is overcome, and it is usually talked about less.
Task pile-up: Postponed tasks piling on top of each other. Beyond a certain number, the pile itself becomes the biggest obstacle to starting.
Task set: The setting the mind takes on while doing a task. When the task changes, this setting has to change too, and that is where the real cost lies.
Task-blocking task: Another small task that gets in front of the task you need to do and makes it impossible. Like having to empty the sink before you can wash the dishes.
Teacher feedback: Classroom observations being included in the assessment. As decisive as the parent's account in assessing a child.
The wall: An invisible barrier you suddenly hit in front of a task. There is no logical reason for it, and yet you cannot get past it.
Thinking aloud: Saying the steps out loud while doing a task. It supports working memory and strengthens error monitoring.
Three-minutes-from-now me: A method of deciding by looking not at the far future but at a very near moment. A practical shortcut described for getting past time blindness.
Thyroid dysfunction: Too little or too much secretion of thyroid hormones. It is checked during assessment because it affects attention, energy and restlessness.
Tic disorder: Involuntary, sudden and repetitive movements or sounds. Its co-occurrence with ADHD is well known.
Tidying paradox: Having to make a bigger mess first in order to tidy up. The chaos of the in-between stage makes most attempts get abandoned halfway.
Time blind spot: Feeling no difference between tomorrow and next week. Every date that is not near sits at the same distance.
Time blindness: Being unable to feel time passing. Five minutes and forty-five minutes feel the same, and a date in the future seems not to be real. This lies beneath being late and estimates that are constantly off. Visible timers and alarms work because they make what can't be felt readable to the eye.
Time blocking: Setting aside named intervals for tasks in the calendar. More realistic than a to-do list without durations.
Time estimation: Judging how long a task will take. In ADHD it is systematically underestimated, and moreover it doesn't improve even after being wrong many times.
Time in nature: The restorative effect on attention of time spent in green spaces. The findings are small but replicable.
Time sink: Hours that you can't account for. Scrolling, opening tabs, chains of videos. Afterward there is real astonishment.
Titration: The process of finding the effective and tolerable dose in medication treatment by starting low and increasing gradually. It can take weeks, and it is normal for the first medication tried not to work. This process is run by the physician, which is why there is no suggestion here about doses or medication names.
Token system (Token economy): A system in which small behaviors are rewarded with points. Used at school and at home; the reward has to be frequent and visible.
Tolerance: The same dose having less effect over time. It is not expected with ADHD medications; when it happens, the cause is investigated.
Top three priorities: Writing at most three main tasks for the day. In ADHD a long list produces paralysis, not motivation.
Topic jumping: Moving from one topic to another without a bridge while talking. The link is clear to the speaker and broken for the listener.
Tourette syndrome: A picture in which both motor and vocal tics are seen together over a long period. The rate of ADHD alongside it is high.
Toxic shame: Shame that has settled into identity and is not tied to any event. Not "I couldn't manage this" but "I am incompetent."
Transcranial stimulation: Methods of stimulating the brain from the outside with a weak current or magnetic field. At an experimental stage, not a routine treatment.
Transition ritual: A small, fixed behavior placed between two tasks. Because it marks the transition, it reduces the time lost in waiting.
Treatment adherence: Taking the medication as planned. It can be low in ADHD, because the very medication that is supposed to help you remember is itself forgotten.
Treatment during pregnancy: The balance of benefit and risk of taking medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The decision is made entirely together with the physician.
Trouble waiting your turn: Waiting your turn feeling physically hard. Seen in games in childhood, in queues and traffic in adulthood.
Two-copy rule: Deliberately keeping two of an item you often lose. A charger, scissors, glasses. It buys back the time spent searching.
Two-minute rule: Doing right away any task that takes less than two minutes. Suggested to keep the list from bloating; in ADHD its real function is lowering the threshold for starting.
Two-setting rule: The requirement that symptoms appear in at least two different settings. It is there to show that the problem does not stem from the conditions of a single setting.

U

Unfiltered speech: Saying whatever comes to mind. It can come across as sincere, but it costs dearly at work or on sensitive subjects.
Unfinished sentences: The word disappearing in the middle of a sentence while talking. It drops out of working memory and usually doesn't come back.
Universal design: Designing from the start so that everyone can use it. It reduces the need for adjustments afterwards.
Urgency requirement: Only being able to do things that are urgent. A task that is important but not urgent waits until it becomes urgent.

V

Visible storage: Storing things open or transparent rather than closed. The choice that determines whether order lasts when object permanence is weak.
Visual timer (Visible timer): A tool that makes elapsed time visible to the eye. An hourglass or a colored time indicator can be more effective than digital numbers.
Visuospatial sketchpad: The part of working memory that holds images and locations. Remembering where you put something depends on it.

W

Waiting list: The time spent waiting your turn for an assessment. In many countries it is measured in months, and it is one of the practical reasons a diagnosis gets delayed.
Waiting mode: Being unable to do anything until a certain time because there is an appointment or meeting later on. A whole day goes because of a single meeting.
Waiting rule: Putting a stretch of time between deciding and buying when shopping. Leaving things in the cart overnight is the common practice.
Weekly review: The habit of gathering all open tasks in one place once a week. It moves unfinished loops from the mind to paper.
Well-meaning misinformation: Incorrect information spread by people who want to help. The most common source of information pollution in the ADHD field.
Wender Utah scale (WURS): A scale in which adults look back and rate their childhood symptoms. It is used with the limits of retrospective recall in mind.
Working memory: The temporary information you have to hold in mind while you do something. Why you walked into the room, what you were about to say at the start of the sentence, the second of the three items in your head. In ADHD the capacity is not low, the grip is weak: the information is there, then something interrupts and it is wiped. This is why writing things down works. Paper doesn't forget.
Working memory span: How many units of information can be held at one time. Measured in scale tests with sequences of numbers or letters.
Workplace accommodations: Adapting working conditions to the person. A quiet area, flexible hours, written instructions, permission to wear headphones.
Written instructions: Putting a task given verbally into writing as well. The cheapest accommodation for closing the working memory gap.

Y

You too?: The relief that comes from learning that a symptom exists in someone else too. The moment communities are most useful.