A formal diagnostic assessment for adults who suspect ADHD was missed in childhood — done by a psychiatrist, not a questionnaire. Online across India. Where a medicine cannot be prescribed over video, she arranges an in-person appointment or refers you to a psychiatrist in her network in your city.
Most adults who come for an ADHD assessment were not disruptive children. They were the ones who lost things, drifted in class, submitted late, and were told they were bright but careless. Nothing in that picture looks like an illness, so nobody investigated it.
The difficulty usually becomes undeniable later — when the external structure of school and family disappears and the job requires you to organise yourself. Many people arrive after a performance conversation at work, or after watching a video that described their own life back to them.
These come up in almost every adult ADHD assessment. If more than one sounds like you, that is worth noticing.
I am fine until there is a deadline. Then nothing happens for three days and everything happens in one night.
Software engineer, 31I have read the same paragraph four times and I still could not tell you what it said.
Postgraduate student, 24People think I do not care. I care so much that I cannot start.
Marketing manager, 36ADHD is not a failure of effort or discipline. It is a difference in how the brain regulates attention and motivation — and it is one of the most heritable conditions in psychiatry.
People with ADHD do not have less attention. They have less control over where it goes. The same brain that cannot start a form at 2pm will work on something absorbing for nine hours without a break. That inconsistency is the condition — it is why "but you concentrate fine on things you enjoy" is not the argument against ADHD that people think it is.
Plenty of adults reach their thirties or forties having coped, and ask reasonably whether there is any point now. There usually is — and the reasons are less about focus than people expect.
School reports, what teachers said, how you coped at each stage. ADHD begins in childhood — if the pattern genuinely started at 28, it is something else.
Work, home, money, driving, relationships. ADHD does not politely restrict itself to the office.
Thyroid dysfunction, B12 and iron deficiency, obstructive sleep apnoea, depression, anxiety and substance use all produce inattention. Bloods are ordered where indicated.
Where ADHD is confirmed, treatment usually combines medication with practical changes to how work and time are structured. Medication is not compulsory, and some people decide the diagnosis alone explains enough to be useful.
Under India's Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020, methylphenidate cannot be prescribed by teleconsultation. The assessment can be completed online from anywhere in India. Where that medication is the right treatment, Dr Rajawat arranges an in-person appointment case by case, or refers you to a psychiatrist in her network in your own city, so the prescription can be written lawfully. This is a rule that applies to every psychiatrist in the country — not a policy of this practice.
Non-stimulant options such as atomoxetine can be prescribed remotely, and are a reasonable route for people who cannot travel or who have reasons to avoid stimulants. Dr Rajawat will set out both paths at the end of the assessment.
An unhurried consultation with a psychiatrist. Includes the written diagnosis, the reasoning behind it, and a treatment plan. Follow-up reviews are ₹800.
No. A large share of assessments are for people in their thirties and forties, and a diagnosis is useful at any age — it changes how you organise work, and it usually changes how you interpret twenty years of your own history.
No. Screening questionnaires are deliberately over-sensitive — depression, anxiety, poor sleep and thyroid problems all score high on them. They are a reason to seek an assessment, not a substitute for one.
Not necessarily. Stimulants work the day you take them and stop working the day you stop, so many adults take them only on working days, or during demanding periods. It is a decision you revisit at each review, not a life sentence.
Helpful if you have them, not required. A parent or older sibling who remembers your childhood is just as useful — you can bring them onto the call for ten minutes.
That is a useful outcome, not a wasted appointment. In a fair number of cases the difficulty turns out to be untreated anxiety, a sleep disorder, or a thyroid problem — all of which are treatable, and none of which improve while you are looking in the wrong place.
Very often alongside adult ADHD
ADHD assessment from age 4
Already diagnosed and unsure
Call Tele-MANAS 14416 — free, 24 hours. If someone is in immediate danger, call 112.