You read something about ADHD and had that odd feeling that someone was describing your life. Not the hyperactive child from the textbook — something else: the thread lost in the middle of a sentence, four tabs open and none of them finished, paperwork put off until it becomes a problem, the exhaustion at the end of a day in which you „did nothing", and then three hours of hyperfocus in which you sorted everything out.
Perhaps you were always „bright but disorganised". Perhaps you compensated for years with double the effort, until life became too complex to keep compensating. And now you wonder whether there is a real explanation, or just a fashionable label.
It can be found out. With instruments, not with questionnaires off the internet.
What ADHD looks like in an adult (and why it goes unnoticed)
In a child it shows: fidgeting, talking, not staying in their seat. In an adult, hyperactivity moves inward and becomes hard to recognise, especially in intelligent people who have learned to compensate. It tends to look more like this:
- Starting is hard. You know exactly what needs doing, it matters, you have the time — and still you cannot begin. It is not laziness, it is a real barrier to activation.
- Elastic time. You estimate an hour, it takes four. Or the reverse: three hours disappear.
- Hyperfocus. When the subject grips you, you work extraordinarily well. The problem is that you cannot choose when it happens.
- Administrative chaos. Invoices, appointments, emails never started. Not because you do not care — because the prioritising system does not start on command.
- Fragile emotional regulation. Quick, intense reactions, and then shame about how you reacted.
- Background fatigue. The effort of appearing organised uses more energy than the work itself.
Nothing on this list means ADHD on its own. Much of it overlaps with anxiety, with depression, with exhaustion or with sleep apnoea. That is exactly why a properly conducted assessment matters, rather than a hasty conclusion.
What I can do for you — and what I cannot
I will say this from the start, so you do not waste time: the medical diagnosis of ADHD is made by a psychiatrist, and medication is prescribed by the psychiatrist too. I am a clinical psychologist licensed by the Romanian College of Psychologists. What I do is the psychological assessment — the part that objectively documents how your attention, working memory and self-regulation function, and that gives the psychiatrist (or you) a real basis for a decision instead of a suspicion.
1. Psychological assessment with approved instruments
A structured clinical interview about your history — childhood included, because ADHD does not appear at 35 — plus licensed psychometric instruments for attention, executive function, personality and emotional state. You receive a written report and a session in which I explain what came out, in language you can actually use. The fee depends on the scope of the assessment — from a standard assessment to a complex one with 6+ instruments — and I tell you the fee before we book.
2. The BrainMap QEEG brain map
It measures your brain's electrical activity at rest and under task. In ADHD, the literature has described characteristic patterns of activation for decades — in particular an excess of slow activity in the frontal regions, associated with difficulty sustaining attention. It is not a diagnostic test and I do not present it as one; it is a measurement that shows where the imbalance in activation lies and, more importantly, what can be trained.
3. Neurofeedback training
This is where it differs from an assessment alone: once we know what is happening, it becomes possible to work. Neurofeedback is the non-pharmacological intervention with the strongest evidence in ADHD. With me, every 50-minute session combines EEG on the Braintrainer system with HEG — direct training of the prefrontal cortex, precisely the area responsible for initiation, prioritising and inhibition.
Rhythm: 2 sessions a week, in blocks of 20 (roughly 10 weeks). A block can be paid in 3 monthly instalments, with a QEEG re-assessment included at the end — so that you can see in the data whether something has moved, not just whether „it feels like it".
All prices → · How neurofeedback works →
Frequently asked questions
I am 42. Is it not too late?
No. The brain stays plastic throughout life — more slowly than at 20, but it stays. And in an adult there is a benefit a child does not have: you understand what is happening to you. Many adults say the most freeing part was not the training but the moment they stopped believing they were lazy or careless.
Can I do this instead of medication?
I would not advise you to frame it that way, and it is not my decision to make — it is your doctor's. What I can say: neurofeedback and medication are not mutually exclusive, many people use both in parallel, and any decision to change a treatment belongs solely to the treating physician.
What if it turns out I do not have ADHD?
Then you have learned something just as valuable. Attention difficulties have many causes — anxiety, depression, sleep, thyroid, chronic overload. The assessment tells you which way to look. And if the answer is „you do not need me", I tell you exactly that.
How long does the assessment take?
One or two meetings, depending on complexity. The written report is delivered 5–7 working days after the last test, followed by the feedback session.
Where is the practice?
In the Paradisul Verde complex, Corbeanca, Ilfov — a few minutes from Otopeni, Balotești, Tunari, Mogoșoaia and Buftea, and close to northern Bucharest. For those coming from the city I schedule against the traffic. The first interview can also be done by video.
Start with a conversation. It costs nothing
30 minutes, by video or at the practice. You tell me what an ordinary day looks like for you, and I tell you whether an assessment makes sense — and what kind of assessment.
Ileana Vlad · clinical psychologist licensed by the Romanian College of Psychologists, integrative psychotherapist, neurofeedback specialist authorised by Braintrainer Europe
Aleea Brândușei 15, Paradisul Verde complex, Corbeanca, Ilfov, Romania · contact@ileanavlad.com