How do I know if what I'm experiencing is ADHD or just regular stress?

The main difference is that ADHD is a persistent pattern across multiple areas of your life - trouble focusing on tasks you want to do, forgetting things regularly, starting projects and not finishing them - whereas stress tends to spike around specific situations and usually eases once the stressor is gone. With stress you're typically able to concentrate when something matters enough, but ADHD makes it hard to focus even on things you genuinely care about. If you're noticing these patterns have been going on for years rather than just the past few months, and they show up whether life is chaotic or calm, that's a sign worth talking to a doctor about - they can help figure out what's actually going on.

Does the pattern show up even when you're not stressed - like during downtime or vacations? Stress usually lifts once the pressure does, but ADHD keeps showing itself regardless of what's happening around you, which is why a real diagnosis needs to rule out whether you're just running on fumes right now.