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Hi @fdavis47713. I like your question. The ‘subtypes’ can be useful but they can also create a lot of confusion because ADHD isn’t black or white. Most ADHDers have symptoms from each category. The subtype notion was invented because a lot of people have *more* symptoms falling into one category or the other. It helps you know your ‘flavour’ if you will.
But the symptom categories are not mutually exclusive, and in fact our predominant symptoms tend to change over the course of our lives (e.g., for most people hyperactivity settles down with age).
ADHD is global to our functioning because it is a disorder of executive function. One of the ways skeptics attack the validity of ADHD is by pointing to the disparity in symptom categories: ‘How can inattention *and* hyperactivity be part of the same disorder?’ The answer is clear when you recognize that it is a disorder of executive function. It affects the part of our brain that is at-the-wheel of self regulation, if you will. Check out this website for more info: http://www.drthomasebrown.com/brown_model/index.html
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