Well it is a behavior disorder. If you don't have disruptive behavior, plenty of other psychiatric conditions cause the same or worse executive dysfunction (e.g., bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder) and the same or worse social anxiety and rejection sensitivity (e.g., social anxiety disorder). Let's not pretend like ADHD isn't difficult for others around the individual to deal with; it is, by definition, if someone has it.
Ask me if you'd like sources for any of the above.
Especially when you don’t have the hyperactivity part (used to be ADD, now it’s ADHD - inattentive type), this makes so much sense as to why I was just called lazy and sensitive as a kid and teenager. Getting diagnosed in my late 20s made so many things make sense in hindsight.
Oooh so that's what inattentive is. I'm getting assessed in a week or so and for the pre-session questionnaire I was wondering what it meant if I didn't have any of the "driven by a motor" symptoms.
Oh, sure! The other comments did a pretty good job of explaining things. In my case, I struggled a lot with procrastination and getting sidetracked easily, which led to the lazy descriptor. And as for the sensitive, I tend to feel my emotions strongly and quickly, and I also have rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD), so I tend to easily assume I’m being socially rejected
A better name for the syndrome would be Executive Function Disorder. Executive Function is the term used to describe the ability to exercise agency and rational judgement when making decisions. Disorders of executive function leave a person having difficulty not responding impulsively. This affects attention; what I decide to pay attention to, and how long I hold my attention there, and it also affects emotional expression, how well I maintain an even keel and exercise control over how strongly my emotions become and how they influence my behavior. In ADHD people have difficulty deciding where their attention will go and also tend to be more emotionally labile. Shame sensitivity is frequently reported.
Just to be clear, what the DSM-5 means there isn't "I'm mad that people are clubbing baby seals to death", they mean "Greg didn't take out the garbage like he promised, which is unfair and makes me so angry I can't look at him without chewing him out about it". It's an exaggeration of a normal human thing to the point that it impairs other stuff such a peaceful cohabitation.
Most disorders/diseases are too complex to have a short name that accuratley describes what they are so I don't think a disorder being 'poorly' named is that big of a deal.
The WHO discourages this because people will start associating the name with the disease. Which sucks if you happen to have this name. See Tourette's, or Chagas disease.
If they change the name, people who get coverage and help from programs will experience a lapse of coverage and help until every little department and organization and office in the kluge help network all have the new name fully integrated into their systems, which could be years.