Adult ADHD support groups and organizations in New York

Peer support for adults with ADHD in New York is real but uneven. Long Island and Westchester have active chapters of the national organization CHADD. New York City, despite its size, has none. Much of what is available to the rest of the state meets online. This directory lists the organizations confirmed on their own pages on October 13, 2026, states what each one does and does not do, and says plainly where nothing was found.

The organizations at a glance

CHADD chapters: four listed, three confirmed active

CHADD's chapter locator lists four New York chapters and no others.

• Suffolk County CHADD. Runs an "Adult, Significant Other Support Group" on Zoom on Wednesday evenings, with dates posted for October 21, November 18 and December 16, 2026. Registration is required. Contact: suffolk-county@chadd.org.
• Nassau County CHADD (Elmont). Holds monthly meetings with registration. Its October 2026 calendar showed a presentation on parent and adult advocacy and a support group. Contact: nassau-county@chadd.org, or 516-242-3263 by text.
• Westchester-Putnam & Vicinity CHADD. Holds support meetings on Zoom on Monday evenings, open to adults with ADHD as well as parents, with monthly dates posted through June 2027. Contact: westchester-putnamvicinity@chadd.org. The page asks for volunteers to help run the chapter.
• CHADD Southern Tier (Vestal, Broome County). Listed, with a description of monthly social and support meetings and the contact SouthernTier@chadd.org. Its page was marked "Site Under Construction" and showed no dated events, so this guide cannot confirm it is meeting. Email before assuming it is.

CHADD's National Resource Center also runs a helpline at 866-200-8098 for general questions about ADHD.

Where no local group was found

CHADD lists no chapter for New York City, the Hudson Valley above Westchester and Putnam, the Capital Region, Central New York, Rochester and the Finger Lakes, Buffalo and Western New York, or the North Country. Research for this guide also found no confirmed in-person adult ADHD peer group in Buffalo, Rochester or Albany. That is a statement about what could be verified. Small groups run by a clinic, a library or a house of worship may exist without a public listing.

One partial finding is worth knowing about in Manhattan. A peer-led group, the Manhattan Adult ADD Support Group, was profiled in CHADD's Attention magazine in August 2025. The article text is open to CHADD members only, and the group's current schedule and contact details could not be confirmed on a page of its own, so none are printed here.

University psychology training clinics occasionally run short, low-cost skills classes for adults with attention problems. Those are classes with a fixed number of sessions and not ongoing peer groups; the regional articles in this guide, such as the one for Central New York, note the ones that were confirmed.

If you live in one of these areas, the online options below are the dependable route. The downstate CHADD chapters meet largely on Zoom. Ask the chapter when you register whether people outside its counties may attend.

ADDA virtual groups

The Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) is a national organization for adults. Its virtual programs page lists recurring peer groups, all with Eastern Time schedules, including groups for beginners, women, women over 50, men, young adults, African American and Black diaspora adults, queer women and non-binary people, South Asian adults, people managing ADHD at work, entrepreneurs, and partners of adults with ADHD. It also lists body-doubling sessions, in which people work quietly alongside each other on video.

ADDA's page invites non-members to join. The membership price and whether each group requires membership were not stated on the page read for this guide. Check before you plan around a group.

General mental health organizations

These groups are useful, particularly when anxiety, depression or family strain sit alongside ADHD. None of them lists an ADHD-specific group.

• NAMI-NYC. Helpline 212-684-3264, Monday to Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, by call, text, chat or email. Free peer-led support groups and classes.
• NAMI New York State. Helpline 518-245-9160, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 3 pm. Programs include NAMI Connection, a peer group for adults with mental health conditions, and family programs. Its site lists local affiliates.
• Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS). The state affiliate of Mental Health America, based in Albany, 518-434-0439. It runs training and education programs and publishes a list of local Mental Health Associations and county resource links.

What peer support is for, and what it is not

A support group offers company, practical ideas and the relief of hearing your own experience described by someone else. No peer group listed here evaluates, diagnoses or prescribes, and none can tell you whether ADHD is the right explanation for your difficulties.

Two things are sometimes mistaken for ADHD resources:

• 988 is a crisis and emotional support line. It is the right call in a crisis and does not arrange ADHD evaluations. See crisis and mental health help lines in New York.
• Online forums and social media groups are unmoderated and unverified. They can be good company and poor sources of medical information.

Choosing among them

• You want a live group of local people: the Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester-Putnam CHADD chapters.
• You want a group that matches your situation (newly diagnosed, a woman over 50, a partner): ADDA's virtual groups.
• You are a partner or family member: Suffolk CHADD's adult and significant other group, ADDA's partners group, or NAMI's family programs. See also adult ADHD and relationships.
• You need treatment and cannot find it: a support group will not solve that. Start with what to do while you wait for an ADHD appointment and the site's finding care and telehealth articles.

Peer support works alongside clinical care. How evaluation is structured is described on the adult ADHD evaluation page.