ADHD AND ANXIETY
What it the connection?
ADHD and anxiety can look similar, but are very different conditions. For many, it is a package deal. Living with ADHD can be anxiety producing. It may make some of your ADHD symptoms worse i.e. feeling restless or having trouble concentrating. On the other hand, an anxiety disorder is more than just having anxious feelings from time to time.
What is the difference?
“ADHD is in my brain. Anxiety is in my thoughts” (June Silkway, 2018). Anxiety comes and goes. ADHD is always present. Some people feel they can have more control over their anxiety than their ADHD, because no matter how hard they try to reframe it and think it away, their ADHD does not go away.
Do people with ADHD get easily anxious?
It really depends on what type of anxiety you have. Sometimes people experience severe anxious that is so overwhelming that it is the anxiety itself that interferes with your ability to focus. Those who only have ADHD may look for anxietyprovoking situations as a way of getting the focus they need. Just because you have ADHD does not guarantee that you will develop anxiety. However, it can trigger very powerful emotions as you live life with a few quirks. This could be socially, in school, at work or in relationships.
What type of anxiety?
You may be dealing with generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety, panic attacks, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or even obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Some adults with ADHD can look somewhat obsessive or compulsive about what they do i.e. checking to make that they’ve actually turned the stove off. The difference between that and true OCD, is that the latter makes them less functional. The person with OCD doesn’t check the stove once or twice. They check it ten times. For the person with ADHD, the checking is based on good self-knowledge that they might have forgotten to turn the stove off, because their experience has taught them that this is the sort of thing that they sometimes do. In this case, these behaviors are helpful in contrast to true OCD behaviors that really lock a person down. Therefore it is important to determine when and why you become anxious.
What to treat first?
The symptoms are not the problem. The condition that is driving the symptoms is. If the anxiety is caused by your ADHD, then that needs to be dealt with first and vice versa.
What can I do?
Well-known researcher and psychiatrist Dr. Amen suggests “…using the least toxic, most effective treatments for our patients…from natural supplements, medications, dietary interventions, sleep, exercise and targeted psychotherapy”.
- Get professional help through your physician and/or psychologist.
- Get your ADHD treated. It may have fueled your anxiety. Potentially it could really turn things around in more ways than one.
Sources:
Silkway, J. (2018). The ADHD Coach. The Guilford Press, New York, NY.
Amen, D. (2015). Magnificent Mind at Any Age. Three Rivers Press, New York, NY. Roché Herbst, M. A. R. Psych.
Roché Herbst, M. A. R. Psych.
