Are you wondering how to manage ADHD and anxiety? Living with either anxiety or ADHD can be challenging, but experiencing both at the same time can amplify the difficulties of daily life.
These two conditions often co-occur, and their interaction can create a cycle that is hard to break.
Understanding this relationship between anxiety and ADHD can be helpful to identify patterns, recognize how symptoms may be triggering or worsening each other, and develop targeted strategies that address both effectively.
ADHD And Anxiety Overlap
ADHD and anxiety have symptoms that are similar:
- ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is often associated with inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.
- Anxiety, on the other hand, is marked by excessive worry, fear, and nervousness.
- At first glance, these may seem like distinct challenges, but many people with ADHD also experience anxiety—up to 50% of individuals with ADHD are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
Why Is ADHD And Anxiety Overlap So Common?
- Impact of ADHD Symptoms: Individuals with ADHD often struggle with meeting deadlines, keeping organized, or maintaining focus. These struggles can lead to chronic stress or feelings of failure, which, over time, can fuel anxiety.
- Social Challenges: The impulsivity or inattentiveness that comes with ADHD can cause difficulties in social settings. Fears of social judgment or rejection often increase anxiety, especially if the individual has experienced criticism or exclusion due to their ADHD symptoms.
- Overwhelm and Worry: The mental clutter or overstimulation from ADHD can make it hard to stay calm or grounded, leading to anxious feelings. On the flip side, anxiety may cause excessive worry about completing tasks, which further exacerbates ADHD-related struggles with focus or planning.
Common Experiences Of Living With Both ADHD And Anxiety
Individuals living with both ADHD and anxiety often report feeling overwhelmed, scattered, and constantly on edge. They each are impactful in distinct ways, but when combined, they can intensify each other’s symptoms. Some common experiences include:
Procrastination
- ADHD: Individuals with ADHD often struggle with procrastination due to issues with executive functioning. They may have difficulty organizing tasks, prioritizing responsibilities, or maintaining focus long enough to start or complete a project. Even when there is motivation, the inability to stay focused or organized can lead to avoidance and delays.
- Anxiety: Anxiety contributes to procrastination in a different way. For those with anxiety, tasks may seem overwhelming or intimidating, leading to avoidance out of fear of failure or feeling inadequately prepared. This can result in a cycle of worry about the task, further delaying action.
- Interaction: When both ADHD and anxiety are at play, procrastination can become even more pervasive. ADHD may cause disorganization and distractibility, while anxiety amplifies feelings of intimidation or dread about starting a task. Together, these conditions can create a powerful cycle of avoidance and task paralysis that feels difficult to escape. A person might not start a task due to ADHD-related disorganization, and as the deadline approaches, anxiety heightens, creating a paralyzing fear of failure.
Difficulty Focusing
- ADHD: A hallmark of ADHD is difficulty with sustained attention. Individuals may have trouble focusing on tasks, especially those that are uninteresting or require extended mental effort. They may become easily distracted or struggle to stay engaged, making it hard to follow through on responsibilities.
- Anxiety: Anxiety often leads to excessive worry or rumination, which can hijack a person’s attention. Even if they want to focus, anxious thoughts may intrude, leading to an inability to concentrate. This constant mental chatter makes it difficult to stay present and focused on the task at hand.
- Interaction: When both conditions coexist, the struggle to focus becomes more intense. ADHD makes it hard to concentrate in general, but anxiety compounds the issue by adding intrusive, racing thoughts that further disrupt attention. This leads to a situation where the mind is constantly scattered—unable to focus because of ADHD and unable to quiet the anxious thoughts long enough to concentrate.
Self-Doubt
- ADHD: Living with ADHD often leads to self-doubt, especially when individuals struggle to meet their own or others’ expectations. Repeated experiences of failure or falling behind can erode self-esteem, leading to a negative self-perception. People with ADHD may feel like they are not living up to their potential, reinforcing feelings of inadequacy.
- Anxiety: Anxiety, particularly social anxiety or generalized anxiety, can fuel self-doubt by causing excessive worry about what others think or fear of failure. People may constantly feel they are being judged or that they will not perform well in certain situations, leading to perfectionism or avoidance behaviours. This can also cause performance anxiety, where the fear of being evaluated creates an overwhelming pressure to succeed, which often leads to self-criticism and over-preparation or, conversely, further avoidance to sidestep potential failure.
- Interaction: The combination of ADHD and anxiety can amplify feelings of self-doubt. A person may already feel insecure due to the disorganization or forgetfulness that comes with ADHD, but anxiety magnifies these feelings by adding worry about how others perceive them. This can result in a constant cycle of second-guessing their abilities or feeling like they are never good enough, which in turn fuels avoidance and procrastination.
Physical Symptoms
- ADHD: Physical restlessness and impulsivity are common in ADHD. This may manifest as fidgeting, an inability to sit still, or constantly seeking out stimulation. These physical symptoms can interfere with productivity and relationships, as the individual may struggle to regulate their energy levels.
- Anxiety: Anxiety often comes with physical symptoms like increased heart rate, muscle tension, sweating, and difficulty sleeping. People may experience a sense of restlessness or feel “on edge” even when there is no immediate threat. These physical sensations can create discomfort and interfere with relaxation.
- Interaction: When ADHD and anxiety are both present, the physical symptoms of both conditions can interact, leading to a sense of being chronically restless or agitated. Someone with ADHD may already experience hyperactivity, and anxiety can add to that with increased tension or nervous energy. This combination can make it feel impossible to relax or wind down, contributing to chronic fatigue and irritability.
How To Manage ADHD And Anxiety
By better understanding ADHD and anxiety individually as well as how they can affect each other, individuals can take steps toward managing both conditions in more effective ways.
Luckily, just as there is significant overlap with experiencing both disorders, there is also lots of overlap between ADHD therapy and anxiety therapy and finding one that addresses both, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), can help break the cycle of avoidance, scattered attention, and self-doubt.
Taking The Next Step
You’ve learned a bit more about how to manage ADHD and anxiety. Living with ADHD and/or anxiety doesn’t have to mean a life of overwhelm and stress. With the right therapeutic interventions and support (such as holistic wellness therapy for anxiety), it is possible to regain a sense of control, manage symptoms, and thrive. If you or a loved one is struggling with the challenges of ADHD and anxiety, consider reaching out to a mental health professional who can help you navigate this journey.
Ready to take the first step?
Connect with a therapist who understands the unique challenges of living with both conditions and can tailor a plan to help you regain balance and peace of mind.
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