Your brain keeps you up at night. You are constantly forgetting things and feel like you are always behind.
Anxiety, right? Maybe. But what if it’s not?
Lots of people over the years have sought support for anxiety issues, and have reported that, for them, the symptoms and issues have never fully resolved.
Sometimes that’s because the diagnosis was wrong.
The Mix-Up
ADHD and anxiety look similar. Both make you restless. Both mess with your focus. Both can keep you awake during nighttime.
But they’re different problems. Anxiety is your mind stuck on worries. Things that could go wrong, things you said last week, things you need to do tomorrow.
ADHD is your brain not being able to control attention. You’re not worried. Your brain just won’t work with you.
Signs It Might Be ADHD
The restlessness feels different.
You’re not fidgeting because you’re nervous. You need to keep your brain busy or you’ll lose it.
- Sitting through movies is hard unless they’re really good
- You start things but don’t finish them
- You get bored fast
- You need noise or movement to think
Your focus is all over the place.
Everyone loses focus sometimes. But with ADHD, it goes both ways.
- You can spend six hours on something interesting without stopping
- You can’t focus on boring stuff for five minutes
- You forget things constantly, even important things
- Time just disappears
Everything feels like too much.
Not because you’re worried about how things will turn out. Because your head is too full.
- You have too many thoughts at once
- Easy tasks seem way too hard
- You can’t figure out what to do first
- You’re always behind on something
Treatment hasn’t worked.
You’ve tried therapy. You’ve tried medication. You’ve learned ways to cope. And you still deal with the same stuff.
This matters. If you’ve done everything right for anxiety and nothing changes, maybe it’s not anxiety.
Why Getting This Right Matters
Treating anxiety when you have ADHD doesn’t work. You’re trying to fix the wrong thing.
ADHD causes problems that make you anxious. You miss stuff. You forget stuff. You interrupt people without even meaning to. These things cause real anxiety.
But if you treat the ADHD, the anxiety gets better in the process, too.
Think of it this way. You have bad eyesight, and hence, cannot read street signs. You would feel a lot of stress, and perhaps anxiety even, regarding driving.
However, you cannot treat the stress to fix the vision problem that you have. You would need glasses.
The Cycle Nobody Mentions
Living with ADHD that nobody caught yet creates a loop. You struggle with normal stuff. People get frustrated with you. You get frustrated with yourself. That frustration turns into anxiety.
The anxiety stems from something else.
Many adults who lived with untreated ADHD spent years feeling like there was something about themselves that was broken.
They dealt with the stigma of feeling lazy, of feeling like there was not enough effort being put into their work and things.
Getting the correct diagnosis clears that up.
What to Do Next
The next step in all of this is for you to speak to a professional. Professionals have adequate knowledge about ADHD and can assist you.
You can stop trying to ‘fix’ something that doesn’t need to be fixed. If anxiety is an ongoing problem for you, the potential presence of ADHD should be examined as a contributing factor.
Reach out to Wade’s Care First. We provide culturally sensitive care.
We offer same-day appointments in states including Florida, Arizona, New York, and Indiana.
We’ll figure out what’s going on and make a plan that actually helps.
FAQs
Can you have both?
Yes. A lot of people do. They affect each other.
I thought ADHD was a kid thing?
ADHD begins in childhood. Many people do not get an ADHD diagnosis until adulthood.
Should I get tested?
If regular anxiety treatment hasn’t worked, or you’ve always had trouble with focus and getting organized, probably.
