Anxiety and ADHD - How Are They Related?

00:00 Introduction to the Topic
01:25 How ADHD and anxiety are related to symptoms of both
05:40 Why is ADHD likely to increase anxiety and how do treatments for each have their effects
12:59 Conclusion

Research Supporting the Commentary in the Video

Early development of comorbidity between symptoms of ADHD and anxiety
SL Gair, HR Brown, S Kang, AS Grabell… - Research on child and …, 2021 - Springer

Anxiety disorders in adult ADHD: A frequent comorbidity and a risk factor for externalizing problems
AF Quenneville, E Kalogeropoulou, R Nicastro… - Psychiatry …, 2022 - Elsevier

Reciprocal developmental relations between ADHD and anxiety in adolescence: a within-person longitudinal analysis of commonly co-occurring symptoms

[Evankayden-zy]

I remember few years back after my wife died, I was left alone with 3 kids. I suffered severe anxiety and mental disorder. Got diagnosed with bipolar. Not until a friend recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment changed my life for better. I can proudly say i'm totally clean for 6 years and still counting. Always look to nature for solution to tough problems, Shrooms are phenomenal.

[dubious_honey]

I don't think I've ever clicked faster on one of your videos 😅

[MiffoKarin]

I'm pretty sure that my brain developed anxiety as a coping mechanism for my ADHD. I tend to forget things, so my anxiety is there to tell me to write things down, pack far in advance and set alarms. Since I can't keep track of time my anxiety makes me constantly look at the clock when I need to be on time for something. The anxious energy can be diverted to tasks that my ADHD really doesn't want to do.

[CHKrause]

Personal experience, not scientific evidence I've seen: IMO anxiety is not just a side effect of ADHD, but can also be a coping mechanism. I spent my life anticipating failure and turned out to be a successful overachiever by trying to "keep the wolves from the door". It's a risky game with a high chance of burnout. Since my diagnosis. I have lowered my expectations and catastrophic less. Quality of life has improved, but I definitely get less s**t done. An observation by one of the social media clips that people with ADHD who seem successful, also often seem "highly strung" points in the same direction.

[bikergirl.]

Anxiety is the biggest symptom of my adhd. I’m extremely hyperactive mentally & physically. Undiagnosed until late 40’s. This information is so simple to understand, but accurate. Almost cried. It’s difficult to put in to words how much this information is helpful(not normally lost for words)Just wish health care professional in the nhs Uk were educated with the correct information, particularly psychiatry. Thank you ♥️🤜🏻🤛🏻

[adamburnette]

I've dealt with anxiety and ADHD for as long as I can remember, and I have always been curious about the interplay. This video was tremendously helpful. Thank you for all you do for the community, Dr. Barkley.

[publius]

You were the person who made me understood ADHD and anxiety were not a one or the other condition years ago with the conference video that still floats around.

[hideokojima]

thank you russell for yet another life-changing and informative lecture. you are my favorite person on this planet, i genuinely mean that. just thank you for being you and all that you do for the ADHD and neuroscience community.

[anyatrioli]

What about ADHD people who are mostly mentally hyperactive - multiple concurrent streams of thought sort of thing - and spend a lot of time reflecting on things, exploring ideas, thoughts, feelings etc. at the expense of tasks like studying for uni or you get stuck sitting in a towel for 2hrs for no particular reason after a shower?

[MsPatomar]

Dr Barkley you are a font of knowledge. Such an inspiration. Thank you for all you do for our community ❤️🙏🏼 May God bless you ❤️

[JessieThorne]

Such an enlightening video! ❤ I've experienced first hand that getting phychotherapy for anxiety somewhat reduced my executive function problems, but only partly; the remaining executive problems only got better when I was later diagnosed with and treated for ADHD. Apart from the two mechanisms you describe of how ADHD predisposes for anxiety (problems with emotion regulation plus cumulative failures), I've experienced two other ways ADHD increased my anxiety: one is that, due to my bad short-term memory (which is probably due to distractability), I used to get anxiety because I couldn't remember whether I had checked in when boarding my daily train, etc. This went away when ADHD medication improved my memory. The other mechanism is that the ADHD makes my line of thought associate much more easily to other things, which is great when being creative, but when I was anxious, my thoughts could get from a small worry to all sorts of catastrophes much more quickly than when taking the ADHD medication. I could go from "that guy on the bus looks angry", and a few seconds later I had mentally pictured both getting in a fight with him, ending up in court, being jailed, etc. Mindfulness and ADHD medication helped a lot with this, because now I become aware of my thoughts running away with me, where earlier I didn't have the capacity for taking this metacognitive look at myself, so I would just end up wherever my thoughts took me.

[UnseenOct]

Very curious about this as Strattera cured my anxiety almost entirely

[tedf]

My jaw is on the floor. 62 yrs old having the same anxiety as I did 50 years ago, all from ADHD I would say. It separates me from the universe, and has to go. Finally I have confirmation of what I felt, thanks Russ.

[Maclabhruinn]

Thank you Dr Barkley! Yet another extremely helpful presentation. I love the clear analytical and evidence-based approach!

[Sereno]

Definitely right, Dr. Russell. I was on such at 50 that even my blood pressure started to rise. In my country, the psychiatrists stopped prescribing Vyvanse and Adderall because they were afraid of effects. Idiots. But they easily prescribed tranquilizers

[eliseholton]

The inner current turmoil and agitation is preventing me from moving forward and improving.... affecting every day.

[arcanethievery]

Thank you for this video! I am a late diagnosed autistic (at the age of 41) and anxiety was the core of my existence since childhood. I came to learn to mask and deny it so effectively that even I do not believe myself that it is sometimes very serious and just plain exhausting. Only the diagnosis opened up my eyes that I have to take things more seriously and try to protect myself from excessive stress and stimuli. I underwent ADHD diagnosis as well as it seemed very familiar to me especially the inattentive presentation (although CDS might be a better fit), but it turned out that although there are strong tendencies, these are not enough to fulfill the diagnostic criteria of ADHD and the hardships I experience in attention and functionality is better explained by ASD. At least current medication (50mg/d fluvoxamine) seems to help with anxiety, I also can be somewhat more in the present and not constantly worrying about future or past events.

[Kameleont-konsulten]

Thank you so much dr Barkley for shining a bright light on the difficulties for us who struggle every day with adhd! Espescially now since there´s a ridiculous debate in Sweden about the high rate of medicated individuals, claims about there not beeing any reliabe reasearch and so on! You are the KING of adhd!!!

So greatful for your clear, scientific reasearch and your pleasant peronality; if you ever visit Sweden- please let me know!! :)

[ethanolol]

this makes so much as I have taken Ssris for a while but i have never exper8enced classi anxiety symptoms. the mild sympt9ms align much more closely with my experience alongside adhd. thank you again for educating us, Dr Barkley!

[spenserclarke]

After watching the video, I believe I fall into the one category that is believed to NOT be connected, this being the 'classic anxiety' coming last, and in response to everything else, especially insofar as how quickly I deteriorated early 2023, just after two recent and successive negative workplace events in the proceeding few months (one being that I was sacked for having had a few sick days, and terminated without any warnings, whilst I was still on sick leave!), which left me with EXTREME trust issues, and then a case of Agoraphobia, which I've NEVER had!

The previous 'anxiety' I did have, was from an original workplace dispute 10 years ago, which left me 'damaged', but still functional, if a bit battered, but nowhere near what occurred last March, which simply began as feeling nervous driving (and I used to be a courier, so no problems there) and one day in the new job, after there was 'trust' issues arising over payroll problems, I woke up one day and simply could not face work! It went downhill from there. Despite not having worked for over 18 months, (although I have have several legal conflicts to deal with in relation to previous events), I remain on a 'hair trigger' response, and unable to do much of anything which produces the slightest amount of stress without experiencing cognitive reduction. I think what has occurred is complete burnout! I used to do busy courier work, and hospitality and call centre customer service work without issue...then it ALL stopped dead in it's tracks!

Several months after my burnout, early mid 2023, I was diagnosed with ADHD and ASD.

To be honest, I do not know who is correct, and why such things were not diagnosed over 10 years ago when the first thing occurred. To me, it seems only once I have hit rock bottom, and become completely broken, it got figured out, which makes me wonder how my life may have been so much different, had I been diagnosed/treated many years ago.