Can You Have ADHD and Anxiety at the Same Time?

This weekend on our Instagram stories, we invited you to drop your most burning questions. One that came up (and comes up often in therapy) was: “Can you have ADHD and anxiety at the same time?”

Short answer: Yes. Very much yes.

This is actually one of the many reasons why high-masking ADHD-ers go years (decades even) without someone recognizing their ADHD traits.

Living with both ADHD and anxiety can feel like walking a tightrope. Some days anxiety feels like the only thing keeping you moving forward. Other days it’s the thing that leaves you exhausted, overwhelmed, and stuck. Understanding how these two experiences interact can bring a lot of relief — and help you make sense of patterns that may have felt confusing or contradictory for a long time.

ADHD and Anxiety: Different, but Often Intertwined

ADHD and anxiety are distinct experiences, but they frequently overlap. Research suggests that around 30–50% of people with ADHD also experience an anxiety disorder. When they show up together, it can make things harder to untangle — both for the person living it and for providers trying to understand what’s actually going on.

ADHD is often associated with differences in attention regulation, impulse control, executive functioning, and energy. When we talk about ADHD at Little Seed, we often borrow a metaphor from Dr. Ed Hallowell: having a Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes — fast, powerful, creative, and sometimes hard to slow down.

Anxiety, on the other hand, often shows up as chronic worry, hypervigilance, and nervous system activation. It can live in the body as much as in the mind: tension, restlessness, racing thoughts, or a constant sense of being on edge.

Because there’s so much overlap, symptoms can blur together. Restlessness from anxiety can look like ADHD hyperactivity. Difficulty focusing might come from anxious rumination or from attentional differences. Many people spend years wondering which is “the real problem,” when the answer is often: both.

When Anxiety Becomes the Motivator

For many people with ADHD, anxiety has been doing an important though exhausting job.

The ADHD brain often struggles with task initiation, prioritization, and sustained motivation, especially when something feels boring, overwhelming, or unclear. Anxiety can step in and create urgency. Deadlines suddenly feel real. Fear of letting someone down becomes fuel.

This might sound familiar:

• You get things done, but only under intense pressure

• Stress is your primary motivator

• You function well… until you crash

In the short term, anxiety can help things get done. In the long term, it often leads to burnout, exhaustion, and a nervous system that never really gets to rest.

This is also why some people notice that when anxiety decreases, ADHD traits feel more noticeable. The anxiety wasn’t the root issue — it was the coping strategy.

How Supporting ADHD Can Ease Anxiety

Here’s the hopeful part: when ADHD is better understood and supported, anxiety often softens.

When executive functioning is supported — through therapy, accommodations, medication, or systems that actually fit your brain — daily life feels less chaotic. There’s less scrambling, less self-blame, and more trust in your ability to handle what’s in front of you.

For some people, supporting ADHD reduces anxiety enough that it no longer needs to be the primary focus. For others, anxiety still deserves direct care — but from a place that understands the ADHD nervous system rather than trying to override it.

Supporting Both, Gently

There’s no one right way to support ADHD and anxiety together, but approaches that tend to help include:

• Working with providers who understand how ADHD and anxiety interact

• Therapy that supports both thinking patterns and the nervous system

• Building structure that supports your brain rather than shaming it

• Breaking tasks into smaller, more approachable steps

• Moving your body in ways that feel regulating, not punishing

• Practicing self-compassion — especially if anxiety has been a long-standing survival strategy

None of this is about fixing you. It’s about reducing friction in your life.

A Note on Individualized Care

No two people experience ADHD and anxiety the same way. Some people benefit from medication, others from therapy, others from lifestyle changes — and many from a combination. What works can also change over time.

A supportive approach stays flexible, responsive, and curious. It makes room for your lived experience, not just checklists or labels.

Final Thoughts

Living with both ADHD and anxiety means navigating a complicated relationship — one where anxiety may have helped you cope, but doesn’t need to stay in charge.

Understanding how these two experiences interact can bring clarity, relief, and a lot more self-trust. You’re not lazy, broken, or doing life wrong. Your nervous system has been working hard to keep you safe.

With the right support, many people experience more ease, steadiness, and space to be themselves.

That’s the work we care most about at Little Seed 🌱

You don’t have to sort through ADHD, anxiety, or their overlap on your own. Our therapy team at Little Seed Counseling in Greensboro, North Carolina offers thoughtful, neuro-affirming support for adults navigating attention, overwhelm, nervous system stress, and self-understanding.

We currently have immediate openings, and we’d love to help you find a clinician who feels like a good fit. You can learn more about our team and book directly through our online scheduling page below:

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