Anxiety that looks like ADD?

Doctors can be right and they can be wrong so I wouldn’t take the diagnosis as written in stone; however, yes, I think anxiety can certainly cause attentional problems. Think about your own experience, when you were very stressed over something, perhaps a very important exam in a difficult subject, or a job interview, or a meeting with your boss when you expect to be fired, or a meeting with a divorce lawyer — haven’t you forgotten a few things and gotten muddled in those situations? I’d say try to work on the anxiety for a while and see if the attention issues improve gradually.

Maybe it is not either or. Maybe if he didn’t have anxiety then the amount his attention wanders would be within the normal range—although on the flighty end.

My own son has a diagnosis of ADHD-inattentive from a neurologist. There is not anxiety complicating things but there is significant LD. The therapist (Neuronet) who knows him best has maintained that it is not ADHD but processing. He is def. less inattentive as we have resolved the LD issues but it has not gone away. He has learned ways to cope with it. For him, “waking up” his brain while running around outside seems to really help with attention. But I still notice that he is in his own world making connections to what he wants to make connections to much more than most people. There is always something more interesting than what he is supposed to be doing!

I guess what I wanted to say is that if you get the anxiety part solved what remains may be manageable. For some of our kids, it is a little of this and a little of that. It isn’t the little that is untenable. It is the addition of all the littles that is.

Beth

Beth has a good point here. I try to get this example across to my math students:
Take one piece of paper. Can you estimate its weight or thickness? It’s so thin and light it seems like nothing. Now, pick up two packages, a thousand sheets of paper. Pretty hefty load, isn’t it? All those little “nothings” add up to a pretty big and ugly something.
The good side of this is that if you get rid of the little problems one by one, pretty soon you can gedt rid of some big ones too.

There are two ways to look at the anxiety/adhd/chicken/egg question. Some doctors have the view that ADHD is itself an anxiety causing condition, because the individual is constantly aware of the ways in which he or she is not measuring up to ability. Those doctors advocate treating the inattention first and then seeing if the anxiety abates. Other doctors think that it is easier to figure out whether a person has ADHD by first ameliorating anxiety symptoms and seeing whether inattention remains. You see these same approaches with the issue of ADHD and depression. I’m not saying one or the other is right or wrong, but, if you as a parent think that the inattention is what is producing the anxiety, you may want to consider a second opinion or you may want to talk further with your doctor, especially if treating the anxiety does not seem to reduce the inattention.

Doreen

Have you been able to find out any further if anxiety is indeed to problem or contributing to it? I know that many things contribute to our attending to things. My own son was said to have symptoms of ADHD. They wouldn’t diagnos him as such but said he exhibited some of the defining characteristics. He does not have problems attending to things but is constantly going and hard for him to sit still and keep his hands to himself. He is able to control it most of the time in class, but at other times, I truly don’t think he can help what he does. He reacts without thinking about the consequences.
I’d be interested in hearing from you in this regard as a parent and a teacher. Thanks

I have similar issues my step son who is now 15 has adhd with ocd traits, My middle child(Ihave 3 with same dad) we were told last year by same doctors he has anxiety with ocd traits. But I have been treating the anxiety with a very small amount of liquid prozac and yes big improvement with his behavorial temper tantrums if things are not as planned a little more social interaction with other children. But I still think their are adhd traits as well. The dr. did not agree it will be almost 6 months since meds were given we are do for a checkup later this week, so I will still bring up my concerns on his tunnel vision and hearing at times and very jumpy always on the go movements he seems to display at times. Sometimes it is as if he doesn’t even hear what I just said to him I will have to ask multi times for whatever it is before he reacts. I do not really want any more meds but I also suffer from Axiety and Depression and I know how important the meds are. Been there no meds NOT FUN!! So I will keep watching and observing his new year in 2nd grade and at home and let the dr know how I feel again. But I still think their may be othe issues as well. I know what you are going thru just hang in and see how the anxiety issues work out but keep a log of other issues that arise.. And be persistant with the dr. You know your child better than anyone… keep smiling. thinking of you. check back with you soon. good luck. Been their and still am there!! :) :)

My younger adhd daughter has a lot of issues with anxiety. She is not yet being treated for the anxiety but it is very close down the road. Basically, the doctor said that it’s been a continuing issue for her and is getting to where it needs to be addressed. She also said her adhd was not all the way under control yet. So, she basically told me it came down to me and what I thought we should deal with first but both need to be taken care of. I told her I really didn’t know but being that school starts next week I wanted to be sure she started off the school year in a positive way. So far we’ve been able to talk out the anxiety issues relating to school. Not that it all sinks in all of the way. That’s the most frustrating thing regarding anxiety. You can’t reason with the person at all! Anyway, we decided to address the adhd now and a month from now see how the anxiety looks. We’ve switched her to a different medication. Up until now she was taking Concerta and it did not worsen her anxiety. However, the dr was concerned about upping the dosage that it may.

So, we kind of have the opposite approach here. It has definitely helped to address the adhd issues. In some cases it has lessened some of the anxiety. There is less of a problem when we are in crowds or loud situations. Those things used to really upset my daughter to the point where she often would not feel well. When she was in the school Christmas program and walking down the aisle with a ton of kids she had a look of terror on her face while the rest of them were laughing and having a great time! I always looked at it that she spent her life feeling kind of overwhelmed and overstimulated and experiencing things different from other people.