It’s common for women with ADHD to have anxiety. In fact, women more likely to struggle with anxiety than other people. That’s partly because the challenges that come with ADHD can create frequent problems — in school, at work, and at home. Typically, anxiety isn’t constant. It comes and goes and may be limited to specific situations. But when the feelings are more frequent and start to take over, people may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Many women with ADHD also have an anxiety disorder. At first glance, it may be hard to tell whether a person has one condition or the other or both. Not only do the two disorders co-occur, but their symptoms can look the same. So, it’s important to be evaluated for both, and to treat each disorder individually. In this weeks blog I will be discussing the connection between ADHD and Anxiety, and strategies for women with ADHD to stop anxiety and to stay calm under pressure
What to Expect From ADHD and Anxiety
When you are a women with ADHD and have anxiety, it may make some of your ADHD symptoms worse, such as feeling restless or having trouble concentrating. But anxiety disorder also comes with its own set of symptoms, like:
-Constant worry about many different things
-Feeling on edge
-Stress
-Fatigue
-Trouble sleeping
Anxiety disorder is more than just having anxious feelings from time to time. It’s a mental illness that can affect your relationships, work, and quality of life.
How to know the difference between ADHD and Anxiety
Sometimes, anxiety comes as a result of ADHD. When that’s the case, your worries are often about how much — or how little — you’re able to get done. You’re anxious about or overwhelmed by your ADHD. When you have anxiety disorder on top of your ADHD, your worries are usually about a wide variety of things and not only tied to your ADHD struggles. Some questions you can ask yourself are:
-Do you worry about things that don’t make sense?
-Do you have a hard time controlling these worries?
-Are you getting good sleep?
-Are your fears and worries keeping you from doing your regular activities?
-Do you feel anxious at least three to five times a week for an hour or more a day?
-Have you had a big life event happen recently?
Strategies To Cope with ADHD and Anxiety
To zero in on the best way to treat ADHD and anxiety, here are three strategies that you can start using today.
Calm Your Anxiety by Using H.A.L.T. – The H.A.L.T. acronym stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired. Each of these triggers,has a mental and physical reaction that resembles anxiety – and each one is within your control. Using H.A.L.T. is a handy tool for maintaining calm and avoiding anxiety. After anxiety attacks tortured me for so many long years, I learned to become aware of what was happening in my body and how to avoid triggers. When I felt myself on the edge of panic, I’d run down the checklist and immediately take action to fix one of the four possible causes. Taking action was empowering and grounding. It also calmed the anxiety.
Know when to Take a Timeout- Our ADHD lives can go at a fast pace, it’s easy to get caught up in the motion, especially when you are a women with ADHD. Our fast brains can handle a lot, but sometimes we get overwhelmed. Anxiety happens quickly. Become more aware of rising tension and get ready to hit the buzzer. Take a walk outside or grab a cup of hot chai tea and smell the spices. Just do something to stop the pace temporarily. Refresh and renew yourself throughout the day.
Trashing Your Anger Calms Anxiety – Women with ADHD feel anger not only in the mind but also in the body. These intense emotions causes high levels of anxiety and leads to out-of-control behavior that you later regret. The next time you start to feel your blood boil when things aren’t going according to your script or you think you were treated unfairly, remember that your anger harms you as much as others when you lash out. Write down your feelings on a piece of paper, then rip it up and throw your anger in the trash along with your words.