A nerdy deep dive into ADHD and Anxiety
Let’s talk about the link between Anxiety and ADHD—how executive function challenges fuel both conditions and how you can improve anxiety with an ADHD approach.
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What is Executive Function: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RoWB8tYLMM
Are you ready for a nerdy deep dive into the brain differences (and similarities) with ADHD and Anxiety? Because I am! 😀
ADHD and anxiety share a ton of symptoms: racing thoughts, sleep problems, worry about forgetting something, and fidgety hands. But while they have a lot of the same symptoms, they do have some fundamental underlying differences in what’s going on in the brain, and a lot of it has to do with Executive Function…so let’s dive in and figure it out.
00:00 The Link Between Anxiety and ADHD Symptoms
01:20 The ADHD Brain on Fast Forward Fuels Anxiety
02:47 ADHD and Anxiety Symptoms Overlap
03:19 Understanding Worry in ADHD vs. Anxiety
04:15 Hyperactivity in ADHD vs. Anxiety
05:00 ADHD and Anxiety: Two Paths to Distracted
05:18 How Anxiety and ADHD Disrupt Sleep in Different Ways
05:54 The Link Between Anxiety and ADHD Starts With Executive Function
10:11 ADHD and Cognitive Scatter: Why Executive Function Skills Feel Uneven
12:08 ADHD and Executive Function: Why Working Memory Is Often a Struggle
15:48 How Emotion Processing Supports Executive Function with ADHD
18:19 Helping Anxiety from an ADHD Approach
18:44 Slowing the ADHD Brain: Why Pace Matters for Executive Function
23:12 Building Stronger Brakes for ADHD: Stopping Before Anxiety Takes Over
26:04 Supporting Executive Function: The Key to Managing ADHD and Anxiety
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Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 988 or your local emergency services.
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15 Comments
Check out Online Coaching for ADHD w/my friend Kjrstin Walters, LMFT (not an ad, just a great resource) : https://www.familyfocusedadhd.com/
ADhD is a coping strategy, it IS fear and pain learned to survive.
This is SO great. Tons of lightbulbs going off. The Russell Barkley quote about a race car with bicycle brakes is such a fantastic metaphor. Totally. Emma—you are SO great at breaking it all down. So much of this explains my entire life experience. Thank you SO much for being present for all of us! ✨🦋❤️
I love your posters 🥰
I would love for you to do a video comparing ADHD anxiety, autism, and CPTSD because I commonly work with this population and I’m having a hard time sorting it all out
How can we tell apart anxiety and ADHD when we have autism? I mean, the executive function it's already bad
Parents that believe “theres no such thing as ADHD” judging their child as morally and intellectually substandard, do a huge disservice to the child’s confidence, self-esteem and outlook for the rest of their lives.
I am a recovering alcoholic who was diagnosed with adhd as a. Child and I am newly sober and it seems that my alcoholism exacerbated my adhd symptoms as an adult I am wondering if there is a connection between the two and if there is what can I do
What? When you have ADHD you also have anxiety and lots of it, do you even have ADHD that you made this video? Because I do have ADHD and I get treated for it and I get a pill for anxiety too so get your facts right before you make a dumb video
yes it feels exactly like almond milk is already on my shopping list!
IQ tests do not test working memory well at all.
can i remember 7 numbers which have just been spoken aloud to me?? absolutely not.
Can i read a book aloud while having 2 completely different trains of thought in my head? yes.
It works, just not in the neurotypical testable way.
The best part is You’re just NT enough to pass for normal when you don’t interact much, so you’re held to that standard. Then you get married to someone who slowly realizes that you’re different somehow and constantly threatens divorce over your adhd/spectrum symptoms and claims you aren’t trying hard enough and are lazy to change. Then when you’ve spent three years on the worst meds rollercoaster, suffering through the worst highs and lows and the darkest of thoughts, to try improving, complains that you’re worse than ever.
You get passed on job opportunities because you have trouble connecting and communicating and you get let go because you get overwhelmed.
Then you see that everyone online claims to have what you have, as if it was some cool club.
You’re the cool aloof musician when you’re younger, but as you age, that perception changes to something negative.
Anxious adhd actually have to much dopamine and adenalin. Look up slow comt
I would love more videos about how to improve executive function. At 40yrs old I'm starting to wonder if I've had ADHD my whole life. Running a business is so hard, but I have limitless energy to do all the things. I'm better than average at self-motivating, but I flare up so easily at any criticism or signs of POTENTIAL failure in the FUTURE. I really want to stop getting so anxious about potential issues
I love this comparison, the breakdown and overlap, the visuals! I sent the link to my teenager half way through watching.
This summer we are taking a deeper dive into figuring out what works for our individual (x3) systems and how to integrate them into the household.
Figuring out how to be a functional household; family responsibilities, chores, emotional regulation, and learning how to balance work/life/family/relationship/school😆