A nerdy deep dive into ADHD and Anxiety

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Sep 23, 2025

This discussion dives deep into the fascinating connection between ADHD and anxiety. Both conditions share symptoms like racing thoughts and sleep issues, but their roots differ significantly. Discover how executive function challenges impact emotion regulation and what strategies can help. Learn about practical approaches like setting daily goals and using mindfulness techniques to ease anxiety. Plus, insights into how ADHD's cognitive profile can affect emotional processing make this a must-listen for anyone curious about mental health.

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INSIGHT

Worry Can Have Two Engines

Worry in anxiety is a reinforcing avoidance habit while in ADHD it can arise from default-mode rumination.
The same worry symptom can therefore stem from different brain processes.

INSIGHT

Different Causes Of Poor Focus

ADHD impairs sustaining attention to under-stimulating tasks while anxiety scans for threat and hijacks attention.
Both cause focus problems but via distinct neural priorities.

INSIGHT

Executive Function Is The Key Difference

Executive function differences largely separate ADHD (prefrontal deficits) from anxiety (overactive amygdala/HPA).
Each condition reduces goal-directed thinking but for biologically different reasons.

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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.

Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Download the ADHD Anxiety symptom overlap chart: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/pl/2148705851

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.

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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.

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