I'm probably your standard newbie on this thread-- excited to have finally found people who might be like me.

I have had depression for over a decade. Anxiety developed about 5 years ago. My most prominent and annoying symptom has been what I've called "difficulty concentrating". Cleary another way of saying "attention defficit". I finally found a med that works: wellbutrin. I'm a little ****ed that none of my psychiatrists suggested it sooner. We were just trying antidepressants. Effexor seemed to work pretty well. But then I got another round of stress and the inattention reared its hideous head. So I guess its a norepinephrine problem I have?

I guess I'd like to find out more about ADD-type symptoms that seem to be caused by Anxiety. I never had ADD issues as a kid, or in college. In fact, I think I concentrated exceptionally well, which makes the problem all the more frustrating. I do feel I can concentrate pretty well now with the wellbutrin, but I still feel like a bit of an airhead, and not as smart as I used to be. And my greatest skill and biggest passion has been being intellectual and analytical, so its really frustrating for me. It doesn't help that I'm blonde. I HATE living up to stereotypes.

Anyway, it warms my heart to think that there are others like me, dealing with this crap. If you have any empathy to share or links to sites that address this issue I would appreciate it. I've searched high and low for sites addressing this issue for months but today I decided to add the term "forum" and I finally found what I was looking for. I hope somebody responds. This doesn't look like a terribly active forum....

Thx,
M

First of all, ADHD is not caused by anxiety. It is very common for people who have ADHD (maybe all people with adhd?) to have an anxiety disorder of some kind. In a nutshell, the anxiety stems from coping with the unremitting stress that living with ADHD brings. As the years go on it can worsen if untreated and many people who have had a mild case of ADHD all their lives and somehow got along okay, suddenly find themselves a young to middle-aged adult overwhelmed by the combination ADHD and their anxiety disorder (which seems to make adhd worse).

It is possible to have an anxiety disorder without having adhd, and I can certanly see someone who is burdened with lots of anxiety related issues being a tad distracted, but at no time is it ADHD. What you have there might be called "add-like symptoms", but it is never truely adhd, because the symptoms will go away when the anxiety is treated.

In contrast, if you have adhd, you have it. Proper medication can make it better, but it never goes away. Not for a minute.


If you carefully go over the diagnostic requirements for ADHD you will find that it is a lifelong condition with the first symptoms appearing early in life. The individual may or may not "function" well in life and the condition can go unnoticed for a lifetime. In many cases (most?) it is never diagnosed. There is a huge number of people with undiagnosed ADHD in the world. Myself , I was not diagnosed with adhd until the age of 51.


Me :D

Yes, I agree I do not have ADD nor ADHD, I only have "ADD-like symptoms" but does this happen to anyone else?

Yes. Anxiety and stress are known to interfere with declarative memory (e.g. memory recall and verbalizing of answers).

Some of it has to do with Cortisol levels, and its effects on the Hippocampus (the main learning/memory centre of the brain).

http://sln.fi.edu/brain/stress.htm

I would argue that ADHD-like symptoms can be caused by anxiety and stress. Especially chronic, early life stress. This has been studied among holocaust survivors, and other traumatized populations. Severe stress, especially in early developmental brain growing periods can cause attentional and learning problems later in life.

Many people with anxiety have 'conditioned fear responses', but cannot verbally/conciously recall what initially caused them to become anxious. They just know they are anxious. Anxiety can also be learned from primary attachment figures. (e.g. having an anxious mother; seeing a parent in crisis; family violence/instability, etc.)

I have read a lot about research involving people who seem to have co-existing PTSD/Panic/Anxiety and ADHD, as that is my own diagnostic situation.

N.B. in many people, ADHD, anxiety etc. seems to 'come out' or worsen with puberty...

I have suffered from anxiety and ocasional panic attacks for about 4 years...but I had my ADD symptoms before all this anxiety etc. so my case is a bit different as yours but anyway...
Margaroon...the "ADD-like symptoms" you wrote about are common in people who have anxiety/depression. It´s one of the symptoms in these conditions. I personally know people who are or have been in the same situation where you are right now. But like people have mentioned here it´s got nothing to do with add. I hope you get your condition cured and that way, you´ll get your attention ability back! Good luck Margaroon!

One thing to keep in mind: ADHD meds tend to make anxiety problems worsen. :S

However, some of us have both, and can have less anxiety on ADHD meds.

You might ask your Doctor for a "short limited trial" of ADHD meds (just an Rx for 6 pills or so).

Your anxiety might be caused by ADHD, or something like it.

Not being able to organize, plan, focus, complete tasks, and do other required life skills (read ADHD like problems), can cause incredible Anxiety....

If you have tried Anxiety treatments (SSRIs, mindfulness and CBT), and they have failed, you probably deserve a short trial of it.

Chronic Anxiety is too terrible and painful a condition to leave untreated. It can make one's world seem to become very small.

You say you never had ADD symptoms as a kid.

Some of us here had straight As thru childhood.

Conversly, I read an article that suggests anxiety could be maintained by the ADHD... .

Conversly, I read an article that suggests anxiety could be maintained by the ADHD... .My anxiety was directly related to my untreated ADHD. My unmedicated daughter is even disussing her increasing anxiety level due to the increasing demands of others' expectations as she gets older. She now recognizes when her ADHD is interfering with her job and her social life.

First of all, ADHD is not caused by anxiety....

It is possible to have an anxiety disorder without having adhd, and I can certanly see someone who is burdened with lots of anxiety related issues being a tad distracted, but at no time is it ADHD. What you have there might be called "add-like symptoms", but it is never truely adhd, because the symptoms will go away when the anxiety is treated.True enough -- ADHD is not caused by anxiety; however, attention and focus problems can be caused by anxiety and like Speedo said they remit when the anxiety is treated/controlled/etc. A number of disorder impact attention -- the difference being ADD is a constant from childhood (although there is variation depending on circumstances and whatever othe comorbid condition may be acting up at the time -- IE: my attentional problems are always there but are MUCH worse when my anxiety or depression are acting up).

No matter what the cause (anxiety or ADD)-- it sounds like you've found some people here who can relate to what you're going through and that is always nice!

Welcome, Margaroo!:)

anxiety or stress shuts down the frontal lobes and interferes with problem solving/executive functioning. yup. it's like ADD. stress can increase confusion and make people shut down.

anxiety or stress can also interfere with verbalization (Broca's area in the brain; a speech centre). ever been too scared to scream? freezing in the face of fear or anxiety probably comes from how we are wired to survive in nature. (e.g. freeze; be quiet; play dead; brain shuts down)

kids can be too emotionally stressed to learn at school, too. we see this a lot in the projects, or where there is family violence or substance abuse, etc.

I've been told (by a pro) that anxiety can cause a lot of attention problems. For one thing, it tends to put you in a hyper-alert "emergency mode" all of the time, which means that you are made more aware of all of your surroundings and everything going on around you, for safety's sake (against a percieved or real threat). That can cause a lot of attention problems. Though, especially with me, it can conversely cause you to tune out too much stuff, like if you're just trying to hide from everything. I guess it comes down to your choice of fight or flight *shrug*. But attention problems either way.
QueensU_girl's post on the frontal lobe/broche's area shutdown was really interesting too.

Though I can see how it could work the other way... with ADD causing or worsening anxiety. I can see how it could go be that way for me. I get really anxious when I space out during a conversation or class and suddenly realize that I have no clue what everyone's talking about anymore....
It could be a cycle thing for some people. anxiety - inattention - anxiety - inattention, etc.
The jury's still out on whether my attn. problems are anxiety or add based, just an example. I get the impression that it's one of the puzzles run into when sorting things out diagnostically. *shrug*
Though I do have to say that although the meds for anxiety help the anxiety, they don't do much for the attn/hypers.... but I digress....

I can totally relate to the living up to blonde sterotypes thing, by the way. It's very frustrating & embarassing :mad: (and it doesn't help the anxiety much either).

I think we are all correct. Shades of all the same thing, really.

Those vicious circles. :)