Understanding ADHD and Anxiety: What They Are and How to Manage

ADHD and anxiety disorders are separate conditions, and one person can have both: the NHS lists anxiety among the other conditions that may often come with ADHD. On 21 October 2026 we searched eleven pages from the NHS, NHS inform, nidirect, NICE and the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych). None says that ADHD causes anxiety. The NHS, NICE and RCPsych describe an ADHD assessment that looks at your mental health as well as your ADHD symptoms.

This page is not medical advice. It gives general information only. If you need help right now, see “Getting urgent help” further down.

What ADHD and anxiety are

The NHS says ADHD can affect how you focus. Its symptoms involve attention, energy and impulse control. The NHS adds that they usually start before age 12.

NHS inform (Scotland) describes anxiety as a feeling of unease, like worry or fear, that can be mild or severe.

The NHS says feeling anxious sometimes does not always mean generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), which it calls a common mental health condition. The NHS page on GAD is about adults. The main symptom it gives is stress or worry that affects daily life and is hard to control.

The NHS names other anxiety disorders too, such as panic disorder and phobias. It says it is common to have more than one at once. When a GP considers GAD in an adult, one thing they look for is that you have felt anxious a lot of the time for 6 months or more.

Online, you may see the term “ADHD anxiety”. In our 21 October 2026 search, none of those eleven pages uses it.

Where ADHD and anxiety overlap

Several similar words appear on the NHS pages for each condition. The table lists a few, and two ways they differ. It is not a way to tell the two apart.

NHS inform says symptoms can be present in more than one mental health condition. For more on the ADHD side, see our guide to signs and symptoms of ADHD.

How often do ADHD and anxiety happen together?

A search of the same eleven pages on 21 October 2026 found no figure for how many people have both.

• RCPsych says research has shown that other mental and physical health conditions are more common among people who have ADHD. Its list starts with anxiety.
• NHS inform lists social anxiety disorder among nine conditions that may occur with ADHD in adults.
• NICE, which covers England and Wales, tells clinicians that ADHD may be more common among adults who have a mental health condition than in the general population.

Research does give numbers. Two large surveys asked adults about both conditions. Both used structured interviews, but ADHD itself was estimated by a model from a screen and one small US clinician sample. Neither figure is for the UK alone.

Both are estimates, and both count anxiety disorders as one group.

A 2026 review by Hoskins and colleagues pooled 58 studies with 18,821 adults in all. On average, adults with ADHD scored higher on anxiety measures than adults without ADHD. The review calls the gap medium-sized. The gap was larger when the comparison group was non-clinical and smaller when it was a clinical group. The authors also found some signs of publication bias, so they say to read the result with care. They write that estimated rates of anxiety in people with ADHD “vary greatly”.

The figures come from different kinds of study. They describe groups of people. They are not a prediction for you.

Does ADHD cause anxiety?

Our search of the eleven pages looked for lines that join anxiety with “cause”, “lead to” or “result”. It found none that say ADHD causes anxiety.

The world survey above also asked when each problem began. Adults looked back and said which came first. For anxiety disorders other than specific phobia, they said ADHD came first in 70.5% to 90.2% of cases. For specific phobia, the phobia came first more often than ADHD, in 53.1% of cases against 29.1%. This shows the order people recalled. The authors say ADHD coming first is not surprising, as DSM-IV requires it to start early. They say the data cannot show whether ADHD is a cause of the other disorders or only a sign of higher risk.

The eleven pages and Mind name a few ways ADHD and mental health can be linked.

• Shared background. RCPsych says studies have shown that genetic and environmental factors behind ADHD are also found in other common mental and physical health conditions.
• Living with ADHD. Mind, the mental health charity, says ADHD can affect work, relationships and daily life in a big way, and that these challenges can all affect your mental health.
• Hiding symptoms. RCPsych says people with ADHD often develop ways of hiding their symptoms, and that hiding them can be very exhausting and can also negatively affect their mental health. Our guide to ADHD burnout covers long-term stress and exhaustion.
• Sleep. Mind says ADHD can affect sleep, and that sleep problems can impact mental health. We cover this in ADHD and sleep.
• Anxiety can make ADHD worse. According to the NHS, ADHD symptoms can get worse with anxiety or depression.

ADHD or anxiety: why the two can be mistaken for each other

The sources say a mix-up can happen. On 21 October 2026 we checked pages from NICE, the NHS, NHS inform, RCPsych and Mind, and none gives a rate for how often.

• Other conditions to consider. The NHS says that at the GP visit, the GP may also weigh up conditions that might lie behind your symptoms, for example autism, Tourette’s or anxiety.
• A diagnosis can explain only part. RCPsych says some people receive a mental health diagnosis such as anxiety when it explains only part of what they struggle with, and that ADHD underneath can be missed.
• Symptoms that touch mood and thinking. Mind says many of the main symptoms of ADHD affect your behaviour, mood and thinking, so you might be misdiagnosed as having a mental health problem instead of ADHD. It also says you might be given an ADHD diagnosis that you do not agree with.
• Girls and women. NICE tells clinicians that girls and women may more often receive the wrong diagnosis of another mental health or neurodevelopmental condition, and that, in girls and women, ADHD is thought to be under-recognised.
• Children. The NHS page for children says many children, especially under 5, are easily distracted, impulsive and high in energy, and that this does not mean they have ADHD, and that it could be a sign of something else, like being tired, anxious or stressed.