Questions:
Do you feel mentally overwhelmed even when life looks “under control”?
Do you procrastinate until pressure forces productivity?
Were you described as “smart but scattered” growing up?
Does your anxiety improve somewhat with treatment but never fully resolve?
Do you experience emotional intensity that feels disproportionate?
Do you struggle with task initiation more than task completion?
Do you hyperfocus on certain things but avoid others entirely?
Do you rely heavily on adrenaline to meet deadlines?
Have you ever felt exhausted from simply managing your own mind?
Do you feel like you’re working twice as hard to stay organized
If you answered yes to several of these, anxiety may not be the full story.
Consider: Women with ADHD are frequently misdiagnosed with anxiety or depression because their symptoms are often internalized, emotional, and inattentive rather than overtly hyperactive. Due to social expectations, women often mask their struggles, causing clinicians to focus on the resulting emotional distress—such as worry, people-pleasing, or perfectionism—rather than the underlying ADHD.
Why Misdiagnosis Occurs
Internalized Symptoms: Women tend to have the inattentive type of ADHD, which involves daydreaming, chronic disorganization, and internal restlessness, rather than the disruptive, externalizing behaviors typical in boys.
Masking/Coping Mechanisms: To manage ADHD, women often adopt perfectionism or overachievement to appear competent, which hides their executive dysfunction.
Overlapping Symptoms: Both anxiety and ADHD can cause difficulty concentrating, restlessness, and sleep disturbances.
Gender Bias: Clinicians may overlook ADHD because it presents differently than the traditional "hyperactive boy" stereotype.
Key Differences to Identify
Anxiety: Focus is impaired by fear, worry, or dread.
ADHD: Focus is impaired by internal distractions or lack of interest, often present even when calm.
Emotional Dysregulation: Frequently labeled as a mood disorder, this is often actually "Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria" (RSD) or emotional intensity tied to ADHD.
Impact of Misdiagnosis
Treatment Failure: Treating only the anxiety with antidepressants often fails to improve the underlying ADHD symptoms.
Mental Health Decline: A delay in diagnosis can lead to low self-esteem, burnout, and long-term anxiety or depression.
A survey found that 73% of women with ADHD reported a comorbidity of anxiety. If you have found treatment for anxiety isn’t working you may be one of these women.
Schedule your Clarity Evaluation to explore further.