Is It ADHD or Anxiety? How to Tell the Difference

Psychiatrist Dr. Christy Lamb joins MedCircle to break down how ADHD and anxiety are commonly confused — and how to tell them apart. She explains that many patients come in thinking they have ADHD due to concentration problems, distractibility, and difficulty finishing tasks, but after a thorough evaluation, their symptoms turn out to be driven by a primary anxiety disorder.

The key distinction comes down to what's happening in the body. Anxiety is physiological — a bouncing leg, tight chest, restricted breathing, stomach upset, or migraines accompanying the distraction point toward anxiety. At its highest level, anxiety takes the brain offline: thinking becomes disorganized and linear thought breaks down. This is very different from ADHD distractibility, where the brain jumps to other topics but cognition itself is intact.

Statistically, about 8% of U.S. adults have ADHD, while 30% have had a diagnosable anxiety disorder in the past year — making anxiety far more prevalent. Dr. Lamb stresses that teasing out anxiety before diagnosing ADHD is critical, because once anxiety is regulated, many people find their concentration improves enough that ADHD medication isn't needed.

For practical strategies, Dr. Lamb recommends starting with anxiety regulation: do a body scan from head to toe, checking for tension in the brow, jaw, chest, and muscles, then consciously release each area while taking deep breaths. She uses a basketball free-throw analogy — practice these techniques at home in a calm environment so they become second nature, then deploy them in real time at work when distraction hits.