High Anxiety

As we’ve talked about on our Facebook page, ADHD is often present in tandem with other mental health issues like depression and anxiety.

In their book, Driven to Distraction, Dr Edward Hallowell and Dr John Ratey mention how for many people, “the experience of ADD is one of chronic anxiety”. It can become all too easy for ADHD sufferers to organise their way of thinking around worrying and anxiety.

Hallowell and Ratey believe that this has to do with what they call the “startle response” in ADHD folk, that causes a sequence of events like this:

“1. Something “startles” the brain. It may be a transition, like waking up, or going from one appointment to the next, or it may be the completion of a task, or the receiving of some piece of news. It may be, and usually is, trivial

2. A minipanic ensues. The mind doesn’t know where to look or what to do. It has been focused on one thing and is now being asked to change sets. This is very disorganising. So the mind reaches out for something red-hot to focus on. Since worry is so “hot,” and therefore so organising, the mind finds something to worry about”

3. Anxious rumination replaces panic. One can say over and over in one’s mind, thousands of times a day, “Will I get my taxes paid on time?” or “Does that look she gave me mean she is angry with me?””

The driving force behind this process is to avoid chaos – the ADHD mind often can’t tolerate the chaos that comes with switching from one task to another.

At least my constant fretting has given me an idea for my Halloween costume this year…