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When ADHD gets mixed up with mental health symptoms
- Autability
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, a reminder that a lot of struggling children are not “naughty”, “lazy”, or “too emotional.”
All too often, neurodevelopmental conditions are misdiagnosed as mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety. Children and young people (and adults) do display symptoms of these conditions, and many are worthy of a diagnosis. However, what is often missed is the root cause of these symptoms. Maybe your child is prescribed anti-depressants or anxiety medication, but without treating the root cause, these conditions can never fully resolve.
ADHD often presents with a huge overlap of symptoms with anxiety. Symptoms such as restlessness, difficulty concentrating, irritability, emotional outbursts and difficulty sleeping are all experienced in both conditions. If you reach the point of ADHD burnout, symptoms can be confused with those of depression, including exhaustion, inability to make decisions, loss of enjoyment in activities and negative self-talk.
Children and teens need time to recover from ADHD burnout. It can feel physically exhausting to manage even the simplest of everyday activities, like showering. The idea of homework can cause the brain to completely shut down from the overwhelm. People often think it is about managing time better, but it isn’t; it’s about managing energy.
This week, we have launched our new ADHD burnout recovery and prevention workbook written especially for teenagers. It explains what burnout is, why it occurs and provides space to plan a recovery schedule for the next time they’re struggling. As a special offer for this week only, if you buy either our Ultimate Teen Survival Guide or Teen Anxiety bundle, simply add the workbook to your basket too and get it absolutely free! See links below. Offer valid 9th-15th February 2026 only.
