May 14th marked the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, and every social media post, article, podcast and personal story is chipping away at breaking the stigma around anxiety and depression.
Slowly but surely, improving visibility of mental health conditions, improving the discourse and – hopefully – making it easier for people to open up about their own struggles.
But amongst all that positivity is something that I find really devastating: if you have ADHD, anxiety and depression aren’t just possibilities. They’re statistical likelihoods.
Research shows that individuals with ADHD have a 4–9 times higher rate of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders compared to the general adult population.
Not “slightly elevated risk.” Not “a bit more common.”
Four to nine times.
That’s the cumulative strain of living in a world that wasn’t designed for your brain.
Why ADHD and Mental Health Are Inseparable
ADHD doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It comes with:
- Emotional dysregulation: feelings that spike faster and hit harder than they do for neurotypical brains
- Chronic underperformance stress: the exhausting loop of knowing what you should be doing but not being able to make your brain cooperate
- Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD): where mild criticism or perceived rejection feels catastrophic
- Executive dysfunction: which makes even basic self-care (eating regularly, sleeping well, exercising) harder to sustain
Layer that with workplace expectations that reward consistency, focus, and time management (the exact things ADHD brains struggle with) and you’ve got a perfect storm for burnout, anxiety, and depression.
The Cost of “Just Managing”
Here’s the thing about ADHD: you can look like you’re doing fine while quietly burning out.
You hit your deadlines (mostly). You show up to work. You’re performing well enough that no one’s questioning your capability.
But behind the scenes? You’re running at 90% cognitive capacity just to filter distractions. You’re using willpower for tasks that other people do on autopilot. You’re staying up late to finish things because your brain only switched on at 9pm.
And that’s exhausting.
Research on ADHD treatment shows that intermittent or inadequate support leads to poorer long-term mental health outcomes. “Just managing” isn’t sustainable. It’s a slow bleed of capacity, energy, and wellbeing.
If you’re white-knuckling your way through work, you’re not thriving. You’re surviving. And survival mode has a shelf life.
What Actually Helps
So what do you do with this information? Panic? Resign yourself to inevitable mental health struggles?
No. You build proactive strategies that protect your mental health alongside managing your ADHD.
Here are three tools that can make a real difference:
1. Emotional Granularity
This is a concept from psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett, and it’s deceptively simple: the ability to identify and describe your emotions with specificity.
Not just “I feel bad.”
But what kind of bad: Am I anxious? Frustrated? Overwhelmed? Disappointed? Ashamed?
Research shows that people with higher emotional granularity have lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. They’re better at regulating emotions because they can pinpoint what’s actually happening, which makes it easier to address.
For ADHDers, this is particularly valuable. ADHD often comes with emotional dysregulation. Feelings hit fast and hard without much nuance. Learning to slow down and name what you’re feeling can prevent emotional spirals.
Tool: The Feelings Wheel. It’s a visual tool that helps you move from broad emotions (e.g., “bad”) to specific ones (e.g., “guilty,” “powerless,” “scattered”). Use it when you’re having a rough moment and can’t quite articulate why.
2. Circles of Control
This is an exercise that helps you manage where you spend your mental energy. It’s especially useful when everything feels overwhelming.
Draw three concentric circles:
- Inner circle: Things you can control (your actions, your responses, your habits)
- Middle circle: Things you can influence (relationships, some work processes, your environment)
- Outer circle: Things you can’t control (other people’s opinions, global events, company decisions)
When you’re spiralling, write down what’s stressing you out and sort it into the circles. Then only spend mental energy on the inner circle. Everything else? Let it go or delegate it.
For ADHD brains that tend to catastrophise or get stuck in rumination, this provides a clear, actionable filter: “Can I do anything about this? No? Then I’m not thinking about it anymore.”
3. The Basics (Yes, Really)
Diet, exercise, and sleep aren’t optional extras for ADHD brains. They’re essential.
- Exercise: particularly cognitive-aerobic exercise (think hiking, cycling, team sports) has been shown to improve ADHD working memory and reduce anxiety. It’s not about “getting fit.” It’s about giving your brain what it needs to function.
- Diet: blood sugar crashes make ADHD symptoms worse. Consistent meals with protein, fibre and healthy fats reduce the rollercoaster of energy and focus. (Yes, this is harder with ADHD. Start with one meal that’s reliable.)
- Sleep: ADHD brains are notoriously bad at winding down. But chronic sleep deprivation worsens emotional regulation, impulse control, and decision-making. Even small improvements (same bedtime, no screens 30 mins before bed) can shift the baseline.
The Real Conversation
Mental Health Awareness Week is important. But the conversation often skips over the fact that for neurodivergent people, mental health struggles aren’t just about stigma or access to therapy.
They’re about living in systems that weren’t designed for how our brains work. They’re about the cumulative cognitive load of just existing in environments that make us work harder for the same outcomes.
If you have ADHD, you’re not broken. But you do need to actively protect your mental health in ways that neurotypical people don’t.
That means:
- Learning tools like emotional granularity and Circles of Control
- Prioritising the basics even when your brain resists
- Recognising when you’re running on empty and actually resting (not just scrolling)
- Understanding that your mental health challenges aren’t personal failings. They’re predictable, manageable, and addressable.
Resources:
- Feelings Wheel: feelingswheel.app
- Lisa Feldman Barrett’s TED Talk: How Emotions Are Made
- Access to Work: If you’re employed in the UK and have (or are pursuing) an ADHD diagnosis, Access to Work can fund support: gov.uk/access-to-work