When Worry Takes Over: Reclaiming Calm, Confidence, and Connection for Kids with ADHD

Living in a post-Covid world that’s increasingly unpredictable, today’s children and teens are more anxious than ever before. For students with ADHD and neurodivergence, managing anxiety in conjunction with executive functioning deficits can be especially daunting. Young people with ADHD (already susceptible to higher incidences of co-occurring conditions) are now living with increased rates of anxiety that are interfering with their social, educational and emotional development. Previous strategies for emotional control and self-soothing seem to have stopped working effectively in this new landscape of extended uncertainty. Worry and fear have increased the natural biological agitation, distractedness and impulsivity that accompanies living with ADHD so that daily apprehension, social anxiety and unrealistic performance expectations have escalated. Craving a sense of security that is often unattainable, young people with ADHD feel stressed and overwhelmed.

In this session, Dr. Sharon Saline examines how ADHD and anxiety are two of the most commonly co-occurring disorders in children and adolescents, with overlapping symptoms that often complicate diagnosis and treatment. She discusses why youth with ADHD are at significantly increased risk for anxiety disorders which can amplify functional impairments in home, school, and social settings. After examining the physiology and psychology of both ADHD and anxiety, she looks at how to change somebody’s relationship to worry, reduce their negative thinking, and uncover core beliefs about inadequacy and insecurity. Using cognitive behavioral, insight-oriented and mindfulness interventions, Dr. Saline shares practical, research-based strategies for enhancing self-regulation, metacognition, social confidence and self-compassion in anxious children and adolescents. This workshop offers therapists and mental health professionals an in-depth, evidence-based approach to working with youth who experience ADHD and anxiety symptoms across a broad spectrum—from excessive worry, perfectionism and obsessive compulsive disorder to  avoidance, panic and hoarding. Armed with these techniques, practitioners can assist their clients with learning to transform worry and shame into curiosity and confidence.