Conditions That Can Produce ADHD-Like Symptoms

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsEnvironmental ConditionsSleep ProblemsMental Health IssuesLearning/Processing ProblemsMedical ConditionsThe Importance of Testing and Accurate Diagnosis

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Environmental Conditions

Sleep Problems

Mental Health Issues

Learning/Processing Problems

Medical Conditions

The Importance of Testing and Accurate Diagnosis

If your child seems hyperactive—fidgety, impulsive, and inattentive—don’t automatically assume that they haveattention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD). Anxiety, depression, learning disorders, physical health, and many other conditions can cause symptoms that look like ADHD, but aren’t.

At a GlancePeople with ADHD often have characteristics such as high energy, problems focusing, and impulsive behaviors, experiencing these symptoms doesn’t always mean you have ADHD. In fact, sometimes these symptoms can be a sign of another condition, such as stressful life events, sleep issues, or mental health conditions. Getting an accurate diagnosis is important to get the kind of treatment that is right for your needs.

At a Glance

People with ADHD often have characteristics such as high energy, problems focusing, and impulsive behaviors, experiencing these symptoms doesn’t always mean you have ADHD. In fact, sometimes these symptoms can be a sign of another condition, such as stressful life events, sleep issues, or mental health conditions. Getting an accurate diagnosis is important to get the kind of treatment that is right for your needs.

Stress or a sudden life change, such as a move, parents' divorce, a death, financial difficulties, or even a new sibling, can sometimes lead to ADHD-like behaviors.

Likewise, neglect, parental/marital conflict, inconsistent discipline, bullying, abuse, and other stressors can negatively affect a child’s emotional and mental health. This can lead to distraction, inattention, restlessness, hyperactivity, and “acting out” behaviors that can resemble, but have nothing to do with, ADHD.

If you observe an increase in these behaviors following a stressful event, it’s crucial to seek ways to support your child in coping with the upheaval they have faced. But it’s also essential to remain vigilant about these symptoms; your child may also be displaying signs of ADHD. Don’t disregard potential symptoms as being stress-related when they could be linked to ADHD

Sleep disturbances can have a profound effect on the ability to focus. Other issues can include:

Insufficient sleep is also linked to increased risk-taking behaviors in teens. This can include things such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and taking drugs.

The underlying reasons why kids may struggle with sleep can vary. Poor sleep habits are sometimes the culprit. However, medical conditions that disrupt the sleep cycle, such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and other sleep disorders, can also play a role.

Anxietycan manifest as restlessness, an inability to concentrate, impulsive reactions, and hyperactive behaviors.This anxiety can make it extremely difficult to sit still and control fidgeting.

Adverse mental health also affects sleep, in turn resulting in the sleep issues mentioned above. These are all symptoms that can resemble ADHD but may be unrelated.

Similarly, depression can cause lack of focus, forgetfulness, low motivation, indecisiveness, trouble getting started on and completing tasks,lethargy and sluggishness, disorganization, and sleep difficulties.

The disruptive behaviors and poor impulse control associated withoppositional defiant disorderand conduct disorder also can look like ADHD.

Anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior disorders (as well as the conditions listed here) commonly occur alongside ADHD. Each can be a separate disorder with distinct etiology and treatment needs, or each may be a secondary condition that develops as a result of the problems associated with ADHD.This is why assessments of ADHD must gather and integrate specific information about emotional functioning, rather than focusing exclusively on the overt disruptive behavioral symptoms.

This is why assessments of ADHD must gather and integrate specific information about emotional functioning, rather than focusing exclusively on the overt disruptive behavioral symptoms.

Bipolar Disorder

Such symptoms typically occur during amanic or hypomanic episode. Because of this, it can also be confused withsymptoms of ADHD.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Attention and concentration problems associated withobsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)may appear to be ADHD-related, but when delving deeper, a clearer picture emerges. Attention problems may be related to overfocusing, and problems in shifting attention may be due to obsessive thinking.

A person with OCD may be slower to start and finish tasks because of the compulsive behaviors and rituals that they must complete first.

Substance Misuse

ADHD has been associated with a risk forsubstance misuse.A person who is misusing drugs and/or alcohol can also have behavioral symptoms that mimic ADHD. Such symptoms can include:

Autism

Children and adults on theautism spectrumcan have symptoms that resemble ADHD.They may become overexcited, hyperactive, and impulsive in stimulating environments, tend to focus on only those things that interest them, have trouble shifting focus, struggle to understand social cues and boundaries, and experience social impairments.

Autism vs ADHD: What Are the Differences?

Learning Issues and Processing Problems

Similar to a person with ADHD, someone with a learning disability may struggle with issues of attention, processing, organizing, remembering and learning.Learning disabilitiesin reading, written language, and mathematics interfere with academic functioning, as can speech and language impairments and auditory and visual processing disorders.

ADHD and learning disorders often occur together, but they are separate conditions.

A child who is gifted academically but not challenged in the classroom might display ADHD-like behaviors out of boredom, becoming inattentive, impatient, and disruptive. The same issues can also result from a poor educational fit, a classroom with a pervasive negative climate, a non-stimulating curriculum, or ineffective management.

Certain medical conditions can cause problems with attention, irritability, impulsivity, or hyperactivity. Examples include:

Even certain medications can trigger ADHD-like behavior.

ADHD and many conditions like it improve in many people with early intervention. This makes accurate, thorough testing and evaluation using an empirically validated approach so important.

During the evaluation process, the healthcare provider must rule out alternative explanations that might better account for ADHD-like behavior before arrivingat an ADHD diagnosis.

To complicate things further, an estimated 77% of children with ADHD have comorbid conditionssuch as anxiety, depression,behavior issues, learning disabilities, sleep problems, and substance abuse. All of this must be accounted for in your child’s treatment plan, which must be tailored to their needs and diagnosis.

Takeaways

Naming a problem is often the first, most important step in attending to it. A host of other conditions can mimic ADHD, each requiring a different treatment protocol. If you think your child might have ADHD, seek out a reputable psychologist who will provide thorough, accurate testing to pin down the issue—and ultimately, help your child achieve their potential.

What Is Anxious ADD?

13 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Jaffee, SR, Handscombe, KB, Haworth, CMA, Davis, OSP, Plomin, R.Chaotic homes and children’s disruptive behavior: A longitudinal cross-lagged twin study.Psych Sci. 2012;23(6):643-650. doi:10.1177/0956797611431693Owens JA, Weiss MR.Insufficient sleep in adolescents: causes and consequences.Minerva Pediatr. 2017;69(4):326–336. doi:10.23736/S0026-4946.17.04914-3Chiu A, Falk A, Walkup JT.Anxiety disorders among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2016;14(1):26-33. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20150029Charles J, Fazeli M.Depression in children.Aust Fam Physician. 2017;46(12):901–907. PMID: 29464226Riley M, Ahmed S, Locke A.Common questions about oppositional defiant disorder.Am Fam Physician. 2016;93(7):586–591. PMID: 27035043Renk, K, White, R, Lauer, B, McSwiggan, M, Puff, J, Lowell, A.Bipolar disorder in children.Psychiatry J.2014;2014:928685. doi:10.1155/2014/928685Krebs, G, Heyman, I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934Srichawla BS, Telles CC, Schweitzer M, Darwish B.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder: A narrative review.Cureus. 2022;14(4):e24068. doi:10.7759/cureus.24068Kentrou, V, deVeld, DMJ, Mataw, KJK, Begeer, S.Delayed autism spectrum disorder recognition in children and adolescents previously diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Autism. 2018;23(4):1065-1072. doi:10.1177/1362361318785171Rothenberger A, Heinrich H.Co-occurrence of tic disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-does it reflect a common neurobiological background?Biomedicines. 2022;10(11):2950. doi:10.3390/biomedicines10112950National Institute of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.What are some signs of learning disabilities?Pearl, PL, Weiss, RE, Stein, MA. Mimics of ADHD:Medical and neurological conditions. In: Adler, LA, ed.Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults and children.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press;2015. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139035491.014Jogia J, Sharif AH, Nawaz FA, et al.Comorbidities associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents at a tertiary care setting.Glob Pediatr Health. 2022;9:2333794X221076607. doi:10.1177/2333794X221076607

13 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Jaffee, SR, Handscombe, KB, Haworth, CMA, Davis, OSP, Plomin, R.Chaotic homes and children’s disruptive behavior: A longitudinal cross-lagged twin study.Psych Sci. 2012;23(6):643-650. doi:10.1177/0956797611431693Owens JA, Weiss MR.Insufficient sleep in adolescents: causes and consequences.Minerva Pediatr. 2017;69(4):326–336. doi:10.23736/S0026-4946.17.04914-3Chiu A, Falk A, Walkup JT.Anxiety disorders among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2016;14(1):26-33. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20150029Charles J, Fazeli M.Depression in children.Aust Fam Physician. 2017;46(12):901–907. PMID: 29464226Riley M, Ahmed S, Locke A.Common questions about oppositional defiant disorder.Am Fam Physician. 2016;93(7):586–591. PMID: 27035043Renk, K, White, R, Lauer, B, McSwiggan, M, Puff, J, Lowell, A.Bipolar disorder in children.Psychiatry J.2014;2014:928685. doi:10.1155/2014/928685Krebs, G, Heyman, I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934Srichawla BS, Telles CC, Schweitzer M, Darwish B.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder: A narrative review.Cureus. 2022;14(4):e24068. doi:10.7759/cureus.24068Kentrou, V, deVeld, DMJ, Mataw, KJK, Begeer, S.Delayed autism spectrum disorder recognition in children and adolescents previously diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Autism. 2018;23(4):1065-1072. doi:10.1177/1362361318785171Rothenberger A, Heinrich H.Co-occurrence of tic disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-does it reflect a common neurobiological background?Biomedicines. 2022;10(11):2950. doi:10.3390/biomedicines10112950National Institute of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.What are some signs of learning disabilities?Pearl, PL, Weiss, RE, Stein, MA. Mimics of ADHD:Medical and neurological conditions. In: Adler, LA, ed.Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults and children.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press;2015. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139035491.014Jogia J, Sharif AH, Nawaz FA, et al.Comorbidities associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents at a tertiary care setting.Glob Pediatr Health. 2022;9:2333794X221076607. doi:10.1177/2333794X221076607

Jaffee, SR, Handscombe, KB, Haworth, CMA, Davis, OSP, Plomin, R.Chaotic homes and children’s disruptive behavior: A longitudinal cross-lagged twin study.Psych Sci. 2012;23(6):643-650. doi:10.1177/0956797611431693Owens JA, Weiss MR.Insufficient sleep in adolescents: causes and consequences.Minerva Pediatr. 2017;69(4):326–336. doi:10.23736/S0026-4946.17.04914-3Chiu A, Falk A, Walkup JT.Anxiety disorders among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2016;14(1):26-33. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20150029Charles J, Fazeli M.Depression in children.Aust Fam Physician. 2017;46(12):901–907. PMID: 29464226Riley M, Ahmed S, Locke A.Common questions about oppositional defiant disorder.Am Fam Physician. 2016;93(7):586–591. PMID: 27035043Renk, K, White, R, Lauer, B, McSwiggan, M, Puff, J, Lowell, A.Bipolar disorder in children.Psychiatry J.2014;2014:928685. doi:10.1155/2014/928685Krebs, G, Heyman, I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934Srichawla BS, Telles CC, Schweitzer M, Darwish B.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder: A narrative review.Cureus. 2022;14(4):e24068. doi:10.7759/cureus.24068Kentrou, V, deVeld, DMJ, Mataw, KJK, Begeer, S.Delayed autism spectrum disorder recognition in children and adolescents previously diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Autism. 2018;23(4):1065-1072. doi:10.1177/1362361318785171Rothenberger A, Heinrich H.Co-occurrence of tic disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-does it reflect a common neurobiological background?Biomedicines. 2022;10(11):2950. doi:10.3390/biomedicines10112950National Institute of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.What are some signs of learning disabilities?Pearl, PL, Weiss, RE, Stein, MA. Mimics of ADHD:Medical and neurological conditions. In: Adler, LA, ed.Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults and children.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press;2015. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139035491.014Jogia J, Sharif AH, Nawaz FA, et al.Comorbidities associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents at a tertiary care setting.Glob Pediatr Health. 2022;9:2333794X221076607. doi:10.1177/2333794X221076607

Owens JA, Weiss MR.Insufficient sleep in adolescents: causes and consequences.Minerva Pediatr. 2017;69(4):326–336. doi:10.23736/S0026-4946.17.04914-3

Chiu A, Falk A, Walkup JT.Anxiety disorders among children and adolescents.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2016;14(1):26-33. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20150029

Charles J, Fazeli M.Depression in children.Aust Fam Physician. 2017;46(12):901–907. PMID: 29464226

Riley M, Ahmed S, Locke A.Common questions about oppositional defiant disorder.Am Fam Physician. 2016;93(7):586–591. PMID: 27035043

Renk, K, White, R, Lauer, B, McSwiggan, M, Puff, J, Lowell, A.Bipolar disorder in children.Psychiatry J.2014;2014:928685. doi:10.1155/2014/928685

Krebs, G, Heyman, I.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.Arch Dis Child. 2015;100(5):495-499. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306934

Srichawla BS, Telles CC, Schweitzer M, Darwish B.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder: A narrative review.Cureus. 2022;14(4):e24068. doi:10.7759/cureus.24068

Kentrou, V, deVeld, DMJ, Mataw, KJK, Begeer, S.Delayed autism spectrum disorder recognition in children and adolescents previously diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Autism. 2018;23(4):1065-1072. doi:10.1177/1362361318785171

Rothenberger A, Heinrich H.Co-occurrence of tic disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-does it reflect a common neurobiological background?Biomedicines. 2022;10(11):2950. doi:10.3390/biomedicines10112950

National Institute of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.What are some signs of learning disabilities?

Pearl, PL, Weiss, RE, Stein, MA. Mimics of ADHD:Medical and neurological conditions. In: Adler, LA, ed.Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults and children.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press;2015. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139035491.014

Jogia J, Sharif AH, Nawaz FA, et al.Comorbidities associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents at a tertiary care setting.Glob Pediatr Health. 2022;9:2333794X221076607. doi:10.1177/2333794X221076607

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At a Glance#

Bipolar Disorder#

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder#

Substance Misuse#

Autism#

Learning Issues and Processing Problems#

Takeaways#