I have a friend who is a doctor. Recently I told him that I may have ADD. I find it hard to concentrate, and I am always in overdrive, walking fast, talking fast, etc.

He says that I could have chronic anxiety and not ADD. Since he knows me since high school, he claims I don't show many signs of ADD but of chronic anxiety.

Is it possible for someone to mistake one condition with another? I find difficult to concentrate all the time, even with stuff I like. I find it hard to be in one single place for long. And yes, I always feel anxious, specially when I stand in line, or when things aren't going my way, which is normal, I guess.

Sometimes, it's really hard to tell the difference between the two. Anxiety can cause ADD symptoms. It is very hard to concentrate when you are anxious.

When do you think these symptoms began? What were you like in elementary school?

You just described me to a T!!! I suffer from anxiety for sure and have always had difficulty concentrating. Then gave birth to a child which has been diagnosed ADHD/ anxiety.

Which came first? Which one is more prominent? That is the question I guess? The chic or the egg. LOL

I have a dr. appointment next week to discuss a med. change and this very subject. I will keep you updated on what I hear. Good Luck! Sounds like you have a great friend who understands you.

When I was a child, I couldn't be alone because I started crying. My family was very religious (Catholic), and they didn't believe in doctors. My fear of being alone was a matter of going to a psychiatrist, but they never took me. As a result, I was afraid of being alone until I was 16, slept in the same room with my parents, on a bed next to theirs.

I also had a severe speech disorder, which made me incapable of pronouncing the r, the t, and the s. In school, people teased me about it, and I was always afraid of defending myself because all they had to do to fire back at me was mocking the way I spoke. Teachers often told my parents that I needed to go to a speech therapist. Once again my parents didn't follow this advice because they believed God would heal me instead.

When I turned 17, finally, my grandfather interfered and took me to a speech therapist. I was 16 when I began to fight against my fear of loneliness, which I finally defeated.

I was always shy in high school, rarely spoke to anyone. Always coping with insomnia, and fears that I'd lose my family and be left alone in the world. I was also dependent on others. Always relying on people to make decisions. My mother and grandmother were even worse than I. They were always afraid of everything around them. Extremely neurotic. 20 years later, they still are. My mother lives with my sister, and she hasn't left that apartment in 4 years, not even once. Spent most of her life lying on a bed in a small bedroom, complaining about me not living life the way she lives life.

I have the feeling the anxiety I have is inherited. Grandmother to mother, and then to me. But I have detected it, and I am fighting it, which is something the rest of my family is too dumb to do.