How does Anxiety Affect Children with ADHD?

Here you are trying to convince the child with ADHD to try to make friends. You suggest to him that he should go up to another child at school to ask him to come over for a playdate, perhaps someone with whom he worked on a project. You think to yourself that that would be easy because they already know each other having worked on a project together. Well, it may not be so easy. Why? Sometimes children with ADHD have a paired disorder of anxiety that can interfere with their ability to fluently interact with peers. 

As he begins to approach that child, he may have thoughts such as “I can’t talk to him before he talks to me.” “What would I say?”“ I can’t go up to that child. What if he rejects me?” “I can’t do that. I don’t even know if he likes me.” Anxiety can be paralyzing and interfere with a child’s ability to interact. Teachers and parents need to be aware of the child’s anxiety and make him feel that they really understand that it is an obstacle to making friends. In that way, the child feels that he has someone on his side who is going to support him, someone who believes that anxiety is real and is ready to help him to diminish it.