Co-morbid Disorders

Co-morbid disorders are conditions that exist at the same time as another disorder. Depression and anxiety, drug and alcohol addiction all commonly accompany ADD or ADHD. The big question is: which came first?

Many people think that the ADD comes first and exacerbates the other disorders. It's certainly true that if your mind is jumping around all over the place, it could be hard to deal with other conditions that may crop up in your life. If you're impulsive and easily bored, restless and unable to calm yourself, you will probably be more likely to be depressed, anxious or addicted to something.

However, many people are diagnosed with depression, anxiety, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), bi-polar disorder or some kind of addiction before they are diagnosed with ADD. That's what happened to me. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety a couple of years before my psychiatrist added the ADD diagnosis. I've often wondered if the symptoms of depression and anxiety include behaviors that seem ADD-like, and lead to an ADD diagnosis, but aren't actually ADD.

On the other hand, it would explain a lot about how I ended up depressed and anxious if I started out with an ADD brain. Unable to focus and apply myself to tasks, my self-esteem may have suffered to the point where I became depressed. Feelings of restlessness and an inability to soothe myself possibly laid the foundation for anxiety. (I personally believe that depression and anxiety almost always go together; i.e., are co-morbid.)

Some would argue that it's possible to recover from clinical depression and anxiety, but not from ADD. All you can do with ADD is learn how to live with it. This would seem to support the idea that the ADD comes first. But knowing which came first doesn't necessarily aid the process of recovery and learning to cope. The fact is, co-morbid disorders complicate the recovery and coping process.

What often happens is that it isn't until one or more conditions are dealt with that the ADD becomes evident. In my case, it's possible that I had to start to recover from the depression and anxiety before my psychiatrist could discern what lay beneath them: my ADD. At the same time, recovery from the depression and anxiety has been hampered by the type of brain I have. This is the very nature of co-morbid disorders. The lines are not clearly drawn between them.

A diagnosis of ADD doesn't automatically mean that you're going to suffer from other disorders as well, but it is a possibility and something that ought to be considered. The reverse is also true: if you suffer from one or more mood disorders, it might be worth your while to have your doctor determine if you also have ADD. If you do, that might explain why you're having trouble recovering from the other disorders. You need to learn how to work with the brain that you've been given.