ADHD burnout — a guide to coping

If you have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you may sometimes feel like you can do a million things at once. At first, it’s exciting — your multitasking skills are next level and you’re getting a lot done. But, there comes a point when you hit a wall — unfinished tasks start to pile up, the simplest chores feel impossible, and a sense of shame pervades everything. Welcome to ADHD burnout. 

In this article, learn everything you need to know about ADHD burnout — a common experience for people with the disorder. We cover the ADHD burnout cycle, including what it is, why it occurs, and how to cope.

If you have ADHD and are feeling burned out, you may benefit from treatment with medication and/or therapy. Find a provider for both on Klarity Health and get affordable care fast.

What is ADHD burnout?

If you have ADHD, you’ve likely experienced ADHD burnout. ADHD is characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. If you have untreated ADHD, these symptoms can lead to unstable relationships, poor focus at work or school, low self-esteem, and more. 

As you struggle to fix things, compensate, catch up, or simply do better, you may start to feel like you’re juggling a million balls at once. What starts out as feeling overwhelmed can quickly become debilitating exhaustion. You lose your sense of motivation, see everything as just adding to your workload, and withdraw in the face of your long to-do list. This is ADHD burnout.

Fortunately, understanding the ADHD burnout cycle can help you to cope.

The ADHD burnout cycle

With ADHD, burnout is a cycle of being overwhelmed then shutting down. It can be broken down into the following stages:

1. Overwhelm: You have high energy and motivation. And you may be able to hyperfocus. This leads you to take on too many responsibilities at once that require you to be more focused and productive than usual.
2. Life in a pressure cooker: Now you’re overcommitted and, in response, you push yourself too hard. As you neglect self-care and rest, your ADHD symptoms start to interfere with your productivity.
3. Burnout awareness: At this point, you definitely notice the effects of ADHD burnout. You’re exhausted, less productive, and ADHD symptoms, like emotional dysregulation, are worse. You may experience mood swings and feel out of control.  
4. Unhealthy coping: During this stage of the burnout cycle, it’s common to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, like self-medicating with caffeine or alcohol or skipping sleep to try to get things done. This only worsens ADHD and burnout symptoms.
5. Exhaustion and burnout: You feel a sense of helplessness or hopelessness because nothing is working for you. You’re exhausted and burned out and have no idea how to regain control, which causes you to shut down.
6. Shut down/ADHD paralysis: This phase tends to manifest as disengagement, avoidance, and/or withdrawal from the situation. Your ability to function and cope has completely broken down. You may isolate yourself and avoid tasks to disconnect from your daily life and feel less stressed.

This cycle tends to repeat itself once you get out of ADHD paralysis. As you start to feel more like yourself, you begin to take on tasks until you’re overwhelmed again. To prevent the cycle from repeating, be aware of the symptoms so you notice them before they get out of control.

ADHD burnout symptoms

If you’re facing ADHD burnout, you may have one or more of the following symptoms:

• Chronic fatigue and exhaustion
• Lack of motivation
• Decreased interest in activities
• Trouble making decisions
• ADHD overstimulation and feeling overwhelmed 
• Emotional dysregulation, including mood swings, anxiety, and/or irritability
• Physical symptoms, such as headaches, muscle tension, or nausea
• Worsened ADHD symptoms, such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

What causes ADHD burnout?

ADHD burnout is experienced by people with ADHD as a result of their symptoms and overexerting themselves mentally and emotionally. If you’re in ADHD burnout, here are some potential reasons why.

Overcommitment

Trouble with time management, organization, and impulse control can lead you to overcommit if you live with ADHD. You may take on more responsibilities than is realistic or healthy without being aware of your limitations. Sometimes, overcommitment stems from a desire to fit in and maintain relationships. But as you struggle to keep up with your packed schedule, things, like your mental health, inevitably fall through the cracks.

Overcompensation

If you have ADHD, you probably find yourself compensating for how the disorder affects you. For example, if you struggle with procrastination and ADHD, you likely find yourself working twice as hard to complete tasks on time. Likewise, feelings of low self-esteem related to ADHD may have you “masking” your symptoms, meaning you try to hide or suppress your symptoms in social situations to fit in. 

Over time, working to make up for ADHD’s impacts becomes overcompensating as you exhaust yourself from all the extra mental work you’re doing.

Hyperfocus

Hyperfocus is the ability to concentrate intensely on a task you’re interested in — often while ignoring everything else. It’s also a symptom of ADHD that can’t be controlled or easily switched off. It can lead to neglecting other things, such as self-care, relationships, commitments, and activities. 

After hyperfocus, you probably feel emotionally and mentally drained — and the exhaustion can last for days. Dealing with consecutive bouts of hyperfocus without proper self-care ultimately leads to ADHD burnout.

Emotional dysregulation

People with ADHD tend to have a heightened emotional response to overwhelming or stressful situations. As the stress continues, you may have a harder time regulating your emotions. Emotional dysregulation is a part of ADHD that can deplete your coping resources and land you into the ADHD burnout cycle. Eventually, you shut down to protect yourself from the emotional turmoil.

How to recover from ADHD burnout

If you’re trying to recover from ADHD burnout, it’s important to focus on your needs and to listen to your body and mind. Take the time needed to acknowledge your symptoms by practicing self-awareness and acceptance. It’s also important to know you’re not alone when it comes to coping with ADHD burnout and to get help if needed. 

Some ways to recover from ADHD burnout include:

1. Practice saying no

People with ADHD are more likely to identify as people pleasers, and struggle to to set boundaries with friends, families, and coworkers. When you take on too much, it can leave you exhausted and lead to ADHD burnout. 

Practice saying no. If it’s too much to take on an additional responsibility at work or go to a social event with friends, just say no and give yourself space to focus on what you need. It’ll help you avoid the ADHD burnout cycle in the future. 

2. Prioritize rest

If you have ADHD, you may often find yourself sacrificing rest, self-care, and self-compassion due to your ADHD symptoms.

Rest is essential to overall well-being and it’s crucial for preventing burnout. It can be hard to slow down living in a society that tells you to go, go, go all the time. Carving out time to relax and unwind will help you sleep better, which can help offset ADHD fatigue and burnout. 

3. Overestimate how long a task will take

People with ADHD often underestimate the amount of time they need to complete a task, which is bad for ADHD symptoms and burnout.

When you’re faced with a growing list of tasks, underestimating the amount of time it’ll take to complete each 1 will only hurt you in the long run. Instead, intentionally overestimate the length of time you need to finish a task and give yourself a time cushion. This can help you relax, be more productive, and feel less stressed. 

4. Exercise, meditation, and deep breathing

If you live with ADHD, you may struggle to slow down your mind. Regular exercise, deep breathing, and meditation can help you manage ADHD symptoms, like racing or intrusive thoughts, and prevent burnout. Plus, if you’re already in the burnout cycle, these practices can help you regain control and get out of it. F

Find 11 strategies to calm down anxiety and slow your mind. 

5. Seek professional help

If you’re struggling with ADHD burnout, it’s important to get help with ADHD from a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist for ADHD medication or an ADHD therapist for therapy. You can easily find providers for effective ADHD treatment on marketplace services, like Klarity Health. 

Get effective ADHD treatment online fast

If you think you have ADHD, mental health providers on Klarity Health can evaluate you for a diagnosis and create a treatment plan. Care is fast and convenient and you don’t need insurance — see your provider online or in-person, often in as little as 24 hours. Get started today. Find an ADHD provider on Klarity Health.

Sources

AIMS Public Health, Executive function deficits mediate the relationship between employees’ ADHD and job burnout, Yaara Turjeman-Levi et al., Mar. 2024, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11007411/

International Journal on Neuropsychology and Behavioral Sciences, Undiagnosed ADHD and Burnout Syndrome — is Untreated ADHD A Risk Factor for Burnout Syndrome?, Vesselin Tenev, MD, PhD, Mar. 2024, https://skeenapublishers.com/journal/ijnbs/IJNBS-05-00050.pdf

Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, The Relationships between Addiction to Highly Caffeinated Drinks, Burnout, and Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, Eun Ju Bae et al., Oct. 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7298905/

Simply Psychology, ADHD Burnout: Signs, Cycle And Prevention, Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc, updated Jun. 2024, https://www.simplypsychology.org/adhd-burnout.html

The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional with any questions or concerns you have regarding your health. Providers on Klarity Health are independent practitioners with full medical authority. No diagnosis result or treatment option is guaranteed for the services rendered through the Klarity Health platform.

If you’re having a mental health crisis or experiencing a psychiatric emergency, it’s crucial to seek immediate help from a mental healthcare professional, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist. You can also call your local emergency services, visit your nearest emergency room, or contact a crisis hotline, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, by calling or texting 988 or dialing the Lifeline’s previous phone number, 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) in the U.S.

How we reviewed this article: This article goes through rigorous fact-checking by a team of medical reviewers. Reviewers are trained medical professionals who ensure each article contains the most up-to-date information, and that medical details have been correctly interpreted by the author.