Question: Good morning, sir! Thank you for your time and insight! 
  
  I do have a question. I am in the middle of being diagnosed but my psychiatrist believes it is better to treat the anxiety first before deciding on the ADHD diagnosis. 
  
  I was a high performing child/teen; GATE program in elementary and middle school and all AP classes in highschool...until I started failing to understand math. And then college just broke me. Deadlines helped with the hyperfocus in classes I enjoyed! But GEs and classes boring to me, especially math, just never got done. 
  
  Is it more difficult to diagnose ADHD in women and chalk up a lot of things as anxiety? My current psychiatrist seems to really want it to be anxiety but he also can't rule out the ADHD. It is really messing with my self esteem and I'm now realizing I might never be able to have a career. (Current and past jobs have masked ADHD symptoms. Low level jobs where I can essentially do what I want and no one will care)
Answer: When a person has two disorders, the usual approach is to treat the most severe disorder first because, sometimes, symptoms of the other disorder also go away.  Usually they do not.   So your psychiatrists' approach seems reasonable but should not continue indefinitely if ADHD symptoms do not remit.
content: Q: Good morning, sir! Thank you for your time and insight! 
  
  I do have a question. I am in the middle of being diagnosed but my psychiatrist believes it is better to treat the anxiety first before deciding on the ADHD diagnosis. 
  
  I was a high performing child/teen; GATE program in elementary and middle school and all AP classes in highschool...until I started failing to understand math. And then college just broke me. Deadlines helped with the hyperfocus in classes I enjoyed! But GEs and classes boring to me, especially math, just never got done. 
  
  Is it more difficult to diagnose ADHD in women and chalk up a lot of things as anxiety? My current psychiatrist seems to really want it to be anxiety but he also can't rule out the ADHD. It is really messing with my self esteem and I'm now realizing I might never be able to have a career. (Current and past jobs have masked ADHD symptoms. Low level jobs where I can essentially do what I want and no one will care)
   Ans: When a person has two disorders, the usual approach is to treat the most severe disorder first because, sometimes, symptoms of the other disorder also go away.  Usually they do not.   So your psychiatrists' approach seems reasonable but should not continue indefinitely if ADHD symptoms do not remit.