Are You an ADHD Woman with These Symptoms?

Hypermobility, Anxiety and ADHD are connected.

• Always tired, even after resting

• Dizzy when you stand up

• Sensitive to light, noise, or temperature

• In pain for no clear reason

• Extra flexible or double-jointed

• Told it’s “just anxiety” or IBS—but nothing seems to help

If this sounds familiar, you might be dealing with hypermobility, and no one told you.

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🔍 What Is Hypermobility?

Hypermobility means your joints move more than they should. Maybe you can touch your thumb to your wrist or sit in odd positions without pain. But this isn’t just about being “flexible.”

It’s a connective tissue issue. Hypermobility means your body’s support structure is too loose, sort of like the cling wrap we all struggle with that won’t hold tight.

That stretchiness can affect nearly every system in your body:

• Joints → unstable, sore, or prone to injury

• Blood vessels → poor circulation, dizziness, fatigue

• Digestive system → bloating, reflux, IBS

• Nervous system → anxiety, panic, emotional swings

• Brain → especially areas linked to ADHD and sensory processing

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🧠 What Dr. Jessica Eccles Found

Dr. Jessica Eccles is a UK-based psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies the overlap between neurodivergence, pain, and physical symptoms. Her research is changing the way we understand ADHD and the body.

In one major study, she and her team found:

• Neurodivergent people (ADHD, autism, Tourette’s) are 4x more likely to have hypermobility

• 80% of neurodivergent women in her study had generalized joint hypermobility

• Many also reported chronic fatigue, dizziness, emotional overwhelm, and pain

• In people with hypermobility, brain scans show increased activity in the insula (which processes body awareness) and the amygdala (which handles emotional threat), suggesting their brains may be more sensitive to internal sensations and emotional stress patterns that are also seen in ADHD, where emotional dysregulation and interoceptive confusion are common.

These are the same regions linked to ADHD, anxiety, and sensory processing.

Listen to her talk about the overlap here.

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😵‍💫 Why This Hits ADHD Women So Hard

ADHD already impacts:

• Emotional regulation

• Body awareness (interoception)

• Sensory sensitivity

• Executive functioning

Add hypermobility, and the nervous system is under even more pressure.

Hypermobility can cause:

• Poor blood flow → dizziness, racing heart, fatigue

• Weak body signals → hard to tell when you’re hungry, tired, or in pain

• Constant activation of the stress response → anxiety, panic, emotional reactivity

This can look like panic attacks, depression, or burnout, but it’s often physical dysregulation, not a purely mental health issue.

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What About POTS?

One common condition tied to hypermobility is POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).

It happens when your heart rate spikes abnormally when you stand up, because your blood isn’t returning from your lower body effectively. It’s not rare in hypermobile people, especially women.

POTS symptoms include:

• Lightheadedness

• Racing heart

• Nausea or fatigue

• Feeling like you're going to faint after standing

• Anxiety-like symptoms with no clear emotional cause

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🩺 Why Doctors Often Miss It

Most doctors were never trained to recognize this pattern. They may treat symptoms separately:

• Anxiety

• IBS

• Chronic fatigue

• ADHD

But they don’t connect them to hypermobility, autonomic dysfunction, or connective tissue differences.

Neurodivergent women are especially likely to be:

• Misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed

• Told their pain is “psychosomatic” or “stress”

• Ignored when they say “something feels wrong in my body”

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In Real Life, This Can Look Like...

• Feeling faint or drained in hot rooms or after standing

• Needing to lie down to feel okay

• Getting exhausted by loud, bright, or crowded spaces

• Feeling disconnected from your body or surroundings

• Joint pain or stiffness with no obvious injury

• A body that “overreacts” to minor stress

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Interoception: Your Body Signals Might Be Off

Interoception is your internal sense of what’s happening inside your body, like hunger, thirst, pain, temperature, or emotion. It’s often blunted or confused in ADHD women and especially those with hypermobility.

This can mean:

• Missing early signs of stress, hunger, or overwhelm

• Confusing physical symptoms for emotional ones (e.g., “am I anxious or just dehydrated?”)

• Feeling “fine” until you suddenly crash

Improving interoception builds body trust, helps regulate emotion, and prevents shutdowns or meltdowns.

Note:

🧬 Like me, you might be wondering about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS).

EDS is a group of genetic connective tissue disorders, and yes, it’s connected to neurodivergence, especially the hypermobile type (hEDS).

There are 13 types of EDS, and 12 of them have been linked to known genetic causes. But interestingly, hEDS, one of the two most common types, does not yet have an identified gene, even though it’s the one most often seen in ADHD, autism, and related conditions.

🧠 Want to learn more about hEDS?
👉 Click here to explore the Ehlers-Danlos Society’s page on hypermobile EDS

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🧾 What Dr. Eccles Recommends (And What You Can Do Now)

Dr. Eccles’ research-backed suggestions include:

🟢 Compression garments → Help with blood flow and body awareness

🟢 Gentle core-strengthening → Like Pilates, to support stability and reduce joint strain

🟢 Hydration + electrolytes → Especially if you deal with POTS or fatigue

🟢 Compression socks → Great for dizziness, fatigue, and long periods of standing

🟢 Posture support + pacing → Avoid long periods of sitting, standing, or over-focusing

She also encourages patients to reframe anxiety as physical dysregulation. Sometimes the “anxiety” is really your body saying:

“I’m hot, overstimulated, dehydrated, hungry, or overwhelmed.”

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🌱 📥 P.S. Want to start tuning into your body’s signals?

Download my free “My Body’s Alarm System Map” — a guided worksheet inspired by the same research Dr. Jessica Eccles is sharing.

It helps you notice early signs of nervous system overload (like racing heart, dizziness, or emotional swings) and connect them to triggers like sensory overwhelm, poor sleep, before they spiral.

🧘‍♀️ Use it to track patterns, reduce crashes, and build self-awareness from the inside out.

👉 [Download here]

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✅ Try This Today

• Try the Beighton Score: check your flexibility in 5 easy moves

• Bring this article or the linked research in it to your next doctor's appointment and advocate for yourself

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🧭 Bottom Line

This isn’t all in your head.

There’s a clear link between ADHD, neurodivergence, hypermobility, and chronic anxiety symptoms. You deserve care that sees the whole picture, not just the parts.

In the Flourish neurodivergent affirming support group for women, built on my Flourish 5S Empowerment model, we discuss perfectionism. This is a scaffolded learning model designed to help you unmask and support yourself. Not fix yourself.

Every woman is welcome to my groups and scholarships; sliding fees are available if you can’t afford them.

You’ll learn tools to practice self-compassion, adjust your self-talk, and build rhythms that actually work with your brain.

👉Learn about the Flourish Model and Community Here

👉 Get into the group. Just put our name on the list for the next cohort here

👉 Therapist/coach curious about the Flourish model? Please! Get on the list for the next affordable coach training here.

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter about hypermobility.

If you liked it, please share it.

Kristen McClure MSW LCSW