ADHD Women and Joint Hypermobility: What We Know

Joint hypermobility and ADHD are separate conditions, but research increasingly suggests that they occur together more often than expected. The overlap is especially worth knowing about when an ADHD woman also has joint pain, repeated sprains, dizziness when standing, fatigue, or other physical symptoms.

What Joint Hypermobility Means

Joint hypermobility means one or more joints move beyond the range expected for most people. Some people are hypermobile and have no significant symptoms.

Generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) means hypermobility is present across multiple joints. The Beighton score is one commonly used screening measure, although age, sex, injury history, and joints not included in the score can affect interpretation.

When hypermobility is accompanied by symptoms such as pain, instability, or other related problems, clinicians may consider diagnoses such as hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) or, when formal criteria are met, hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). These are not interchangeable with simply being flexible.

What We Know About ADHD and Hypermobility

A 2021 adult case-control study compared 431 adults with ADHD with 417 adults without ADHD. Adults with ADHD had higher odds of generalized joint hypermobility and of symptomatic hypermobility after adjustment for age, sex, and ethnicity. The study found an adjusted odds ratio of 4.7 for GJH and 6.9 for symptomatic GJH. This was a cross-sectional study, so it shows association rather than cause. Glans et al., 2021

A 2022 study examined adults with neurodevelopmental conditions including ADHD, autism, and Tourette syndrome. Joint hypermobility was more common in the neurodivergent group, and participants also reported more orthostatic-intolerance symptoms and musculoskeletal pain. The number of hypermobile joints statistically mediated part of the relationship between neurodivergence and dysautonomia/pain symptoms. Because the neurodivergent group combined several diagnoses, the findings should not be treated as ADHD-only evidence. Csecs et al., 2022

Pain, Fatigue, and Autonomic Symptoms

Hypermobility can be symptom-free, but symptomatic hypermobility can involve joint or muscle pain, instability, injuries, fatigue, and reduced physical tolerance.

Some hypermobile people also experience orthostatic intolerance: symptoms that worsen when upright, such as dizziness, lightheadedness, palpitations, weakness, or feeling close to fainting.

Dysautonomia is a broad term for problems with the autonomic nervous system, which helps regulate functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and digestion.

POTS — postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — is one specific form of orthostatic intolerance. It requires its own clinical assessment. Feeling dizzy when standing does not by itself establish POTS.

The 2022 neurodivergence study supports an association among joint hypermobility, orthostatic-intolerance symptoms, and pain. It does not show that every hypermobile person has dysautonomia or that ADHD causes autonomic problems. Csecs et al., 2022

Hypermobility and Anxiety

Research has also found a relationship between symptomatic hypermobility and anxiety. A newer functional-MRI study examined 63 adults with and without generalized anxiety disorder and assessed them for hypermobility syndrome, now generally conceptualized within the HSD framework.

The study found that the interaction between anxiety and hypermobility was associated with activity in the amygdala and insula. Kampoureli et al., 2026

What are the amygdala and insula?

The amygdala is involved in detecting and learning about emotionally important and potentially threatening information. Calling it simply a “fear center” is too narrow.

The insula helps represent information about the internal state of the body and contributes to interoception, emotion, pain, salience, and other processes.

The imaging study did not show that hypermobile people are always in danger mode, that the insula is “working overtime,” or that ordinary body sensations are automatically being misread as threats. It found differences in neural responses associated with the combination of hypermobility and anxiety.

What Is Interoception?

Interoception involves sensing, interpreting, and regulating information from inside the body. This includes signals related to heartbeat, breathing, hunger, thirst, temperature, pain, fatigue, bladder fullness, and internal arousal.

Interoception is more complicated than either “feeling everything” or “not noticing anything.” Researchers separate different dimensions, such as accuracy, attention to body signals, confidence, and interpretation.

ADHD research on interoception is still developing. A 2025 systematic review of 18 studies found an overall pattern suggesting reduced interoceptive accuracy in people with ADHD or higher ADHD traits, but the literature had important limitations, including small samples and inconsistent methods. Earlier individual studies have also produced conflicting findings. Systematic review, 2025

So it is reasonable to ask whether body-signal processing contributes to an individual's experience. It is not accurate to state that all ADHD women have poor interoception or that hypermobility automatically causes interoceptive dysfunction.

Do These Studies Prove One Brain–Body Pathway?

No. The evidence supports several associations:

• adult ADHD and generalized/symptomatic joint hypermobility
• neurodivergence, hypermobility, orthostatic-intolerance symptoms, and pain in some samples
• hypermobility and anxiety
• possible differences in interoceptive processing in ADHD

Researchers are still working out how these findings connect. Connective tissue, autonomic regulation, pain processing, body-signal processing, genetics, physical conditioning, sleep, medication, anxiety, and other factors may all be relevant. A single “ADHD-hypermobility nervous-system loop” has not been established.

When It May Be Worth Asking About Hypermobility

Consider bringing it up with a clinician if you have ADHD and also notice patterns such as:

• joints that move unusually far or repeatedly feel unstable
• frequent sprains, subluxations, or unexplained musculoskeletal injuries
• persistent joint or muscle pain
• substantial fatigue associated with physical activity
• dizziness, palpitations, or near-fainting when upright
• a personal or family history suggestive of a connective-tissue disorder

These symptoms have many possible causes. A hypermobility evaluation should not replace assessment for other medical explanations.

A Practical Way to Track What Is Happening

Instead of assuming every symptom belongs to ADHD, anxiety, or hypermobility, track the pattern:

• What were you doing when the symptom began?
• Were you standing, exercising, sitting still, eating, or changing position?
• Was there pain, dizziness, heart racing, nausea, fatigue, sensory load, or anxiety?
• What changed when you sat down, ate, hydrated, rested, moved, or changed the environment?

A short pattern log can give a clinician more useful information than trying to decide on your own which diagnosis explains the symptom.

Use the 📝Body Pattern Tracker: Pain, Dizziness, Fatigue & Other Physical Symptoms if you want a structured way to compare episodes over time.

Evidence Boundaries

• Hypermobility can exist without HSD or hEDS.
• ADHD is associated with hypermobility in several studies, but association does not establish causation.
• The 2026 amygdala/insula study is a hypermobility-and-anxiety study, not an ADHD study.
• ADHD interoception findings are developing and are not yet consistent enough to describe one universal ADHD body-awareness profile.
• POTS, hEDS, HSD, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, and mast-cell disorders are distinct clinical concepts. They should not be collapsed into one “neurodivergent body” syndrome.

Related Notes

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This page is educational and is not medical advice. New, severe, or worsening physical symptoms should be evaluated by an appropriate healthcare professional.