Springboard Clinic

Many ADHD adults have difficulty keeping in touch with friends. It's not that you don't care about your friends or don't want to spend time with them, things just fall off the radar. As you can imagine, this can put a big strain on relationships. At a certain point, your friend might stop calling if you're not taking the initiative to call them every once and awhile.

So, if you want to focus on strengthening your relationships, here are 6 tips to help you keep in touch with your friends:

With Valentine's Day around the corner (don't forget!) we thought we would pay respect to the positive side of ADHD. We often write about the challenges with ADHD and relationships. And yes, there are challenges. But what about the good things - what do you love about your ADHD partner? On the other side, what do you love and appreciate about your non-ADHD partner?

At all ages, individuals with an ADHD diagnosis often have difficulty regulating their emotions and managing big feelings in the moment. This can certainly be challenging on a personal level, but it can also have a significant impact on relationships - whether it be a romantic relationship, friendships, relationships with family, or even co-workers and peers.

When a relationship is impacted by ADHD (in one or both partners), there are many negative communication patterns that can develop over time. One such pattern is "symptom-response-response," a term coined by Melissa Orlov, a leading expert on ADHD and relationships. Essentially, what happens is as follows:

Individuals with ADHD often have difficulty focusing their attention consistently on relationships. Symptoms like distractibility, or difficulties with working memory, tend to get in the way of many things - maintaining friendships and keeping in touch with others, attending to the needs of a partner, or even just making sure date night happens more than once in a blue moon.

Just over a year ago we posted Springboard Clinic in the Media, which linked to two articles written by our Director of Coaching/Health Education.

One of those articles, Is it you, me, or us? talks about ADHD and relationships, and the important questions we need to ask ourselves if and when our partnership is struggling. Yes, we're repeating ourselves by re-linking to the article, but it's such an important topic that it deserves the repeat. Check it out!