MelissaOrlov's blog

Registered users of this site can now download, for free, the first two chapters of The ADHD Effect on Marriage simply by going to the "free chapters" link in the main menu.  If you're not yet registered, this might be a good time to sign up!

I was speaking in New York recently and was asked an excellent question by a man who has ADHD.  The gist of it was this:

“My girlfriend sends me emails all the time when I’m at work and then gets angry with me when I don’t respond consistently.  My reaction is to simply tell her ‘I’m distracted – I’ve got ADHD.  I often forget to respond to you.  Get over it!’  What do you think about that response?”  Here’s my answer:

Calling all readers with ADHD - how do you stay organized?  What works for you, and why?  I'm particularly interested in electronic ways to stay organized via the iPhone or BB or computer.  Share your ideas here with others on the site!

Sometimes we all need to eat crow – and right now the person who needs to do that is me.  I am deeply embarrassed, one could say mortified, that I published that Simora is the same person as Red Haired Witch, Miss Behavin, Crazy Dave, Rene and Annoyedatlies.  However, she isn’t that person (the other user names are, indeed, all the same person, but they are not Simora).

There is some conversation going on right now in the forums questioning whether it is appropriate to make generalizations about people with ADHD.  One person suggests this is insulting or hurtful to group those with ADHD together.  Another poster asks:  ‘if "they" (people with ADHD) are all so completely different, why do we keep hearing the same behaviors (forgetting, interrupting, not handling money well, etc.) coming up over and over?’  I would like to respond to this question in the blog, rather than in the forums.

I want to remind readers of three events coming up. 

There has been a lot of talk recently about executive function issues and ADHD. What are "executive functions" and how are they related to ADHD?

We got so much feedback about our new professional education course for marriage therapists - "This looks like a FABULOUS course, but I can't make it to Boston!" - that we have changed the format to be a phone seminar!

Control issues create one of the most common Catch-22s of ADHD-impacted marriages. So how do you stop trying to control your partner, get his or her buy-in, and get out of this lose/lose situation?

When we marry, we hope to remain happily married until death, yet that is not the experience that most of us have.  Yes, most of us who get married will stay married, but committed relationships generally include plenty of significant bumps and bruises.  Here are some statistics to ponder:

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