So this is nothing new to any of us who post here, I'm not looking for solutions, I just had to get this out. I bought the oldest son (19) Apple Air Pods for Christmas and DH thought they were cool and wanted some. That's fine--he makes a decent salary, we both got a fair bonus, he can take calls on them instead of his bluetooth, fine. So I stopped on the way home from work today at the Apple store by our house and bought them (they were out of stock for a while). I called him walking back to my car after purchasing the Air Pods and said I just picked up your Air Pods, I am on my way home, what are you up to? He was picking up the younger son from track. Okay good, see you in a few. He says okay, so you're just leaving school then? Um...I just picked up your Air Pods...that you said thank you for...that you were excited to have...like three minutes ago I said this. I get home before him, they are sitting on the desk, he comes home maybe 30 minutes after me, sees them, says OH COOL, where did you get them? Oh my good lord--I just cannot even stand it some days. This is nothing new to any of us that are here regularly, sometimes it just hits me like a ton of bricks how many deficits he has and how little attention is paid to anything. But then I did a bad thing. When he said where did you get them I just looked at him and he said WHAT??? I called you when I was walking back to my car from the store and told you I had picked them up and you said thank you--that was like 45 minutes ago--how do you not remember that??? And he got so mad. I tried to talk about it in a reasonable way but that did not go well. I said listen, I am saying this out of concern--he has not had his hearing checked and he really needs to, I said I am concerned and he was having none of it. I said what if you did this kind of thing at work--that's what I worry about. He says people would tell him. I doubt that, but whatever. I should know better by now--why did I even try to talk about it?? He went storming out to get gas but wanted to say something and said never mind, I won't say it. I am sure it was some version of "you forget things too". How is it different when we forget things like normal people and our ADHD people forget things? To me it's the sheer volume of what is forgotten and how quickly, like within minutes sometimes, and how little remorse there is about that. Remorse is probably too strong a word--I don't know what word I am looking for. I too forget things but I will preface a statement that I suspect I may have already said or a question I already asked with a disclaimer, like "I am so sorry, I am sure you already told me this and it fell out of my brain--can you tell me again??" but with DH there is none of that--it's the instant defensiveness that is tough to live with. With my 8th graders I joke with them--I tell them if I repeat myself please tell me because I don't want to be that person and they will kind of shyly raise their hands if I launch into something and I will stop and say--did I already say this and they all nod vigorously and I say so you don't want to hear my spiel again?!?!! But at least have some humor and humility about it, don't act like it's everyone else's problem, you know.
Do I sound petty and lame???
forgetting conversations from 5min ago.
Submitted by husband33 on
everyday for me. sometimes 5-10 times daily i repeat conversations from just before.
i get frustrated. i hold up fingers: 3rd time! are you listening this time!?
"i don't have to make eye contact to be listening" she says.
then she doesn't show up for our kids event, the 5yr old is crying cause Mom never showed, as arranged (children capable of remembering words, promises). she acts confused, "you never told me"...indeed i did, 3 times, i say...she says "you are a bad communicator" = my fault, as usual...
Listening
Submitted by adhd32 on
I don't have to be making eye contact...lol!
Ive been told this over the years with the same results you describe. I learned to never depend on any agreement to meet. Recently the grown kids and I stood outside a theater, tickets in hand and he was a no show and incommunicado. A special family day out for the holidays and he still he managed to steal the show. Another night he and I had plans to meet for dinner and go see the tree while I was in the city but when I called to find out where he was he was he heading home on the train. All this despite several eye to eye contact conversations and text reminders. Is it subconsciously a way to get out of things they don't want to do?? It sure feels that way!!
When they were young it was heartbreaking to see the kids so disappointed by their father who just brushed off his absence and never apologized just blamed everything and anything. Eventually when they got older, the kids stopped asking him to participate because they realized he was not dependable and they would rather not invite him than be disappointed. Then he became mad at me for their behavior instead of asking himself why they would exclude him (self examination).
If I remind him of something important that he actually remembers, he snaps back with either "I know" or "I'm not stupid". I never seem to do the right thing.
How do you stand it?
Submitted by elizabethtudor on
Please, please, please tell me how you have dealt with it for so long!? I’m literally going completely insane and constantly angry to the point of tears and it hasn’t even been 2 years!
Dorian Gray says 'Hello'!
Submitted by Will It Get Better on
Your Highness, you'll be telling yourself the same thing when you get to twenty five years. I and many other posters are proof of that.
It's a no win 33 LOL....
Submitted by c ur self on
I think every adhd person, and every person w/ dementia needs a large white dry erase board on the kitchen wall....With 7 lines down it, w/ headers listing each day of the week....All appointments and family events posted in 4" letters, that the whole family see's everyday, and at every meal....That might stop some of the forgetting, denial and blaming...:)
avoiding /not listening is a defense mechanism?
Submitted by husband33 on
the pronoun-only story, no context is also a regular exchange leaving me scratching my head. and i am also too scared to ask for clarification else I am a jerk, interrupting or making her feel stupid (which later when she is drunk claims i called her stupid and am abusive)
yesterday i asked her to read 2 paragraphs/half page outloud that i thought she might appreciate (she never reads anything i send her on email...never! and lies she read it, but obvious to me she didn't; no use in calling it out)...anyways so outloud she could not finish a paragraph without distraction "oh that reminds me of xxx" - a pronoun only disgression. i get her back on track and then again, another spontaneous thought not really related. then i ask what she thought of the 2 paragraph and she totally missunderstood the plain english and turned what was written into almost the opposite of the words. she is really smart, just by default (it feels) uninterested in anything i present to her...or maybe she is intimidated that she can't follow and it is a defense mechanism to avoid engaging conversation she'll like not be able to follow or might feel stupid?
33
Submitted by c ur self on
(.or maybe she is intimidated that she can't follow and it is a defense mechanism to avoid engaging conversation she'll like not be able to follow or might feel stupid?)
Same here...I think this is the largest part of the cause....I think many times my wife just assumes I understand this (her limitations) dynamic, and I am trying to make fun of her, or show her up, by asking her questions or telling her a story, and expecting her to remember....Of course that has never been the case, but, if she is judging it that way then it explains the defensive reactions....
c
Other side of the coin - RSD/ODD rage kicks in
Submitted by Will It Get Better on
I have have serious problems with my ADHD wife repeating the same argument stream multiple times in a row when she does not get the agreement to her position. Sometimes she'll chastise our teenage boys with an issue, they'll respond 'Ok' and then she repeat the same argument word-for-word with the expectation that she'll have a 'breakthrough' wherein they enthusiastically respond as she hopes, Unfortunately what she really gets is an increasingly annoyed teen that responds with a 'FU' after the fourth go-round. Then her RSD/ODD rage kicks in and it's off to the 'You must leave my house...' meme. I get condemned for not 'supporting her' in her rage while I try to dampen the inferno. Been this way for years.
Talking to the wall, again and again
Submitted by Angie_H on
Hi, all,
Yes, I have the same experience. When I ask or tell my husband something he often has no recollection of it within minutes of the conversation. We have had years of him insisting I did not tell tell him things. Lately I am trying more to show him things, not just tell him, and I look at him and see he is looking at something else or has his eyes closed.
I regularly put things on his calendar. Last night we reviewed the entries. This morning I noticed one he had not accepted. He then looked at his phone and commented there were many he had not accepted, and he started going down the list and accepting them. Next he went off to make some phone calls that I reminded him to do. And there was his phone, with me. I took it to him, and I have not heard his voice since then. Obviously he is not making the calls.
In the other direction, I find I sometimes tune him out because of his excessive use of pronouns and his jumps to different topics. I frequently have no idea what he's saying, and he gets angry if I interrupt and ask for clarification. I suppose that's how I seem to him - incomprehensible background noise that he tunes out.
All the best,
Angie
Blab on and on
Submitted by adhd32 on
Regarding using excessive pronouns and following the story. H does that too and I can't follow along but when he pauses waiting for a response I sometimes purposely question something like "oh wait is it the first guy or the other one?" because I don't care about some guys at work or in the deli. Somehow the question breaks his focus and usually ends the chatter.
(Do I sound petty and lame???
Submitted by c ur self on
(Do I sound petty and lame???)
You sound overly burdened; and feed up with the reality of trying to communicate w/ your DH....
c
If that’s lame and petty what am I!?
Submitted by elizabethtudor on
Dvance,
My answer is NO! It’s neither lame nor petty!
I’m literally at my wits end with my fiancé. Everything you explained is just one of the many things I deal with daily and I can’t even begin to express how over it I am! I’ve known my fiancé for 15 years but we’ve only been in a relationship for a little under 2 years now, and I find myself wondering if there is any hope, or am I just wasting my time? I’m completely unable to control my anger when he does any one of the numerous childish or absurd things that result directly from his untreated ADHD. I will scream at him at him and say things like “I would have a better relationship with the wall” or worse.
I’m truly at the point where I find it impossible to tolerate all the problems, the utter lack of maturity, and the complete lack of responsibility coupled with his constant defensiveness and impulsive mouth. It’s obvious that the only way our relationship will survive is for him to get treatment but I can’t even get him to believe that there’s a problem. He is 45 and was just recently diagnosed (shortly after we started dating I realized that he had ADHD and literally forced him to go to the doctor and get a formal test and diagnosis after 6 months of him “trying” and failing to make it to a single appointment) with ADHD and he takes 4 different prescription medications daily for it, but he has yet to get any therapy even with me begging in tears many times for him to do so. I even made an ultimatum that if he didn’t go to therapy weekly that we were over and he still chose not to go. Now, he sleeps on the couch and we can barely have a single conversation without screaming.
I know that my reactions aren’t helping and may even make it worse but I find it completely impossible to tolerate a 45 year old man whom not only has the maturity of a small child but hasn’t had a job in a decade, can’t take care of ANY of his responsibilities and constantly suffers the consequences that life throws at you when you’re an adult and you act like a child, yet he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with him. (I’m also the only woman he’s ever had a serious relationship with, the first woman he’s ever lived with, and his only female friend...yet he thinks I’m the problem somehow...not to mention that he only has a few friends all of which have serious problems of their own.)
dvance
Submitted by 1Melody1 on
I don't know if you will get this notification, but I just wanted to check in on you. I know you were possibly planning a split for this spring. For some reason, your posts and mindset always resonated with me because our husbands seemed so drastically similar. We also both seemed to be in the same place in terms of "done" with the one-sided trying. I wanted to let you know that there is someone out there rooting for you as you go through whatever you might be going through these days. I really hope things are going okay.