Recent forum posts (all topics)

  • Rumination after a marital session by: fancycow 9 months 1 week ago

    Hello,

    Our family is new to the ADHD journey. While we have been living with it for quite some time, it's been newly discovered in the last few months, in my husband and so far pre-teen son.  Our son has been causing some strife in the family, angry outbursts, refusing to go to activities, refusing to eat, etc.  This has caused major strife between my husband and I.  In our last marital counseling session, I brought up that I need help with our son - taking more time off work to help him with school work, getting him to eat, getting him to do chores, and getting him to activities.  Mostly so I can have a break, since the majority of our son's anger lashes out to me specifically.  Our marital counselor and I brought up that the way Jason is approaching his parenting style is to somewhat one-up me, or making it seem like his parenting model is better than mine.  That is my feeling right now, and that I'm not feeling very supported.  Since that appointment, he now is refusing to sleep in our bed, and has not spoken to me since.  He has advised that it is clear that everything he thinks is wrong (told by me and the counselor), that he should be grateful for all the things I do - these are his words.  He does not want to go to counseling next week with me, cancelled our weekly date night, and has already cancelled his next individual therapy session.

    I'm at a bit of a loss for how to engage him - the words that he's using were not how I saw the conversation and now I'm feeling like I can't even safely express my frustrations about things without him automatically shutting down completely.  

  • Wife new job - gone WAY overboard with hours by: bb1471 9 months 1 week ago
  • Honestly - its like dealing with a middle aged teenager by: bb1471 9 months 1 week ago
  • Suggestions for successful initiatives by: Lonely21 9 months 1 week ago

    Everyone who has browsed the forums a little will have already noticed that there are countless realistic reports of situations that led to the end of the relationship. I believe there is a lot in common in all of them. But would it be possible to open a topic just with suggestions from those who have had real success in their relationships? I'm looking for suggestions on how to make the partner realize the extent of the problem for the marriage (he knows he has ADHD, but is unaware of the impact on the marriage).

  • It was actually double ADHD - anyone else? by: Sadandconfused 9 months 1 week ago

    So I'm not sure if this is the right forum as I've just been diagnosed ADHD myself. First this made it even harder to understand my relationship. My partner has bedtime revenge issues causing sleep loss and morning rage. I do not because I've known since I was a teen I need loads of sleep. He uses his powers of perception to tell others (inc me) what is wrong with them. I use mine for empathy. My partner has no friends. I have dozens inc ten or so very close friends. My partner parents his kids permissively and impulsively. I was a Gina Ford mama and I'm authoritative. My kid behaves beautifully while one of my partner's kids is on the verge of failing in a specialist behavior school. 

    I definitely now know my struggles - perfectionism, people pleasing, burnout, missing important details at work, being disorganised unless really careful - are caused by ADHD. But how did I know to manage myself my whole life before getting diagnosed at 45? Why does my partner - and so many men we discuss on here - not manage himself well? He was diagnosed years ago and since I knew him he has been medicated. 

    I have just started my meds and I have so much clarity. ADHD is an explanation but it's not an excuse or a free pass. It's a superpower (like the force in Star Wars) if used for good to fight for the right causes and be an empathetic friend and focus on useful work. It's good to question authority and have an independent mind. But if it's used for interpersonal conflict, to get a kick out of winning point scoring, to be defiant for its own sake and to perceive unkindly, it's Darth. The dark side. 
     

    There's no reason to pity anyone for having ADHD or to compensate for them or clean up their mess. No one did for me for 45 years and I'm a successful and popular person. The final bit of clarity I have from taking meds is that my relationship has to end. There's no problem with picking someone who has ADHD but they have to be someone who's using their ADHD wisely rather than letting it mess up their lives. 

  • Partner does not seek help by: Lonely21 9 months 1 week ago

    My husband was diagnosed with ADHD this year, we have two young children and the fights have become increasingly constant. I don't know how to deal with the situation anymore, because I feel exhausted. I would really like him to seek treatment and objective tools for everyday life. He started therapy last year, after many requests from me, but this year he hasn't returned and isn't receptive to any help. I find myself at a dead end, as my two options are flawed, one would be for us to talk and try to resolve the conflicts, but he is incapable of doing so, the other option is for me to try to overlook the situations and keep them to myself without verbalizing them, but this ends up generating I feel frustrated and angry and I end up exploding over small things (the bucket is always full and about to spill) and he can't understand why, so he sees me as bad-tempered, bossy, annoying, stressed. I don't know how to make him understand the importance of seeking treatment.  And simply accepting that he won't seek treatment is like sentencing our relationship to failure.

  • Partner doesn't seek help by: Lonely21 9 months 1 week ago

    My husband was diagnosed with ADHD this year, we have two young children and the fights have become increasingly constant. I don't know how to deal with the situation anymore, because I feel exhausted. I would really like him to seek treatment and objective tools for everyday life. He started therapy last year, after many requests from me, but this year he hasn't returned and isn't receptive to any help. I find myself at a dead end, as my two options are flawed, one would be for us to talk and try to resolve the conflicts, but he is incapable of doing so, the other option is for me to try to overlook the situations and keep them to myself without verbalizing them, but this ends up generating I feel frustrated and angry and I end up exploding over small things (the bucket is always full and about to spill) and he can't understand why, so he sees me as bad-tempered, bossy, annoying, stressed. I don't know how to make him understand the importance of seeking treatment.

  • Need Advice from *BOTH* Sides! (ADHD & Non-ADHD Perspectives) by: Varden 9 months 2 weeks ago

    Ok, so to keep an extremely long story very short, my partner with ADHD has been in the process of recovering from recent family trauma from about 4 years ago and how it still very much effects her to this day. She was very slender when I met her, extremely active, frequented the gym, and used to love getting out-doors and doing a bunch of the activities we both loved to do when we met. On top of that, she always used to be great about keeping up with her half of the chores and keeping the house clean, over all. She had symptoms of ADHD mostly as a younger kid, and by the time I met her when she was 19, I didn't even know or suspect she could have it until about four years into our relationship when all this family trauma of her's occurred.

    Within the span of a few months, she basically became a broken down version of herself, and all of the sudden, her ADHD was level 11 severe, like, I'm talking incapacitating for someone who didn't have a support system like me. Flash forward to four years since the family issues and she's really been talking about how much she wants to lose weight, clean the house more, get rid of clutter, do a whole laundry list of projects, and also make more time for herself and the fun things we used to do for us as a couple all the time when we first were dating. 

    I know her quite well, and the problem is she's always repeating this pattern of wanting more time to do the things she says she wants to do, but then she'll book way too many clients or take on so many other obligations that she has no time for herself, let alone much time for us. I've learned a lot about ADHD over the years of her also discovering herself in this new way, and I know enough to know that I can't force her to do anything and really I can only encourage her to make changes that help her try different, not necessarily try harder. Now that it's been about a solid year of her saying constantly that she wants to go to the gym (yet she only went 4 times last year because it's hard to "make time for it"), or wanting to focus on her mental health more, or actually doing her chores (I've pretty much been doing them all while working 40+ hours a week for a year now) but at the same time not doing anything to clear her schedule up to make room for it, I've started to giver her gentle reminders along the lines of "remember what you said you wanted to do?" or "Your schedule's just starting to clear up, are you sure you want to take on another x, y, & z obligation without first scheduling time for yourself?".

    I'm really trying to walk a fine-line between not nagging her, since she doesn't need/like that and I don't like feeling like a nag either, but sometimes it feels like she just CAN NOT for the life of her seem to prioritize planning for herself or the goals she sets for herself. Then what happens? Well, she's continued to gain more and more weight, which makes her beat up on herself even more, and makes her lean ever closer to this cycle of depressive demotivation that she herself is causing by not making changes to make her goals happen. And it truthfully hurts so bad to see her like this. I tell her she's beautiful and that I love her at least 5 times a day at minimum. I tell her that I just want her to be happy and remind her that I'm not forcing her to make any changes when I remind her of the goals she sets, but every time I do, I feel like she shuts down and treats me like I'm the villain who's keeping her from achieving her goals or being happy. But after a year, if nothing's changed and things have only gotten worse, and it wretches me to see her so sad on herself, how can I as a loving partner NOT say something? I feel like it would be less loving to just let her be and continue down this path of her own choices making her feel worse and worse. It seriously hurts me because I love her so much and just want her to be happy, in whatever body she wants, but she has these visions in mind of her from almost 5 years back that she's doing nothing to make a reality again. Keep in mind too that she's self employed and tied to NO obligations or responsibilities that she doesn't decide when to schedule for herself, so she could literally make any change that she wants in order to make these goals happen.

    So here's where I need advice from both sides of the view point...

    Neurotypical partners: Have you ever been in a situation like this? How did you communicate and remind them of goals they set for themselves without nagging or feeling like a nag? How were you able to stay emotionally stable as you watched their emotional well-being decline and how did you keep yourself from going into 'savior-mode' while still feeling like you were a loving and supportive partner and not just letting them fall apart?

    ADHD partners: Have you ever been in a cycle like this? How did you help yourself remember to prioritize changes in your life that helped you achieve the goals you set for yourself? Did you have a partner who was there for you in that time, and if so, how were they able to remind you and help you stay on track without making you feel like they were nagging you or putting you down?

    Any advice is much appreciated!! Thanks in advance for reading my very long explanation about the situation, but I felt like it was necessary to really get my point across of what life is like for me right now. Praying that Melissa Orlov sees this one!!

  • Boundaries (Update) by: Eighpryl_AB 9 months 2 weeks ago

    *Update:  He didn't end up taking the kids to the hospital to meet the cousins.  I don't know why because we had a discussion earlier in the day in which we kind of went round and round.  I kept calm, but emphatic and he knew I was very distressed by the whole thing.  He didn't agree with me or tell me, or even the kids, that it was off, but he ultimately didn't go at all, either.  He had to go out of town for a couple days, but we will be having a talk when he gets back.  I won't make him choose between me and them, but I will not accept him pressuring me about this ever again.  Hard, non-negotiable boundary.

     

    My husband has been estranged from his parents and his younger sister for over a decade.  The family is EXTREMELY dysfunctional and his parents were actually very abusive to my husband and his brothers when they were young.  I believe his mom has some mental illness, and the step dad has always pretty much enabled it and basically told everyone to placate her.  I didn't see any of this until AFTER I married my husband, but his mom took a disliking to me soon after I did (I think because I COULD see it), and she was pretty awful to me and eventually to our kids as well.  My husband saw it, and once they stopped speaking to us, promised me he would never put the kids and I around them again until I was completely comfortable with it.  I have a (probably completely irrational) fear of them because of all the stuff they put us through, and I have ALWAYS been afraid that if they ever relented at all, my husband would go running right back to them.... incapable of and unwilling to hold them accountable for their past actions or set any boundaries with their behavior, just like he couldn't in the beginning. 

    One of my brothers-in-law was in a terrible motorcycle crash last weekend.  The family all came in.  My husband saw his parents and younger sister for the first time in over 10 years.  His sister now has 5 little kids that he's obviously never met before.  But my husband LOVES little kids, so he IMMEDIATELY wanted a relationship with them.  His sister has been divorced several times and now she and her kids live with his parents.  He started wistfully telling me that he wishes I would be more open to reconciling with his family.  I kind of panicked because this has been my worst nightmare (they really were mean to me and our kids for years before cutting us off) but he reassured me that my fears were groundless.  He said he hardly talked to his parents or sister and spent the whole time playing with her kids.  He said his parents and sister expressed no desire to see me or our kids, or any interest in us whatsoever.  But I have been really uneasy ever since.  I would never prevent him from having a relationship with his family if he really wants one, but it feels like a bit of a betrayal to me considering the past.  This afternoon my husband excitedly announced to our kids that he will take them to the hospital to meet their cousins.  Tomorrow.  Wait, what?  He's just ecstatic about it, and I feel like he's doing exactly what he promised me FOR YEARS that he would never do.  I can't stop him and I don't personally HAVE to go with them to see his family, but WHERE DID THE BOUNDARIES GO???  He didn't ask me if I was ok with him taking our kids to meet up with his family or make me part of the discussion or even consider how I feel about it even tho I had already clearly expressed my discomfort about him jumping back into his family with both feet just last weekend.  I feel like this is just a way to circumvent all his promises and reassurances to me by saying it's really important for our kids to meet their cousins - the children of his sister and his parents who have wanted nothing to do with him or our kids for over a decade and are literally only here bc of his brother's accident.

    If you made it all the way through this, I am sorry it is so long.  I am venting, but I want to cry because I am just so frustrated and sad and downright scared that he's about to force these people back on me and I don't know what to do.  But this might be the very last straw if he goes through with it.  I don't think I can deal with that toxic family AND my personal struggles with him at the same time ever again. 

  • The degree of pain by: Swedish coast 9 months 3 weeks ago

    I'm having a hard time moving on after divorce. It's been four months since my ADD ex-husband moved out, we text about the children but besides that don't communicate.

    Its obvious that the same instant I stopped repairing the relationship, there was no longer a relationship.

    I think he wants things to be normal, meaning me being nice to him. He reaches out occasionally, hoping I'm well, and has offered me coffee at his house when I've come to collect children. I decline since I'm hurt.

    The thing is, I'm in such pain. I'm hurting so much I feel life is over. There is no normal anymore, since what he's done to me is unbearable. He has either forgotten about that, or he ignores it since he on his part feels safe around me. I know there will never be closure coming from him.

    It's clear to me now, he's been transgressing my boundaries for a decade. He didn't repair our love and trust, I always had to do it. It's like the full blast of this accumulated hurt has exploded on me when I finally gave up on our marriage. It's pain on a scale I've rarely felt.

    I grieve my entire life as an adult, the losses in every aspect of life, the injustice. The lack of understanding from certain people around us. Nobody but me has actually seen his massive dysfunction. And everyone sees him as a responsible and gentle person. Even those who believe me would have a hard time imagining the emotional outbursts, headless demands and illogical cruelties of his RSD.

    Everyone now expects me to lead the way to reconciliation. I'm supposed to erase the conflict so the children don't suffer from it. I'm the one holding a grudge. He either is untroubled, or pretends to be in order to gain something.

    It's I who suffer for not repairing. By sitting on my hands I let his hurtful words and actions define the end of our long years together. 

    But what to do? I physically cannot make another repair attempt. They are all spent, as is my patience with him. And I cannot pretend someone who has treated me like this is my friend. It's just humiliating.

    When will this pain ever end? 

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