Adult ADD Strengths

Dr. Ed Hallowell and Melissa Orlov’s excellent blog on ADHD and Marriage now has a new ADHD and Marriage forum attached to it. Check it out.

The section with the most posts so far on the new forum? The one on Anger, Frustration & ADHD. Not exactly a big surprise that it’s a popular topics in ADHD relationships.

In one post a man asks a question about his ADHD wife who isn’t getting her share of the household chores done despite being unemployed.

One respondent says something I think all adults with ADHD and their spouses/partners should read 3 times out loud. Maybe more.

I think one really important thing to remember is that ADHD medications only help with the ability to focus and get things done. They aren’t going to magically make you desire to do what you don’t really want or like to do. They aren’t going to magically make things you genuinely find difficult suddenly easy.

Some people think that all you need to do to treat ADHD is to take ADHD medications and all will be well. Not true. They’re just a tool, a very useful tool, but they’re not a complete solution to ADHD. You still need to find ways to develop self awareness (without self flagellation) and learn self management and specific skills. Every tool, tactic or strategy to effectively manage ADHD has it’s strengths and it’s limitations. It’s crucial that you understand this if you have ADHD.

There is no one “perfect” solution to managing ADHD. Not even ADD coaching is the silver bullet that solves it all and I’m an ADD coach. The best way to manage ADHD is to use a multimodal approach, i.e., multiple methods. Different things will work for different people and the best thing to do is to experiment with different solutions to find out what works the best for you.

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