Pre-diagnosis Misperceptions

For those new to ADHD Partner blog and unfamiliar with my other two blogs, I’d like to point you to several helpful posts. After 10 years of moderating the online ADHD Partner group (an international free online group for the partners of adults with ADHD), I know these are “hot topics” and are bound to help you slow your own personal ADHD Roller Coaster. So, fire up your  monitor and find the clues you’ve been seeking:

ADHD and Sleep:

This is a topic I’ve educated about for years, and still many people (including clinicians) are surprised to learn that many ADHD symptoms conspire to impair good sleep–for your partner with ADHD and you.  Click here to read my post on this topic, “To Sleep, Perchance to Turn Off that *&$@# Computer.” Definitely read the many validating, illuminating comments (leave one to help others, if you  like).

Look forward to an e-book I’m writing on the topic, full of helpful sleeptime strategies!

ADHD and Sex:

Who knew? A “little kid’s disorder” that makes them “fidget in the classroom” can create problems with adult sexual intimacy, and indeed any type of intimacy? Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever read news stories that raise giant red flags of ADHD yet never mention it by name? I  just read two such stories, and my mind was flooded with the thousands of posts I’ve read over the years from partners of adults with ADHD that touched directly on the topics.

The first story reported a study indicating that children in day care are more impulsive and bigger risk takers than children who did not go to day care or who spent less time in day care. The second story explored the effect of  electronic  devices on the human brain, including addiction.

But first, I’d like to point out a common error with  psychological (and sometimes even medical) research: confusing association with causation.  That is,  researchers claim research shows cause-and-effect (“causation”) when really all it shows is a  relationship between two variables (“association”).  More often, researchers do not make this claim; they merely suggest “risk factors” (a risk factor for Alzheimer’s is advanced age).  But reporters overstate the connection between cause and effect. Read the rest of this entry »

If your partner has ADHD, you’d surely know it, right? The signs would have been obvious from the very beginning of the relationship, right?

Not so fast. Sometimes this is true, especially given recent years’ increased awareness. In the last decade or two, better childhood screening also means more young adults with ADHD enter relationships fully aware of their strengths and challenges, and they often have embraced good strategies to achieve balance. But for most ADHD Partner Survey respondents, most of whom were 30 and over, ADHD flew far under the radar screen–sometimes for decades.

Read the rest of this entry »