What’s the Difference Between ADHD and ADD?

What’s the Difference Between ADHD and ADD?

https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/difference-between-add-and-adhd

Adult ADHD
Adults with ADHD have typically had the disorder since childhood, but it may not be diagnosed until later in life. An evaluation usually occurs at the prompting of a peer, family member, or co-worker who observes problems at work or in relationships.
Adults can have any of the three subtypes of ADHD. Adult ADHD symptoms can differ from those of children because of the relative maturity of adults, as well as physical differences between adults and children.

Severity
The symptoms of ADHD can range from mild to severe, depending on a person’s unique physiology and environment. Some people are mildly inattentive or hyperactive when they perform a task they don’t enjoy, but they have the ability to focus on tasks they like. Others may experience more severe symptoms. These can affect school, work, and social situations.

ADD & ADHD

Note: Symptoms of attention deficit disorder range from mild to severe and always interfere with normal development and daily functioning. A diagnosis of attention deficit disorder typically requires that symptoms be present by the age of 12 and in more than one setting (such as both home and school). Attention deficit disorder may persist into adulthood, creating difficulties in one's occupation or social relationships. While hyperactivity and impulsivity are not always present as symptoms, attention deficit disorder is commonly referred to as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. —abbreviation ADD



https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/attention%20deficit%20disorder

https://www.additudemag.com/save-your-adhd-relationship-marriage/

10 Ways to Save Your Relationship

All you need is love, right? Wrong. If you or your partner has ADHD, follow these rules to foster communication, build trust, and reciprocate support.



By Jonathan Halverstadt

ADD/ADHD Behaviors

11 ADD/ADHD Behaviors That Could Be Harming Your Marriage.

By Sheri Stritof


ADD/ADHD Behaviors and Consequences That Hurt Marriages

• Irresponsibility and Lack of Follow-Through: When it comes to household chores, your spouse does not follow through or accept any responsibility for the disorganization in your home or for household maintenance. A messy house and who does what and when is a major issue in your marriage.
• Interruptions: Your spouse interrupts you and others a great deal to the point where you think what's the point in trying to have a conversation and you are embarrassed by the apparent rudeness towards your friends and family members.
• Denial: Your spouse won't admit to making a mistake even when it is obvious. Your partner may also deny the ADHD diagnosis.
• Distractedness: When your spouse is inattentive, easily distracted, or impulsive, you feel like climbing a wall and disappearing.
• Nagging: You dislike yourself for nagging, but you don't know what else to do to get your disorganized spouse to finish anything, or put anything away, or keep promises, etc.
• Financial Problems: Your financial situation is precarious because your spouse is not good at handling money, overspends, forgets to pay bills, can't keep a job, and/or won't talk about money problems with you.

• Taking a Parental Role: You often feel more like a parent than an equal partner to your spouse. You find yourself reminding your forgetful spouse about taking medications, meeting appointments, remembering birthdays, completing projects, etc.
• Low-Sex Marriage: Your sexual relationship is less than either of you would like it to be.
• Difficulty Making Decisions: Making decisions or talking about difficult issues with your spouse is nearly impossible.
• Being Ignored: As your spouse retreats into a computer game or other project, you may feel ignored or think that your marriage is in a rut, but your spouse doesn't see your marriage in the same way.
• Uneasiness: Walking on eggshells around your spouse is the only way you find you can keep the peace in your marriage.

 

While these are not all the actions and behaviors associated with AD/HD that can hurt a marriage, they are classic examples. Even though your marriage may be challenged by these behaviors, with proper diagnosis, treatment, and a willingness of both of you to create positive coping strategies, you too can have a successful and joyful marriage.


https://www.verywellmind.com/behaviors-that-could-kill-marriage-2302974

ADD/ADHD Partner acts like a child

My Husband’s a Moonshot

“I’m married to a brilliant man with ADHD, who works at NASA. But he leaves his brilliant mind at the door when he comes home. My kids avoid him, and I feel like he’s my sixth child. I want to be married to the adult he is at work.”

By Melissa Orlov






https://www.additudemag.com/my-husbands-a-moonshot/

The Details—Did The Traits That Attracted You…Remain?

BY:  Gina Pera

One ADHD Partner Survey respondent wrote:

Many of the traits that attracted me to my husband became problems in our marriage.












https://adhdrollercoaster.org/adhd-and-relationships/did-the-traits-that-attracted-youremain/

Roller coaster life with ADD/ADHD

BY: Gina Pera 





What do I mean by the term “self-medicating with conflict?”?  Given the country’s partisan rancor, the topic is fresh on my mind.
“Too much fighting” was a top reason for leaving the relationship, according to  ADHD Partner Survey respondents who had divorced,  separated from, or stopped dating their ADHD partner.
Conflict can be unrelenting in relationships affected by undiagnosed, untreated, or otherwise poorly managed ADHD.  The myriad factors include:

• Poor communication created by ADHD-related challenges in listening and remembering
• “Denial” of ADHD symptoms (which often has both physiological and psychological underpinnings)
• A co-existing condition such as conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder, autistic-spectrum disorder, or even anxiety and Obsessive-compulsive Disorder.

Certainly, ignorance around all these factors fuels the fighting on both sides.



https://adhdrollercoaster.org/adhd-and-relationships/arguments-conflict-as-self-medication/

BY: Gina Pera

ADD relationships

BY: Gina Pera



Breaking Old (ADHD Relationship) Patterns, After Not Breaking a Fall













https://adhdrollercoaster.org/tools-and-strategies/adult-adhd-and-relationships-with-gina-pera/




BY: Gina Pera

To much dramas in ADD/ADHD relationships By Daniel Amen, M.D.

Why We Crave the Drama That Sabotages Relationships

ADHD brains crave stimulation, and they just might chase relationship drama to get it. Next time you catch yourself (or your partner) falling into these common traps — outlined here by Dr. Daniel Amen — take a step back and re-evaluate.

By Daniel Amen, M.D.

“I Say the Opposite of What You Say”

People who play this game take the opposite position of the other person in the conversation, whether they believe the opposite or not. If your spouse complains that you do not listen to him, you deny it and say that he doesn’t listen to you. If a parent tells a child to clean his messy room, he says that his room isn’t messy. The need to oppose seems more important than the truth.















https://www.additudemag.com/too-much-drama-relationships/


By
Daniel Amen, M.D.






Many people with ADHD unnecessarily create too much drama in their lives as a way to boost adrenaline and stimulate their frontal lobes. These interpersonal “games” are not engaged in willingly; they are driven by the needs of the ADHD brain. Most deny that they engage in such behaviors, but I’ve heard about them from many patients with all 7 types of ADD.
Let’s look at these games, so you can catch yourself when you are “playing” them.

“Let’s Have a Problem”

Many people with ADHD pick on others to get a rise out of them, to get them upset, to make them crazy. Family members of my patients say, “I’m tired of fighting with my brother (sister, mother, son). He (she) always has to have a problem.”
There is a reason why people with ADHD play this game: When the ADHD brain doesn’t have enough stimulation, it looks for ways to increase its activity. Being angry or negative has an immediate stimulating effect on the brain. When you get upset, your body produces increased amounts of adrenaline, raising the heart rate and brain activity.

“I Bet I Can Get You to Yell at Me”

Many with ADHD are masters at getting others to scream and yell. Such behaviors give an adrenaline rush to the individual with ADHD, but they may lead to serious consequences, such as divorce, fights at school, or being fired from a job. This game is not planned. The individual with ADHD senses vulnerability in others and works on them until something gives.













By Daniel Amen, M.D. 

Don’t Just Talk. ADD/ADHD

https://www.additudemag.com/speak-easy/

Don’t Just Talk, Communicate

Good communication is the key to strong relationships. This is true for adults with and without attention deficit. The problem is, adults with ADHD often think that they’re communicating when really they’re just talking. How to get your feelings across effectively with friends and partners.

By Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.

Fighting fair in marriage

https://couplestherapyinc.com/13-crucial-rules-for-fighting-fair-in-marriage/

By Daniel Dashnaw 

Any discussion about rules for fighting fair in marriage first has to deal with the question “why fight at all? Isn’t fighting a sign of a troubled relationship?”

Before we have any discussion about rules for fighting fair in marriage, we have to discuss why conflict is not only normal, and unavoidable, it’s often necessary.

By Melissa Orlov Ways ADHD Ruins Marriages

9 Ways ADHD Ruins Marriages

“The most destructive pattern in an ADHD relationship is when one partner becomes the responsible ‘parent’ figure and the other the irresponsible ‘child.'” 8 more unhealthy ADD marriage mistakes, and how to remedy them.

By Melissa Orlov















https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-divorce-rate-marriage-help/

Adults with ADHD know that communication can break down when they are preoccupied with a particular problem, and don’t — or can’t — get their feelings across to their partners.

BY Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.



https://www.additudemag.com/speak-easy/

ADHD Relationships

10 Ways to Save Your Relationship

All you need is love, right? Wrong. If you or your partner has ADHD, follow these rules to foster communication, build trust, and reciprocate support.

By Jonathan Halverstadt

Commit to Commitment

The main symptoms of ADHD — impulsiveness and the need for constant stimulation — can enhance, as well as threaten, relationships. Because adults with ADHD  are impatient and easily bored, adventurous sexual activities are highly stimulating. Attraction to the new and different may make it difficult to stay monogamous. That’s why it is vital to be committed to the idea of “relationship” — even more so than your partner.




https://www.additudemag.com/save-your-adhd-relationship-marriage/

ADD/ADHD and video games

BY: Larry Maucieri Ph.D., ABPP-CN

Video game use is quite common in individuals with ADHD. And in today’s blog we look not so much at the goods and evils of video games, but at the attraction to video games that many kids and adults with ADHD have. What keeps them coming back? And why can people with ADHD focus so intensely on video games for so long but not focus on other things in their lives?










https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-distracted-couple/201603/what-s-in-game-the-draw-video-games-in-adhd?fbclid=IwAR1y3mySm1q01klolqiU-tq-l3EPuQ4D7B-UcgIVnJocIxnDYx4VsiOBGvU

Risks Of ADHD?

https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/risks-of-untreated-adhd#1

Risks of ADHD in relationships

Do adults with ADHD have anger issues?

Do adults with ADHD have anger issues?
Anger outbursts are often excessive and explosive, but individuals

Predisposing Factors

ADHD is a persistent condition that arises in early childhood. Adults who were diagnosed with or have experienced the symptoms of ADHD as are more likely to have ADHD as adults.² There is, however, no evidence of adult onset.⁶ The following is a summary of predisposing factors of ADHD for children which has the potential to extend to adulthood.

By/From: .myvmc.com


https://www.myvmc.com/diseases/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-in-adults-adult-adhd/

How You Should Not Speak to Someone With ADHD

How You Should Not Speak to Someone With ADHD

By Keath Low


Whether you are the parent of a child with ADHD, the partner or spouse of someone with ADHD, or have ADHD yourself, you have likely heard some (or all) of the following faulty and provoking statements about ADHD.

If you are someone who wants to be supportive of a family living with ADHD, you may be interested in the following list.











https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-adhd-correcting-myths-about-adhd-20456

Advice for the Partner of an ADHD Spouse

Advice for the Partner of an ADHD Spouse

By Keath Low


Advice for the Partner

Dr. Goodman says it is very helpful for the non-ADHD spouse to develop an understanding of the impact ADHD can have on an individual’s daily functioning.

“The non-ADHD spouse may assume their ADHD partner is being passive aggressive when they are late, procrastinating, or forgetful,” notes Dr. Goodman. “It may look like the ADHD partner is unmotivated to change or trying to annoy, when in fact the ADHD individual is impaired and unable to perform at the required level.”

Most often the problematic behaviors of the ADHD partner are a function of an inability and impairment rather than a motivation issue. With this insight and understanding the non-ADHD spouse is often less frustrated.




https://www.verywellmind.com/marriage-and-adult-add-20411

ADHD Medication Side Effects

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/medications/adhd-medication-side-effects



ADHD Medication Side Effects

By The Understood Team