Popping this in here as not sure where else to put it, figure ADHD and ASD are close enough in the neurological rainbow that someone here may suffer from ADHD or at least know enough about it to have a vague idea about this.
I'm wondering if my boyfriend may have ADHD - given how new it is this may have been missed at school age, and after meeting someone with ADHD I realise now that like with AS the characteristics or 'symptoms' can be subtle and varied between different people with ADHD....but like with AS most sources seem to give details of ADHD in children, not how it effects or shows in adults.
On the attention side he's VERY easily distracted, it thus takes him forever to do anything, yet if you point this out to him he insists that he's doing the task - for example trying to get ready to go out, while brushing hair he'll get so distracted by the TV he'll stop mid brush-stroke, you say his name or ask him to get on with it and he'll get angry, these days I just turn over the TV to break his focus. He cannot manage multiple tasks at once, I've learned even if tasks are similar or involve going into the same room (e.g. 'go put the cup in the kitchen, while there can you also put x in the bin and y in the fridge') not to bother because even once he does finally get up to do it he'll not be able to manage them all at once, he'll either get confused or forget what he's doing. He 'daydreams' only this is not dreaming so much as going into a trance, he doesn't always think anything, he'll just sit or stand anything from a minute to as long as twenty minutes, just staring into space without realising what he's doing. None of this is laziness or male inability to multi-task.
On the hyper-active side he cannot easily sit still and gets bored easily. He drums on EVERYTHING - he is a drummer, but I've known drummers in the past, his constant drumming crosses over into something more than just a love of rhythm, and when he's not drumming he'll pick things up and start playing with them, he always seems to need something in his hands. He talks forever, there is just no getting a word in with him when he comes home from work, he'll also talk to anyone about anything, not always focused and sometimes what he says is not censored. He has been banned from a lot of places with his friends - this may well be youthful foolishness with friends, but he does seem to be the most hyper out of all his friends.
As a child I don't think he was a bad kid, but I have no doubt he was just as hyper and just as easily distracted as he is now, he did get into a lot of fights as a child because he would just act on his anger without any thought as to the consequences.
I have no doubt that there is something wrong with him, he's said that it wouldn't surprise him if he did have ADHD and has told me in the past that he suspects he may have something such as bipolar disorder. Am I possibly on the right track thinking he may have ADHD, and if so does anyone have any resources for dealing with an ADHD partner?
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Bloodheart
Good-looking girls break hearts, and goodhearted girls mend them.
02 Nov 2011, 8:23 am
