"More and more often, adults are realizing that the reason they are struggling so much in their relationship is that they are impacted by previously undiagnosed adult ADHD. The Couple's Guide to Thriving with ADHD gives concrete answers and strategies to those suffering from adult ADHD that couples can immediately use to improve their relationships. This book addresses questions from both ADHD and non-ADHD partners and provides straightforward advice arranged in a way that makes it easy to find the specific answers couples seek. It covers topics that include diagnosing adult ADHD, how to begin bringing about changes, communication techniques, dealing with anger and frustration, and rebuilding intimacy in a relationship. Part reference manual and part cheerleader, this is the go-to book for couples struggling with ADHD who want to actively work to improve their relationships"--
Your partner’s attention deficit disorder (ADD) may not seem like a big deal at first, but eventually, the dynamics surrounding his or her impulsivity, forgetfulness, distractibility, and restlessness can really strain your relationship. You don’t want to act like a parent, yet you may feel like you can’t rely on your partner to get things done. Loving Someone with Attention Deficit Disorder is your guide to navigating a relationship with someone with ADD so you can create healthy boundaries while remaining sympathetic to your partner’s symptoms. An essential resource for every couple affected by ADD, this book will help you: • Understand medication and other treatments • Recover quickly when your partner’s symptoms frustrate you • Establish personal boundaries to avoid excessive caretaking • Identify and take care of your own needs so you can feel more relaxed
Everyone involved with AD/HD will find the information in this book invaluable, especially people with AD/HD and couples therapists, who often mistake AD/HD for communication problems or personality differences. Meticulously researched and presented with empathy and humor, _Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?_ offers the latest information from top experts, who explain the science and proven protocols for reducing AD/HD's most challenging symptoms. Real-life details come from the partners themselves, who share their stories with touching candor yet plenty of humor.
This pioneering book explores the impact of ADHD on a couple’s sex life and relationship. It explains how a better sex life will benefit your relationship (and vice versa) and why that’s especially important for couples with one partner with ADHD. Grounded in innovative research, ADHD After Dark draws on data from a survey of over 3000 adults in a couple where one partner has ADHD. Written from the author’s unique perspective as both an expert in ADHD and a certified sex therapist, the book describes the many effects of ADHD on couples’ sex lives and happiness, covering areas such as negotiating sexual differences, performance problems, low desire, porn, making time for sex, infidelity, and more. The book outlines key principles for a great sex life for couples with ADHD and offers strategies and treatment interventions where specific issues arise. Written in a readable and entertaining style, ADHD After Dark offers clear information on sexuality and relationships and is full of valuable advice on how to improve both. This guide will be an essential read for adults with ADHD, as well as their partners or spouses, and therapists who work with ADHD clients and couples.
In total, this volume addresses many of the issues that couples face when either one or both partners has ADHD and the many ways that clinicians can help them in dealing with these issues.Although historically the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD have focused on children, more recently clinicians and researchers have explored the impact of ADHD on adults. Few, however, have focused on the effects of adult ADHD on relationships and marriages, which makes this a must-read for all of those interested in and working with adults with ADHD.
Since ADHD became a well-known condition, decades ago, much of the research and clinical discourse has focused on youth. In recent years, attention has expanded to the realm of adult ADHD and the havoc it can wreak on many aspects of adult life, including driving safety, financial management, education and employment, and interpersonal difficulties. Adult ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy breaks new ground in explaining and suggesting approaches for treating the range of challenges that ADHD can create within a most important and delicate relationship: the intimate couple. With the help of contributors who are experts in their specialties, Pera and Robin provide the clinician with a step-by-step, nuts-and-bolts approach to help couples enhance their relationship and improve domestic cooperation. This comprehensive guide includes psychoeducation, medication guidelines, cognitive interventions, co-parenting techniques, habit change and communication strategies, and ADHD-specific clinical suggestions around sexuality, money, and cyber-addictions. More than twenty detailed case studies provide real-life examples of ways to implement the interventions.
"The ADHD Marriage Workbook: A User-Friendly Guide for Improving Your Romantic Relationship" If you are one of the millions of people with adult attention deficit disorder, you ve probably noticed its adverse effects on your romantic relationships. For example, your spontaneity, which was so attractive at the start of your relationship, may later seem like a lack of dependability, straining the patience of your partner. Or maybe your partner is frustrated by your inability to communicate clearly. Or perhaps you suspect that your irritability and lack of interest in your partner s needs are the result of the difficulty you have staying focused. Psychotherapist Michael Bell understands. A professional counselor specializing in adult ADD, Bell has the disorder himself and has designed the skills-building steps in "The ADHD Marriage Workbook" especially for short attention spans. This concise and engaging workbook contains an array of solution- focused techniques that will help you stop avoiding the problems that sabotage your relationships, face the intimacy issues that frustrate your partner, and begin to do the work you need to do to build a happy, lasting love. Michael T. Bell, Ph.D., has been in private mental health practice since 1999, working primarily with adults and children with ADHD spectrum disorders. In "The ADHD Marriage Workbook, " he draws on his clinical experience as well as his personal history as an adult with ADD, helping him to develop the most useful and practical exercises. His goal in writing this workbook has been to help couples affected by ADHD spectrum disorders develop fulfilling relationships. Michael currently serves as the director of child, family, and prevention services at Rockbridge Community Services in Lexington, Virginia, and is adjunct professor of psychology at Northern Virginia Community College. He has been married to his wonderful wife, Anita since 1993. They live in Stafford, Virginia, with their two boys, Brady and Brice. "(The ADHD Marriage Workbook was originally published as You, Your Relationship and Your ADD)" "
You hear and read a lot about ways to improve your relationship. But if you've tried these without much success, you're not alone. Many highly reactive couples—pairs that are quick to argue, anger, and blame—need more than just the run-of-the-mill relationship advice to solve their problems in love. When destructive emotions are at the heart of problems in your relationship, no amount of effective communication or intimacy building will fix what ails it. If you're part of a "high-conflict" couple, you need to get control of your emotions first, to stop making things worse, and only then work on building a better relationship. The High-Conflict Couple adapts the powerful techniques of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) into skills you can use to tame out-of-control emotions that flare up in your relationship. Using mindfulness and distress tolerance techniques, you'll learn how to deescalate angry situations before they have a chance to explode into destructive fights. Other approaches will help you disclose your fears, longings, and other vulnerabilities to your partner and validate his or her experiences in return. You'll discover ways to manage problems with negotiation, not conflict, and to find true acceptance and closeness with the person you love the most. This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit — an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.
Are you more distant from your spouse than you’d like to be? Do you or your spouse waste time mindlessly viewing email or surfing the Web? Welcome to the club! Modern marriage is busy, distracted, and overloaded to extremes, with ever-increasing lists of things to do, superficial electronic connections, and interrupted moments. The good news is that there are straightforward and effective ways to restore communication and connection, resurrect happiness and romance, and strengthen—even save—a marriage. • Observe the natural sequence of sustaining love: attention, time, connection, and play. • Develop and nurture empathy—the essential building block to healthy communication. • Carve out small moments of uninterrupted attention for each other. • Identify the pressures that our crazybusy lifestyles put on love and marriage, and fight back with tenderness and appreciation. Complete with scripts, tips, communication techniques, and a detailed 30-day reconnection plan, as well as inspiring real-life stories, Married to Distraction will set couples on a course of understanding, healing, and love.
Do you ever feel like your husband is an overgrown child? Or a really big teenager that needs to be reminded of everything or he'll forget. He's restless. He's jumpy. He's impatient, impulsive, and chronically late! He simply refuses to get organized and puts off everything--and I mean everything--until the last minute. Is this the guy you married? What the heck happened to him? Was he always this way? Or is it all in your head? More importantly, is there anything you can do to fix it, or do you have to suffer with his atrocious habits for the rest of your life? It's difficult enough managing your career, the house and the kids. Who has time to micromanage their husband's life? If you are the wife of a man with ADD/ADHD this may have struck a painful chord, and for good reason. Beyond the daily difficulties of being on the receiving end of ADD/ADHD, your plight is often ignored by therapists and other professionals. Yes, many books and articles have been written describing the challenges of people with ADD/ADHD, but few focus on those who suffer the most from this condition - namely, their partners. This book is an attempt to do just that; to offer solid education and practical tips to help you deal with the daily frustrations of living with someone who has ADD/ADHD. This book is a helpful guide for women who think their husbands might have ADD/ADHD. Or for women who's husbands have already been diagnosed. George Sachs PsyD and Timothy Norman LCSW offer advice for wives to help their husbands live a successful life with Adult ADD/ADHD. Learn ways to support his growth without enabling him or exhausting yourself. Dr. Sachs is a licensed child and adult psychologist, specializing in the treatment of ADD/ADHD in children, teen and adults. He is founder of the Sachs Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, serving individuals and families looking for answers to ADD/ADHD. Why I Wrote This Book Much has been written on managing the symptoms of ADD/ADHD, but these books were almost always directed at the client himself, as if it was up to the person with ADD/ADHD alone to solve his problems and get on with life. Yes, there were chat groups and forums where wives could air their complaints - but very few resources that gave wives tools to take control of their situation by actively helping their husbands deal with their challenges. This book is an attempt to do just that: to bring together in one place a host of information to help wives not only understand their husband's condition, but also to empower them to steer their relationship in a healthier direction. Since coming to this new understanding, I, along with my colleagues at the Sachs Center, have been able to help scores of women gain a new understanding of ADD/ADHD and how they can transform their marriages from a living nightmare into a much more peaceful and harmonious state of affairs. As we wrote this book, we reached out to scores of men and women across the country to learn from their experiences. If you have picked up this book, then we both already know you need help - but you must also realize that you are not alone. My sincere hope is that these pages will provide you with the information you need to begin your journey to a healthier and happier life, one that allows you to enjoy the excitement and creativity that first attracted you to your husband without falling victim to the excesses associated with his ADD/ADHD. -- George Sachs PsyD
