Dr. William (Bill) Dodson

But people with ADHD go through it in their head dozens and dozens and dozens of times.

One, nobody likes walking on eggshells.

Because the response is going to be, you wounded me with what you said.

It comes back to them as an accusation of your bad.

that's not good for any healthy relationship.

That means that the other partner all of a sudden has to wear a mask.

They can't be authentic.

They have to be checking every word, every tone of voice.

And again, it loses all the spontaneity, all the gentleness.

And again, especially if that person, either one of them, has not been told what the hell is going on.

This is my crazy ex-girlfriend type of thing.

So yeah, it's disruptive.

And amazingly, it's also disruptive between the ADHD parent and their children.

All they see in terms of parenting is what happened to them.

And so they respond to their kids in exactly the same way and then hate themselves for it later.

So, in an ideal world, a parent would get the diagnosis, but beyond diagnosis, find out what it really means.

It's our diagnostic criteria.

It doesn't tell you anything about what it's like to live that way.

Learn all the implications for their own lives.

Get on some medication that helps the majority of people put on what I call emotional armor.