Pete Wright

Tom, studies show consistent difficulties for people with ADHD around forming and keeping friendships.

30% of adults with ADHD also live with social anxiety, which makes this whole thing even more destructive and stupid.

And add in rejection sensitivity, which is the hair-trigger emotional response that you get when natural interactions, like neutral interactions, feel like complete rejection.

And you have this nervous system that desperately wants connection but keeps pulling the emergency brake on it.

And it stinks.

That's the stupid ADHD tax friendship framework.

And I think a lot of people, ADHD or not, probably recognize this pattern.

What the research actually says about being better.

Oh, okay.

So we get to turn a corner a little bit, and it actually presents, I think, some genuinely useful things.

One, friendship quality at 30 predicts your well-being at 50, right?

Huh, okay.

Let that land, right?

That is from some legit longitudinal research tracking people over decades.

The friendships you invest in when you are younger aren't just making that day today better.

They are laying groundwork for your future mental health.

And it's not sentimental.

It's epidemiological.

what that's cool.

It means that any, you know, when they say like the best day to do X is today.