Adult ADHD: Social Impact

Video Transcript

"ADHD, as part of it's wide reach of sprinkling disorder about in adult's life, can have a profound impact on a person's social relationships and romantic relationships. People with ADHD sometimes are too impulsive in their speech. They blurt out things that may be not appropriate to say, they cut off and interrupt other people, which is of course very off-putting. Or they may talk to an incessant point or level that the other person in the conversation has become completely disengaged, or they've lost interest, or they feel that they're not being valued in the conversation. So ADHD people can end up very isolated, just in terms of not being able to converse with people properly. ADHD people are impulsive sometimes in behavior, and may act a way in public that makes other people uncomfortable. They may make poor choices about behavior--like I've said in prior segments, ADHD sometimes comes with substance abuse, so there might be substance abuse behaviors or activity that are uncomfortable. In a romantic relationship, ADHD can make a person look like they're not interested in their partner, like they're not engaged in their relationship. ADHD spouses sometimes rely on the other spouse for all the organization, record-keeping, bill-keeping in the house and it can cause an imbalance in the workload of a relationship, which can be very stressful. I'll take a minute too, to mention that in some people with untreated or under treated ADHD, sexual difficulties occur because a person loses focus on the arousal state, loses focus on the activity, and can become completely disengaged from sexual activity at the drop of a hat, which is frustrating and confusing for a partner who feels that they may have done something wrong or off-putting, and confusing and frustrated for the person with ADHD because once you start having sex or a sexual activity, who doesn't want to complete that activity? Nobody's trying to lose focus, it's just something that happens."