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The ADHD Effect on Marriage was listed in Huff Post as a top book that therapists suggest all couples should read.
To Treeminer
Submitted by MelissaOrlov on
It's great to hear from the ADD person on the site, and great that you are the one who is pushing for therapy and help. It sounds as if you and your wife have complimentary styles (she is the logical one, you are the more emotional one) and this always takes special effort when it comes to communication and building good communication skills. It also means that an easy way to get around conflict is to divide tasks - in your case, you dropped out of the household tasks because it was easier to let the more organized half of the household take over. But, as you now know, that's a real relationship mistake because it is SUCH a DRAG to have to do all that stuff and feel as if your spouse doesn't care enough to help!
And, yes, this is about whether or not you are communicating that you care, which it seems you really do. So, you are moving in the right direction by taking on some of the chores again, and playing with the kids again (which is your way of showing them that you care - nothing communicates "I care" to a child as well as spending good, fun time with them).
In almost every household there is one person who earns more than the other person does, and that's just fine. If your wife's job is really stressful, then you can show her you care by really picking up the ball and making her life easier for a while until things get better...again, it sounds as if you are starting that - keep it up!
Non-ADD people get into the habit of expecting that their ADD spouse will not follow through on doing something that they are supposed to do. It is easy when this happens to lose trust in the ADD spouse's ability to support you. It will take a while before your wife sees that you have changed. You report that the meds make it much easier for you to do those pesky tasks and tackle tough things...GREAT! They're working! Make sure you keep taking them! Have patience as your wife adjusts to the "new" you, and keep at it. Also, keep the lines of communicaiton open. For example, it's perfectly fair to sit down at the end of the day and say "I did X, Y, and Z today and was thinking I would do A, B and C tomorrow. Are those the things that are most important to you, or should I be focusing on something else?" This both gets her attention around what you did already, and also sets you up for the maximum amount of success for tomorrow (better to do the things she values most as you are trying to regain her trust than to do stuff she doesn't care about!)
"Falling out of love" is a tough one...but rest assured that you can both fall back into love as well. Think about setting time up that is just for fun stuff - whatever that means to you as a couple...and make sure that you get enough adult and adult time (vs. adult and kids time). "Working" on a marriage is great when you are talking about creating better communication patterns and the like, but "work" needs to be replaced by "play" sometimes to reignite romance.
As for letting go of the past...you wife will need to work through her anger with the therapist...but also encourage her to address the anger and then let go of the past. The past had some mistakes in it that, when revisited, bring back her pain. Better to concentrate on building a wonderful future together again.
Keep in touch and let us all know how it goes....
Melissa Orlov