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You Call This Summer?

The stepmom is convinced I need to find a solid, dependable partner—the opposite of me.
Adult ADHD Blog | Monday May 19th - 2:59pm | More May 2008 Blogs
 
Jane D.

Is there such thing as having too much man? In the manic way that I search for everything else in my life, I've been dating a flurry of men.

There's a dozen on the A list, a dozen more on the shit list. It sucks. I long for stability—a sense of peace—and yet it doesn't even jive with the ADD self. I am driven to crisis, insanity, anything that keeps the blood pumping. Give me a stable, sane man with a stable, sane job, and I'd be on a yawning marathon. I'm like Teflon; nothing sticks for long.

The sister has another albatross around her neck. She's had two kidney transplants and has been a cocktail of medications since she was five. Lately she's been having health flare ups. Her hips are misaligned from the meds, but she can't take too many pain killers because of the transplants. She's been in a depressive state, a pendulum between laughing and crying. I mean, what is the greater or lesser of these two evils? I have the same questions about ADD. There is no cure for this. It really hasn't gotten any better.

At times though, I can see signs of what seem like disorder in others. For example, with the ex lover, he compartmentalizes his life to the point where he won't answer the phone when he's focused on something. Is he ADD or way too rigid and selfish?

Then there's the date I went out with yesterday. The guy is always texting last minute and saying he will be late. Is he just lazy, being a jerk or is he ADD? I wonder about these things a lot. By the time he arrived, 30 minutes late, I wanted to walk off and say, "Have a nice dinner." It's ironic that it irks me when people are late because I am the same, if not worse. But since the guy was somewhat cute, I bit my lip and waited for him, waited and waited, fighting impulsiveness. I will not yell, I will not tell somebody off, I kept repeating.

The guy seemed very ADD, too. During the meal, he was chatting on the Treo, scrolling through it, repeatedly saying he felt like he was on speed. Cute, good career, Ivy League, but high maintenance. Too much like me.

The stepmother is convinced that I need to find a solid-as-a-rock fellow, one of those guys who stays at a job for his entire life, a family man with a lot of patience and who drives the same brand of car for his whole life. I need to find an arch opposite; otherwise, it won't work.

At the back of my head, I keep thinking I should look for the most high-flying ADDer out there and hook up with him. Richard Branson, he is married?

The noble and positive thing to do is to tackle the lemons in life and turn them into lemonade, but most of the time it's short lived. Like all else.

Next Blog » Rebounding and Rebounding

Previous Blog « I Give Up

4 Comments:

  • Posted by Brakna - May 20 2008 @ 4:09 PM
    Love After Love by Derek Walcott
    (Jane this poem is for you)

    The time will come
    when, with elation
    you will greet yourself arriving
    at your own door, in your own mirror
    and each will smile at the other's welcome,

    and say, sit here. Eat.
    You will love again the stranger who was your self.
    Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
    to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

    all your life, whom you ignored
    for another, who knows you by heart.
    Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

    the photographs, the desperate notes,
    peel your own image from the mirror.
    Sit. Feast on your life.

  • Posted by words soft and sweet - May 20 2008 @ 10:19 AM
    back to you, Jane
    S-l-o-w down. I think it's fine that you're dating a lot. You're young and that's what you should do. But I agree with the others that you should take more time and consideration toward yourself and your so-called arch opposites. Linger a little, relax and listen--and the Mr. sane and stables of the world will reveal their passionate, exciting sides in time. (We all know the first hit of the first date and the first stage of a relationship excites the ADD in us. That dies out, unless we get it right and it develops into the next stage, and the next, and the next, a new, different, BETTER excitement.) Why even waste a minute on palm pilot guy and everyone else on the shit list? Reclaim your life and shift it to where and whom it belongs.
  • Posted by Sandhya Trivedi, M.D. - May 19 2008 @ 9:40 PM
    solid, dependable partners
    Jane D. longs "for stability—a sense of peace" but thrives on crises. The assumption that a "stable, sane man with a stable, sane job" is boring needs to be re-examined. The excitement lies in the eye of the beholder. His deepest interests could be fascinating, informative, inspiring - he just doesn't display everything he's got like a poster right away. Look for the rudder. Learn about him sincerely - then behold. Sandhya Trivedi,M.D.
  • Posted by Brakna - May 19 2008 @ 4:51 PM
    two cents worth
    I've been reading your blog the past few months. It seems to me that for some reason you are unconsciously searching for emotionally unavailable men. The "step mother" here recommended a 'solid-as-a-rock fellow' who could provide you with what you really need, yet this seems to be a big turn off to you. I think those of us with ADD put some emotional barriers toward others, afraid that if they found out (about our ADD) we would get rejected. I know I have struggled with this too in my past relationships. I think you need some time to develop your inner self, a sense of inner peace and stability before doing all this serial dating. Perhaps you should seek other like-minded ADDers in a support group in NYC. Best of luck and du courage.
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