Title: The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps
Author: Melissa Orlov
Genre: ADHD, Relationships
Author’s Website: ADHD & Marriage
Available at: Author’s Website
Dr Perera’s Rating:
Living with a spouse who has ADHD or being in a relationship when you have ADHD and your partner does not can put a lot of strain on the relationship. Once loving couples may find their living patterns are “incompatible” and become at odds with each other. The ADHD Effect on Marriage by Melissa Orlov addresses the challenges that couples face when living with ADHD and provides a roadmap to overcome these challenges.
The book helps couples understand the impact of ADHD on their marriage and provides six steps to rebuilding the relationship. The author writes from personal and professional experience, having lived in a marriage with a partner with ADHD and providing coaching for couples with ADHD. You can learn more about Melissa Orlov and her coaching practice on our website.
The biggest challenge that many couples have when dealing with ADHD is that typical solutions to relationship matters don’t work. Despite their best efforts, they can’t seem to resolve their issues. This can leave the partners even more frustrated than before, and wondering whether they should try at all. Orlov shows why these typical approaches don’t work and outlines the best ways to improve relationship dynamics for couples when one or more partners have ADHD.
Building empathy, overcoming negative emotions, seeking treatment, improving communication and setting boundaries are covered as important steps to achieving a healthy relationship. For couples where ADHD may have been recently diagnosed or undiagnosed, the observations in The ADHD Effect on Marriage can be eye-opening. What seemed like unrelated relationship struggles suddenly come into greater focus and couples are able to see for the first time how ADHD is impacting their relationship.
Awarded “Best Psychology Book of 2010” by ForeWord Reviews, and updated in 2020, this is a must-have book for couples where one or more both partners has ADHD. It provides a better understanding for non-ADHD partners in terms of thinking and behaviour patterns that can help them find more common ground. And, more than that, it provides a roadmap to a healthy relationship for couples who thought it might never be possible.
The ADHD Effect on Marriage is available via the author’s website above in paperback, Kindle, PDF and audiobook versions.
Dr Mahendra Perera is a General Psychiatrist who treats adult patients in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Perera has specific interests in ADHD, Mood Disorders and Addiction. In addition working with his patients, he has also contributed to research across a number of specialties and helped many young doctors make their way in the medical field. Learn more about Dr Perera.
Please note: Dr Perera has no financial arrangement with any of the providers listed on the site. These resources are provided as a courtesy to patients, and are not intended as a recommendation or endorsement.