Every relationship requires patience. This is true whether it’s a family member, friend, spouse, co-worker, boss, or even your doggie. You need patience for all types of things people do, both time management related and not. This post we will focus on the requirement for patience for people with ADHD and how they view time. People with ADHD view time in a different way than the rest of the world. In addition, this can differ from person to person with ADHD. I have always had an interest and fascination with time so that made my experience unique. So if you are wondering how that looks for me and you don’t know me already, it goes something like this. I am the same person who makes time budgets and schedules and still manages to run late sometimes. I have a clear and detailed list and sometimes randomly fail to check it. I know others as well as myself who have ADHD and how they think. This is similar to focus. Someone with ADHD is going to be able to manage time when it is something they are really into. What and when this is will differ from person to person, and the only way to figure this out is to know the individual, or yourself. Here are few steps to help you have patience with someone with ADHD.
Find out how they work. The most important step to having patience with anyone is understanding how they work. The leading cause of impatience is the lack of understanding. At least I can say that for my own experience. The phrase I say the most when I am impatient is “I don’t understand...why/when/where, etc.”
Check yourself. Take a look at yourself also. If you are like me, you may naturally get impatient. The problem may not always be with the other person, especially if it’s over a little thing. Also, if you tend to overreact, that is not going to help the situation at all.
Create a situation to work in your favor. If you are dealing with someone who is chronically late or moves slower than you would like, then allow more time. If they are always late, tell them to arrive earlier than you are expecting them to.
Remain calm. Like with any situation, freaking out and getting stressed out will not make the situation any better. Even the best case scenario involves you getting stressed out and aggravated. At the very worst, you can make the other person upset and both of you are angry at each other, or even worse upset a whole group.
To reiterate again, every relationship requires patience and can experience frustration. Since someone with ADHD may think differently than you (if you don't have it yourself) then it requires a bit of more understanding and patience to know how they think. Even if you have ADHD, it can be difficult to understand yourself even. I will get into that in my next post.