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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask if you'd be friends with me?

124 replies

3LeggedFlamingo · 04/11/2022 00:06

Going out on a limb and putting myself up for a slating here, but in the effort to better understand people and how they react to me I've decided to ask here...

I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD. All my life I have struggled with not fitting in, feeling out of place in the world and battling depression due to underachieving in life. On the surface to other people I think I seemed to have my shit together, and I could cope alright except for keeping on top of my post, bills, emails, and things at work. Not things my friends would see though. Although I was always a hit socially awkward for fear of saying the wrong thing and looking stupid.

After I had my second child I think my brain just kind of fried itself. My ADHD symptoms got worse and I couldn't cope anymore. I had made a few parent friends from my first child's class, and a few of us were quite close. But I can tell for the past couple of years (seemed to align with the arrival of my second child and my ADHD symptoms worsening) that a couple of my closest friends are distancing themselves from me without any real understanding as to why from myself. I do understand that I can appear quite scatty and flakey and at times it might look like I don't care or I'm not listening, so....

AIBU by wondering if the below would a) put you off being friends with me and / or b) if I took the plunge and told you that I did hade ADHD would you be a little more understanding and accepting of why I am the way I am. Or have I already burnt those bridges?

Some of my ADHD traits / symptoms:

Forgetting to read / reply to texts for days / weeks. But when I finally do I always apologise for taking so long.

Forgetting names, faces, details of conversations. After 6 years, I still don't know the names of some of the children in my child's class or their parents even though I see them everyday. This can make conversations with friends difficult because I have to pretend I know who they're talking about Confused

Constantly seeming a bit disorganised & forgetful

Being late more often than not

Forgetting birthdays / important dates like when they're off on holiday and where

I can't do small talk. I have no idea how to do this. Most friendships are superficial because I don't know how to take the friendship to the next level by talking about spouses, family details, life, etc. I just tend to talk about the same stuff like the weather, what are they did or are doing on the weekend. Inevitably I'll forget and ask the same thing the next time I see them.

Slow to talk / think during a conversation because I'm thinking about 1000 different things at the same time and over analysing what I'm saying. I can seem bored, tired and uninterested

My house is always a mess so I don't invite people over. It also never occurs to me to invite other children over for play dates.

Would this piss you off? Would you be a bit more understanding if you knew I had ADHD and couldn't really help by doing the above stuff?

I can't really change my brain and who I am. But I'd like to try and understand what annoys people and if there's something (anything I can do) to help make myself a little more relatable and better friends with my "friends" (all fairly superficial).

OP posts:
twinkleteas · 04/11/2022 00:11

Sounds to me like you might also have undiagnosed autism. Autism and adhd often go hand in hand.

I wouldn't be put off being friends with you if you are a kind person. I do think that sometimes having diagnoses can help you understand yourself and others to understand you too.

GooglyEyeballs · 04/11/2022 00:13

I wouldn't be put off of being friends with you but some of the things you said makes me think we probably wouldn't be that close more through circumstance than anything but I think it would more come down to whether or not we clicked naturally.

3LeggedFlamingo · 04/11/2022 00:15

twinkleteas · 04/11/2022 00:11

Sounds to me like you might also have undiagnosed autism. Autism and adhd often go hand in hand.

I wouldn't be put off being friends with you if you are a kind person. I do think that sometimes having diagnoses can help you understand yourself and others to understand you too.

Thanks for your reply. I have taken quite a few online autism assessment tests, but never scored very high on any of them. The ADHD ones on the other hand would have me scoring above 95% on every one.

I do believe my eldest may have undiagnosed ASD (and ADHD) though which is also why I have looked into ASD for myself

OP posts:
namechangedx50 · 04/11/2022 00:15

*But I'd like to try and understand what annoys people
*
I think you already do! Lots of the things you listed (forgetting details/dates, not replying to texts/being late).

Clearly you do understand what annoys people already, great first step at trying to make a conscious change.

To answer your question - yes I'd be friends with you. Obviously you have to click with someone in order to be friends with them but I wouldn't not be friends with you purely for the reasons you've listed.

I have plenty of fiends who I don't speak to in weeks, or who's houses I don't tend to go to. I still consider them friends.

Also for what it's worth, I hate small talk too.

Thatskindafun · 04/11/2022 00:16

I have adhd and so does dh so I think I’m more understanding than most but I would assume you just weren’t interested in being my friend.
i wouldn’t care about the messy house and things like that, but if I tried to contact you and you didn’t reply and then didn’t really engage in conversation with me in person I’d assume you didn’t like me and would stop trying. It wouldn’t be any judgement on you, or not wanting to be your friend though.
for me I’d probably feel less rejected and more happy to make an effort if I knew it was adhd for you, but I’d probably want you to show that you are actually interested in the friendship in some other way. Obviously no one can put everything into a friendship if they’re not getting much back.

BeatieBourke · 04/11/2022 00:17

You sound like me to be honest! I have no diagnosis of anything and have never suspected I am neurodivergent. I'm just shit at that stuff.

I also don't have many friends, for all of the reasons you describe.

I've always assumed I'm just an acquired taste! On the plus side, at least I know the people in my life really do like me for me.

I recently listened to a podcast where the two writers of Am I Being Unreasonable (the TV show) talked about their friendship. They were so accepting of each other and their flaws. I need friends like that in my life.

Poppins2016 · 04/11/2022 00:20

A couple of my closest friends include people like you. I'm also somewhat similar. Thankfully we all understand each other!

SuTissue · 04/11/2022 00:22

What you’ve described here could have been copied and pasted from anything written online about adhd. There’s more to your personality to this stuff and that’s what would make me be or not be friends with you. I wouldn’t care about most of the other stuff at all.

KatherineofGaunt · 04/11/2022 00:24

I would like you to tell me you had ADHD so I could understand where you're coming from. I have Asperger's so would definitely still be your friend - we can struggle with small talk together!

Doubledenimrocks · 04/11/2022 00:26

The thing that strikes me is that you are aware of these issues and yet you haven't employed any strategies to overcome them. For me, this would be the problem. It is not difficult to set a reminder on your phone for a birthday for instance.

Stopthebusplease · 04/11/2022 00:35

I too would want to be told about your difficulties if we were to be friends OP.

Also, I agree with previous poster, you need to put some strategies in place to help you remember things. Maybe even ask 'friends' if they mind you writing notes so that you can remember the important things about their lives, as that would show that you are genuinely interested in them. Obviously explain that you have difficulty remembering names, etc. due to your ADHD I'm afraid I have no experience of your condition, so don't know if that would work for you, but maybe you could 'Google' to see if there are any ways of coping with the problems you have. I've just done it, and immediately found quite a few sites which you may find helpful, for example https://chesapeakeadd.com/home/education-and-training/articles/life-management-tools-for-women-with-adhd/

Hope this is helpful.

ittakes2 · 04/11/2022 00:56

I was recently diagnosed with adhd and I have a lot of the same symptoms as you. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that practically all of my friends have at least one neuro diverse child. I suspect these mum friends are more tolerant of my quirks because they are used to neuro diversity.
I do tell practically everyone I have adhd and yes I think it helps as people don’t take my forgetfulness personally

Freespirit42 · 04/11/2022 00:59

It wouldn’t put me off but I think if someone says to someone look I do this because I have adhd then folks that are good will understand and be patient

romdowa · 04/11/2022 01:49

I've adhd and asd and being honest I probably wouldn't be your friend. Constantly not replying and being late would drive me insane .

ClaryFairchild · 04/11/2022 01:52

Autism diagnostic lists tend to favour male traits, which are very different from female traits. So worth another look.

Would I be friends with you? Well I have some similarities because I suspect I have ADD, so I put steps in place to deal with it. What do you do? What you DO about it would tell me whether you actually cared enough to be my friend or not.

So set reminders, accept that you will occasionally need a cleaning frenzy in the home to invite someone in, when you meet someone for the first time explain your memory difficulties and take a selfie with them, label it with their name and when you met/chatted to them, and add that photo to their contacts page on your phone. Less embarrassing than pretending you know them and getting caught out, or appearing rude by never remembering anything about them.

In conversations repeat back bits of what they've told you so that 1) you DO keep paying attention and 2) it shows them you are listening (not word for word the whole thing, that would be overkill...!) "OMG, he actually said "blah, blah" to you?" Or "seriously? She keeps jumping on the sofa/stealing your biscuits, ignoring you etc? No wonder you're stressed!"

These are conversational tricks that will focus your brain and help you and also show people you give a damn.

And have a think, if you met someone like yourself, how would you even be able to form a friendship? If you never invite each other over, neither of you remember anything about each other, never having play dates.... it would almost be an impossibility to have a friendship.

So is what you're really asking "would you like me as a friend and would you be willing to put the work in for the both of us?" If so, then quite honestly, no I wouldn't want to be your friend.

Outtasteamandluck · 04/11/2022 02:04

I'd be friends and if you told me your struggles (and I could tell you mine) I could understand a little bit more about how life is for you.

I wouldn't be put off.

RambamThankyouMam · 04/11/2022 02:41

I probably wouldn't, to be honest, but then again you probably wouldn't want to be friends with me! Not everyone is compatible as friends.

OOvavuuu · 04/11/2022 02:49

You sound quite similar to me so I would consider a friendship, if you were kind. Not replying to messages, a messy house etc wouldn't bother me at all but I would expect an invite over from time to time and that would be reciprocated. I think I might be on the spectrum but I've learnt to mask it well and it's taken years and years of work but social interactions are incredibly hard work for me so I need a lot of time alone to recharge.

HerRoyalNotness · 04/11/2022 02:52

I would, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea myself. And one of my DC has ADHD and I worry so much about his future. So yes I’d be your friend and have some understanding of your struggles.

miltonj · 04/11/2022 02:58

If you were honest, yes. Not necessarily about the diagnosis. But if you told me, you found stuff hard like remembering names etc, then I wouldn't assume you were ignorant.

I hate it when people cancel often or are late frequently, that makes it hard for me to be friends with someone. So you need to arrange stuff that you can't be late to.... if you invite someone to your house, you can't be late! Just work to your strengths snd be honest with people.

Kaybeeeee · 04/11/2022 03:00

I think at best we would be friendly acquaintances. That’s not necessarily solely you’re fault, we just wouldn’t be compatible.

If you don’t reply to my messages (within 2-3 days), don’t remember anything that we speak about, never invite me over (this is not such a big deal) then I’m unsure on what basis we would be building a friendship.

I wouldn’t be angry or upset with you, we would just never make it to the level of ‘friends’.

lifeinthehills · 04/11/2022 03:42

I agree that it sounds like you may be on the ASD spectrum as well. Those online tests don't really mean that much.

Yes, I would be friends with you. If you told me you had ADHD I would be sympathetic and understanding. That said, I do find lateness and unreliability a real put off, like a pet peeve of mine, so we'd have to make plans that don't rely on you being on time (like going to a movie or show would need). If I didn't know you had ADHD, I would probably back off though.

lifeinthehills · 04/11/2022 03:44

BTW, to add, I do have a friend who is very unreliable with time. I just have her over to my house when I have a full afternoon available. Then it doesn't matter when she arrives. I don't think I'd plan more than that with her.

autienotnaughty · 04/11/2022 04:06

If I knew these issues were not intentional ie you weren't just being a shit friend who doesn't care then I would be ok with it sand would try to support where possible.

Cakeandcoffee93 · 04/11/2022 04:09

I do all of these things except I’m extrovert in conversation and ramble loudly! Il be you’re friend!

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