Making and keeping friends can be a struggle for an adult with ADHD. It may be difficult for you to make friends and even harder to keep them. This can be a very discouraging; however, there are many ways for you to become close to people and to establish solid friendships.
Build Awareness– The first step to improving your social interactions with friends is to build awareness of what you are doing that could be harmful. Are actively listening or are you the type who can’t wait to put their two cents in? If so, make a commitment, that for the next month, you will focus completely on being a good listener—you will hyper focus on this. If you say anything at all, it will be only to ask a simple, short question to clarify or expand what the speaker is saying.
Keep Things Low Key– Spending time with your friends doesn’t have to be some large social event. In a matter of fact, the best ways to strengthen an already formed friendship is to do things low key and stress free. These can be things like having a movie night, playing card games, or try to do something that bring out your strengths. By eliminating the stress related to social events, you can be more comfortable which can get rid of some of the strain of making a social blunder.
Stay In Touch -Staying in touch with friends can be difficult for adults with ADHD because of distractions and lack of organization. You can do this by scheduling certain parts of your day or week for talking or meeting up with friends. You can choose 10, 20 or 30 minutes a day to send an email/phone/text to your friends. Over the weekend, set up time to meet up with your friends. Incorporating a schedule into your routine will make it easier for you to keep in touch and something to look forward to each day.