Anyone with experience dating someone with ADHD? 8 months together and we are having issues

I [F/36] have been dating my boyfriend [M/35] for 8 months. He’s handsome, funny, educated, seemed like the whole package. The first few months were great.

But the last few months, he started getting way more scatter brained, seemed very oversubscribed with work and family obligations. I always get deprioritized behind those two things, which is ok with me to a certain extent since we haven’t known one another too long, and I also have a pretty demanding job. But I also feel like our relationship has hit a plateau in terms of emotional attachment. He cancels on me more and is less present when we do spend time together. I also try my best to do small things for him to show I’m thinking about him (small gifts, texts throughout the day, etc), but he doesn’t reciprocate much, even after I’ve told him it would mean a lot to me.

Finally one day, I confronted him about how I was feeling and that I was close to being done, and that was when he finally told me about his recent (1.5 year ago) ADHD dx and that he’s been on meds and recently upping his dose to deal with stress. He said he was embarrassed to tell me earlier bc he didn’t want to seem “weak” (which I thought was silly and hints at some toxic old school thinking). He also basically blamed his lack of ability to show or feel emotional attachment on his ADHD and increase in meds. He said he’s trying to sort himself out and is in the process of trying to find a therapist.

It’s been about two weeks since that talk, and I know that isn’t long enough to expect significant changes to happen, but I find myself growing impatient. I’m tired of feeling deprioritized and dealing with his mood swings re his work. I notice he’s sort of trying to be more thoughtful, like he will ask my how my day is more, but it’s usually only after he sends me ten paragraphs of how his day was and then he doesn’t respond much when I actually talk about my day.

Those of you with more experience with ADHD partners, would you stay in my situation? Is it possible for things to get better? Worse? I’m also still open to kids, so very aware of how much time I spend in a relationship that is still on the fence by this point.

TLDR: boyfriend of 8 months blames lack of emotional connection and scattered behavior on ADHD. Says it will get better after he gets therapy and tones down his meds more. How likely is this to be true?

Posted May 11, 2025, 4:44 PM UTC

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