#17: "Impact of ADHD and RSD on Relationships"

Pasha Marlowe, MFT, AuDHD and Neuroqueer Coach, specializes in coaching neurodivergent couples where one or both is ADHD and/or autistic. Her online program "Same Bed, Different Brains" has helped many couples move from the brink of divorce to a place of deeper understanding, acceptance, and intimacy.  Pasha's coaching and teaching style is collaborative,  inclusive, queer-friendly, sex and trauma informed, and often humorous. 

In this "hard love" episode, Pasha reveals personal and professional insights on the impact of ADHD and RSD (Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria) on a relationship. She explores common dynamics seen in neurodivergent couples, such as the "parent-child dynamic", lying to avoid conflict and/or intimacy,  fear-shame-anger spirals, and the insidious RSD cycle (trauma-people pleasing-burnout-rejection).

Pasha shares her most effective tools in managing ADHD ad RSD and reiterates that while ADHD is an explanation, not an excuse, BOTH partners have to come to the relationship with 100% effort towards understanding each other's brains.