Hi, everyone. My name is Natasha Quinn. I'm an ADHD life coach for young adults, teens and their significant other. And I'm really excited to bring this course of ADHD and relationships. Because not only professionally, this is really important, but also personally. Someone firsthand, myself, I have ADHD and this having ADHD has affected so many of my relationships in my life, and more importantly, with my partner. So I'm really excited to be here. So from this course, I hope you get an understanding of how ADHD can affect your own relationship, and ways to manage it. And not only ways to manage it, but ways to thrive, ways to use ADHD as an advantage, so that you and your relationship can soar and blossom and grow.When it comes to relationships, ADHD plays a huge part. And when I'm talking about relationships, I'm not just talking about you and your partner, or your partner and you. I'm talking about you, your mom, your housemate, whoever you live with sisters, siblings, there's so many different types of relationships that ADHD affects. And within that, there are so many kinds of different variables. We can have someone with ADHD with someone else that has ADHD. You can have someone with ADHD with one predominant presentation and one with the opposite presentation of ADHD. You can have someone with ADHD with a neurotypical. And when I say the word neurotypical, neurotypical mean someone that doesn't have a condition. And then, on top of that, in some relationships, we're not just dealing with the ADHD, we're dealing with coexisting conditions like learning disabilities, defiant disorders, anxiety, depression, mental health, and so many different factors. But I just want you to know that in this course, we are focusing on ADHD, and your significant other. And what I want everyone to know before we start is, everyone is very unique. And because everyone is so different, every relationship is so unique, and not two people or not two relationships, when ADHD impacts it will ever be the same. However, in the work I do, and from past experience, there seems to be a lot of underlining common struggles. And there's not really many statistics and how it actually ADHD affects couples, or affects people. And there was a lot of talk about how it affects marriage. But there's still not that much statistics.There is some statistics: 42% of partners with ADHD reported that ADHD challenges affect their relationship, intimacy, and in general. because ADHD can affect so many different parts of a relationship, which we are going to explore further on the course. But some of them might be communication, emotional regulation, executive functions, things around the house, like chores, getting things done. misinterpretations, intimacy, rejection, and I could honestly go on for hours.And when we have a neurotypical with someone that has ADHD, there's an extra challenge of understanding and seeing things from a different perspective, especially when it becomes neurodiverse, and that can add a barrier in itself. When someone with ADHD is with someone that else has ADHD, we have the different presentations of ADHD, and the fact that both couples may need support and working around the two diversities can be tricky. And it can be really hard to navigate roles responsibilities when faced with ADHD challenges, you can get different dynamics like parent-child, conflicts, never backing down, nagging, warms, blaming game. And with any relationship that comes many challenges, of course, but when we have ADHD in the mix, it intensifies it to a whole new level.The bottom line is, you're in this relationship, and you want to work together. In order to do that, we have to understand neurodiversity, understand ADHD, and use it to our advantage so that our relationship can thrive. When we understand the challenges, have a mutual value of who we are, work towards both of our strengths, ADHD, neurotypical, and can use these to address the challenges that we have, that we face, then that is the foundation to moving forward and to thriving in your relationship. And that's exactly what I did, and many others did. In the relationship, the pioneer in ADHD in relationships, Melissa Orlov, the author of "The ADHD Affects our Marriage" says, despite everything, it all comes down to value.So my question to think about today is, what is it that you value in your relationship about your partner? What is it you value about them? And next session, we'll explore further. And we'll kind of really get into the knowledge of what ADHD is, so we have that foundation to build upon. But I want you to think, look around at your partner, what is it that you value most about them? I know with me, I value that my partner is understanding, compassionate and caring, ADHD and all. So, what is it you value most? And I really hope that you think about this today. And I will see you tomorrow when we'll start to explore even further.