The Yellow Brick Road Gets Shorter as We Age: Love, Regret, and Real Connection
A reflective, sharp, and quietly hopeful series on love, aging, regret, and emotional growth. Told through the voice of The Cynical Romantic, this 11-part journey explores relationships, fear, comfort, and what it means to keep choosing love as time becomes more finite.
ADHD, OCD and Soulmates Part 4
For years my favorite story about myself was simple: I’m a great guy who just hasn’t met the right person.
It explained everything—bad breakups, messy marriages, why I was always exhausted from trying so hard. Then one day a doctor asked me a few questions and said, ‘Have you considered ADHD?’
Suddenly ‘great guy’ wasn’t the whole picture. That intense devotion? A lot of it was hyperfocus. The grand gestures and fast commitments? Impulsivity in a nice shirt. The panic when someone pulled away? Rejection sensitivity on full blast.
Getting that word didn’t excuse my choices—but it finally explained the script I kept repeating in every relationship.
Sometimes the label doesn’t limit you.
It just explains the chaos.
ADHD, OCD and Soulmates Part 3
I used to think my love language was grand gestures. Looking back, it was more like crisis management.
When things got tense, my first instinct was to go big: an expensive trip, a huge gift, a massive sacrifice I absolutely couldn’t afford. If I pulled it off, we got a week of peace and I got to feel like the hero.
For an ADHD brain high on limerence, that rush is addictive. You don’t just fix a problem—you save the relationship. You save her. You save your role as ‘the good man.’
The bill always came later: in money, in resentment, in the quiet realization that I was performing love instead of living it.
Being the hero feels powerful—until you realize you’ve never learned how to just be a partner.
ADHD, OCD and Soulmates Part 2
She looked me in the eyes and called me her soulmate.
I didn’t suddenly believe in The One.
I believed in her belief in me.
Within 18 months: married.
New role: provider, fixer, designated hero.
I treated ‘soulmate’ like a job title I had to earn every day.
ADHD hyperfocus on a relationship looks a lot like devotion.
From the outside: ‘What a committed guy.’
On the inside: ‘If I stop trying this hard, I’ll lose everything.’
Pettiness. Jealousy. Double standards.
My gut whispered, ‘Something’s off.’
The soulmate story shouted, ‘This is just a test.’
Guess which one I listened to?
Pull up a chair. Let’s unravel the soulmate story—and see what’s worth keeping.
a Christmas Tree Thought Ruined My Workout
Sometimes it isn’t the workout that exhausts you—it’s the thought that hijacks your brain halfway through.
One small idea on a treadmill reveals how ADHD can quietly reroute an entire day.