It can be tough. Read every book you can on "Emotional Intelligence". It will help even for someone without ADD.
I was a bad employee and a lone wolf as a business owner. As I learned about emotional intelligence I grew as a person and business owner. My business now has over 25 employees and revenue over $1million a year. Make personal growth the biggest thing in your life. The "emotional Inteligence" thing was really bought out and studyed in the 80's. I think it is the best science for interpersonal growth today. IMHO. BTW it did help my marriage.

I did not know you were 16 when I posted. Learn this stuff at your age and you will be way ahead the group when you get to college.

GOOD LUCK and Don't quit!

I agree -- having ADD can make social relationships difficult. ADD people tend to miss social cues and, as a result, say or do things that are not quite the right thing at the right time. That can lead to people thinking we're weird, or dumb -- and at your age especially it's very hard.

I hate to suggest to a teenager to read (especially one with ADD), but there's a really good book out there called "Driven to Distraction" about us ADD people (you can find it in a library or a Barnes & Nobles, I bet). If you want, skip the other parts and just read the chapter on social relations. There are other good books out there but this is the best.

Bottom line: When you're with people, watch how other people talk and act. Try to think before you talk -- ADDers usually talk first and think second, and that can sabotage your social efforts. Learn to pay attention to how people react to you; that'll clue you in as to whether you're behaving the way people expect or maybe acting in a way they find odd.

I don't want you to think that you can never be yourself. But ADDers usually lack the ability to see how others react to them, and to see how others normally act towards each other. Like Onebig said, now is the time for you to learn these skills so you can use what you learn all thru your life.

P.S. Some ADDers, like me, just seem to keep on talking and talking and talking and talking and just don't know when to shut up! :)))

haha--i know about the talking and talking :) that's me-- i jsut cant seem to shut up once i get started. I can tell people my entire life in 5 minutes.....also keep me in trouble at work because i like to talk

I have troubles holding a conversation with someone for more than even a couple minutes before something more interesting comes up. I will get so easily distracted, especially if I am outside, or become bored of what is being said and either zone out, or get up and walk away without even intending to. Also, my pattern of thinking is so ridiculously scattered, I will constantly switch topics, finish peoples sentences or forget about what the orginial conversation was about. It gets frusterating not only for me, but for the people who are trying to talk to me. This applies in school work aswell, I could write about a ton of things and go off into numerous tangeants on an essay, so I have to be really careful write out my main arguments and stick to them.

See, I just made a plain example of my behavior. I didn't finish reading your whole question and implusively just pressed the Add Your Reply button and began typing. Now to respond to the rest of your question (i.e family relationships and dating).

My family is not exactly very supportive of my attention difficulties, if anything they make fun of me and it becomes a bit joke. Except when I almost burn the kitchen down, but even then, they laugh then tell me I'm never allowed to cook again. They also sometimes ask me to do something, and it will get up to go do it, get distracted and do something else. It frusterates them. However, my mother in specific has really noticed how bad my behavior has been getting, and I think now she is sort of applying this to every aspect of my life - not just at home or at school, where it is a real issue.

For my boyfriend, well he is very acceptive of me and my distractable behavior. Yes, it does frusterate him sometimes, especially when he is trying to have a serious conversaiton with me. He says that my behavior is part of who I am, and he wouldn't be going out with me if he didn't like the person I was. So that is pretty cool. But sometimes I become aware of him observing me while I am zoned out, or staring at any object that catches my interests. He is amazed that I can be thinking of so many things at one time

My personal advice to you is this: your ADHD is part of who you are, and any person that wants to date you should like who you are as a person. You don't neccisarily have to inform them of your attention disorder, instead, let them find out through observation or tell them when you feel more confortable. In regards to your family, tell them flat out what you want from them, whether it be moral support or something as simple as writing out a schedule for you to follow.