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Post by dayeanu on Mar 3, 2011 21:20:11 GMT -5
I'm getting ready to do laundry tonight. I gathered up a small dishpan full of items to wash. I decide to look for more. I spend maybe 5 minutes looking for additional dirty clothing of the same category as that which I have already collected in my dishpan. I look in the adjoining bedrooms, the tiny hall that separates them, and the tiny bathroom. This whole area is about 15 x 25 feet. Not a big space at all. All the while I am looking for the additional items of clothing, I am holding the dishpan in my hand.
As soon as I end my brief search, I realize that the dishpan is NOT in my hand. I can't find the dishpan I thought I'd been holding in my hand the whole time.
I've now spent about 20 minutes searching my entire house for the dishpan, with no luck.
I've been feeling pretty good today, pretty focused, not upset or distracted by external stuff. I've gotten a few things done. Overall, a fairly calm day for me. I can't blame this on "being upset".
This sort of thing happens to me ALL the time.
Is this ADD/ADHD?
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Post by rickie on Mar 3, 2011 21:50:23 GMT -5
If you can search for a dishpan for 20 minutes straight without being distracted into half a dozen side projects, probably no  Just kidding. You need a proper assessment to diagnose it and it's about very longterm patterns, not behavior on a particular day or just lately or whatever. You would surely have a better idea than anyone on this board could. |
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Post by dayeanu on Mar 3, 2011 21:59:35 GMT -5
It's not at all new behavior, and I did do a dozen things while searching.
I don't want to spend the money on an assessment, if I don't have something that needs to be treated. I don't have money to waste right now, if it's likely I'll be told there's no problem. That's why I'm wondering.
I'm hoping those of you who have ADD can give me some idea.
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Post by heretoday on Mar 3, 2011 22:29:03 GMT -5
well I am alot like this and have adhd, am seeing a specialist now. It was worse when I was on graveyard shift, I lost my keyring one morning after being distracted by a newspaper outside thrown in my bushes and then spilling a coffee I had in my hand when I set it on the counter after I came in. I still don't know if I left the keyring hanging in the lock or if it fell somewhere inside the house and I can't find it. It had the remote for my car on it too, luckily I had a spare. I had to get my lock cut off my locker at work. This is just one example. Paid for a dinner in the cafeteria at work yesterday and put most of it in a container and then when I was leaving remembered I had to mail a letter for my daughter (work for the post office) - after I put the stamp and address on and put it in the right place I forgot my food and now have 2 days off. They will clean out the fridge. On the way to work yesterday was in afraid I would be late and forgot my scarf and cell phone. I am really tired of all this stuff.
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Post by buriedintrash on Mar 3, 2011 22:46:40 GMT -5
It's hyper focus. It is part of ADHD/ADD. Not saying you have that, but I do and have times where I spend hours doing something like researching something but can't focus 5 mins on something else. It's also part of my OCD.
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Post by dayeanu on Mar 3, 2011 22:58:13 GMT -5
It's hyper focus. It is part of ADHD/ADD. Not saying you have that, but I do and have times where I spend hours doing something like researching something but can't focus 5 mins on something else. It's also part of my OCD. Here and BIT, I can really relate to what both of you are saying. I've still not found the dishpan yet. It'll turn up someday. I get so tired of this. |
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Post by urocyon on Mar 3, 2011 23:23:58 GMT -5
You might want to look into advice/tips on working around executive function problems, since it sounds like what you're dealing with. That's not necessarily from ADD. One thing you might find helpful is backward planning. Besides keeping a sense of humor about all the "dishrag in the freezer" type incidents. That's one of my biggest challenges--definitely with the squalor!--so I really sympathize! One that hit way too close to home: How to make a phone call, in 70 easy steps.  When I was a kid, this was assumed to be coming from what's now known as ADHD (no mean feat, for a girl in the late '70s-early '80s!), but it's turned out to be better explained by Asperger's. (There are other possibilities with executive function problems too.) Dealing with the actual day-to-day executive function trouble is pretty much the same either way, but otherwise strategies can be different if it's not really ADD. (My system reacted very badly to ADD meds, for example.) So, yeah, if you want to find out if your difficulties are coming from that, best to find a good professional. Even if it takes several tries.  |
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Post by dayeanu on Mar 3, 2011 23:38:12 GMT -5
I'll check into executive function problems and backwards planning. I'd really prefer not to have to take meds.
It's interesting that you mention Asperger's, as my grandson, now 15, is suspected to have that, or something along those lines, to a very mild degree. He has seen several and varied professionals, had arrays of tests, and they still can't be certain, but do agree that there are sensory integration issues.
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Post by sparkle on Mar 4, 2011 0:13:15 GMT -5
It sounds pretty ADD to me. Been there, done that and I are one. Certainly worth asking a professional. My advice is laugh about it, don't beat yourself up. It can be downright funny sometimes but then I love a good laugh at myself and you may not.
wg
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Post by omgwhatisthatsmell on Mar 4, 2011 2:00:41 GMT -5
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Post by howardsgirlfriend on Mar 4, 2011 2:07:59 GMT -5
One of the great things about taking my ADHD med is that I can be doing one task, remember that I need to do something else, then finish the first task, knowing that I'll remember the second task a few minutes later. That's why I don't lose things as often.
While I DID forget my coat and car keys when I was leaving work, I didn't have to spend a half-hour emailing my boss about the small problems I want to discuss with him, because I know I'll remember them tomorrow.
I wasn't diagnosed until I was 50. In my whole life, only one person had ever suggested that I might have a learning disability--a psychiatrist at work. Because I'm not hyperactive, and not too vulnerable to outside distractions, I was able to muddle through just well enough. I had no idea that most people don't have to work as hard as I do.
Treating my ADHD has its downsides. Since I demoted last year, I'm now in a position I held several years ago, but now I can produce better quality work. This has made me more observant, and less tolerant of coworkers who don't even try to do a good job. As you can imagine, my coworkers are less than thrilled.
You won't know for sure whether you have ADHD until you treat it, and decide which brain you like better.
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Post by Chris on Mar 4, 2011 9:54:02 GMT -5
I was 40 before being diagnosed with ADD. I was told by the psychiatrist who diagnosed me that I had phenomenal coping skills. I always knew I had to work 3 times harder for learning and for getting grades. I still do. But when I'm interested in something I am able to hyper focus and do great notetaking and I can learn really well once I absorb the new material. Around the house, I was such a mess when I first got married but my husband in those days was extremely understanding and helpful and he taught me to have a place for my purse, hat, keys, etc. and I transferred that to everything else -- to this day the only way I can cope is to have very set places for things. About a couple months ago when I did put my wedding ring in a different place it was then lost for 2 weeks ... I just can't deviate about where I put things. Which is what is making having less clutter so much better for me. Fewer things and better organization that I've created in the last 2 years (being here) has made a big difference in everyday life going smooth. If I had it to do over I wouldn't even go thru the evaluations for ADD -- I knew I had attention problems -- I also knew I'd refuse the medication because I refuse almost all medications. There are some great books out there now on how to cope naturally with attention problems.  Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. |
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Post by puppybox on Mar 4, 2011 10:22:01 GMT -5
so frustrating. happens to me all the time too:
I found my yoghurt in the bowl cupboard yesterday. it must have been there for 2 days. I remember wanting to eat some and getting the bowl out, then I looked in the fridge and the yoghurt wasn't there. I figured I'd already finished it and forgotten about it, but I did feel confused, like something wasn't right. obviously I got the yoghurt out first and while reaching for the bowl found my hand full of yogurt container, and so put it down to pick up a bowl. I was thinking only about getting a bowl at that moment, so had no perception of the yogurt as anything but a block to taking a a bowl. I then didn't see it as I closed the cupboard. and I didn't use that cupboard for a few days becuase I took dishes from the dish drainer.
For years, I've said that my hands have their own brains, and they aren't on speaking terms with my head brain.
I just took the quiz... the first half wan't much me but the second half was me completely.
I scored an 88.
the highest category was 70 and up, ie I likely have adhd. or add. however I don't believe in medication much. or psychiatrists. I didn't used to belive in ADD either, though the more I read the more i realise it describes me. but I can't accept its a disorder, rather than a personality type. I wouldn't want to boringly plod from one step to another. I like darting around like a bug. I should and could, however, get a book about coping and organising for the times it gets frustrating.
howards girlfriend, you described exactly why I would interrupt the first thing to start the next- I fear I will forget about it totally if I don't. and its more likely I'll remember the first when I stumble upon the physical evidence of it that already exists lying around.
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Post by TML on Mar 4, 2011 11:43:13 GMT -5
I took that test and got a 34. I have never scored high on ADD tests. I am not sure if I have ADD but my life has ADD. My life is crazy busy and I am always having to multitask upon multitasking to get it all done.
I feel overwhelmed most of the time and before I made a landing strip where everything goes as soon as I get in the door (ritual placement of vital objects), I was always looking for my keys, my purse, my shoes, my coat, my brief case, and it always seemed serial (never looking for them all at once, finding one then being getting back to leaving and being like Homer S. (Doh) and having to look for the next item). Needless to say it used to take forever to get out the door in the morning with tons of stress and some minor cursing.
I am taking an ADD bootcamp course which is working out quite nicely. So even if you do or dont have ADD, if your life is not what you want it to be and your life symptoms fit ADD I don't think it is a bad thing to read up on the tricks and tips to combat it. It is helping me quite a bit.
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Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Mar 4, 2011 11:55:27 GMT -5
i would encourage anybody that has signs of adhd and aspergers to look into nonverbal learning disorder.
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