The Forums › Forums › The Workplace › Strategies for Work › Crazy in the Cubicle – is this common? › Re: Crazy in the Cubicle – is this common?
Wow – I just came back to catch up on this thread and man oh man! What a treasure trove we have going on here.
Dr. J. – it’s good to hear from you on this. The sensitivity you mention as being common to ADHD types is something I hadn’t heard before – just suffered through. I know as well that I’m highly sensitive to touch – something I had known for a while without understanding why. Your comment about occupying the middle seat of a crowded airplane – wow, that really hit home: I could feel my skin crawling at the thought.
Perhaps the bottom line is that we should respect these things about ourselves. I know I will at least.
As an update to all of this: I did finally talk to my boss about the noises, and the problems I was having. He was understanding – I kind of knew he would be, as we had discussed my ADHD before. I just never realized that it’s another “feature” of the condition – the fact that we have all of this inputs coming in all at once, with no way to filter them. Another variation on a theme. We’re used to informational inputs, and the problems associated with that (schooling, workplace direction, projects, etc.), but our condition is multi-faceted and is not restricted to just one type of input.
When that guy in the next cubicle is munching away and I’m trying to work – it’s like a living hell. I can’t shut him off and concentrate, and I sure don’t want to even try to stop working so that I can pay attention to his obnoxious open-mouthed horror either. (P.S. to Amy: your comment about the guy who was sniffling all day long reminded me of a time when I was in a cubicle to a guy who was just like that too. *sniff* *sniff* all day long. Drove me nuts – and I wondered if maybe I was a little crazy. That happened at a time when I didn’t know I had ADHD and hadn’t yet sought a doctor about it.)
Anyway – my boss supports me working from home. There are distracting sounds from the outside here, but they’re minimal and therefore manageable.
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