Blanking – the forgotten symptom?

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine and I were discussing our ADHD last night, and we came to the topic of “blanking”: Those missing pockets of the day when you have absolutely no recollection of what happened.

An excerpt from a blog entry of hers:

“For some reason, ADDer brains tend to “blank out” periodically. There will be a couple of seconds of time that simply aren’t there. ADDers might keep behaving normally during these blanks, but they won’t remember them at all afterwards.

Now the brain, being very good at compensating, does its best to fill in the gaps. So, for example, it looks at the pre-blank period, and notices me holding an open schoolbag in one hand, and a text book from my locker in the other. And, post-blank, my schoolbag is closed, my locker is closed, and my text book isn’t anywhere in sight. So, it reasons that I obviously

a) put my text book in my schoolbag

b) closed my schoolbag

c) closed my locker

And it reconstructs an image of this happening, and inserts it into my memory. Unfortunately, what actually happened is that I put my text book down for a couple of seconds, and closed my locker without thinking. Result? My text book is in my locker, but I will swear blind that I put it in my schoolbag, because I have a clear memory of doing so…”

From http://community.livejournal.com/adults_add/669650.html

This is something that we’ve both found as being common to many ADHD people and significant in the way that it affects our lives (PARTS OF YOUR LIFE ARE MISSING or JUST PLAIN WRONG!!!!), yet it doesn’t appear in any of the literature we’ve read. I found nothing about it on this site, either (though could just have missed it).

Does anyone know why that is? Could this website maybe put some information up about it, or could someone link me to where the information is, if I’ve missed it? It’s also significant for the family and spouses of people with ADHD, because if you “blank” while agreeing to something or being given an important piece of information, it can cause conflict!

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[Anonymous]

I have that problem all the time. I have lost/misplaced or flat out thrown away so many things in my life. I couln’t give you a play by play of my day or even the past hour of my life.

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[Anonymous]

Yeah, I find it irritating. My housemate tidied up her DVD collection, and I could have SWORN that I put the DVD I had been watching back to where it belonged, yet it wasn’t there. It was on top of the shelf. I have no idea how it got to where it actually was…

Much like with most of my things, really!

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[Anonymous]

One word folks, “SIMPLIFY”

Unload the stuff and keep life simple. If you ever go to rich people’s houses, what you notice is very obvious, very few things. Poor people are hoarders because they compensate for the “what if…”

“Let it go” and life becomes a lot happier.

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[Anonymous]

I blank out all the time.

Because I know this, I try to keep very important things like keys, etc in the same place all the time and make a big deal out of telling myself where they are so I remember.

I also leave out visual reminders on what I need to remember.

…something weird and out-of-place to trigger my memory, like putting the empty milk carton in my purse so I know to pick up a few things at the store BEFORE I go out to that exciting event that i am hyper-focused on!

I just assume I will not rememeber anything and have been compensating for it for years with great success.

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[Anonymous]

Dr J, I’m sorry, but I have no idea how your post relates to my questions… Could you please cralify?

MerryMac: Yeah, I try to leave things in the same place each time. It helps me find things, but doesn’t stop the blanking :-p I still forget that people have said things to me, or my responses, or things I have said to people.

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[Anonymous]

Hi Nimthiriel!

I’m so used to ‘blanking’ it’s weird!

Have to remind myself constantly to ‘be present’..when talking to others.

My ADD/HD (High Def!) friends and I have figured out it’s like having your brain or attention split into two parts. One side is looking out towards whomever you are listening/talking to. The other side is looking inwards at the ‘circus of your mind’ as we call it.

When the outside stimulii is less than the ‘circus in your mind’ then guess where your attention goes!

To The Circus! (hence ‘blanking’)

That’s the only way I can describe it for myself.

: )

When one of us goes off…we laugh and tell them they were at ‘the circus’…usually what they were thinking about was much more interesting than the conversation anyway!!

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[Anonymous]

Yeah, it could be my mind wandering that causes me to forget what I’ve just beein doing and saying… The problem is that I don’t remember where my mind wandered to! :-p

I suppose it’s a bit like channeling – having those multiple radio signals all going on at once. I don’t know, but then, not knowing is why I asked in the first place!

I’m still weirded out by the fact that it seems so common (from other ADHD people I’ve interacted with), and yet isn’t addressed anywhere in literature.

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[Anonymous]

I also have that problem all the time. Structures, systems, habits is a way around it for some things.

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[Anonymous]

Yeah, but it doesn’t explain why there is nothing about this in any literature, which is the main thing I want to know.

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[Anonymous]

MerryMac I’ve had trouble w/ the “Be Present” issues both out & at home. I went to a baseball game when Baltimore O’s opened Camden Yards that became the model for “Retro” ballparks, but had a hard time enjoying the experience as I found myself watching the Mitsubishi Diamond Vision screen instead of the action on the field. At home my kin are offended if I’m in family room as the watch TV if I’m on my laptop as they consider I’m ignoring them, but it seems odd to me how they react. How is it different than reading or taking a phone call_am I wrong?

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[Anonymous]

Blanking isn’t like a seizure blanking where you have no memory of the event. You are talking more of a loss of presence of mind. You are somewhere else though some of your sensory systems are registering the current state, like talking to someone but actually working on your sudoku in your mind while you see their lips move. I think blanking is more like daydreaming or parallel thinking. It is not so much a split in R vs L brain but I perceive it more of a minor dissociative phenomena. You are detaching yourself from the moment.

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[Anonymous]

Hi McShawnBoy!

I do the same thing when we are at concerts even with seats close to the stage.

For some reason I become mesmerized with the big screens and forget that I am close to the real thing! I have to keep reminding myself to look at the stage!!!!!!!!

It doesn’t feel real.

Also have the ‘watching TV’ issues. I don’t want to watch someone watch TV so I go on the computer. Period.

If they want to engage me, I’ll willingly turn it off but if they are ignoring me, well, then…..

I have asked my husband to come and get me when he wants me to leave the computer and be with him.

He came down, asked me, and then it took me awhile to figure out why he did it. (Because I asked him to, but then forgot!!!)

However if something is boring then my brain goes into the ‘circus of my mind’ and comes back when there is something interesting for it to grab onto.

Boring vs non-boring….

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Yeah, I noticed I was at sporting events or concerts and mesmerized by the screen. Partly it’s cause the screen is huge and way easier to see. And part of it is the video screen seems to mesmerize ADDers. I’ve heard this again and again from experts. It’s why we can get hooked on TV, computers, Blackberrys, etc..

Especially fast action video games. Finally, something that wakes us up and holds our attention.

One thing I’ve done to help with listening and conversations with friends and family is to mentally decide I’m going tob e present for a set amount of time. If I know I’m going to have a five minute conversation, then my mind becomes more engaged and far less agitated than if we start talking and I’m not sure how long it’s going to go. Immediately my mind starts getting distracted. When I have a time limit in my mind, silly as it seems, I actually find myself much more present, and when I do get distracted, I can come back to the conversation much faster.

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[Anonymous]

>If I know I’m going to have a five minute conversation, then my mind becomes more engaged and far less agitated than if we start talking and I’m not sure how long it’s going to go. <

Oh, I had major issues with my previous boss about this.. He’d ask to catch up for a “short meeting”, which would then run for over half an hour. He then got annoyed at me for checking my watch and being distracted. I tried to explain to him that I needed to know how long a meeting was likely to go for and that having set times would be good, but he just wouldn’t do that. After meeting with me at 3:30 every week for several week, he then didn’t tell me he wanted to meet after 4pm for whatever reason, and got annoyed at me when I went home at 4pm (which is a standard home time for that workplace).

Anyway.

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