Dr. Umesh Jain is now exclusively responsible for TotallyADD.com and its content

ADHD and keeping on topic

ADHD and keeping on topic2011-08-18T13:46:49+00:00

The Forums Forums I Just Found Out! My Story ADHD and keeping on topic

Viewing 0 posts
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 35 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #89934

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Keeping on topic for an ADHD person is like trying to keep a drug addict off of medicine. 😯 ❗ It is very hard to do. I constantly switch from topic to topic. My friends think it is soo cute sometimes,but it can be kind of strange. SOOOOOOOO don’t feel quite like the lone ranger! I GET IT TOO! 😯 BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107417

    billd
    Member
    Post count: 913

    Cute? my friends get bored and walk away……… or keep trying to put things back on topic.

    At work in meetings or emails it’s a pain in the rumpus.

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107418

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Going off topic and never finding my way back is how I keep myself interested in the conversation. But it’s awfully embarassing when I can’t remember what the question was in a one-on-one conversation, like a therapy session 😳

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107419

    Geoduck
    Member
    Post count: 303

    Some of my friends think it’s my sense of humor. I find it to be the most annoying aspect of my ADD. In fact, my friend who refuses to believe I have ADD says it’s my personality. Really, I know it’s not and try to explain my frustration, but she just doesn’t get it. Really, she just wants to believe I’m being funny.

    One time, I even explained to somebody that I had ADD and that’s what causes this sort of thing, among the other things this person was getting on my case about. She laughed. Seriously. She thought I was joking, I guess.

    Well, there is a benefit to ADD. Evidently, my ADD is quite entertaining to others. Me, not so much :(

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107420

    billd
    Member
    Post count: 913

    My youngest son is very adhd.

    I recall when he was about 5 we took him to visit my grandmother. He sat on her lap, and like she always did, asked how he was doing, what he was doing, etc. For his older brother, that would have taken 5 or 10 minutes.

    But for Jason – it was 45 minutes, and every minute or so the subject changed. Sort of like those deals where someone sets up dominos to fall, then uses some other toy, then it’s water glasses, etc. – as this went along, it never stopped, only the topic changed. And seamlessly, too, I might add!

    We called it the never-ending story and laughed about it. Little did we know then………….

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107421

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    I am SO HORRIBLE with this. I cannot avoid tangents, I never remember what I was talking about initially, OR my mind just screeches to a halt and goes totally blank, and I’m just left there with my mouth open in the middle of saying something during class or on the phone.. and It’s so embarrassing. :( It’s why I have such social anxiety! If I happen to have a good dose of meds (rarely) I am much more sociable because I know people can follow my train of thought!

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107422

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    @twilightfades

    YES! I TOTALLY GET IT! don’t feel too bad, i am a bit bad at remembering things myself. But it will get better i think…

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107423

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    I’ve been pat on the head far too many times for being “cute”.

    I’ve always had problems with social interactions. I was either terrified to talk or my lid was popped and I couldn’t stop. no balance. the phone SUCKS when you can’t keep a train of thought or when you can’t get cues from the other person cuing me to shut up or that I’m not making sense. I had to record a message today for an answering machine.. more than 10 tries to get it right. didn’t count…..maybe that is normal? sadly, that is on meds…but I’m on a week insomnia spree which I’m sure killed the med. especially that I can barely keep my eyes open..

    Part of it is my personality. i love being entertained by randomness. and getting excited and animated all the time.. however, really annoying when you cannot turn it off. like constantly blanking out on my thoughts..not being able to tell a story… looking like a moron and processing at the speed of sludge..having issues with just hanging out and not doing an activity.. being unable to find men who are entertaining enough not to be boring.. anything to do with work

    with meds, i have been able to kind of turn it off and on. I just sort of let my brain just go…. but then I can be more logical and less tangential when I try. sometimes.. or at least have many fewer “brain deaths”.. yes. I do this so often that it has a name “brain death”.

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107424

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    I struggle with recalling words and it’s infuriatingly difficult. Often, I shy away from conversations because I know inevitably I’ll hit that point when I want to express a thought- the thought is there as well as the specific word I want to use – but fail because I hit that familiar mental block. My mind will go totally blank and I can’t seem to recall anything: names, dates, titles to books, an author’s name, a specific word I’m sure I know, but can’t access…. This has been a source of depression for most of my teenage and all of my adult life. This inability to recall what I know is in my mind prevents me from creating meaningful relationships and I am insecure because of it. I fear my inability to keep up in conversations; I’m insecure and terrified by the fact that I can’t always contribute intelligently to a conversation or discussion because I won’t remember/recall the article/book/song/lesson/name/place/event/etc. I read about or learned somehow, not long ago.

    A feeling of anxiety and heat begins to travel down my body when I’m in these situations; I feel prickly all over. It’s as if my mind has been put on pause. Pressure builds in the space between my eyes, and I feel removed from myself slightly. Inside I’m praying something will give and magically click back into place, opening the mental dam again. It never happens that way, though.

    I’m sure what I’ve described are symptoms of social anxiety that are brought on by my trouble with working memory.

    I struggle in the area I love the most. Language.

    I want to write, but can’t. I look onto the page or screen and my mind goes blank. I begin a line and my mind goes blank. Somehow, against the odds, I’m off to a decent start– then my mind goes blank. I struggle accessing my vocabulary and allowing the words to emerge. Fluidity is an issue as well. Concerning writing, nothing feels fluid to me. My memory does not allow it. It is absolutely line-by-line and word-by-word; Love turns into resentment.

    I’ve put a lot of emphasis on words in particular, but my sentiment goes beyond words alone. This concerns every aspect of my working memory. From reading to remembering to storing to recalling and everything else. For me, however, words are important and near to my heart so I’ve given them the most attention here.

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107425

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Yes. anxiety, feeling overwhelmed by noise, voices, it is difficult to focus on one conversation, and then I can’t remember the words or the person’s name or what I was talking about .. the blanks are frustrating, anxiety builds and even my notes dont help to recall

    what i needed or was told ..etc .. sometimes it seems safer to stay in . but that puts more pressure on my partner and she has enough

    trying to cope with me. Focus seems harder, the only area that i can is weaving .. forces me into the moment .. seems good.

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107426

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    My problem is not social anxiety it is that I talk too much and constantly interrupt people when they are talking. I am a very friendly and outgoing individual but I get nervous when I am in a new social situation especially with peers because I am worried about tangents and talking before thinking. 😯

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107427

    Cat Alberts
    Member
    Post count: 32

    Nathan, I have that too!

    I often feel very foolish when I am in a conversation and can’t recall the key word for what I want to say. Somehow it happens especially when the subject is something I am passionate about or have read a lot about. I recently thought it might have to do with the fact that I read a lot but don’t really talk a lot. So the word is in a passive memory, not in an active memory. Again, there are specific words to refer to those memories that I can’t recall at the moment! :-)

    I used to limit myself in social outings as well, out of fear of shutting down.

    What does help is my (small) doses of methylfenidate, because now at least I don’t lose the rythm of the conversation, even if I can’t find the right words.

    I am considering doing the NaNoWriMo in november, just to get over my fear of writing. A month of just busting out 5000 words a day, no editing, no reading back to see if it makes sense, just throwing it all out. Who knows, maybe after that the active recall memory is a bit more operational…

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107428

    Lucky77
    Member
    Post count: 39

    I am unfortunately in the “cute” club as well.

    I am the master at being over friendly at first, outgoing, hugging, full of energy. Then they walk away and I think, “what was their name?” and then I will see them again a few week later and my mind is racing, “how do I know them..?”

    Leads to some embarrassing moments, especially if its work related.

    On the upside my work sees me as having boatloads of energy, positive and up for anything! Now if I could actually complete things, that would help. Want to get out of the, “well, guess I will find a new job because Im about to be fired” mentality…

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107429

    Geoduck
    Member
    Post count: 303

    Here’s a good video on keeping on topic and distractibility in conversation: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCedsprbQkg&gt;

    Yeah, okay, ADHD can be funny. It’s probably good to laugh at ourselves, anyway. Otherwise, I might cry soooo much more.

    quickly replying to several posts in one paragraph (now that’s a skill, right?): I do the whole meet somebody a million times then can’t remember their face thing, too. Really, the facial recognition thing is a killer for me. Unfortunately, sometimes people think I’m brushing them off, and I’m not. I feel so bad about it. The adderall doesn’t seem to help with this, but it does seem to help with paying attention in a conversation. I have to work on not jumping ahead (which is why we tend to interrupt and finish other people’s sentences, we’re speeding ahead of them in the conversation), but it’s getting a little better.

    REPORT ABUSE
    #107430

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    facial recognition is one of my biggest and most embarrassing challenges too!!!!!!!

    charm people into being our secretarial slaves!!!!!!! why learn how to focus and time manage? lol.

    REPORT ABUSE
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 35 total)