Crazy in the Cubicle – is this common?

[Tiddler]

I love this thread!

Yes, I used to have terrible problems when I was working in a cubicle. Not the same ones as you though. I couldn’t cope with the lack of distractions! I actually started falling asleep at my desk. I didn’t get my work done because I couldn’t work in such a quiet atmosphere.

But I do remember one time I got a fit of the giggles while on the phone to a customer because the lad in the cubicle next to me had fallen off his chair. The highlight of those torturous 3 years as I recall.

I agree about the earplugs, though for me I’d have managed much better with a walkman and earphones instead.

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[Amy]

OH man… with every job I’ve had, there’s been stuff & noises from the other cubicles that have driven me CRAZY (well… I was already at crazy, so just crazier. ). Glad to know I’m not the only one.

The worst though was when a guy catty-corner from me in a cube had some kind of sinus issue and would snort and snuff every minute or so. I thought I was going to go through the roof because it annoyed me so much!! I never could work very well in cubicles because of the constant noise of people on the phone, everybody walking by, etc. It was torture. (This was all before medication).

Amy

http://acatwithadhd.com

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[Robbo]

LOL! I grinned when I read <<” I am sorry guys – this is hilarious. Can you just imagine all of us on a plane together for a long flight!

“>> That would be a wild flight… A party with no booze needed!.

Thanks for the high praise wolfshades. I have to admit, it felt good to write too. I almost put myself there while writing it, felt good X’2 too. Creativity is the favorite Aunt to the mother of inventions kid, me. LOL. Did anyone comprehend that?. I’m not sure I know what I just said… something about creativity being a survival mechanism.

Life is an art form.

I can’t say I’m partial to any particular artists in the classical music genre. I do love strings. There’s something about the vibration of all string instruments. I still feel a tiny bit of pain about 4th grade. A violin teacher/music teacher?, it just didn’t “get” that I was left handed. I naturally held the violin like a left handed person, all I remember is her struggle, no solution, and me never going back. Part of me wants to call her a not nice name. The truth is, I could never have handled being in the music business as a performer at least, who knows… I play with my guitars, but I can’t make myself practice enough, yet anyway. My foot’s in the door as a sound man though. I stayed up all night researching acoustics sat. because I’m just not happy with the sound of the band in the little church I’m in. Too many flat bare walls bouncing the sound in too many directions. I laugh out loud! when people say “the sound was great today” to me, then feel like I’m being rude and missunderstood. Because I probably am. Even the band members say I’m doing good. It does sound good. But I know how much better it can sound. We have some extremely talented musicians. I’m in a race to learn all I can about making the sound “right”. I’m putting my ADD dna to good use now that I’m beginning to get along better with it. I was too tired and in too much pain from not resting to even show up for church. Got my days n nights mixed up again. I need to down size all the different things I’m involved in in my community. At least I’ve “found a place in the world”… I’m just too involved in too much too fast. Need to take some time and let myself relax. Dunno how to relax.

My muscles are almost always “flexed” over n over I relax my body trying to get to sleep at night… Mostly I rebel at going to bed, and time flies at the speed of light when I’m posting here, reading here, or the same at facebook.

This thread has really helped me. Thanks you guys.

Peter, your post freaked me out. I don’t know what to think. I feel cornered, but I can win a staring contest on some days. Routine disaster in just another day ta me… Maybe I need to just take a break from looking at me. Too much too fast is too crazy. I probably don’t understand what you’re saying.

If I look for demons hard enough, it’s for sure that I’ll find them. They exploit our fears.

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[Anonymous]

Hi, I haven’t been on here in awhile and saw this thread, and needed to post.. Firstly my hats go off to all of you who manage daily to work in a cubicle. I have done it with many jobs… And for me it doesnt work. But thats okay… Because I have over the years learned that with having extra heighten sences, hearing, smell, (its an adhd thing).. I call it my supa powers. I have a job that actually lets me utilize them. I am store manager. And it works for me.. You all know when you sit at the desk in the office and hear all the others noises, I actually use that to my advantage, I listen to my customers chatter and my staff all at the same time sometimes and its good cause I direct situations immediately if necessary. For instance, I was at the cash entering a sale, near the front of the store I.

heard my staff say let me find out the price, I was able for a split second look at her and mouth the price. And then continue at the cash . And other abilities to burn off the extra energy with moving product around the store or better yet the stock room. Yes the since of smell women and their aweful perfume, or people who find it unnecessary to not bathe, or my fav smell like an ole ashtray.. UK,

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[Anonymous]

So with that, what I am trying to say if it works for you, super, if not make then you do something that your passion about and that way already its half the battle. I also found working out before work was good to burn of the energy, and then again after. But because I have a job where it requires me to be so physical on days mostly I am lucky to say when I come home I am a good tired and just am able to chill out.

I loved reading about the chewy cubicle eatters and the chatty phone people use to annoy the heck out of me too. But honestly they are just everywhere. I just get to deal with rude customers.. So I guess its one of the perks of working with people… But for every rude customer there are nice chatty ones whom I can stop and chat with.. And the great thing is when I need to focus I usually end up hyperfocusing and I push through fast the visuals that needs to be done.

For once I can actually say I am happy at work… But its been years of awhole lotta figuring it out.

All the best.

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[Geoduck]

No way am I getting on a plane with you guys! LOL!

I’ve been on a train from Seattle to LA once. OMG!!! I think everyone had ADHD. LOL! First, talk about sensitivities! The smell alone of people not bathing for a couple of days on a hot train (coach section) was brutal. Then this couldn’t be more obvious fellow ADDer next to me wouldn’t shut the hell up all night long! Then a teen with ADHD sat next to me, and was sweet enough, but couldn’t keep his hands off my stuff, “Oh, what is that, ooh, that’s cool, oh how does that CD player work? You like THAT band??? Cool book!” STOP TOUCHING!!!

I think that must’ve been the height of my short nicotine career (replaced it with caffeine). I couldn’t get off that train for enough smoke breaks, in fact. I think the nicotine kept me from killing everyone.

I’m sure I was just as obnoxious, however. LOL! No, not me, what am I thinking??? I’m a perfect angel, and the only non-obnoxious ADHDer to ever exist…yeah right. LOL! Funny how the people most like yourself tend to make you bristle the most, isn’t it?

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[Robbo]

Great post Geoduck!

That was super fun to read, umm, the 2nd or 3rd time too.

<<” I’m a perfect angel, and the only non-obnoxious ADHDer to ever exist…yeah right. LOL! “>>

Yep, me too, “perfect angel” Not one obnoxious bone in my body!,

Lot’s of the stuff here is too dang funny.

Thanks

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[Anonymous]

Do we have extra sensitive noses or is it just my imagination? With some smells – coffee, chocolate, cut grass … that’s wonderful. Cat boxes, stinky restrooms and wet dog, not so much.

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[Tiddler]

I have a crazy over sensitivity to smells. I can smell chocolate on my husband from across the room and can tell the instant he comes home if he’s eaten any while he’s been out!

Also, this isn’t pleasant, I can tell when people have been umm ‘doing adult stuff’ before they’ve come out. I don’t tell people I can do this because I might never get invited out again, but really, I’d rather not know this stuff.

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[Scattybird]

Oh Tiddler that’s hilarious.

The air is heavy with the scent of hanky panky,

Some sweet and playful spanky spanky,

Or is it mown grass or perhaps wet dog?

No! That pong originated from a snog.

They say love is poetry. I quite like my unhinged moments.

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[Anonymous]

Tiddler and Scattybird, you are both hilarious!!

I’m just grateful that I don’t notice that particular scent.

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[Anonymous]

First of all, love the poem scattybird.

I can’t help thinking many of you are talking about Sensory Processing Disorder- difficulties in managing sensory inputs which lead to a distraction that is highly impairing. This is not unusual in Autism by the way but I find it common in ADHD-types. Noise is one example but it can be all of your senses.

Noise is certainly a common workplace issue or if you are on a plane, I guess. Noise canceling head phones do work. But what about smells on a plane or the middle seat squeeeeze touchy uncomfortableness or how about the acute sensations of your bladder working relative to the lineup to the one functioning bathroom.

A plane- the ultimate cubicle.

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[Robbo]

hehehe

Oh man, oh jeeze, oh boy…

I feel for ya tiddler. That’s gotta be a hard thing to not let your body language give away huh?

Having a good nose is why I say stuff like “My kitchen is my favorite part of my home, magic happens there, and then I eat it”

Last week, I used the glaze from an excellent roast beef and some super thin slices of the roast in my chili, sort-of a beef broth and mild chili hybrid thing. Almost every time I get in the mood to cook I create something different. I wish I could make me do that more. Getting hungry is heavenly. I think my appetite died when I was fighting pressure sores over the last few years. I had to eat tons n tons of protein shakes n health food. That’s a big part of what saved me. The dietician had me eating 120 grams of protein per day…

happy sniffin n smellin.

peace

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[Philabuster]

Speaking of smells, I also have a really good sense of smell.

HOWEVER, several years ago, I was put on an oral antibiotic (10 days) and that pill had the ABSOLUTE WORST side effect. After taking the pills for 2 days, my sense of smell increased by 10 TIMES normal. I felt like I was a bloodhound. I could smell EVERYTHING. This is not a good thing. Many things smell BAD. At least 50% of everybody now had halitosis (bad breath), whereas before I never caught a whiff except for one or two individuals. Body Odor smells were constant and came from EVERYWHERE. I was grossing myself out with BO and had to take a shower twice a day.

Lots of machine oil smells. Some hydraulic oil and gears oils are stinky but when you can smell them 10 feet away from the source is downright disgusting.

That was the worst experience I have ever had. Even my favorite foods smelled questionable and sometimes awful where they used to smell appetizing before.

My sense of smell returned to normal level about 1 week after stopping the antibiotic. Foods, people, breath all went back to normal levels. THANK GOD!

Antibiotic was not working as expected. Dr switched me to a different type. I told my Dr about the side effects and she said it was common occurrence. I do not remember which one it was.

New antibiotic did not mess with my sense of smell, but it did give me the WORST case of morning mouth for 10 days straight! I wanted to cut off my tongue as it was the source of the foul odor and taste for that week.

Being sick SUCKS!

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[wolfshades]

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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