Examples of inattentativeness

[Anonymous]

I know the feeling of constantly losing things. I think that is why I now have bouts of really bad panic attacks.

Too many times leaving the door unlocked all night, leaving food on the stove, taps running.

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[Patte Rosebank]

My mom is so worried about her inattentiveness and forgetfulness that she will take the car out of the garage, go back to the house to make sure she locked the door, stop the car halfway out the driveway to run back and double-check she locked the door, drive off, then drive back 10 minutes later, to make triple-sure she locked the door. Never mind that my parents have a monitored security system that would catch anyone who opened the door; she must go back and make sure.

She has also been visited by the fire department, after putting a pot of green beans on the stove on high heat, then going out to the garden to pick some herbs, completely forgetting the pot of beans, until she saw smoke billowing out the window. She did this twice…as far as we know. She’s always cooked things on high heat to save time—only, she loses track of time and ends up cooking them just as long as if she’d been using low or medium heat. This is why I didn’t discover medium-rare steaks until after I’d moved out and started cooking on my own. I generally opt for cooking things at lower temperatures for a longer time, and setting a very loud timer to make sure I don’t forget them. I guess this proves that Mom’s ADHD (though still undiagnosed) is worse than mine.

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[wolfshades]

@Larynxa: I know the pain and horror of that kind of dynamic. Fortunately I have a microwave and never ever cook anything on or in the stove. Well, hardly ever. So I never have to face that.

But yeah – double and triple checking the door, and then making it all the way down to the lobby, only to turn around and come back a few times. Been there (AM there).

Also – my kitchen sink has a low water flow. So…being impatient and distracted, I’ll often turn it on and walk away for a while while the sink fills so that I can do the dishes. You’ll never guess what happens next……

Yup. Water all over the counter and floor. Ugh.

Really messes up my chi.

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[Anonymous]

If I ever cook something on the stove, I stay with it until it is done, or I cook it at low heat and stay near it. But I learned this the hard way, with many badly-burnt samples of ambrosia offered up to the cooking gods. ; )

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[Anonymous]

I used to be a cashier at a grocery throughout my school years, several times I forgot a client while serving him… the latter standing in front of me; looking puzzled as I fixed some abstract area of the store..

One day, while I was crossing the street, a paper felt from my pocket. I bent to take it back and look at it- I forgot that I was crossing the street. a car hit me. broke my tybias, dislocated my pelvis. After that, I started a medication.

seems funny, but even with my medication, my life is a nightmare. I got 98% in all my course, but I have panick attack at exams, always late, stay home at the moment that I don’t feel like see people, misses class, anxious… and as I am a tiny little thing, people tend to see me like an irresponsible child. sometimes, I’d like to find a way to show them how my mind is amazing, each second a new blueprint in my head..but inteasd, people always mad at me, frustrated or think I would do nothing in life. even my boyfriend after years, till get angry and I ask ” what’d you say?” telling I don’t listen… how cna I expect other people to understand? yesterday, I had 5 hours to right 2 english essays, and its my second language.. I could have had 90% but my head went blurred.. I wrote 8 lines in 5 hours.. what profession could I do?..I dunno

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[Anonymous]

got BF on the sofa as I type and he is so mad at today as I have failed my course and he told his mother that I was doing so well. He said to me that has DEFENDED me to his white middle class folks, due to the fact that I am an unemployed, disabled, ethnic minority who has just discovered that she may have ADHD. The cheek of it I don’t need defending, or unhelpful criticism. He wants me to go back to performing arts he doesn’t think I can perform academically. I just need a good doctor and a some understanding. I hate not being able to switch on the concentration button for everything when I want to. But that is my life. x

He thinks I am too old for returning to study I am only 28

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[Anonymous]

I cannot count the number of times throughout my life when I started talking about something that came to mind, only to forget what I was thinking about mid-sentence! How’s that for a brain fart!

Also the countless times that I thought of some task I needed to do in another room of my house. Halfway to the other room, I’ve completely forgotten what I originally set out to do. I have to go back to the first room I was in to remember what it is I wanted to do in the first place. ACK!

Did I confuse anyone?

A habit my mother has that just drives me up the wall: she constantly leaves half finished glasses of water all over the house. It’s a habit I’ve started acquiring as of late. Now I’m driving myself crazy too!

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[Anonymous]

I’m not alone! I thought that I was the only one that had to go back to where I started out to remember what I was doing! Sometimes I take several tours of the house because I can’t remember which room I actually had the idea in . I also miss simple steps. Once at a drive through the cashier dropped a $5 bill passing it to me. Simple to solve right? Just open the door and reach down to grab it. The simple step I “forgot”? Put the car in park! I ended up half in, half out of the car, skipping along at about 3 km/h. I ended up travelling about 3 or 4 car lenghts which put me right into plain site of the whole parking lot. The added bonus was I then had to walk back and get the $5 from the drive through lane.

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[Ivriniel]

At work, I’m forever losing things that I just had in my hand, because a kid asked me a question, I put the stuff down, and then forget about it completely.

The worst was when I lost an entire set of finished and signed report cards. (Turns out that they were in my backpack.) Had to go to the VP and get him to sign them again. At the time he said it wasn’t a big deal, and then totally turned it into one during my performance appraisal.

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[Anonymous]

i am constantly going from one room to the next to get or do something, and forget what I meant to do because the to-do list is another room (or online). I end up going back to the “scene of the crime” (where I was previously) and standing around looking stupid trying to remember what I was going to do. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don’t. This also happens when I have a really GREAT idea, I get up to do something and the idea completely vanishes – I know I had a really GREAT idea, but I can’t remember what it was. For years I joked that I needed a velcro vest, that I could post notes to so I would always be reminded of what I wanted to do.

My horror story is back in university days (1975) when I was a music student living in a second floor apartment in an old house in London, Ontario. This was the first and last time I ever did this. I put a pot of oil on the stove to make french fries. But I am impatient so I put the burner on high heat. Then I went across the hall to my bedroom and started practicing on my violin. I only realized what I had been doing in the kitchen when I started to smell smoke. I returned to the kitchen quickly and the pot was smoking, the kitchen was filled with smoke. There was only a small window to open and no fan over the oven, so I figured the only thing to do was to get the smoking pot full of oil out of the house. I carefully walked it down an old flight of stairs and out the front door, across the street, and dumped it down a snowbank (there were no houses on the opposite side of the street, just a rail yard, and it was winter). I almost called the fire department to help get rid of the smoke in the house. I had no fire extinguisher (poor student). When I think about it, I could have spilled the oil on my body or down the stairs, causing a fire.

I remember this story as “Nero fiddling while Rome burned”. It was the first of my nine lives. The second was driving across Wonderland Bridge before it was completed and encountering someone who wanted to play chicken on the road with their car – they swerved into the other lane at the last minute – I was going to as well (we would have collided head-on) but my old car stalled and i could only sit there scared to death and do nothing. Is risk taking part of ADD?

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[wolfshades]

Susan – risk taking is *very* much a part of ADD.

Your story about standing around in a room, trying to recall what it was you were going to do sounds so familiar to me. It’s kind of cool, finding out that someone else is going through the exact same experience as yourself. That’s what I like about this place – finding out that you’re not the oddball you thought you were – and that this kind of behaviour is common to so many of us. Thanks for sharing.

Never had the horror you did though with that pot of boiling oil. Makes me cringe when thinking about how bad it could have gone.

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[Anonymous]

Since realizing the part that ADHD has played in my life I hav also eralized how lucky I have been. I thankfully am sill alive and have not been left with too many memories I’d care to froget.

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[Anonymous]

While Sitting in streetcar trying to make to do list, getting distracted by god knows what,

person coming up asking me if they could use my pen for a moment

telling them oh sorry I don’t have it- thought they asked for time— I was wearing a watch as well =S

having been called a racist by other passengers and being given a business card by the person being told they weren’t going to steal it

being confused about as to what they are talking about

And later being asked by my friend exactly why was it that I didn’t I give the guy my pen?

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh he wanted my pen! not time!

friend looking at my watch- why didn’t you tell hime the time??

=S

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[Anonymous]

Rani, i sooooo get that all the time.

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[Anonymous]

ANYOne here had too wait more that 6months for diagnosis or treatment. In england I am being told a year.

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[Author]

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