You Know Your ADD When

Very very funny!
…

You know you’re ADD when… the topic of conversation is say, the price of rice in China, and you snap out of a nice self induced quandry and say, ” You know, I’ve always wanted a dog!”

You know you’re ADD when…you’re sobbing during a totally awe inspiring performance given by Carrot Top talking about dialing down the middle, and you notice that when the commercial is over you are being stared at like a freak at some out of the way carnival.

You know you’re ADD when…while gearing up for the backstroke race of a lifetime, and instead of doing the perfect push, arch and plunge, you do the push, arch, and circle back to front!

I hope these bring a slight smile…Happy organizing!

Sincerely,

Anna
The “You just need to try Harder!” Queen

you find the lettuce in the freezer and for the life of you, you don’t remember who put it there.

You do your personal best on a short answer test and the teacher says “You are in the ballpark, but it just isn’t all there…”

On another answer the teacher tells you, “Gee it is all there, but next time can you work a little harder on organization as it was hard for me to search for the answers.”

I wish I could just put away my shoes in the closet like my husband does instead of leaving them all over the house, which is wherever I choose to take them off at the moment….I have a pair in the living room, the family room, the office, etc..

Oh, and the piles of papers……I swear some gremlin came in the middle of the night and moved my piles of papers..so I couldn’t find the one I needed the most…and as always it is in the stack that I looked through but for the life of me I just couldn’t find it..

What about all the half finished projects that I never finished…and the one that takes the cake is the bathroom walls that are half painted from 5 years ago..with the tape that has long peeled off the woodwork has left a gummy residue in its wake..

I just did the dishes…they have been there for about 2 days…they never quite get put away…and oh, did I tell you about my laundry?? I HATE laundry…I don’t mind putting it in the machine and throwing it in the dryer but I have a devil of a time folding it and putting it away.. It is sad when we start picking up the folded clothes and start wearing them…

You just finished explaining something to a friend, and they say…”What did you mean? You were talking in circles.”

Thank heaven’s my husband is patient…but you know what…he has learned to live with the mess when I don’t take my meds…He can tell when I do because I get everything done at once….but I still have to tackle that bathroom…maybe this summer…:-)

Oh my…I thought I was the only one. Thank the lord for these message boards. My fiance can’t understand why I can’t be like him. Trouble is, I can’t understand it either. I love my meds, but also struggle with remembering to take them. My fiance breaks out into a sweat and runs for the door screaming, “I’m going to the pharmacy!” everytime I forget to fill my prescription. He can’t get to the store fast enough. I laugh trying to figure out just what he is so afraid of. Maybe I shouldn’t laugh…maybe not taking my meds on time will cause some horrible event. I suppose my head could fall right off my neck, or I might start throwing rubber toys around the room (not!) or run over my foot with the car. I suppose I should be afraid too. HA! The thing about me that he doesn’t seem to comprehend is, I wasn’t diagnosed with ADD until I was 30. How did I manage tosurvive? I will get back to you on that one…I forgot.
Last quote of the night…
You know you have ADD when…nothing gets you down for long, you fall and get right back up again, bad things are easily forgotten along with taking out the garbage, and you find that your sense of humor is far far funnier than anyone else around you. (At least in your mind)
The truest example of yin and yang is someone who has ADD. Too much structure or too much chaos causes imbalance, but an equal share of both creates harmony.
Good night!
Anna

Funny topic, great bulletin board, here’s mine:

You know that you’re ADD when…

…you read halves of books.

…you start eating dinner, get up to put the radio on and suddenly decide to read the newspaper for a half an hour, forget what you read, and then return to the cold plate to finish dinner two hours later.

…it’s easy to forgive but easier to forget.

…you go to a movie and walk out not knowing what it was about.

…you pour orange juice in the cereal bowl instead of milk.

Its kinda Like this psychotic dog I have. I cant seem to get him to move at all.. well time to go….
hey; let me intoduce em, To you all,

COME HERE “STAY” come on “stay ” get a move on it!
Some folks here to meet you STAY” !

:}:)” I say to myself alot I just
cant get right! “

you know your add when…
you are takeing a shower and you cant remember how many times you have washed the same spot and dont know the spots you did already.

when you are looking at the traffic outside of you car and they seem all to be going in slow motion, and you only doing 45. not the normal 95 your used too.

neil

This is very embarrassing BUT I really did it.

You know your A.D.D. when you call the volkswagon dealership in hopes of getting a job driving because you saw the slogan, “We need good drivers”, and thought it was an employment ad.

NO I AM NOT BLOND…JUST A.D.D.

You know your A.D.D. when you send your daughter a birthday card but forget to address it. Thank God, I put our return label address on it.

Have a good day!!!!!!!!

You know you’re add when your husband asks you for aspirin and you go into the kitchen and take it thinking it’s for YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also get my vitamins out and cannot remember whether I’ve taken it or not (I have a few jars) So I had to create an “order” of how I take it…. *sigh

You know you’re ADD when you say this prayer:

God, help me to keep my mind on one th–—look! a bird!–at a time

…if you can explain your complex medical condition and can’t remember your phone number

… if you smell something cooking and it’s the breakfast pan with the flame(low!) that you never turned off.

Kate.

your children don’t have any pictures of them sitting on Santa’s lap because you can’t stand waiting in line that long.

Grocery shopping with my husband is torture…..he picks through the strawberries to find the perfect ones….jeez, just grab a handful would ya!

When you have a paper due today and you haven’t started it yet! And then you’ll write it and email it at exactly midnight. :)

Hmmm, maybe I’m ADD all of these things sound like things I’ve done, do or can relate to. It sure would explain a lot. Here I always thought it was the rest of the world that was affected…

You read some of the messages on this board several times because you keep forgetting where you’re up to in the series of messages.

You have to smell your armpits to know if you’ve put on deodorant.

You laugh at the posts on this board, but they also make you sad because you identify so strongly with them.

You buy a new fax machine because you never learned how to operate the one you bought a few years ago, and then start to connect it, and it’s months later, and you’re still going to a copy store to send faxes.

You have all kinds of other equipment that you’ve never used including TIVO, even though you paid the subscription fee over a year ago, because you knew that the price of the subscription was going up.

You go to the main post office on April 15th or when your tax extension ends and there’s only a few minutes before midnight.

You’re surprised that you remember the topic of the conversation, after you’ve gone off on several tangents.

You don’t cook because trying to figure out what to buy and prepare is too overwhelming.

You have terrific ideas that you don’t know how to put into action.

Although you have advanced degrees, you’ve never been able to write an outline for a paper.

Planning and following a plan feels like being put in a straitjacket and tortured.

When you can’t focus on a menu in a restaurant, no matter how much time the server gives you…until everyone at the table has ordered and you are forced to commit.

When you have to ask for the time over and over because you never listen to the answer.

When you have to combine morning tasks into groups (eg brush teeth while showering) because you can’t make yourself get out of bed early enough to get things done on time.

When you find your daughter asking you who you’re talking to in the car (when she knows it’s not her)

you know u have a.d.d when..
youve asked ya hubbie ten times how his day has been n he just says… why dont u listen..

when fixing dinner u decide to clean up n vac the floor only to burn the dinner..

you go to the suppermarket with hubbie n kids.. and go around looking at the labels n putting them in the trolley only to discover that hubbie has already got that item n is way ahead of you!!!!.. and he can do shopping in ten minutes where as it takes you nealy a hour.. because u keep going roun n round in circles because youve missed something on one isle.. while getting something else.. n then forgoten what you went in that isle for…

and also when writting this you know it makes sence to you but will not make sence to others lol.

..when you go to the kitchen to get a drink for yourself n your toddler.. only to find that youve put.. milk in her cup and cocoa cola in your coffe cup!!*with your coffe n sugar lol* lol.

when people tell you that coke speeds pple up n u look at them blank n go buggar off!! when you drink like 20 cups of coffe a day *or more* just to survive… (not to mention half cold cups left in diff rooms while u went to look for something) lol.

i think i’ll stop now.. because you’ll neva read to hear without falling on the floor ROFLOL.. with sympatie n emapathy.. cus u know u just like me! lol ;-)

Wow! Thanks so much everyone for sharing your “idiosyncrocies” with all of us. Arlene, I think I related to yours most closely. I know that I have personally done or thought about at least 80% of the things people have posted about. It makes me feel better knowing that I’m not the only one doing this stuff, and that as a group, we can be zany and entertaining in a manner that is unique to us. That, I feel, is a gift.

There are things about being ADD/ADHD that I would not change for all the gold in Fort Knox. Maybe that should be the next topic for you know you’re ADD when. We tend to be gifted in areas that many others are not, so please try to remember that when the frustrating things such as we have all listed here start to REALLY piss us off (Lord knows I have my days). Actually, had one of them last week when I was all proud of myself for remembering to show up at an appointment with my Homeopath/M.D. Was feeling pretty good about it until a nice young lady came out from behind the counter and whispered to me, “Can I talk to you for a second?” She then informed me that my appointment had been at 3:00 as opposed to the 4:00 time (which I had showed up 10 min. late for). Quite embarrassing, but I tried to just be proud that I had made it there on the right date….lol.

Anyhow, yesterday I got back on Ritalin for the first time in 4 years…Thank God! I am so amazed at how different I feel already. When it kicked in this morning it was like someone threw a light switch. Nice break.

Take it easy all, and be kind to yourselves. Peace!

Traci

—You feel a sudden panic because you just answered “yes” to a very important question your spouse asked you right before they walked out the door, and you don’t remember what the question was

— You forget a really funny thing you were about to type, because the previous one — about the question you can’t remember — took to long to type.

— It is more important for your clothes to be comfortable than for them to be clean.

— You have used the same toothbrush for 6 months and it still looks like new… *ugh

— Your notes from school have more pictures and doodles than words.

— Your wife complains about feeling like she’s your mother

— You have run at least 3 stoplights in your life and been very angry at the “idiot” who almost ran into you

— You find that even though it is 4:35am you can’t resist adding your post to this thread because it feels very therapeutic (and it’s fun)

your comment on shopping with the husband is exactly how i feel , my husband takes years in the grocery , i hate it „ lol laura

I can’t belive how many things i relate to on here .. you know how many times i left the burner on ,??? how many times i made two trips and sometimes 3 down grocery isles because i needed something else and blew by it to quick ..
i only have one picture with my son in santa’s lap and that is because my sister took him .. he has another with the easter bunny , she took him for that too!!

i hate lines … arrrrrggghh .. prior to meds that is ..
saying yes to things and not knowing what you said yes to

actually following a conversation even though your mind is wondering , and being able to do this sometimes sucessfully ..

the only thing that is consistant is your inconsistancy …

afraid to make commitments that require responsibilty and planning , structure . i run the other way ..

never knowing what to make for dinner „ is this a problem we all have??? this is amazing , thanks , i am going to read some more .. laura

You feel proud you can answer “yes” when someone asked you if you remembered to eat dinner—next comes the embarrasment when they ask you “what did you have?”

Previous answers:

Skittles and pound cake

Cheezits and Mountain Dew

It just keeps going on like this…

All of ya’lls answers are hilarious!! Especially since I’ve laughed at myself for doing similar things (like these!)…

You know you’re ADD when…

You’ve lost a dollar bill up your sleeve. (I still don’t know how that happened)

In the process of your mad search for your keys you somehow manage to lose the wallet that you just had in your hand.

People have come right up to you and said ‘hello’ repeatedly without getting any response until they finally give up and are mad that you just completely ignored them like that. (And when you hear about it later you have no idea what they’re talking about)

You forget what you’re saying mid-sentence (you desperately want to remember so you don’t look like an idiot but you just know its gone for good).

You have 20 different tubes of chapstick so that you know you’ll always be able to find one.

You don’t remember which pile of clothes is the clean one so you have to wash them all.

You’re standing in a store and something draws your attention to your shoes and you think, “what shoes AM I wearing??” and you look down and you think “How did those get on my feet? I don’t even remember putting them on.”

You have to leave the deoderant in a spot that you pass often in the morning or you might forget to use it (and then you get teased for keeping it on your desk).

When you tell someone for the first time that you are ADD this look comes over their face that just says, “That explains so much.”

You’re very surprised by the number of endings to this sentence you were able to come up with and you know you thought of more but forgot them before you could get them down. You’re also pretty surprised that you remembered you wanted to respond to this.

All of ya’lls answers are hilarious!! Especially since I’ve laughed at myself for doing similar things (like these!)…

You know you’re ADD when…

You’ve lost a dollar bill up your sleeve. (I still don’t know how that happened)

In the process of your mad search for your keys you somehow manage to lose the wallet that you just had in your hand.

People have come right up to you and said ‘hello’ repeatedly without getting any response until they finally give up and are mad that you just completely ignored them like that. (And when you hear about it later you have no idea what they’re talking about)

You forget what you’re saying mid-sentence (you desperately want to remember so you don’t look like an idiot but you just know its gone for good).

You have 20 different tubes of chapstick so that you know you’ll always be able to find one.

You don’t remember which pile of clothes is the clean one so you have to wash them all.

You’re standing in a store and something draws your attention to your shoes and you think, “what shoes AM I wearing??” and you look down and you think “How did those get on my feet? I don’t even remember putting them on.”

You have to leave the deoderant in a spot that you pass often in the morning or you might forget to use it (and then you get teased for keeping it on your desk).

When you tell someone for the first time that you are ADD this look comes over their face that just says, “That explains so much.”

You’re very surprised by the number of endings to this sentence you were able to come up with and you know you thought of more but forgot them before you could get them down. You’re also pretty surprised that you remembered you wanted to respond to this.

[%sig%]

You are extra carefull to make cure that you have everything
you need before you go rushing out the door, remember to lock
it! down the elevator out to the car and then you relize the only
thing that you did remember is your keys.

You are trying to unlock your door and you check 3 times that
this is the right number because the key doesn’t work right away
and you can’t remember if you the right floor or why your
standing in front of a door.

Your car makes a loud beeping sound when you leave the lights
on and while your opening your backpack, looking out the window
down at the ground you see the car lights on. You run down 12 flights
of stairs (havn’t taken that way down yet) stopping on every floor
that a unlocked/open panel on on the wall and looking in it. You later come back to your backpack hours later and see the laptop half
freed.

You can’t remember what your doing.

your mind is blank and then the room gets really interesting in the corner so you hit the send button.

You realize that you should have just jotted stuff down as you thought it cuz now you have forgotten a zillion funny ideas

You constantly freeze up the computer becuase you have 25 things of internet explorer open and are still using all of them. 8)

After explaining your thought process for completeing an action people think you are lying to them :roll:

In stead of listening in Math class you made a list of all of your activities and your classmates store dumbfounded at it because it was so long

When someone claims that stress is tearing their life appart you look quizically at them and claim that yours is holding yours together…and then go off on some tangent about superglue :)

You have lived in your new place for 4 months and still don’t have the TV’s cable plugged in because the mere thought of sitting down to watch TV is painful

In class when another student asked the professor a question that was so stupid that the professor circled the overhead’s projection on the actual pull-down screen out of fustration with marker and your friends on either side of you were yelling at joking at eachother because of it and the prof appoligized heaps and when you were told this in a another class later that day you seriously had zero clue what they were talking about, but your friends say you were sitting between (yes, awake…um…i guess) them the whole time. (Would have been funny to pay attention to :( )

The only reason this is so long is cuz you are doing a zillion other things right now (all at the same time) and come back when you think of something funny. And realize that this could take several days to write…but you will probably run down the battery by somehow unplugging the computer, even though you won’t remember unplugging it

You get so busy with everything else that you honestly forget to eat for a day and a half. (nothing to do with anything but getting to busy and forgetting) :?

You read a page in your book 5 times, cuz everytime you read it, you forgot to read it.

Your family jokes that your name is latin for “late”

Little martians must steal your keys (actually it’s my cats..or that’s at least what I tell my boss when I show up 15 minutes late to work :shock: )

Your room looks like a tornado ran through it…and you are that tornado

On that note…better go pretend to clean…this has been sitting here for like 4 hours now…lol…take care y’all.

yup.. im 19 and pregnant with my first child.. so i know all this.. my fiance has no idea why he can come home at the end of the day and nothing is done.. ive been busy all day.. but i just cant remember what ive done!!!

you know you have ADD when: You can have dinner, listen to the tv, discuss the news, sing to your favourite song and read a book at the same time

or when the table becomes the local keepsake box/office/desk/cupboard/anything else that fits on the spaces left

and you definatly know when your doctor or psych asks.. when did you last “…..” and you wonder into a long silence for the rest of the appointment wondering if tyou had or havent or when and where.. then you remember you lef the cat outside

[quote=”Stephanie”]All of ya’lls answers are hilarious!! Especially since I’ve laughed at myself for doing similar things (like these!)…

You know you’re ADD when…

You’ve lost a dollar bill up your sleeve. (I still don’t know how that happened)

[%sig%][/quote]

….You post the same message to the LD board twice. ;->

You know your ADD when…..

You read the first six posts to see if anyone is going to put the same thing as you, and then go to the last page because you don’t have the patience to read the next 5 pages.

Your doing a report on learning disabilities and instead of finding information you end up posting things on the bulliten board

you find yourself staring at a word like “bulliten” thinking…is that how it’s spelled? Then continue to say the word in your head again, and again and again until it seems like jibberish

You order food in the drive-through only to realize you forgot your wallet, then after driving away, you realize you droped your wallet on the floor.

You leave your keys locked in your car while it’s still running

You get off the elevator on what you think is the sixth floor (where you live), go to the right apartment (you think), and are shocked when a strange woman walks out your door.

You have piles of paper scattered across every flat surface (including the floor).

You have budles of junk mail (and possibly some bills) piling up on your kitchen table

Your refrigorator looks like an alien garden full of odd fungal growths and molds.

Your sink is full of unwashed dishes from the beginning of the week even though you have a dish washer.

You’re the type that makes intricate plans, considers all options in exacting detail, then goes out and completely ingores those plans in all their intricate details.

You get odd random thoughts while listening to others talk and can’t help blurting them out, even if they are totally irrelevent to the conversation at hand.

You could walk into a library looking for a book on one particular subject and end up reading several unreleated books in the stacks. You do the same with web pages.

You either cannot focus on a task no matter how hard you try or you are unable to pull youself away from something.

You are such a compulsive talker that you enjoy making up people and having conversations with them in your head. Sometimes they are people you know, sometimes historical figures, sometimes totally made up.

People have to make sure you are looking at them while they are talking. You often have the experience of having a conversation with someone, then asking them to repeate what they just said because you really weren’t listening.

You either hate waiting or you love waiting because it gives you time to day dream.

You often become frustrated while working on something and have invented many interesting new combinations of four-letter words. For you, it’s just a form of stress release, but for others it is very disconcerting.

You make up songs all the time (especially about other drivers in traffic), yet you can’t really remember the words to any “real” songs.

You have no concept of time. It either goes too fast or too slow.

Sometimes you wish you had a pencil with an eraser on both ends.

You spend all day posting on bulletin boards

* your supposed to be looking for a job, ‘full time’(when you don’t have one) and spend 5 hours a day on the internet, NOT looking for a job!
* you have hobbies you enjoy so much that they literally consume your life……
* you have trouble writing neatly on a job application :x
*

I’ve never been officially diagnosed as ADD, but here are a few things I have done and do, so do you ever:

Go around the parking lot with your child calling “here, car, car, car” because that’s as good a way as any other of finding it?

Put things in your shoes so you cannot get out of the house without them? (Good system, I recommend it)

Find yourself with six hammers when you (not me, I lie, the exchange student) clean the workshop, because you keep thinking you’ve lost the hammer and get another plus a spare?

Go on a low-salt diet unintentionally for three weeks because you never remember to buy salt when you’re in the store — and then drive it into your head that you need salt and buy it three weeks in a row?
(Then of course you don’t need to worry for another year)

Ask your spouse where your book is when you’re holding it in your hand?

Hear things from your child like “We’d never eat at all if you didn’t stop in the store to pick up something to drink — but you always pick up something to drink so we eat very well.”?

Find you work better on six part-time jobs than one full-time?

Have to explain to the exam proctors when you go in that of course you aren’t intending to cheat, that’s your day’s schedule written on your left hand?

While teaching advanced math, have to check with your student what day of the week it is? (I tell them I’m a real genuine absent-minded professor)

Ask someone the date, and when they tell you “The fourth”, have to ask”Yes, but the fourth of what month?” (I’m better about this now, but that carried through my twenties.)

When you were seven, your mother was asked her phone number in a store and she turned to you and asked “What’s our phone number?”

Greet people with the standard salutation “HI! Good to see you! Oh, darn it, I’ve gone and forgotten your name again.”?

Wow, it’s great you actually notice people enough to forget their name while saying hello. Sometimes I don’t even get to that step. Of course, when I do notice them, I usually just say something subtle like: “Hey… um… you. How’s it going.”

Not diagnosed here but my kid is! I see myself in all of these. Here’s a couple to add

When you hold $700 cash in your hand and then panic because you can’t find it. You find it only after your husband tells you it’s in your hand. Then you look in shock because you have no memory of holding it.

You have a history of melting colanders and burning cookbooks because you have a habit of putting them on the stove and forgetting to turn off the burner or turn the wrong one on.

Your fridge is a constant science experiment

You had to take half an hour break from typing this because you couldn’t remember the next thing you were going to type. You only remember it happened years ago and it was funny.

You take your daughter and yourself into a public restroom use the facilities and wonder why the toilets look different. You leave the rest room and wonder why that man is looking at you strange and why he’s going into the ladies room. You decide not to say anything to him (luckily) but get in the car and tell your husband about this dumb guy who was going into the ladies room. He thought the man should have told him. Then you leave and come back a few days later on your way home. So, you go back to the restroom and wonder how they managed to switch the ladies and mens side in just a few days. Then as you’re driving away from the facilities it finally occurs to you that you used the men’s side and you just start laughing uncontrollably! Everybody just looks at you like you’re wierd.

[color=red][/color]
You know youre ADHD when….

*Youve “copied and pasted” everyones responses into word. And you dont care that its 10 pages long, even if youre planning on showing it to everyone you know.

*This is even worse when you should be doing youre french homework instead of compiling this list (especially when youre a french ed major!)

*You think in Pictures and feelings, and can’t for the life of you describe what you see in your head in a way “normal” people understand.

*You understand Pictures and Feeling

*youre talking to a friend and all of the sudden they snap their fingers and you can’t remeber what you were saying.

*When youre washing your hair and you can’t remeber if you conditioned it. So you end up using your expensive conditioner twice.

*When you have to write EVERYTHING down. And you still stare at the 20 pieces of scrap paper and not see a thing

*When you have to use different color pens inorder to see what you wrote on youre paper, and whats most important.

*When youre home alone all day, and forget to take the dog out all day. And then you wonder why the dog keeps peeing in the house.

*When you go to a friends house to do laundry, actually fold it, and drive home, just to leave it in your car for 3 days.

*When all of your junk (kitchy decorations) make your room look like a mess to an outsider, but to you, they all have a place. And when they aren’t in their place, you feel off balance

*You go to a Wedding Show, and have to have 5 other people with you to ask questions bc It would take too much energy to focus on one booth. You would shut down after 3 booths, out of 100.

*You know lots of random facts. Usually the ones that are the most irrevelent. BTW, did you know that the average french person drinks about 29 litres of wine in a year? ……see what Im talking about. Someone please tell me when I will ever approprioatly use this tidbit!!!!

*You think comments like “sometimes you wish your pencil had an eraser on both ends” is funny, and you either dont know why, or it takes you a few days to figure it out.

* You get really frustrated bc your house is a mess, bc it makes you feel like a mess, yet you dont get up and clean it.

*You go on adderral induced cleaning rampages, which include bleaching the bathrooms and organizing everything, just for fun!

*Your medicine makes you wanna curl up in your favorite blanket, drink hot coco, and conjugate french verbs…..for fun.

*You like being in your own little word. There is less frustration there.

*You get mad constantly having to explain everything, bc it takes too long

*Youre best friends are also adhd or ppl who are adhd compliant, only bc you dont have to make chronological complete sentences to get youre most profound thought through :-)

*You find your self sitting in class not paying attention to a lecture on Taming of The Shrew bc your english proffessor has worn another hideously odd tie for the 30th day in a row.

*when youre still puting off your mounumentous amount of homework to add to this list…

*When youre still going to put it off to call everyone you know and tell them about it

Ok, i need to be cut off!! :-) enjoy!
Kat ^*^

You know you’re ADD when you had to go back 2 pages to find out what message board you were in.

……when you have so many post-it reminders all over the place including your car, that when you enter your classroom to teach your psychology class and a student taps you on the shoulder and tells you’ve got a pos-it stuck to your tush.

You know you’re ADD when 90% of the things people have shared are ones that you do. Put all them together and it makes a good diagnostic test for ADD. Thanks for the chuckles. Now what was I doing again?

You know you’re ADD when:
1) you go to the refridgerator and stand in front of it for five minutes, then close the door and walk away, only to return five minutes later to do the same thing all over again.
2) your students have to tell you what their names are whenver you get that blank look on your face, which is often.
3.) you go to tell a joke but can only remember the punch line.
4.) people tell you that you must be gifted only because you carry on conversations with yourself and laugh out loud when you remember the joke.
5.) you put the same laundry through the machine 4 or 5 times before you realize it’s the same load of laundry.
6.) you cringe when you have to go to the public library and the desk clerk knows who you are because you come in every month with 40$ to 50$ in fines and they open up a discount window for you alone.
7.) you can run circles around others in a conversation and say wonderful things that people are absolutely amazed at, and when they ask you to rephrase what you said, you look at them and ask them what they are talking about, or you go off on another tangent that makes perfect sense to you but it is totally off topic.
8.) You suddenly realize that the whole world does not think like you do and that there is a reason that your life looks like a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

Yes, as others have said…. you started this post because you had a hysterically funny thing to add but now that you’ve gone through having to write in a subject line and start a new message, you haven’t a clue what it was.

You are awed and amazed almost to tears when taking meds again for the first time in several years and you find yourself able to match up all the socks in one load of laundry. You realize that A) you’ve missed that and B) that “normal” people can just do things like this just like this all the time and C) that doing laundry maybe doesn’t feel like incredible torture to “normal” people.

You get tired of trying to explain to people that either A) yes you really do NEED to drink that much coffee or espresso or B) yes you really do need to take stimulant meds and no, you’re not turning into a druggie.

You can relate to at least one thing in almost every one of these posts on this board.

It is easy to trip on things in your living room or bedroom or bathroom or hallway etc etc etc….

Your car looks like you’ve just gone christmas shopping and eaten all your meals in the car for several weeks.

Speaking of cars…. You try to park your car a little distance away from where you are going so that no one you’re dealing with needs to see your car lest they lose complete and total respect for you.

You need to play a computer game, read email, read the news - or *something* in order to be able to pay attention to the phone call you are on.

You seem to get along quite well with drunken people spewing random thoughts - and often follow right along - without drinking.

You have lost a phone - or two - or more….

You have driven off with your phone on the hood of your car - more than once.

Your neighbors know you as “that lady who always goes back into her house then drives down the street, turns around, goes back to the house, drives down the street, turns around, goes back to the house….” (because you keep remembering things you forgot)

You own many packages of dental floss because you lose them and want to be able to have some handy when you need it.

Sometimes its just too HARD to work, go to school AND have a social life.

People keep thinking you should be able to do your housework quicker and more efficiently, give you “helpful” hints as to how to do so and totally don’t get it when you tell them you CAN’T do it their way.

People eventually get used to you wandering off mid-conversation when talking with you online.

You can MEAN to return that phone call or email for WEEKS before it actually HAPPENS.

It is February 28th and you still have a christmas tree up - sort of - you got the lights and stuff off of it anyways (and yes, its plastic! LOL!)

You wash the same load of laundry repeatedly because you forget to put it in the dryer and it gets sort of this stale sourish smell to it as it sits there for days on end.

You LOVE the whole CONCEPT of wrinkle release spray.

You have lots of nice things but they are all in boxes, somewhere, from about 3 moves ago….

You find things in your refrigerator that you have no clue what they once were.

Your kitchen is partially wallpapered and has been for the past two years.

You have learned NOT to tell people of your newly inspired plans because you’ve learned that there is a decent chance you will not actually do what you are intending to do this time. You’ve learned to only tell people such things when you are strongly comitted and at least partially flowing along with whatever it is - and then you make sure to say that this is something that MIGHT happen. Or that you are TRYING to do. Or something like that.

And last but not least - you panic when someone asks to use your bathroom and frantically rush in ahead of them in case you forgot to flush again.

and when it’s all so impossibly true, and yet still incredibly funny!

sense of humour makes it all an adventure

judih

You know your add when……you quit jobs, before you have another one..can’t seem to find a job that you like, and basically screw up jobs when you do have them….HATE LOOKING FOR JOBS!!!!!

I was actually never diagnosed ADHD, but I definitly am. In grade school they told me I was dyslexic, but nothing about ADHD. This was back in the late 70s/early 80s. Teachers did note many ADHD behvaiors, though. Maybe it wasn’t being diagnosed that often back then.

These lists people are making, thoug, are actually kind of scary because they describe me perfectly. For instance:

I have mail piled up all over my kitchen table at home, some dating back years.
My refigerator is a horror show.
My car is always full of junk and I never wash it.
My desk at work is covered in papers.
I lose things constantly.
I have an extremely hard time staying focused or I become so focused I can’t do anything else untill I complete a specific task.
I get frustrated easily.
I have a tendency to fidgit.
I have a hard time listening to speople talking and often have to have people repeat things.
I find myself day dreaming all the time.
I forget peoples names or call people the wrong thing. This even happens with people I know well.
I was known for blurting out answers in College.
I either talk incesently or not at all (if I’m spaced out).
I often interrupt people while their talking
I switch topics while speaking.
I have been known to pick up a dictionary to lookup a word, and then an hour latter put the dictionary down after looking up radom words and tracing their etymology.

:shock: I have to say..This is my first time here and you all have made me so (cheesy) happy…I love these lists…No clue what to say…mind went blank…oh yeah, Thank you all…

I don’t know if I have ADD, not officially diognosed, but I wanted to add on some of my experiances.

*Your best friend laughs at you when after getting to page 50 of a book he gave you to read you say “I think I’ve all ready read this, I think I remember this part.” At page 75 you realize you only read the parts about your favorite charecter.

*While reading said book you he laughs because you are taking so long, have had the book for months, Because you are determind to read all the pages this time. Eventually you come to and realise you have just read the same paragraff five time and still have no idea what it says so you skip it. (he’ll never know)

*Best friend gets royally pissed when he relized that you are holding the card he has been looking for in rummy, for six turns. And you didn’t even relize you could play it. :D then while playing that card you see another one you forgot you had.

*You had the best intentions of cleaning your room till you found that magazine with the artical on ADD, which you read then had to go look up more information, on your computer. Eventually when you got ready to go to bed you realize you can’t get on your bed because of all the crap you pilled on it while “cleaning” you room. So you shove it in the floor beside the bed. You can pick it up tomarrow. (that was three weeks ago)

*when your boss tells you to how to arange the vegtables you walk out with the best of intentions but before you get to the shelf you have forgotten, so you go back and ask again, this time you don’t even make it to the door, the third time you write it down.

*staying at a hotel with friends they leave you to register for events at the convention, you ask four time what your room number is. They tell you four times. On the fourth time you where sure you heard the answer but they are not gone five seconds before you realize you have no idea what the room was. I think it started with a four or was that a two? so you run around the entire hotel looking for the van. Then finally call them with your cell phone from the lobby just to find your room. Hmm I was right it did start with a four. :D

*You ask three times where the pop machine key is and after that to embarresed to admit you where not listening to the answer you just serch the entire place till you find it.

*you always loose games because you have no idea how to play even after they read you the rules twice.

*sorry for taking so much room, just one more. Said best fried has to drive you around up and down through all levels of the parking garage at midnight to find your car because for the life of you you have NOoo idea, no not even a clue where you parked. Ok so I thought it was on the left side

I really don’t know if I’m ADD maybe I’m just differant. But for some reason after reading that artical, things seem to make a little more sense. Ironicly that magazine came out in 1999 and that artical has been sitting under my be ever since. Now I laugh more at the stupid things I do rather than get upset or think I’m crazy or stupid. Even looking back things I rember from my childhood now seem to make sense.

LMAO! Yup, like 90% of those are me too. Some hit really close to home and I would laugh, then sigh… laugh… then sigh. A few that really got me were the ones about painting or wallpapering: I painted all but my hallway when I moved in… in September. It’s still not done and has masking tape on all the woodwork. But I could go on all day about the one’s that cracked me up… instead I’ll add a few more. You guys have hit upon most of the good ones, but here are a few I didn’t see:

You Know Your ADD When…

You write notes so you won’t forget to do something important… then lose the notes. They get more and more serious… “DON’T IGNORE THIS NOTE!!!”, but you still ignore them.

You start with the middle of a story… work to the beginning, then jump to the end because the person you’re talking to is getting impatient.

[This next one has been said before in many other ways]
The most logical place for anything in your house is where you drop it when your done with it (including the floor…. no especially the floor).

You write notes to yourself that remind you to look at the other notes.

You watched “Memento” and the main character reminded you (and everyone else around you) of yourself. [You’d have to see it to get that one]

You can’t research anything on the internet because you’ll start looking up a recipe for chili and end up on a web site about llamas (50 pages later… and they’re all still open).

You’ve blurted something out you were thinking about that makes no sense whatsoever without saying what came before it. People look at you like your crazy.

You’ve had to debate which is worse, taking medicine twice, or not at all (because you have no clue if you’ve already taken it).

[This one’s been said too, but I just had to bring it up again]
You can remember entire episodes from TV show’s, quote whole movies, or you know volumes of useless facts…. but you can’t remember what you ate for breakfast.

more to come… [or not… depending if I remember that I ever came to this site, lol]

You finish taking your shower and start to blow dry your hair and realize you forgot to rinse the conditioner out.

You go to heat up your morning cup of tea in the microwave and find the one you heated up the morning before.

You go to your friends kids birthday party and realize you wrote your OTHER friends kids name on the card.

You put something in a “special” place so you will be able to find it later only to forget where that special place is. 3 months later you find it and wonder why you would ever put that there.

You’re driving down the freeway and all of a sudden forget where you are going. Sometimes I get disoriented and can’t remember which freeway I’m even on because nothing looks familiar.

You get home and realize you have 11 messages. “WOW!”, you think. “I’m so popular”. You listen to the messages and 8 of them are you calling yourself to remind you to take the trash because it’s trash day tomorrow, call your Aunt because it’s her birthday and do laundry because you have no clean underwear, etc.

Ask your friends constantly to remind you to do something and when they do remind you, give them a blank look and say “huh?” and then 4 seconds later “OH YEAH!!” My best freind says she is going to put “OH YEAH” on my tombstone.

Andrea

I just beat my own personal best
I got to work this morning and realised I was wearing my nightshirt under my shirt LOL

My two personal bests:

Grade 8 — showed up for a final exam on the wrong day — luckily a day early, not a day late (Phew!). As we had moved late in the year and I came in on the commuter train, I had to invent an excuse on the spot for hanging around; luckily there was work I was late handiong in for another subject …

Last year — showed up to tutor some students at 7PM instead of 8PM — misread the clock.
— forgot to show up to tutor one other student (only once, luckily, I really work hard to be dependable); had to make an excuse about traffic.

My personal best would either be the time I locked my keys in my car while it was still running, only realizing what I had done four hours latter while looking for my car keys.

Or maybe the time I cut my hair with clippers, discovered I had missed a spot, and oh so expertly applyed said clippers to my skull again — but without first checking to see if the guard was still on (ie bare razor to skull cuts a lot of hair in no time at all) My hair kind of looked advant guarde after that. I wore a hat for the next month.

Or maybe the time I took a decongested, only to realize that I might have taken one only an hour ago. It’s really amazing just how hard it is to make yourself vomit. Luckily two decongestants in an hour’s time isn’t enough to kill you (or maybe not so lucky).

My other best, at least that I can remember. When I was in Jr High or maybe just before Jr High. My Mom was ever so patiently helping me try to get through my math work. She had explained the thing like three time and I was getting frustraighted at my inability to comprehend the technic. Unfortunantly she was trying to help me in the living room with the T.V. on, it was playing some dumb dairy comercial something like you know its quaility when you see the check in the Q, finnally in sheer frustraition I whined. “I don’t get it, what about the check in the Q” *duuhhh* stupid dariy comercial. My Moms like “what!?” I covered up fast with a “I just don’t understand about where you divide it” comment. I don’t think she ever did figure out what I had said LOL :roll: :mrgreen:

I used to lock my keys in the car or if I took them out I would lose them Now I have forced myself into a habit , I bought one of those clips,they look like climbing clips but they are not. And I clip my keys to my belt loop every time. My salvation ends up being muscle memory even if I forget my keys in the ignition. When I get out of the car my hand goes to that clip and I rember to grab them.

On the other hand I had to have my Papa come jump me three mondays in a row at work because I left my car head lights on.!!! come to think of it that should be on my best list.

Thank goodness for this site!

I thought I was nuts or lazy or afraid of success or all of it. I just figured out that I was ADHD (inattentive type) like my eight year old. I have started Strattera - wish me luck.

You know you’re ADHD when:

You marry a neat freak to help you figure out how to do this “organization” thing.

You start a project with the best of intentions and days, months, and/or years later, find them packed away somewhere (“oh, THAT’S where that went.”)

You can’t remember why you went down the hall and you have to go back and reconstruct your thought.

And those piles…How’d they get there? :oops:

I have taught myself how to compensate for some of this - but now I need to quiet my mind.

Thanks for letting me vent.

You Know Your ADD When:

Its the middle of winter. Its below zero outside and you walk 1/4th of a mile down the road and realize that oops.. you forgot to put your shoes and socks on!! I finally realized when my feet got really cold.

You cant seem to follow the simple rule of “If it hurts dont do it again”

You put the milk in the cabinet and the cereal in the fridge.

You leave the toaster oven on.

You put your cell phone down and five minutes later you cant remember where it went.

You start talking to someone on IM, Get up start dinner, Start laundry, watch tv. You smell something burning and realize oh yeah I was cooking. Finish cooking, go back and finish with the laundry, put dinner on a plate, go back to IM and the person you were talking to is gone but left a lot of IM’s saying hello where are you! (My friends now know that if I dont answer in five that i am gone!!!), then go back to a meal that is cold.

You cant for the life of you remember to pay your bills on time!