A couple of years ago, I diagnosed myself with A.D.D. It’s the only reason I could think of to explain why I often lose interest in a conversation after about 30 seconds. If I’m not the one doing the talking, you can safely bet I’ll be thinking about sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a Corona while the other person is sharing their life story.
Hubby has had my number for a long time when it comes to this. He’s the only one with whom I try really hard to concentrate. I would rather force myself to focus than hear about how I never listen when he’s talking and I should stop daydreaming and how I caused the gulf oil spill, and on and on and on.
One of my girlfriends has also caught on. She often says even though I’m looking directly in her eyes, she can tell I’m not hearing a word she’s saying. It’s not like I’m not interested in the conversation. Well, mostly. I truly don’t think I can help it. Hence, the A.D.D.
So when I received the following email, I thought I had actually written it myself some time ago and forgotten about it. It has my name ALL OVER IT.
Just today I was changing clothes and thought to myself I needed to throw the dirty clothes downstairs (my bootleg version of a laundry shoot) so I could do laundry. Before that, I figured I better collect the receipts from my purse so I could balance my checkbook. I did manage to do that. An hour later, I still haven’t balanced my checkbook and the dirty clothes are still upstairs in the hamper. I won’t even mention the countless other abandoned tasks I had been meaning to get around to in between. Go figure.
Recently, I was diagnosed with AADD. (Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder)
This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Pepsi I’d been drinking.
I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Pepsi aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.
The Pepsi is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye–they need water.
I put the Pepsi on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
the car isn’t washed
the bills aren’t paid
there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter
the flowers don’t have enough water
there is still only 1 check in my check book
I can’t find the remote
I can’t find my glasses
and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all damn day,and I’m really tired.
I realize this is a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail….
I don’t think my A.D.D. has anything to do with age as this email suggests (at least I hope not). After all, I’m only in my late 30′s. Then again, I do question my true age. I still have a theory there’s some family secret I’m not completely aware of.
