A. A. A. D. D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

[Lil Missy]

Recently, I was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.


This is how it manifests:

I decide to wash my car.

As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the trash can under the table, and notice that the trash can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the trash first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook 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 to my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I 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 I spot the TV remote.

Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will 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 splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back down 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 Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, 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 day long, 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.

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!

[Crystal Clarity]

1. LOL!

I am laughing because this is me!... Exactly! :rofl:

[Tobin S.]

2. I'm not all that old, but I do have trouble

juggling tasks in my mind when I have a lot to do and I sometimes forget to do something. So, when I have a lot to do, I make lists. When I remember to.

[hippywife]

3. Not laughing here. Trust me...

I understand a day like this. I try to keep it under control at work tho. :o

[Crystal Clarity]

4. Yeah, but well else can you do but laugh sometimes?

:shrug:

[hippywife]

14. You ever work with people

who have dementia? I do and find little in it to be amusing. :shrug:

[Crystal Clarity]

16. My father suffers from dementia. nt

[hippywife]

18. I'm sorry he has it.

So then you know there isn't much to laugh over. I'm not upset with you but I'm surrounded everyday by dementia, several people with dementia. It is one of the saddest things I can imagine happening to a human being, losing the very essence of who they are.

[Crystal Clarity]

20. Seeing that every day must be hard

I am in awe of people who deal with dementia/alzheimers patients on a daily basis. Thank you for what you do.

[AwakeAtLast]

5. So you're the one who wrote, "If you give a Mouse a Cookie"

:D

[nolabear]

6. Yeah, that explains a lot.

[mzteris]

7. that sounds exactly like my day!

Well - some of the details are different - but the end result is the same. I'm busy all day and nothing gets done. I can't find anything.

[rug]

8. I think this is a manufactured disor . . . . butterflies!

[Lars39]

9. I've just always thought that was my version of multi-tasking.

:D

[OmahaBlueDog]

10. You've got a witness, Lil Missy!

One day, I turned 40. Then, about half my brain cells got up and marched off.

[renegade000]

11. Lol, I learned about this in robotics/cogsci class this week

Your contention scheduling software is prone to attentional capture :P

And don't worry, it happens to all of us, we're only human. It could be worse, you could be doing things out of order or something!

[xchrom]

12. is there a DU support group?

cause i need to join.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. OMG, that's me!

Sometimes I think I'm the most ADD person in the whole world -- I never can finish what I started to do; something always distracts me, and then I get distracted from the thing that first distracted me, and I never get anything done...

[suninvited]

15. that described every day of my life

I have gotten less scattered with age, I think.

[lunatica]

17. And it's just as bad at work too!

[Roon]

19. I have chronic ADD

that is probably why I hate watching movies. The internet helps a lot though, the ever changing stimuli.

I had it as a kid too, but back in those days they didn't diagnose and treat ADD. I often wonder how different my life would have turned out if I took the ADD drugs that they use today.

[Skittles]

21. you've described my entire life

I've ALWAYS been like that

[SPKrazy]

22. I have that

oh look over there, what is that, wait who's yelling, oh what's that smell, I better go get the dogs, look the water is boiling, who left the TV on?, why don't I remember what I'm doing?

[retread]

23. Forgot the part where you go to your computer to check email, wander onto DU, check your

timepiece, and say, "Damn I didn't know it was this late when I started this!!"