Sometimes, it can be difficult to convey just how extreme the distractibility of ADD / ADHD can be. The best way, of course, is to related concrete ADD examples. Unfortunately, they don’t always spring to mind upon command. Today, my mind was kind enough to produce and example for me 🙂

Getting Distracted While Getting Started

Today, I was sitting in the library reading a programming book when a thought occurred to me. The timing was fortuitous, because I wanted to pick up some books on the topic. I finished reading to a break on the page, placed a bookmark, pulled out my library card, logged into the catalog computer, and… nothing.

I couldn’t remember what the thought was that had prompted this course of action. I sat there and tried to remember. I re-opened the book to see if looking at the page would re-trigger the thought. I re-read the page I was on to see if that jogged anything.

Nothing.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember what it was I wanted to get those books about. Whatever it was, was important enough to get me to stop what I was doing. Since I was interested in the material I was reading, that means it carried some weight, or I would have kept reading and tried to remember it for later. But, try as I might, I can’t pull the thought back up. I’m sure it will occur to me later, hopefully, I be able to better remember it then.

The point is that while executing the tasks required to carry out a deliberate function, my mind got so caught up in the mechanics of getting ready to search for the necessary books, that it lost track of what it was I was wanting to look for. It is the difficulties of this kind of distraction that makes things like writing it down, or leaving yourself a voicemail, insufficient solutions.

For whatever it is worth, I’m not currently taking my Adderall. It’s things like this that I wonder if the ADD medication helps, and not the “bigger” things that maybe are easier to notice.

Onward.