Have you ever gotten up off the couch when a commercial comes on and headed into another room to do something only to foget halfway into the next room what you got up to do?
Then, somehow during the process of trying to remember what you got up to do, you completely forgot even what room you were heading to.
So then you find yourself wandering from room to room looking at random objects hoping to trigger something to remind you why the hell you got up.
Eventually you have to give up because the commercial is almost over and you really don't want to miss any of whatever movie you were watching (at this point you forgot what movie you were watching, but you do remember that you were really into it and don't want to miss any of it).
So you sit back down on the couch feeling confused and frustrated.
The movie starts again and you remember why you didn't want to miss any of it (especially this pivotal part).
As soon as this happens, you remember why you got up before.
So now you are faced with the decision of having to miss three minutes of the movie to do this thing, or face the very likely risk that by time the next 13 minutes pass before the next set of commercials come on you will forget it again.

Has this ever happened to you?
This place is where I live most of my life, and despite many years of effort, it never gets any better.
I have a few things that I do for specific scenarios like this (such as keeping a pen and index cards near the couch so I can write what it is I want to do in 13 minutes) but the problem itself never goes away.
Any advice?

yeah this happens to me pretty much all day. but then i have add so i'm not surprised. i deal with it.

maybe keep a little notepad and pencil in your pocket at all times? lists help. i don't know. once i come up with a solid coping mechanism i'll call you. for now i have my mom who is a special ed teacher to call me during the day to constantly remind me of things. i need a beeper for my cup because i always put it down and then lose it. then i accuse my bird of hiding it, the little rascal.

yeah this happens to me pretty much all day. but then i have add so i'm not surprised. i deal with it.

Me too.

100 mg of Ritalin a day.
It helps, but not enough.

i need a beeper for my cup because i always put it down and then lose it.
I have been known to put a screwdriver down while doing something and, without getting up from where I was since I put it down, have to spend 5 minutes searching for it again.

do you ever set out to do something and the think of something else along the way, changing your course to set out to do the new thing only to be distracted into doing something else but then you remember the original thing you meant to do, but then pick something up and go to put it somewhere only to put it down when something else crosses your mind, then 5 steps later remember the object but on your way to find it you get distracted a dozen more times and end up going to watch tv having not accomplished the first task, or any of the other ones for that matter?

it's a confusing life. i'm drug free though, and always have been. all you need is a few people in your life who understand your ways. it's wrong to think of it as having a condition that you need to treat with drugs. i just see it as being different and it's not my fault if other people don't think as fast as i do. maybe they should go on drugs to speed up their thought process a bit.

do you ever ...
Incessantly!

I spent ten years seeing different therapists and psychiatrists trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
It started out seeking therapy because I was experiencing anxiety attacks, suicidal desires and eventually a sort of mini-nervous breakdown.
I described what was going on in my head to my first therapist something like this:
It feels like I am in one of those old Calgon commercials. The woman standing there with the images circling her head of a crying baby, a breaking dish, a running vacuum, yelling toddlers, a ringing phone etc. But rather then five or six things spinning around my head, it was a hundred things at the same time, and those hundred things would constantly be changing into other things. They change so quickly that I can't grasp onto any one of them long enough to even discern what it is, let alone focus on it. That Calgon commercial on acid never ends. It varies in degree of extremity, but as long as I am conscious, it is there, and it is so difficult to fall asleep.
Oddly enough, not one of the gaggle of doctors I have seen over the years figured out that I had ADD.
I was variously diagnosed with Situational Depression, Clinical Depression, Bi-Polar Disorder among other things, and put on lots of different drugs.
They were mostly morons who focused on my symptoms rather than the cause.
After a particularly bad experience with Litihum, I dropped meds altogether and decided to take a different approach.
I started myself on some serious introspection, meditation and medical research.
I diagnosed myself with ADD and went to a new psychiatrist (one that I knew would give me whatever drugs I wanted, basically a licensed drug dealer) and told him I wanted to be on Ritalin.
Ritalin was the wonder drug I had been looking for.
Now, like I said, I am on 100 mg a day to keep me functional (which I know is a LOT since the average person on Ritalin takes 10 - 20 mg a day, but it really is necessary, I played with the dosage for over a year to get the right amount), but the memory problems are still there.
I have a pathetic short-term memory and not much better long-term memory.
I don't remember most of my childhood, and everything since then is a collage of vague, splintered shards of memories, whose validity and chronology are questionable at best.
Since I have my focus somewhat under control, I want to start addressing the memory issues.

whoa, that's...quite a lot more than simple add. my actual diagnosis was for tourette's complicated by add and ocd. i have the tourette's perfectly under control after my entire life of actively controlling it but the others i haven't paid much attention to so i don't cope as well.
how old are you? i was still young when doctors were figuring this stuff out.

kaela is shockingly beautiful

my actual diagnosis was for tourette's complicated by add and ocd.
I don't want to treat you like you are a circus freak or anything, but I have always wanted to meet someone with Tourette's.
How does it happen?
Is it like you have a desire to say something and before you have a chance to stop yourself it just comes out?
Or do you not even think about it and just spurt out the first thing that randomly comes to mind?
Or is it more like you don't even know that you are saying something till it comes out?

how old are you? i was still young when doctors were figuring this stuff out.
32.
The ADD was there all my life, I started going to doctors when I realized that the depression was not just a passing phase, when I was about 21.

kaela is shockingly beautiful
Yes she is.
Thank you.

I used to have a ridiculously poor short term memory, like supernaturally unbelievably bad, then I stopped smoking weed all day like I was on a drip of thc and remarkably my short term memory returned.
Now when I forget things its because I wasn't paying attention, which is a huge problem of mine, or should I say other peoples.
I'm still always forgetting things, but it used to be things that concerned me, now its just forgetting to do what people tell me to do, which i can live with comfortably.

Thats alot of ritalin one raven, doesn't it keep you awake all night?
I haven't been diagnosed with anything by anyone, but I'm seriously messed up when it comes to living as a normal human. The world goes in fast motion for me. A week goes by and I'm like "ok i didn't do anything again", doing something every single day is like extremely fast paced for me, and if I do that for a week I feel like I need a weeks rest.
Its got nothing to do with my body, I'm strong and fast when active playing a sport or beating someone up, its just my head, like to everyone else a week seems like a long time but to me its nothing.
It sucks with going to school, an assignment will be due in 2 weeks and before I can put my feet up the 2 weeks are over and I'm like "wtf?".
Its very bizarre.
I'm always getting yelled at too, like "do this" "yep" "I thought I said do this?!" "you did, like 3 seconds ago, fuckin jesus"
I go for months without contacting my friends and they think I'm being a prick but it just feels like I've been too busy, even though to an outside observer it would seem I haven't been busy at all.
Is there such a disorder where everything seems to be going in fast motion?
Maybe slothitus? Thats what I feel like, a sloth thinks its moving at a normal rate and everything else is going a hundred miles an hour, thats how I feel.
Again, its not like I physically move like a sloth, its a mental thing.

Dr Lou,
As long as I dose it right I am fine.
Not taking it keeps me up at night.
Ritalin is a stimulant, but if you need it it doesn't act as one.
For someone that doesn't need it, 10 mg will keep them running mad and wired for 3 hours like speed.
For someone who does need it, it does the opposite.
No one is quite sure why.
If I take it too late it will make me buzz a little bit, but not in the way speed does.
It helps me focus, so when I take it my thoughts actually line up, so it can be hard to sleep because I am thinking too much.
If I don't take it, then my mind races, but not about anything in particular so THAT keeps me up.
If I take it about 2 - 3 hours before bed, I can sleep.

hmmmm... short-term memory loss eh? I often experience that too.....

I tend to forget what I want to talk about. I am in the middle of a sentence then I just stop. And all it takes is about 5 steps into the room I want to be in to forget why I even went in there.

When I was like 7-8... or some age they said I had ADD or ADHD (one of the two... I know I was hyper all the time but I don't think it was severe enough)... I was taken off it by my mom because I would sit on the couch all day and not do anything. Some lady at my school said I was actually gifted so that would explain a lot... but lately I have been not paying attention to things... and I cannot even concentrate on my own thoughts... I think it is because I started college and I am not eating as much and I just sit all the time.

I need to eat more and do more physical activities... that is my idea.

I don't want to treat you like you are a circus freak or anything, but I have always wanted to meet someone with Tourette's.
How does it happen?
Is it like you have a desire to say something and before you have a chance to stop yourself it just comes out?
Or do you not even think about it and just spurt out the first thing that randomly comes to mind?
Or is it more like you don't even know that you are saying something till it comes out?


i have dateline to thank for all the misconceptions people have. and also deuce bigalow but i won't take issue with a rob schneider movie.
it is a neurological disorder characterized by misfiring neurons. however, i do have conscious control. the absolute best way to describe it is that it's like a sneeze or a yawn but more intense. your body wants to do it, it's aching to do it, and it feels all wrong if you don't let it do it. but you can hold it back. i don't feel comfortable talking about my tics on here as i feel like a freak now, but i will say i've never shouted out obscenities. tics come in all forms. since i've been dealing with it my whole life, i have perfect control so i'm going to go ahead and say i don't have any tics anymore.

lecithine-granulate in combination with fishliveroil. It will take a few weeks before you notice but it really works. good for dry skin also.

one_raven......I've also been beset by a similar problem but, as was suggested, I have a notepad and pen with me so that I write down immediatly what it is I'm thinking to do. This way I can't forget because thoughts come at different times while I'm doing different things. Another time is when I'm driving, I'll get an idea or remember something that I had to do and write it down as quickly as possible.

So then you find yourself wandering from room to room looking at random objects hoping to trigger something to remind you why the hell you got up.See, here's the problem. Never go wandering around randomly to find a lost thought, always return to the room where you last had the thought. Go right back to where you were and what you were doing when you had it. Same concept works well with lost keys.

~Raithere