Just wondering if any of you have daily, multiple occurrences of close encounters with various kinds of inanimate objects (moving or static)--despite the fact that you know the cabinet corner/door jamb/box/wall/doorknob/stool/etc. is there...and have probably in fact received a bruise or some other injury from it on several occasions?

It seems no matter how much space there is between me and even a wall--not a corner of a wall, the whole big flat part--I will almost always somehow meander over close enough to it to run my shoulder into it or smack it with my hand as I walk.

Or is this lunacy singular to me? I remember reading that ADDers do have poor personal space perception.....

(Yep, the inspiration for this thread came shortly after I banged into the very large and smoothly curved end of a bank of file drawers next to my cubicle/prison.) :D

I'm not cursed with this problem, but I lose things while I'm STILL sitting in my chair.

I think that the ADHD part of that for you is simply a loss of reference continuity (the ADHD part) combined with a spacial domain.

I think the common point for many of these things is the loss of continuity, the domain is jst where we happen t be suseptible. (Where is the spell checker?!?)

Oh yes this is me ! On time I gave myself a black eye because I opened a door and started to walk faster than I could move my foot out of the way...lol...

Funny thing is, I do better getting around the house in the dark !I'll not bump into anything..lol...

I'm famous for slamming into my children and knocking then to the floor.....lol.......lol....

Paula

It seems no matter how much space there is between me and even a wall--not a corner of a wall, the whole big flat part--I will almost always somehow meander over close enough to it to run my shoulder into it or smack it with my hand as I walk.

--- Wow! Yet another thing that it seems we have in common! I can't believe this! I have walked into door jams so hard, so as to crack the dry wall around them (I'm 6' tall, 200lb so there's a wee bit of mass there) and there are currently three watches in my drawer with cracked glass!

And, if that wasn't the kicker...

Funny thing is, I do better getting around the house in the dark !I'll not bump into anything..lol...

I can negotiate my entire house with my eyes closed, albeit slowly, and have done so many a times because I can't fall asleep untill well after everyone else has!

Wow! I said it before and I'll say it again -> "I am so glad to have found this place!"

I have pretty good body awareness--I don't bump into things that much. It may depend on upbringing. I grew up skiing, for example, which requires pretty good body awareness.

I crash into things too. And not consistently (as you say in the dark's OK, though not in a room you know too well ha ha!). I read somewhere else on these forums a comment about 'understimulated' ADDers unconsciously seeking stimulation by crashing into things (can't find it now), which I related to this characteristic in myself. When parking the car in an agitated or distracted frame of mind I used to always end up grinding the wheels against the kerb, because (rationalization) I somehow was never satisfied with having parked close enough until I did. Although the iterative or more conscious nature of this makes it slightly different, I think the psychology (or neurology!) of it is related. I don't do this any more - perhaps partly because I've learned by 'trial and error' *exactly* how wide the car is...


Feel the same way as you, why (as I've said before too), though I wish at the moment I could stop hovering about, mostly undecided whether to take part properly or log off and get on with all the other stuff I have to do (there's woefully little pressure at the moment but the clock is still ticking).

This maybe off the subject a bit but, I think it still has something to do with awareness.

I have a problem with a face that looks angry unless of course I'm smiling...lol... Can't tell you how many times I hear " Will you smile"or" are you mad at me"or"you look so serious all the time".

I think this is because I'm so not aware of how hard I'm thinking about other stuff when I'm around others.

Anyone else do this ?

Yep. I get that "So serious!" or "Angry?" thing on a daily basis. I guess I don't realize what my facial expression is like unless I consiously alter it....into a smile of course :)

My wife often wonders why I am frowning. I can be quite grumpy, but at least half the time when she comments on my frowns etc I am not feeling remotely grumpy. Actually, I can be oversensitive to her apparent mood too, but I think this is a different thing (ie it's my problem again!).

It is a joke at work about my running itno walls, cabinets, even broke a nail so badly once it was down to the quick and bled like a river, I cant do a full mouth series of xrays without hitting my head on the ,achine once. In the morning when I wake up I bounce off things like a pinball til I reach my destination.

Originally posted by Lafnalot
In the morning when I wake up I bounce off things like a pinball til I reach my destination.

Oh, yeah. Mornings are usually VERY painful for me.... Not only am I sooooo not a morning person (that is, on the waking up side of mornings...just LOVE staying up until the wee hours), but that is when I seem to receive the most bruises. I often ricochet from one side of a door jamb to the other. It baffles me how I have never broken my collar bone or any other bones for that matter during my morning struggles.... :D

I had like severely poor spatial awareness when I was younger. Thankfully, I outgrew it. :)

Originally posted by fasttalkingmom


I have a problem with a face that looks angry unless of course I'm smiling...lol...

I think this is because I'm so not aware of how hard I'm thinking about other stuff when I'm around others.

Anyone else do this ?

So relate to this....People will say to me, "why the frown"? or even "why so pensive??"

I want to say "leave me alone darnit". But I end up saying, "oh it's nothing, just thinking".

I plead not guilty to crashing into things... I have occasionally, but no more than other people do, I think.

However people are ALWAYS telling me I look mad, or saying "what's wrong?" when everything is just fine. I wonder why that trend is being reported here?

Oh, man. This thread totally reminds me of myself...

I'm notorious for running into things. And it's not as if I don't know they're there; in fact, it's quite obvious. I just misjudge my own position, or the breadth of the turn I'm making, or whatever the case may be. This is also one of the reasons I detest driving; much of the time, I can't tell where the car is in relation to the road...

And as for not smiling? Yep, I know that complaint all too well... not that I can really do much about it besides silently tell jokes to myself. :D

Ditto on both issues -

My hands and body are covered in scars from all of the unfortunate encounters I have had over the years

And I used to have a friend in school who was constantly passing me notes about the "dirty looks" I was giving her.

I bump into things too but as for lack of spacial sense, that isn't true. I scored twice in my life a test for spacial reasoning and I scored 100% on both tests. I wonder if the reason we bump into things is just us not paying attention ;)

Woke up this morning to find a nickle-sized bruise on my forehead above my right eye.... NO CLUE as to how/when it happened!

That happens to me all of the time. My husband will point to a bruise or scab and say "what happened" - 99% of the time I reply "I dunno!"

I think if you x-rayed my feet, you would find multiple breaks in my toes.

:rolleyes:

Ferrette, you made me laugh with that last line! I had a car accident about 5 years ago and my pinky hurt on my right hand.
The emergancy room took xrays of both my hands and yes I had broken my pinky... however what really got me is the doctor counting all the places where I have broken my fingers in the past, he counted over 30 places on my right hand alone... you know I don't remember hurting myself that much :D

Oh, also, speaking of bumping into things... do any of you apologize to the inanimate objects afterward? It sounds silly, but it's almost a sort of reflex or something.

I find myself saying "excuse me" quite frequently after running into things. I'd say I was just weird, but a few of my neurologically atypical friends have admitted to doing so as well...

Originally posted by fasttalkingmom
I have a problem with a face that looks angry unless of course I'm smiling...lol... Can't tell you how many times I hear " Will you smile"or" are you mad at me"or"you look so serious all the time".

Heh, I was thinking about this after reading a post on another forum, and it led me to wonder...

The thing that's so often interpreted as a frown or an angry expression is basically what I consider to be a default facial expression... in other words, the way I look when I'm not really feeling any strong emotion.

Do neurotypicals have a default expression like that? Or is smiling the default for them?

I get the whats wrong question. I think it's because I am thinking so much. And my mouth just isn't straight across when its closed.
My eyes look sad sometimes, but it seems to be often when I am not sad.
About the spatial awareness,(whatever that word is!) I am lucky to be spatially aware.
But I do ( every few months or less) go through periods where I get hurt a lot.
I believe those times are when I am on the brink of a little jump in consciousness so my attention is elsewhere. Then all of a sudden no more boo boo's. Until my next growth spurt.

Errmerrgerd. I thought I was the only one not aware of my facial expression at times :l My default facial expression seems to be a frown or scowl, according to my mother :/ Well, now that I think about it, maybe that's why people don't really approach me in social environments.. And why my social life is nonexistent.. Sigh