Does anyone else often experience this....


You are walking across your living room, 'on a mission' to do...something... but you just forgot what that something was....

Or delving thru your handbag, for something you are sure is in there..... ut its not....

however on search number 7, thru your handbag, suddenly it IS there....




Is this just me? please say not!:rolleyes:

Nope, not just you. I do the same. Read through the, "you know you have add if..." thread. You might find some comfort there.

You are definately not alone in this....

What ALWAYS seem to get me is the car/house key thing, or I leave my badge access for work, at home. Or my girlfriend tells me to do something for her and as I'm walking to the kitchen or wherever, I get side tracked and start doing something else.

One time it was so bad, I had been looking for my house keys endlessly and they were in my hand the whole time!

One time it was so bad, I had been looking for my house keys endlessly and they were in my hand the whole time!

Been there but for me it was sunglasses on my head.

Been there but for me it was sunglasses on my head.

LOL! I've done that to.

;) STORY OF MY LIFE :)

I'm right there with ya! Every single day is a battle! Have you tried leaving things you need everyday in the same spot? I keep my purse and my kids backpacks on a table right next to the front door. That way I actually see them BEFORE I leave! I also put my work bagde on my rearview mirror as soon as I get in the car to go home from work. That way it's there in the morning and I don't have to search for it. Little things like that have really helped (plus I can say "now what was I looking for/doing?" and my kids usually remind me.):D

yep,that happens to me all the time.

I'm the same way. Sometimes when I need to use the bathroom, I walk to the bathroom, and within 5 seconds, I forget why I'm at the bathroom in the first place! lol I just laugh at myself, I think it's comical. :D

oh this is hilarious. recent examples include: not being able to find a parking garage ticket and holding up a line of cars while i climbed all over my car looking for it because they were going to charge me $15. i had checked my purse about five times already. so i had to pay the $15 and when i got home i found it IMMEDIATELY...in my purse.

or that time i spent about 5 minutes frantically searching for my cell phone...until i realized i was talking on it. my best friend (also ADD) had told me about doing that and i laughed hysterically. then it happened to me.

so no, you are definitely not alone!

That kind of stuff happens to me all the time. I use to think I was nuts until I learned it was the ADD. Now I can handle it more. I swear it takes me a minimum of two to three searches thru my purse to find something that was there all along, even when I have taken it all out, ugghhh!

yea it gets worse and worse the more and more you run errands with the purse thing, then you can't find your car and you start going mad thinkign someone stole it. THe other really embarassing part is when you take forever to count your money or change infront of the clerk, and sometimes my hands are fidgetty while i'm doing it. I got asked not too long ago if I was okay, i didn't know what to say!
The parking garage thing happens to me everytime, i'm starting to get better at paying attention and putting it in the slot of my wallet, where i usually look for it ANYWAY, but somehow i always used to put it on my car seat or my pocket or i don't even put it anywhere, it like magically dissapears... OMG the other day they put it on my dashboard for me, and i completely forgot, gave up looking and asked when i went to pay how much it would cost to replace it, the guy looked at me crazy saying, its RIGHT on your dashboard where it's suppose to be, are you OKAY? Then when i drove away I completely went over the side walk. It didn't help my day going out of the city when I was dodging pedestrians, having a hard time being alert of them!

I always search my cell phone too, when sometimes its in my hand or in my pocket.. Then somehow it'll be the opposite, in my purse but i looked in my pocket first. The weird thing is on my cell phone i end up "wandering" around with my fingers on it not able to focus like AT ALL on what i'm trying to do for like 5 minutes, like setting my alarm, or a sending a message, but i ended up going back and forth just clicking through all the logos for no apparent reason.

I used to misplace my keys all the time before I was dx'ed. Now I misplace (never lose) my military I.D. .........I usually find it in whatever I wore last lol!

Last time I mispalced my I.D. my husband got so mad at me. He doesn't understand how ADD plays a roll in it. We were on vacation. My ADD seems worse when I am at a new place. He didn't ask me until right before time to leave to go to Sea world if I had it. I panicked. I couldn't find it. Going to Sea World would have been free with a military I.D. We argued a bit about it then left. The day before we lost a stroller and I thought it must have been in it. I thought the subject was over until we got there. He was still really upset with me and made it very clear. I was so mad at him for not undestanding I don't so these things on purpose. I was mad at myself to..... so much so I cried for a long time. I only cry when I am really mad! I was embarrised because my brother-in-law was also with us. He got to hear us fighting.

I had to call my mom to send my liscens because I didn't have an I.D. to fly back home. He was mad I didn't think to bring it with me too. I new I lost things a lot on trips. I didn't want to lose them both! It cost her $30 to rush it to me. The day before we left I put on the jacket I had wore on the plane there. I get cold on planes a lot. My I.D. had been in my pocket the whole time! UGH!

He tells me to put it back in the same place all the time. The trouble with that is I have 2 small girls. Sometimes I will fully intend on putting something away. I get side tracked when my girls need me (they are crying or need to be changed really badly etc.) and later totally forget where I set it. At the time I thought I'd set it somewhere I'd remember to go back to it and put it where it belongs. Sometimes I forget where it actually does belong lol! And sometimes if I forget to put it out of my oldest reach she goes off with it!

You are so not alone lol!

Totally yes this is me!!!
the solution: get a big purse that doesn't have seperate pockets (especially those dangerous outer pockets!); it should be the kind with 2 big handles ie it fits on your shoulder, you can open it and look through it while one strap is still on your shoulder meaning you don't have to set it down (goodness does this make any sense???)
Nevertheless, the bigger the purse the more likely you are to put the &$$**§§! keys in your pocket anyway!

Or if you don't need to carry a lot of stuff, I have a cell phone case that is also a wallet. The phone goes in the front pouch with a cover over it and the back part opens up with room for your ID and 3 credit cards and there is a clip.

I never carry a purse anymore since I got this - it just clips easily onto my pants. The downside is if you lose one you lose the other, but if you kept both in a purse before then you would do that too. The upside is that because they're together if I can't find it in the house I just call it and bingo - I have my phone and wallet back :)

I got the cell phone case from www.naztech.com , they have 3 or 4 different sizes for different phones.

I have a big heavy key ring with lots of keys on it. I'm scared to make it smaller because I'll never find it. I'm most comfortable hanging them from a belt loop so I always know where they are, unfortunately I look like some kind of security guard with my keys attached me.

I find things because I'm a creature of habit. I usually lose things in the same places so know where to look.

LOL!! Im only laughing becuase this sounds so much like me. Feel like a janitor, dont ya?
i put a hook by my door, so when I come in the house, I put the keys up RIGHT AWAY. Also, there are little alarms you can buy to attach to your key ring just in case you loose your keys, u can push a button and a beeping noise will go off where your keys are. Hope that helps!

i do the same thing, too. especially when, like today, I run out of meds cause my dr is hard to get in for an appt... what are you supposed to do for the next twelve days???

what are you supposed to do for the next twelve days???I'll tell you. Start looking for a new doctor.

I wear my sunglasses on my head, my reading glasses on a strap, my classroom keys clipped to my belt loop, my car keys clipped to a ring I put on every strap of every purse and my phone in my pocket...put me clothes with out belt loops or a pocket and I'm lost.
I have panicked telling my daughter I have lost my cell phone...she repies flattly..."Mom aren't you talking to me on it? HUM??"
My husband once asked me if it were hard being me. I huffed said NO and promptly turned and walked in to the wall of a house I have lived in for 24 years.
The best thing to do is just laugh.

I love you people.

With cibola on the 'new doctor' idea...I just ditched mine because of no return phone call for SIX hours after I had scary side effects from a med (trouble breathing). Six hours?! Ay carumba.

I had to call my mom to send my liscens because I didn't have an I.D. to fly back home. He was mad I didn't think to bring it with me too. I new I lost things a lot on trips. I didn't want to lose them both! It cost her $30 to rush it to me. The day before we left I put on the jacket I had wore on the plane there. I get cold on planes a lot. My I.D. had been in my pocket the whole time! UGH!

Here's my tale: Was in the car near the airport for an international flight home from New Zealand. Became convinced I had lost my passport. Went bananas tearing my luggage apart trying to find it, literally on the side of the road.

Of course, it was in my pocket.

My husband teases me about this incident, but when you live in a universe where things randomly appear and disappear...sometimes it's not so funny. I do try to remember to keep a sense of humor and heck, I have NO qualms about getting five or six copies of my keys, or something else I have to keep up with a lot. I even have two cell phones, so I don't go crazy when I can't find one of them as I'm walking out the door to go somewhere (the second line was like $10 a month and worth every penny. I put the SIM card into my old phone and away I went.)

Only downside is you have to make sure bad guys don't get hold of your duplicates, which means special storage location for them when not in use, of course.

Yes, yes . . .

One of my worst was looking for my glasses . . . the reason I couldn't find them? I was wearing them, and just didn't realize it. Sigh.

I can easily understand and sympathize with the original post and all of the responses.

For me the main problem I'm having these days is remembering what the heck it is I'm supposed to be doing at any given time. For instance, at my job, I work at a computer creating archives of architectural drawing files (NOT the ideal job for someone with inattentive ADD, but I was transferred and had/still have no really viable alternative prospects for employment). Anyway, it's a job that requires me to switch between several computer programs in order to complete whatever task is before me. I find myself many times during the day just staring at the screen for almost a minute sometimes after I switch to the next program I need. Then, as soon as I realize I'm "blanking out," I frantically start asking myself, "What am I supposed to be doing?! What am I supposed to be doing?!" After a few seconds of this, it comes back to me what the next step in my task is, and how I'm going to do it. But those frequent "blank out" moments are something I find very disturbing and frustrating. This has been a problem I've had to deal with all my life. It's just that I find it ever more disturbing lately because I know it's impacting my job performance - and I can't afford that.

On the plus side, this situation has caused me to start psychological therapy for the first time at the beginning of this year, and as a result, have recently been working with a psychiatrist to find a medication that is right for me.

This is a daily occurrence for me! I've tried getting smaller purses, bigger purses, purses with more pockets, purses with less pockets, etc. And it doesn't matter. I still can't find anything. I wish so deeply that I could be one of those cool, calm and collected women who reaches into her purse upon leaving the office and grabs her keys instantly. Instead, I have to stop in the hallway, sit everything down on the floor and dig like a dog looking for his bone. It's embarrassing, but I've learned to laugh about it.

Once, I thought I lost my car keys and paid $90 for the locksmith to come and make me new ones. A few days later, I found them in an odd pocket in my purse. That was the most expensive set of spare keys I've ever had!

I still have my famous belt pouch. It is still steadily gaining weight with the regular addition of yet another must have item.
I also have these business suitcases that slowly but surely get filled with more and more paperwork, lunchboxes, agendas, writing utensils etc. When they get so heavy I can't close the suitcase anymore I just go and buy a new one. Too much trouble sorting out all the useless junk in the old one!

Due to my job I often wear multi pocketed cargo pants. I am ALWAYS losing something in one of the pockets. Every few minutes I'll pat myself down looking for my cell phone, keys or reading glasses. I have to use keys as I move around the buildings I work in, and must wear glasses for reading. I have to keep several pairs of glasses around because I'm always losing them. More than once I have searched for my reading glasses while wearing them or holding them in my hand.:o My students are used to getting me back on track (now, where were we?)

When I was in an intense 6 week training a couple of years ago, I thought I was holding myself together until I washed my cell phone. Twice in the same week!:o:o I am much better at emptying my pants before I start the washing machine.

I have also learned to put things I know I will need to get at the next day either by the door, on my car dashboard or in my briefcase the MINUTE I think of it. I never remember to "get a round to it."

:D So, no, you are not going mad!:D

What ALWAYS seem to get me is the car/house key thing, or I leave my badge access for work, at home. Or my girlfriend tells me to do something for her and as I'm walking to the kitchen or wherever, I get side tracked and start doing something else.

One time it was so bad, I had been looking for my house keys endlessly and they were in my hand the whole time!

Don't feel bad. One time when I was about five, my Mom (who I'm quite sure does NOT have ADD, so she's got no excuse) came into my room with a worried look on her face and asked, "Have you seen your brother?"

He was in her arms.

Due to my job I often wear multi pocketed cargo pants.

Um, What kind of job requires cargo pants?

Um, What kind of job requires cargo pants?

LOL That's a fair question.

I train animals ... multiple pockets are useful to carry all the junk I need to carry.

Thanks. just wondering because my son wears cargo pants exclusively just because he really likes them. (non add, he never loses things). I'm glad you didn't take offense to my remark.

I used to have a handbag that was basically a large leather drawstring pouch with one little zippered compartment in which I was able to keep my house keys and nothing else. Everything else I needed to carry had to go in the big main compartment. Worst bag in the world for finding anything, let me tell you! I'd typically have to rummage around in it for half a minute just to find my wallet. I can't count the number of times I ended up having to dump the whole bag out on the bed or some other surface just to find whatever it was I was looking for. I used to joke with friends that it had been manufactured by the Bermuda Triangle Handbag Co.

Eventually, I just got tired of not being able to find my stuff in that bag, and stopped using it altogether. I occasionally still have trouble finding what I'm looking for in any bag I use - but nowhere near the fruitless searching problems that bag caused me.

I not only forget "stuff"..I totally blank out and forget what I was saying..then I laugh, because it is such an ADD moment.

When i read into the dictaphone...you get pauses...I have like 80 a day compared to others with 12! Oh well...IT IS WHAT IT IS!

LOL That's a fair question.

I train animals ... multiple pockets are useful to carry all the junk I need to carry.

What a great job for an ADDer!! Jealous!

wow, totally me. How many times do I go to the subway, only to find that my wallet is not in my bag?! searching searching, the train goes by. Frustrated I go back to the house search for it everywhere, then empty out my bag, and low and behold, it was on the bottom the whole time. ARGH!! I found the best way is to have a bag with tons of pockets where you can keep everything organized. Unfortunately, bags fall apart, and when I get a new one I can't find anything for weeks until I get used to it.

yea it gets worse and worse the more and more you run errands with the purse thing, then you can't find your car and you start going mad thinkign someone stole it.

LMAO I actually had a car stolen once, and it took me about 45 mins (in a very small car park to be sure it really was gone, because i was so used to not being able to find where i parked my car... i usually put a note on my mobile as i leave my car nowadays with directions to where its been parked....

ive also lost my keys and they were in my hands.... looked for sunnies that were on my head... and all the other stuff you guys list...all the time

now im getting obsessive - like checking my handbag 3 or 4 times for my keys before i leave home and lock the door, even though i know i just put them in it, in case i took thme out again after putting htem in & forgot or someting

anyone also ever found weird stuff in weird places? ie loo paper in the freezer etc?

now im getting obsessive - like checking my handbag 3 or 4 times for my keys before i leave home and lock the door, even though i know i just put them in it, in case i took thme out again after putting htem in & forgot or someting


yup me too!

lal every time i'm going out of the house i have to run back up to my room a few times to pick up my wallet and keys and stuff like that
this really suck because we live in one of these huge old 'gentleman's houses' (one of these 19th century 3+ story terraced houses) and my room is just under the roof so I have to run up and down all those stairs the whole time :(

Until I knew about my ADD and how much of me was affected by it I thought I was seriously losing my mind when I'd walk into the parking lot after shopping and totally and completely have no idea whatsoever where I had parked my car. It bordered on terrifying. I try to do a lot of the tricks like putting things in the same place, etc but it lasts maybe a day, two at the most. I have to take all of my meds (Adderall XR, Prozac, and Lovastatin for cholesteral) in the morning even though PCP would prefer I didn't because otherwise I could never remember to take nighttime dose. I also was never able to be on birth control pills cuzI couldn't remember to take them....

How many of you thought you had obsessive-compulsive disorder before you discovered it was ADD? Like checking that you had your keys/glasses/wallet; forgetting to lock doors, or thinking that you had leading you to going back to do so--multiple times in a row (SO glad for car remotes--now I can do it at a distance! :D)

Last Friday on the way out to work I had to leave the car and return to my flat up a steep flight of stairs a record three times (!) for (a) my missed dose of Vyvanse, (2) my campus ID, which is the card-key to my classroom, and (3) breakfast, which was waiting on the counter next to the Vyvanse and the ID I had returned for twice before! A head-shaking day, for sure. :o

Sometimes you learn to go with the flow. Cleaning (actually, LIFE right now) is a butterfly-affair: flitting through, tackling little things wherever I alight, quickly distracted by something else. Anything and everything else.

But honestly, I'm hoping to find a treatment plan that cuts down on some of this -- Real Soon Now.

Ciao!

Carol
Diagnosed ADHD at age 46 in Aug 2008 (after a lifetime of obvious ADHD behavior for which loved ones now say, "well, yes, you did always...")

I don't need a purse to lose something in, it can be the ONLY thing in my pocket, I search the pocket four times .. not there! then I search again and there it is. Wierd but true!

I bet in the last 6 months I have lost half a month just from searching for things around here that I can't find, and you should see my hands as I'm heading out the door to the car, there PLUM full!!! I still forget things as I gather them up to take with me.

Then when I come home my hands are full again trying to pack all the things back out of the car to the house all at once mind you! I feel like such a scatter brain all the time, I can't remember where anything is, and I'm all day long looking for my glasses I have laid down somewhere. I should be skinny running up and down the stairs. Am I alone with a life scenerio like this?

I feel less criticized already with a boat load of people like myself.LOl.........

Hmmm...Attention Defi....? Hey look, a rainbow...wait what were we talking about, oh yeah....did I tell you about...wait my phone is ringing...eew don't want to talk to him...so anyway, what did you have for lunch today!

NO YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

I don't think we have ADHD, I just think we are great magicians and do it unconsciously.

sounds like me too..i am sorry to say