People have advised that I try to concentrate all the time, but how can I concentrate when I don't know what to concentrate ON? It's like trying to remember where you lost something - if you remember, then it isn't lost anymore!

So I always do the cliche absentminded thing where I'm looking for something on the desk, and it's ON the desk, and I don't see it until the fourth or fifth time I've searched the desk.

Or I'll look at a few bags on the table. And I'll think, hmm there are bags on the table. How interesting. But I WON'T realize that one of those bags needs to be delivered asap, and I'll leave without it, only to remember hours later that I LOOKED at the bags, and didn't remember the important one...what's frustrating isn't that I completely forgot, but rather that I missed out on an important cue (looking at the bags) which would have prompted most people to remember (take along important bag).

Most of my absent-mindedness is related to future things -- like thinking I need to do "x", then I walk into the next room and know that I needed to do something, but can't remember what. Sometimes it comes to me, sometimes it doesn't.

What's interesting to me about your absentmindedness is the visual component of not recognizing things right away. I'm wondering if there is some sort of visual processing problem, maybe a learning disorder. From my understanding, it's not uncommon to having learning disorders w/ ADHD/ADD.

Maybe see someone who specializes in learning disorders to see if this might be playing a part?

I find it hard to believe that I have a learning disorder, considering that I did really well in school. Sometimes I wonder if I don't even have ADHD at all, but am just showing symptoms based on my messed-up, unscheduled life which has been going on for the last few years.

and then other people are like "well you looked at the bag why didn't you pick it up?" and you are like '...yeah..." and then they think you just don't care when that is not it at all....

Most of my absent-mindedness is related to future things -- like thinking I need to do "x", then I walk into the next room and know that I needed to do something, but can't remember what. Sometimes it comes to me, sometimes it doesn't...

I do that all the time. it sucks. sometimes it helps to walk out to where I originally remembered that I needed to do something and then I remember. but mostly it's lost...

umm... there was something else I was going to say too.... darn it....

Yeah, I do this too.
I also thought about the visual processing. I think there is something to it because on a good day with meds working I can look at things, and all kinds of information about the thing comes to mind. On a bad day I will be looking at the same things, and it is as if the meaning of the thing escapes me. Sorry I can´t explain this any better right now. It is as if I register things, but the importance of what I see is not registered. Somehow my mind is somewhere else.

He, he, I also question a lot if I really have ADHD. Then again, when I read stories like this one, and I have EXACTLY the same experience... It makes you wonder;-))

and then other people are like "well you looked at the bag why didn't you pick it up?" and you are like '...yeah..." and then they think you just don't care when that is not it at all....


I hate that! then they TELL you once again, you are absent minded.
that is like the one thing I'l not going to forget. I've been this way foreverl

I hate that! then they TELL you once again, you are absent minded.
that is like the one thing I'l not going to forget. I've been this way foreverl
I don't get told I am absent minded. I get scolded for not caring about other people :(

Having a learning disorder doesn't necessarily equate to doing badly in school. And learning disorders are on a continuum -- they can be minor or major. I have friends who have learning disorders; some of them have graduate degrees. It's also not uncommon for learning disorders & ADHD to coexist.

I've got an auditory processing disorder -- I have always had difficulties understanding what people are saying if there is a lot of background noise. I used to think I had a hearing problem, but my hearing is fine. It's just that my brain can't figure out foreground & background noise -- when someone is talking to me in a crowd of people who are also talking, it's almost like they are speaking some unintelligible alien language. It doesn't matter how many times I ask them to say a thing, I just won't understand it unless they speak it directly into my ear. Oddly, if I'm able to read their lips, I can understand what they are saying.

I did well in school too. :)

I find it hard to believe that I have a learning disorder, considering that I did really well in school. Sometimes I wonder if I don't even have ADHD at all, but am just showing symptoms based on my messed-up, unscheduled life which has been going on for the last few years.