Do you keep having to re-learn stuff?

[SquarePeg]

I left school at 14 no qualifications. I applied to a private collage aged 18 for secretarial and business studies but failed the English test and was told I couldn´t spell.

It was felt that with practice I would improve and indeed I did. I worked in a law firm eventually and because all I did was type all day every day and basically the same words and phrases I become a great speller.

Within 6 months of leaving (and not writing but reading every day) I became a crap speller again.

I know they say "use it or lose it" but I really lose it. My spelling on this board is appalling because I have forgotten.

I sometimes burn cd´s to make a cd for the car. I do this about once ever 2-3 months but every time I attempt to do it I have forgotten how and have to go re-learn how to do it, only to forget it again.

I studied French 12 years ago and my kids started french 5 years ago. I looked at their books, very basic and didn´t barely recognised a single word, I thought that if I worked through the book it would start to come back, but it didn´t, nothing came back and I mean it was French for kids aged 8!

DOes anyone else noticed that if a skill isn´t used they forget completely?

[amberwillow]

I have to relearn reading music again and again. It just doesn't stick.

[SquarePeg]

Originally Posted by amberwillow

I have to relearn reading music again and again. It just doesn't stick.

I was going to use this example as this was what made me think. My adhd son was told unless he learns to read music and learn 8 exercises he would get a zero for music.

He was really upset, in Spain we use do rei mi, not abc. He is used to notes with the name underneath.

I was good at music at school, I played record, flute and guitar. I printed off on the internet the notes but couldn´t remember any of them.

we both did it together (he learned much faster than me), so it was a triumph for both of us and he was so pleased with himself.

[stef]

Originally Posted by SquarePeg

I was going to use this example as this was what made me think. My adhd son was told unless he learns to read music and learn 8 exercises he would get a zero for music.

He was really upset, in Spain we use do rei mi, not abc. He is used to notes with the name underneath.

I was good at music at school, I played record, flute and guitar. I printed off on the internet the notes but couldn´t remember any of them.

we both did it together (he learned much faster than me), so it was a triumph for both of us and he was so pleased with himself.

most language and spelling things stick in my mind but I kept forgetting the bits of German I was trying to learn when we visited there last year(there is just no more room in my mind for a third language).

I have been in a band here for years and I STILL do not get the do re mei thing. except Do is C because it's the first note in the B flat scale. . It just won't register.

[tudorose]

Yes! riding my bike. I know they say you can never forget how to ride a bike but yes you can. When your bike has 20 gears you have to remember which gear you should be in, which way to push the levers to get into the correct gear, how to clip in and out of the peddles, how to corner around tricky obstacles etc...

[SquarePeg]

ha ah tudorose, my kids have a mini motorbike with 3 gears only and I can´t get the hang of it, a tortoise could run faster, I´m pathetic.

[sarek]

Some things seem to stick with me forever but most of what I learn and have learned has a very short half life.
For my job me and my colleagues work with sometimes quirky software and every time one of those tricky bugs show up I forgot what I did before and have to follow the same trial and error path like last time.
OTOH, it still is me they are always asking to do that troubleshooting for them.

[PoppnNSailinMan]

I have a hard time remembering stuff long term as well.

In looking through my old report cards, it's interesting that one of my teachers wrote in the 2nd grade when I was about 7, "he seems to grasp a new idea only not to be able to recall it in a day or so." In the 7th grade when I was 12, a teacher wrote, "General good performance. Sometimes has difficulty retaining skills of material studied previously."

I'm not as bad as I was in the 2nd grade and can retain things for more than one day, but I do forget things fairly quickly after a few weeks or months, even in my area of specialization at the university.

I've taught classes and forgot some of the basic details that I needed to teach the students so that I had to review them again when I taught the same class the next year. They just don't seem to stick in my memory or I have trouble accessing them if they're there.

I do, however, have a large library that I have built up over the years, and I usually know which books I need to look in to find the information I need on a certain topic.

I also make outlines with the most important information I will need again and keep them in a filing cabinet so that I can look them over to refresh my memory.

My filing cabinet and my library are both examples of externalization compensating for my bad ADHD memory.

From what I've been reading, people with ADHD often also find other people to act as "external executive functioners," and this has been true for me, too. As Ari Tuckman notes in his book "Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-To-Use Guide for Clinicians" (New Harbinger Publications, 2007), p. 19:

"It may also be that the client’s parents served as 'external executive functioner,' keeping her on track until she left for college and then she had great difficulty when she couldn’t provide the structure for herself (Katz, 2004). In later life, this executive function may be provided by roommates, romantic partners, and secretaries/assistants."

[SpaceBaby]

I've tried to learn to play the piano and was able to read simple melodies (without the chords), but now when I look at it, it looks completely alien to me.

[scrambled86]

I struggle to remember things I've learnt too. I think I can only store stuff in my brain for so long before I forget it.

Or, I can think I've completely forgotten something, and then if I get a few cues it can all come flooding back.

[Verile]

The answer is yes but neurotypical people are no different. The saying, "Use it or lose it." is true for everyone. Even if you're worse than other people it's probably not because of the ADHD; studies continuously show it's our working memory that is the crux of the issue, not the long term.

I don't have to relearn the things I do frequently but again, that's true for most people.

[Zevispaz]

It depends on what it is. Math definitely. I had such a hard time grasping the concepts anyway, but then the next day I'd just forget everything I learned. I remember one time, my mom started screaming at me because she was so frustrated. I finally got it, then forgot how I did it about 15 minutes later, but was too afraid to ask for help again. So I got half the questions right, half wrong, and hid the homework from her when it was passed back in.

Anyway, I figured out a way around math. Kids were willing to trade math homework and test answers for doodles and sketches. So from high school on I would do that and ended up passing my classes with C's. Didn't do much good for standardize testing or my SAT and ACT scores though. I don't understand how I managed to not get tested for a LD when I consistently had a 98% score in english and 30-40% in math on all my standardized testing year after year.