We’re calling on the adult ADHD community to help us compile this light-hearted list. Please contribute!
You know you have adult ADHD when:
- You spend 15 minutes looking for your keys until you find them…in your pocket.
- While reading an article about how stimulant medications are “addictive,” you suddenly realize you forgot to take your stimulant medication this morning.
- You have a long conversation with someone and spend the entire time thinking, Why can’t I remember this guy’s name?
- You go out for milk and come home with $50 worth of groceries…but no milk.
- You consider it a good day when you’re only 5 minutes late to work.
- You find yourself lying awake at night thinking about something totally random, like why Idaho is a good state to grow potatoes, until you just can’t take it anymore and get up to Google to the answer.
Now it’s your turn! Tell us, You know you have adult ADHD when ____________.
About Jennifer Koretsky
…when you do your pilot’s licence on 3 different aircraft BEFORE even thinking about driving lessons.
You are running around the house freaking out because you are late and can’t find your cell phone
while you are talking to your husband on that cell phone but don’t want to tell him you lost your phone
again.
When you spend 20 minutes typing and retyping a text only to never hit the “send” button
when your whole day gets ruined even though you are “free”, but have an appointment or a task that you must do later that day.
My people!
You know you have ADHD when:
You find yourself really pumped to read something educational just for fun, and notice 1 hour has passed by since you started reading funny stuff about adult ADHD, and other people doing similar things.
You’ve become a pro and imagining what people said while you were daydreaming and keep the conversation running fluidly as if you were paying attention the whole time.
You’ve fallen in love with this blog!! Recently diagnosed with ADHD at 25 yrs, makes sense out of a lot of things
You know you got add when you plan of taking over the world ” Muahaha, this time im kicking ass”…. 5 mins later… “Shit what was i doing again?”
…You drive away from the DD drive thru window without your coffee because you were tweeting. Darn cell phones and their distracting ways! (For the record, I was having a really chaotic day)
OOOOOOOO…..SHINEY!!!!!
You drive away from the gas station more than once per week with your gas cap off.
Your husband is so used to seeing you drive away with your gas cap off that when he drives past you on the road on his way to work he laughs at you and your car, doesn’t tell you why, and only tells you to have a good day.
You never get to tell the end to any of your stories because you either never get around to telling it or you forget what you are talking about mid story and start talking about something else.
You are on your third cell phone this year because the first two were stolen out of your wide open car.
You go to the office to do paperwork and attend a meeting but you end up posting on this ADHDmanagement.com blog post instead which inevitably makes you late to the meeting.
You have a running tab at the library.
You have ten tabs open in your Internet browser and an hour later you remember why you originally got online…
Exactly! Seriously, just counted, 10 tabs.
OOooh I love this one, get’s really confusing and time consuming after 12 tabs and more than one window
…when you are trying really hard to learn about adult ADHD but the articles are so long you can’t stand to read them.
…when the word or picture of a SQUIRREL makes you bust up laughing
…when you can’t organize your thoughts well enough to come up with a snappy ADHD segment of humor!!
… It’s the fifth time your spouse says ‘okay, next stop is the bank..’ and is looking at you really annoyed since it should have been your first stop on the list of places to go today..
then you see them watch it go by as you pass it .. AGAIN!
You actually left your car the whole night outsite, with the key in the contact – don’t know how to explain to the police my car was “stolen” (or did I kind of give it away for free???)
When you walk out of a store with the stuff you bought, but just forgot to pay… then ending up appologising and running back to pay. (I happily live in a country with not too many security systems, and quite understanding people)
Or you walk out of the store after having paid and the poor store clerk has to run out after you carrying the bag of groceries that you just paid for and then left in the store.
1. You don’t pay bills on time.
2. You stop unloading the dishwasher to write Christmas cards.
3. You make a to-do list and lose it.
4. You stop listening mid-conversation, you see lips move but hear nothing.
5. You obsessively worry.
6. Your brain hears one thing and ping-pongs information, so that you blurt out something seemingly unrelated in conversation.
7. You are always rushed at last minute.
WOW!! Were you following me around today? Every one on your list…..well, except #2. I stopped unloading to look for the Christmas cards I bought on clearance because I had just realized I put them in a “special spot’ and couldn’t remember where it is.
1) You lose your car keys BEFORE you get out of the car;
2) Your ADHD son tells you that what you just said wasn’t relevant to the discussion you were having with him;
3) You ask your ADHD specialist, after he has explained your diagnosis to you, if all the odd pictures and knick-knacks in his office are some kind of test to see if people get distracted.
you come up with ideas that have raised $3 billion for charities, and 24 yrs later charities that hear your concepts tell you that they are “innovative” ideas, and still do not adopt them!!!!
)
Your mensa teacher say let’s take a break with a wore out I need a coffee expression….
On university exams, the sat goat possibly the mcat, the multiple choice seems there are 3 all right answers out of 8 possible answers…. then you lose insight and fall into the negative hyperfocus …. Omg I forgot all the thing I know, dot dot dot…… Surge Of PANIC sets in… hyperventilating
At At the Mc test, which one is right again? thinks about Mr beans taking the test.
Search on YouTube Mr beans test taking.
Lol great forum
You go up to the car rental counter at the airport to rent a car and realize that your driver’s license is expired or you accidently left your driver’s license at home….I’ve done both
You lose the prescription for your medicine that helps you not lose the prescription for your medicine.
You have to return to the house from your car five times just to get everthing you need to take with you, only to get where you are going and not have everything you needed to bring.
When you have limited time to complete multiple tasks and instead of doing them, you spend that time making and revising a “To Do” list of them. As the deadline approaches, you keep anxiously checking the clock and grumbling because you still can’t decide which colored marker helps you to “best organize” all the information. At the last possible minute you either chuck the entire thing and scramble around, halfway doing everything or you realize it’s too late and you’re all tuckered out anyway..so you curse your list-making tendency along with whichever color you settled on…assuming you made it that far.
it is 8 am in the moring, you can’t find you house/car/work keys, You are already late and you just realized that you left your keys in the door last night when you were unloading your groceries from the car.
thanks god we have a dog..
And you never told you husband…..
I was just diagnosed today….after years of being told by family that I was just lazy…I can relate to almost every post here…..It felt good to to know I’m not crazy and there are others like me out there…thank you for sharing!
Also, my public library has this awesome email reminder that my book is due in 3 days…then hurricane sandy hit, and they extended the due date a week…then sent me another reminder that it was due in 3 days…that was a week ago. i still haven’t returned the book.
When you went online to look up “who’s that actor and where have I seen him before?” on imdb, but instead worked on your finances, did a little facebooking, started thinking about the new smartphone app you downloaded, then googled “apps for adults with add,” found this website, and just remembered to search for that actor on imdb 2 hours later!
… when reading this post and all its comments has you crying and laughing- alternately and at the same time- but your non-AD/HD husband doesn’t get what you’re laughing at when you read one or two of them aloud.
omg yes, but with my mum! I’m cryign and laughing so badly… but just because it makes me feel good, I’ve been diagnosed recently and it’s freeing seeing so many people goes through the same I get crap all the time for all these things you guys are posting.
You’ve spent the last hour reading the responses to this article instead of getting work done…sigh.
You know you have adult ADHD when you make your famous chinese chicken salad with all those great ingredients like toasted almonds, green onions, mandarin oranges, etc….. and oh ya, you forgot the chicken!
when you notice a fowl odor in your car but don’t really investigate it right away because you just keep thinking it will go away until a week and a half later, the smell becomes unbearable and you finally figure out that you had forgotten to take out that last bag of groceries from your car and into your refrigerator. The one that contained a carton of milk and some yogurt!!
I thought it was going to be the chicken. lol
Your boyfriend cannot watch the presidential debate without pausing it at least 20 times, because he can’t hear it over your loud swearing at the tv. You are also explaining why every fact is a lie, when you actually don’t have a clue because you haven’t really been following the election, and already know who you’re voting for anyway.
You know you have ADHD when:
1) you can see the person’s lips moving and you are thinking to yourself “I know they are talking, but I have no idea what they are saying to me” because you completely zoned out of the conversation.
2) you have a reminder note pad on your door but can never remember to write notes on it.
3) you have to wash the same load of laundry 3 or 4 times because you cant remember to transfer it to the dryer.
4) your neighbors dont even bother to look anymore at you jumping your fence because you once again locked yourself out of the house
5) You make a very important phone call. Only to forget who you were calling and why. So hang up. Then remeber, call back, get a busy signal/voicemail, so you hang up mad. You decide to do something else, and end up completely forgetting about the important phone call. I have done this both at work and at home.
……You can’t keep a house plant alive, not even a cactus!
You know you have ADHD…
When you can’t remember to call your doctor to have your Adderall prescription renewed, even though it’s been on the calendar for a month.
You know you have it when you wake your husband up at 6am in a panic b/c your car won’t start and you are late-You get out the jumper cables, put them in your car and take your second car to work…only to get a phone call by the hubby who is laughing hysterically and tells you that you didn’t put the car in P when your parked the car the night before. smh. LOL
You know you have adult ADD when you cant rember where you put your Kindle Fire find it lose it again and an hour later find it on the frount porch. Leave your hermit crab out side he runs away from home 6 weaks later he reapers in your basment ALIVE note thiS REALLY DID HAPEN!!!!! Distract your 9 year old ADD son 24-7
You know you have Adult ADHD when you wake in the morning with a panic – have got to be at grandson’s LAST football game in 1 1/2 hrs; race around, really angry with yourself, all the time apologizing to your husband and your dog, in tears until sweetheart husband clears everything up: game is on Saturday and today is Friday…HONEST!
AND
You finally arrive at the school where your daughter teaches kindergarten for your weekly volunteer day, absolutely thrilled you are even a little early today, after hour drive on the freeway, and the parking lot is empty…text the daughter…it’s a holiday, remember & you’re supposed to go to lunch with your daughter!
You know you have ADHD when you search the Apple App store for “Task Management” apps, and realize you have eight of the top ten apps already installed on your iPad.
Or when your 6-year-old daughter asks if you can help her make a tent in the living room with a blanket, so you quit vacuuming to help her, and then you get a really good idea to use two different colored blankets, and then you go upstairs to get those other chairs, and pretty soon it is three hours later, and your daughter has a huge, elaborate tent made with many blankets and duct tape, with two separate rooms inside, and in one of the rooms there is a place for her snacks and juice, and the door into the tent is a cool tunnel that you made by taking both ends off the dog kennel, ….. and then you realize your daughter is playing with something else and doesn’t really care about playing in a tent anymore, and now it’s time to make supper and the vacuum cleaner is still sitting in the hallway, plugged in, waiting for you to finish cleaning.
You can’t count change, no matter how hard u try. … you start out great, and half way thru the counting you forget where u are, and start all over…. get almost halfway, and forget again. : /
You will drive miles out of your way to avoid stop and go traffic and keep moving.
You have two programs open for work and three browser tabs open: one for email, one for facebook, and one for ADHD management… oops!
This made me laugh. Me…every-single-day.
When a simple math problem can make you forget what you were going to respond… then makes you realize that you never should have been here in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or when you can’t get to the bottom of the comment you’re posting and youre not sure if you wrote the last sentence so you write it again just in case….and see that you did write it already along with few jumbled up letters…..lol
Or when you can’t get to the bottom of the comment you’re posting and youre not sure if you wrote the last sentence so you write it again just invade….and see that you did write it already along with few jumbled up letters…..lol
You know you have ADD when you get out of the shower and realize you only shaved one leg.
Or when you rush to get dinner on the table…tell your son to hurry up because his religious education class starts in 5 minutes….you rush out the door saying to yourself “late again” only to get there and realize that you forgot the class was cancelled
there
getht Tb, there and realize you forgot that the class was cancelled
When you’re so proud of yourself that you finally got around to cleaning your apartment and not only do you not remember where you put important stuff, but you open a closet or drawer and crap falls out all over you (but the surface of the house NOT behind doors is clean, at least)!
You log online via your smartphone, to look up the availability of an ADHD book at the library, not remembering the author’s name, you google it… 25 minutes later, your adding a comment to this post…
You’ve forgotten what you were talking about but have faith in yourself that, if you keep talking long enough, you’ll come back around to it.
Oh, I forgot…
When people tell you that you live by your own clock ( I Ike to call it Jacquelyn time)
And when your most common thing to say to someone is, “I’m so sorry, what did you just say? I heard you, but I wasn’t listening.”
When you decide to get “organized” and think it would be good to buy all the birthday cards for the month, or year, but ONLY buy belated birthday cards, because you know you’ll forget to send them anyway…
Where are those darn cards I bought anyway……
You know you have ADHD when you’ can read a book, and, while you’re reading, be day dreaming of something else. At the end of the paragraph or phrase, you go back and read it over because you have no idea what you read the first time!
OMW! Thats one of the reasons it takes me so long to read a book!
When you go to post a comment on this blog and you see a box with a “+ nine = 13″ after it, so you type in “+ nine = 13″ two or three times, and only as your wondering what this silly string of numbers is for… do you finally say it out loud “WHAT plus nine must equal 13 for crying out loud!” and then the bell goes off, of course that little box is looking for a “Four” and I am reminded that “yup, I so have ADHD!”
when you stop cooking to answer the phone in the other room and you forget that you were cooking, even that you haven’t already eaten and burn/ruin the tea.
skipping from conversation to conversation and changing subject without realising
not being able to look at the car infront of you for 5 minutes without the urgent desire to overtake the b*****d
not realising that you have completely stopped listening to what someone is saying and its only their quizzicle, confused look that tells you that you’re expected to do/say something
When you get off of the train and realize your wallet isn’t in your pocket…because you left it in your seat and forgot about it.
When going to work/the gym includes a round of ‘what one item did i forget today?’.
When you realize you left your jacket at the airport….500 miles away.
When you go to chipotle on a weekly basis and upon reaching the front of the line you still can’t decide what to order.
When the biggest clutter pile in your house consists of books on how to get rid of clutter.
You cannot focus on sex with your husband because the dog’s snoring is distracting you ( and yes she is outside the room).
When your spouse gives you “the look” at a party because you chimed in on a conversational topic that everyone else had finished with 20 minutes ago.
Your 15-year-old son tells you he reminded you — YET AGAIN — that basketball practice tomorrow is at 10 a.m., not 5 p.m. . . . and tells you again.
When you decide to to try the notecard organization system, but spend so much time decoupaging the card file box you never quite get to the cards.
Happens ALL THE TIME!! My SO says I have the best of intentions ALL OVER THE HOUSE, AND GARAGE, AND CAR…..
Nice to see others “suffer” from “gotta create” moments (hours?)!
You know you have ADD when you repeatedly lock your keys in your car or leave your car running with the radio and air conditioning on for a long period of time.
When you spend 15 minutes writing a do list, post it on your cubical wall next to you…then 10 minutes later you spend 15 minutes looking for your list on your desk.
this sounds too familiar!
Your boss commends you for all the great & creative ideas you came up with in the brainstorming session. Your boss also thanks you for agreeing to take on the breakthrough project, to which you nod with a smile wondering what the heck he’s talking about.
Good one Tim, I can relate to that!
When you are on stage receiving an award -that you knew you would be receiving- and looking down and realizing that you have two different shoes on.
When you can’t get anyone’s birthday right, even your own children, and sadly you had them….
You think of something you need upstairs. 10 seconds, upstairs, you can’t remember what it was. No worries, you think of something you need downstairs. 10 seconds, downstairs, you can’t remember what is was. BUT wait! You remember what it was you needed upstairs. 10 seconds, upstairs…
You know you have adult ADHD when you can’t tell anyone how any of your favourite movies start …
5) When you notice that your boss was standing behind you the whole time you were making your comment and you know that they don’t think it’s funny! And, all you can say is “My last 20 supervisors didn’t mind”! Or, did they!!
1) When you are the only one laughing at something that you know no one else around you thinks is funny! Then, when you try and explain what was funny about it, you are met with blank, slightly concerned expressions!
2) When you realise half way through your solo, two hour drive that you also have your wife’s keys in your pocket… Then you notice that you left your phone at home and can’t call her to tell her!
3) When the sudden thump you hear when driving off from the supermarket is the sound of your shopping collapsing onto the floor as you drive off…AGAIN!
4) When you get so sad that you can’t stop yourself from laughing at how hard it can sometimes be to live with ADD!
You know when you have ADHD when your spouse is tired of being your mother.
You know when you have ADHD when it takes you five trips from the house to the car to go to work (ohhh wait i forgot).. You know when you have ADHD when driving to work, you have to circle back home because you forgot something important after those five previous trips in the house to the car and back.
when you forget you have adhd. repeatedly. randomly.
You have so many ideas that you don’t know what do next.
You know you have ADD when you start your timer to tackle the garage. You start 6 different projects and when the times goes off, you can actually hear it when you are talking to your neighbor!!! and go back to your garage, and it looks like a cyclone hit it and worse then when you started.
You try to move clothes from washer into dryer, only to realize that you (again) washed an empty machine. Then you try to post about it, and forget to finish the CAPTCHA so you get kicked out and have to start all over again!!! And that’s all on a good day!
You know you have adult ADHD when you find a kindred spirit to converse with. After a month or two, realize they have ADHD too!
So true! We are a tribe, for sure.
..when you go in your room at 8pm to get your glasses to start your (already late) final paper and notice your dog sleeping on the floor and think about how she looks passed out under the influence.
Then you think about how if you put your Rastafarian hat on her, she would look like a stoner. So you put it on her and realize your camera is broken so you need to use your webcam. But it is slow, so you research how to fix it and realize you have video feature on it!
Fifty minutes later you have a video of your dog with a rasta hat on, crooked sunglasses, and afromans “because I got high” playing the background. Then at 10 pm you post it on facebook and your friends and their dogs make reply videos about their concern of my dog’s “problem”
It is 11 pm and you not only forgot to find your glasses, but your meds are long worn off and not one sentence written on your paper.
If I had a dollar for every time I did this! I laughed so hard, this is my life!
Mwaaaaaaaaaahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Classic!!!
This one takes the prize!
… you saw this question on Twitter and dropped everything to answer it.
fish – This is my favorite one so far! I laughed out loud.
hehe. Thanks!
Oh I so totally agree with you Jennifer!!!
YES!
AMAZING!!
Also when you get the stupid math problem wrong when you’re trying to post a comment!
You know you have ADD when a complete stranger stops you on the way to work to let you know that your blouse is on inside out! Even worse, your husband already pointed that out to you but you FORGOT about it!
You are always asking yourself why you walked in to a room.
You can not stand to watch television commercials.
Your wife reminds you that your anniversary is in two days and you still forget.
“You are always asking yourself why you walked in to a room.”
YES! Happens to me multiple times EVERY day.
You start telling someone something by saying, “I can’t remember if I said this already…”