Does your ADHD make you forget?
Hi, I'm new to lemmy and this is my first post. I've been diagnosed with adhd for a while now and I'm on medication. I've always had issues with memory and was wondering if this could have something to do with my ADHD, as taking the meds seems to help and it's only with small, simple things like what I did today or had for breakfast, sometimes even things I just saw or did seconds ago.
Making a memory requires intention and attention. Most people don't remember the drive to work, going to the toilet, or showering, but their way of interpreting the world includes a little summary step, a sort of "Yep, done that" for each task. They remember that they showered, but they don't remember showering. When they then try to recall showering they confabulate something reasonable, a sort of stand in for having a shower, but it isn't recorded that morning, it is just a kind of simulation of what showering is usually like when they have a shower at home, in the morning, on a workday etc.
Because you have fewer executive function slots you are using all of them to do your tasks, so you don't have spare slots to also make summaries. This is actually not a bad thing, I mean who really wants to have full video memory of every shower they have ever had, but it can look like memory issues if you have incorrect expectations. Most people don't remember most of what they say they remember, they remember a summary which compresses it and makes it much easier to store but not a full recollection of the event itself.
Damn. This lemming found a fountain of knowledge somewhere and decided to kegstand the thing.
Now that's a brand new sentence.
Here's a simple experiment you can try. Look up one of the contacts in your phone. It has to be one whose phone number you don't know. Read their phone number, then try to recite it or write it down from memory without looking at it again.
If my meds are working like they should, I can do it. Otherwise I have to literally look at every single digit as I write it down because it's like as soon as the number is out of sight, I might as well have never seen it. Same with reading books. I love to read but I struggled with it before getting on Vyvanse because I would get to the end of a paragraph and have absolutely no idea what I just read. I'd have to read the same paragraph 5-6 times before some of it actually stuck.
This is something that some people who don't have ADHD struggle to understand. Everyone forgets things occasionally. That's normal. What's not normal is forgetting things so quickly and frequently that it severely degrades your quality of life. That's a common symptom of ADHD and boy does it suck.
Just remembering people's names is a torment. I'm a Teamcoach and I have to keep some sort of inventory because from time to time I can't remember the names of colleagues that I've been working with for 10 years.
Short Term and Working Memory of a damn goldfish. Long Term memory is so freakishly good that people think I'm making it up.
I can struggle to tell you what I had for a meal 10 minutes after I finish eating but I can tell you the exact page and location on the page of phrases that I read in a book 20 years ago.
Why did I just go to the kitchen? Who the fuck knows. Ask me what I was doing last Thursday afternoon at 3:30 though and I can write you a detailed description of the entire days events.
Welcome to ADHD.
This is literally me, except the farther out the memory is, the clearer it is. I remember stuff that I was to young to viable be able to remember.
Same! My earliest memory is a man, who wasn't my Father, coming to the house and giving my Mother a letter. After reading she hid it inside a flower pot underneath a fake plant. It happened in 1973 when I was just about 12 months old. I know the year because I talked to my Mom about it a few years ago and after she got over her shock she told me when it happened.
Yes my Mom was a serial cheater and yes my first memory of life is her getting a love letter from one of her lovers. 👌
Wow
It might be one of the most frustrating aspects for me honestly. I feel like a shitty friend/partner because I literally forget almost everything. Somebody might tell me something and 2mins later I have no idea. Sometimes I "feel" the memory somewhere in my head but can't grasp it. Sometimes I really feel the empty space where it should be.
Oh most definitely. I can’t remember people’s names that I’ve known for decades sometimes. It’s mostly on-the-spot though. Like I’ll remember it again at some point, I just can’t do it at the particular moment I need to, if that makes sense.
Yes, that's a good distinction. It's not like I'm constantly forgetting my name or where I work, I just can't keep it all within my minds grasp at all times.
I often miss birthdays, and I always say it's not because I didn't know your birthday was May 23rd, it's because I didn't know TODAY was May 23rd.
As I've missed my own birthday so many times. My wedding anniversary mostly falls when we're on vacation so it's even worse. I'm not aware of time at all when we're on vacation.
This! I just commented this but It's awful. I'm a teamcoach at work and a lot of the times I can't remember the names of colleagues that I've worked with for over 10 years.
I found a trick though. I ask them for their name. When they respond with their first name I reply 'I know your name, you silly, I need your last name so I can send an email. Only works on newer colleagues.
Yeah. My short term memory can only hold one thing at a time, if I get distracted, it's gone.
I can't even remember if I took my meds on some days lol. I need reminders, tasks, alarms and calendar events for everything, or I can't function.
Yes. I do this too, and yet I still forget to do stuff.
Oh, I do too. I keep closing the alarms going "I'll do it in a min", or just snoozing them until they stop.
That's why I took Concerta for a while. Just one pill a day. And I numbered the capsules on the strips so I could just check the date.
I take Vyvanse once a day too (plus other stuff, but all once a day at the same time), I prepare everything in a pill box that I keep at my computer desk, which is the one place I go to every single day around the time I take them, but I still manage to forget lol
I literally took a small dose of meds to work because as soon as I am on the road (and I plan my commute very tight with small room for error), I notice that I did not do something. And then I am a good 2 kilometres away from home.
Poor executive function often manifests as poor short term and working memory so yes what you experienced is a common symptom of ADHD
Yes, I have ADD and I miss parts of my days, certain special occasions are blurryand sometimes I can't remember what I've done the last hour.
It's part of the 'symptoms'.
You can't forget what you never knew/noticed. My brain just ignores and misses a lot of things.