ADHD Symptoms, An Inside View - Distractions

It’s important to note, at least for me, that this process or experience I am trying to outline stretches far and wide and also resonates with reflections I’ve had about my time at school and throughout uni.

Here goes - Distraction.

The best example of distractibility I can think of was a few months ago when I had to review a document at work. Nothing particularly long or dense, but something that definitely required my attention.

As an aside, I’ve always found the idea of getting someone with dyslexia to review a document funny. Add ADHD to the mix and it’s a blast, alas it is required.

In this example, it needed to be done and was discussed in a prior meeting so it was pretty easy for me to get on and start. That isn’t a given, especially for activities like this.

At this time, I was going through my ADHD diagnosis process and as a result, was particularly aware of how I was operating by consciously trying to observe it.

So, I started reviewing the document and as I approached approximately line 5 this little voice in my head started highlighting something along the lines of:

• What do you want to listen to or watch on YouTube
• Remember the email you need to send to XXXX
• The gang culture in El Salvador is fascinating
• Don’t forget you’ve also got to review YYYY
• I wonder if there will be enough wind this afternoon for a wing-foiling session
• You should really get through reviewing this document…

This is all fine and good and can be observed neutrally, similar to mindfulness practice. What is fascinating for me is that the obvious decision “should” be to observe the thoughts, acknowledge them and get back to line 6 of the document, or for me, back to the beginning to help me retain the information better.

What played out was a little different.

Almost before I could keep up with my “conscious observation” my email was open, I was checking the weather and I had a new window open on my second screen with YouTube ready to take me down any little wormhole of my choosing.

But here is the crux for me.

I knew, consciously this was happening, but I wasn’t able to stop it. That’s not really true, because I could have stopped it, but I didn’t stop it. Maybe that’s saying the same thing in different ways.

So, I’m halfway through an email, with YouTube telling me all about the opioid epidemic in America and Canada and I simply jumped back to the document.

This process happens quickly and seamlessly and unless I put effort into observing it, it just happens almost completely unconsciously. The case in point here being I have no idea how many more little journey’s away from that document I went on after the second, but I got it done and I got it done quickly.

And that is something else that’s interesting. This whole mess of distractibility, for me, has never impeded my ability to get shit done, I just get all sorts of things done or underway at the same time.

But there is a catch… or a non-catch. This all changes when I find something that does one or more of the following:

• It really catches my interest and becomes the centre of my mental world
• It stretches my brain and sets itself out as an interesting and challenging problem to solve
• It revolves around discussions and conceptual thinking where there is no discrete answer
• It involves creative and/or divergent thought processes linked to questions like “what might be”

Give me one or more of them and you’ll have my full attention. For a while, possibly a long while and pulling me out of it can interestingly become a challenge.

The closest analogy I can think of is the thought process when walking past a piece of rubbish on the street.

• You see it
• You know it isn't good being there
• You know the “right” thing to do is to pick it up
• You think about picking it up
• You spot a bin
• You know you could pick it up and put it in the bin
• All the pieces of the puzzle are there…
• You walk on by

Or

• Maybe just before you walk on by you download a stream of rationale as to why you can’t or how someone will etc.

Or

• You have to catch yourself at the point where all the pieces of the puzzle are there, and consciously apply effort to stop yourself walking by and pick up the rubbish, and put it in the bin.

Stay with me.

For me, switching between distractions is like navigating a street full of rubbish. Only I’m supposed to just walk down the street, rather than keep it clean, and just get to the end, but all my natural tendencies drive me to pick up everything I see as I go.

There are ways to help.

Fortunately, there are ways to help this process and I’ve been fortunate to work with people (currently and in the past) who have helped me manage my shortfalls.

For example:

• By discussing key points or arguments with me rather than asking for me to review them in a document
• Highlighting where my focus would best be applied, if possible
• Clarifying what type of review is needed, ie. high-level or final pass

Ritalin has also changed the game in this regard. I can not only focus without a barrage of delicious distractions, but I’m able to process the information I’m reading far more clearly with noticeable improvements in retention rates.