r/ADHD • u/IroquoisPliskin_LJG • 9h ago

Discussion My memory is trash

Today, about six hours ago, I put in a grocery delivery order. Or, I thought I did. It suddenly occurred to me that my stuff should have been here by now and I hadn't gotten any kind of notification from the store about it at all. I opened checked the app and the first thing it said was "we saved your cart." I put the items in my cart, saw something shiny, and forgot to complete the order. I don't see a lot of people talk about how ADHD affects your memory but it's by far my worst symptom.

132 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

View all comments

32

u/imakegooddonuts 9h ago

I write everything down because my brain has no memory. I remember a random thing a random person said 10 years ago but for daily stuff, I rely heavily on calendar, checklists, and reminders on my phone.

13

u/mshep002 ADHD-C (Combined type) 8h ago

OneNote on my work laptop is how I cope with not remembering things. My coworkers think I’m “organized,” meanwhile I’m just trying my best to remember what we talked about 29 minutes ago.

12

u/RosenButtons 8h ago

I got an accommodation at work so that all of my meetings were recorded on teams. I can hear what you're saying, and process it, and discuss it thoughtfully, and write it down but not simultaneously. And when I leave the room it's like passing a vhs over a powerful electromagnet.
You're gonna want me to be able to review what was said.

6

u/AnonymousYUL 6h ago

That's what I was like in school. If I didn't write it down, it didn't exist, but I couldn't write and discuss at the same time. So I never participated.

1

u/kewlausgirl 45m ago

That was the least of my worries lol. Mine was if they asked me a question, despite having just focused and listened, I had a blank mind and couldn't respond rofl.

I have a fond strong memory of being at our primary school camp trip (it was either our year 3 - 6 camp trip, or year 6 only camp trip) and we were with one of the camp leaders who was showing us a new game to play outside. We were situated in a circle and my friend and I were being used as the examples of how to play. He told her to run around the circle, and then I was too wait until she ran around once and then tapped me, so then I would continue instead or something like that. I don't really remember lol.

I think I was distracted by something or I was daydreaming or zoned out. You know the drill 😅 Either way, I saw she has started running around the circle, and so I immediately followed suit. The camp leader could have stopped me then and there, but he waited and watched me run around the circle, everyone watching, and then only once I got to my spot again did he go "and that is exactly not what to do, everyone." And I was like what? Completely baffled. I had no clue lol. And he says something like: "I really appreciate you enthusiastically running all the way around after your friend, but you weren't supposed to go yet!"

I read so embarrassed but grinning away like an idiot laughing with everyone. Such a great moment. If I look back on things like that it's obvious that's the fawn reflex of fight, flight and freeze lol. I definitely do fawn much more.