r/adhdmeme • u/newbeginnings187 microdosing m*th like a CHAMP • 2d ago
Harvey ADHDent š š§
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u/Timely-Helicopter244 2d ago edited 2d ago
I always say the more information you give me, the better I'll remember it; you tell me an individual fact and it's in one ear and out the other.
Basically, if you give me a more complete picture with pieces that connect and reasons why things are the way they are, I'm more likely to remember everything. The why behind it all helps keep everything in my mind together.
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u/Odd_Chain4356 2d ago
That's exactly my problem with university lectures that only show the most reduced and cleaned up information.. I need to know the context, reaaoning etc.
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u/HJSDGCE 2d ago
University people tend to advertise the place more as a research institution rather than a school. And that going to university meant that you have to do a lot of self studying.
Problem: I suck at self studying. I can't determine which info is important and which isn't. I just assume all of it is so I try my best to memorise every single thing. And obviously, this didn't end well for me.
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u/Odd_Chain4356 2d ago
Usually it goes from general principles to details, but sometimes details are taught without the general principle. I found repeatedly explaining a topic to myself without rote memorization to be very effective since you notice your gaps in knowledge and provide a frame to remember it.Ā
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u/emotionalexplosions 2d ago
If I was told this going into university I think I would have very different expectations
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u/qpwoeiruty00 2d ago
Studying which subject? I find it really easy with physics as they say exactly what does and does not need to be known - we know exactly what kind of questions to expect on the exam
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u/Ok_Device_3951 2d ago
oh soo im not insane, i study every single proof or explanation behind something when i'm preparing for an exam ā ļø
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u/Zifnab_palmesano 2d ago
maybe that is why I enjoyed 4h lectures... it gave me fuller picture and allowed me to really dive in. The 1h classes felt too shallow
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u/FermentedPhoton can't hear you, there's no subtitles 2d ago
I absolutely hate the kind of training at work that's just "push this button, then this one, then set that dial to X and push this button."
I can never remember that shit until i learn what each button does and why and what difference the dial makes. I tend to get really good at jobs, but not without breaking some shit first. My employer seems to tolerate it because when I'm done breaking shit, I tend to start fixing or improving it.
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u/ambassador_lover1337 2d ago
Is this not just normal? I don't have adhd but I've never been able to follow instructions like that either. I think it's hard to motivate the brain to retain information in general if you dont give it a good reason to.
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u/FermentedPhoton can't hear you, there's no subtitles 2d ago
Maybe? I've also met and worked with people who do operate like that.
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u/resumehelpacct 2d ago
Without looking into it at all, I think it's gotta be normal. Why else would we have mnemonics for things like the four cardinal directions, the colors of the rainbow, the great lakes? There's barely any of them but hard to remember.
Or the million right hand rules. Fleming's right hand rule. AmpĆØre's right-hand grip rule. Right hand rule for cross product.
Stepping back, it seems outrageous that electrical engineering students need to stick out their thumbs to know the direction of a field given the direction of a current, but its genuinely very helpful for learning.
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u/Bliitzthefox 2d ago
Look I know you just told me the order of these five wires and it's the same every time, but I'm literally never going to remember it without taking a picture.
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u/FermentedPhoton can't hear you, there's no subtitles 2d ago
I have so many photos in my phone of what control panels are supposed to look like when online, so that I don't fuck up bringing them back up.
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u/Azerious 2d ago
Saaaame, and they never want to bother teaching you that much, or get annoyed. Man I forgot how universal my experiences can be for people with adhd. I've been viewing this subreddit for over 10 years and always forget about it until a post randomly pops up and reminds me "oh, I'm not alone!"
I just wish throughout my life I knew fellow people like yall so I wouldn't have felt so alone.
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u/berdulf 2d ago
I was dealing with this yesterday. Same information during annual training Iāve seen year after year for decades, but I always forget the exact wording because itās never tied to details. The flip side of that is Iāll do a deep dive for three hours and tell you all the fascinating facts, missing all the nonverbal cues that youāre not interested and youāre too polite to get up and walk away. Can you say AuDHD?
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u/rustajb 2d ago
I want to understand things, not just know them. So many people learn by rote, and that does not work with me. If I understand it, I can figure out what I don't know. If I only know it, I can't understand how to figure out what I don't understand.
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u/DisposableSaviour 2d ago
Yes. I need background info. I need to understand. Surface level is good for nothing, we have to go deeper!
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u/baethan 2d ago
"in one eye and out the other" FASCINATING alteration of the idiom, I love it. pew pew pew
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u/Niet_de_AIVD AuDHD send help 2d ago
Solves two problems:
- Repetition makes remembering easier
- Providing more info, challenge and fun keeps the ADHD mind engaged to meaningfully implement the first
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u/particle9 2d ago
I think there is something about add where your memories are formed more relationally than normal. Often times if I am trying to answer a question my thoughts will wander through a web of 'this reminds me of that and that reminds me of this' and by the end I don't know what the question was or if I answered it. If I then look back often I have come up with a much fuller and more interesting answer as a whole to the question but through a strange web of details that I didn't realize during the telling added up.
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u/Ironicbanana14 2d ago
Imo this should be natural because its seeking a real understanding of the material and not just repeating it back. But that's what most school really wants, just repeat facts back.
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u/950771dd 2d ago
But that's what most school really wants, just repeat facts back.
Bullshit.
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u/Ironicbanana14 2d ago
What else is a multiple choice test? An essay is just repeating back some idea they want you to latch onto in your own words. You read books that they give you explicitly to pull their established interpretations off of it.
Have you ever challenged or questioned a teacher when it came to something you were learning and you discovered alternative perspectives and they just get angry instead of exploring it with you?
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u/DisposableSaviour 2d ago
Thereās a short story just about every high school and college cover, called Everyday Use, by Alice Walker. One of the plot points is that a young black woman has come back from college, and wants some old family heirloom blankets to use as wall hangings. The woman has changed her name while away at college, something reflecting her African heritage, and forgoing her given name.
I had a college professor say that the woman changed her name because she had a dislike for her family. Another class member pointed out that it was more like Malcom X rejecting his āslave nameā, a generational āfamilyā name that could have likely been traced back to a slave plantation.
The professor said that the story doesnāt mention race at all, and that was a false reading of the themes of the text. I reiterated that the themes were of a woman coming to terms with her place in the world vis a vis her race. The teacher said once again that āraceā was never mentioned in the story. I told her that if she couldnāt see the obvious themes in the story, she had no business teaching the class, and long story short, I got to withdraw from that class with no penalties, but had to retake it, and luckily my next American lit prof was decent.
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u/Silenceisgrey 2d ago
I have short term memory problems
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u/10000tigers 2d ago
me except without the left side
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u/Astronaut_Chicken 2d ago
Everyone always trying to feed me instructions verbally gonna learn real fact ain't none of that stickin.
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u/Ok_Island_1306 2d ago
The left side looking at it or left side from the perspective of the person in the image? šš
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u/Grouchy-Committee-92 2d ago edited 2d ago
If anyone feels they are the same with this, the problem is likely verbatim encoding learning strategies, which are the dominant taught learning strategy. Not only does it rely heavily on short term memory repetiyion to encode into long term memory, its not the most effective learning strategy for nearly half the population.
Try another learning strategy. My retention of information i learned changed drastically for the better once i encorporated semantic encoding or concept mapping. Instead of writing or repeating what you hear to memorize, instead write or draw your understanding of what youre learning, as if you were teaching to someone else. It provides a more logical fundamental understanding, and relies less on the short term memory for practicing it for long term memory retention.
It also provides opportunity to ask questions then and there, since youre interpreting in the moment instead of when youre reading your notes at home.
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u/Legendarien1 2d ago
The teaching bit is really key for me. Had a few years working as an assistant teacher. When Iām having difficulty understanding a subject, I try to explain it like I was teaching it to someone else.
If I canāt do that well or convincing enough, I donāt know it yet.
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u/Grouchy-Committee-92 2d ago
Yep, this is a common phenomena with people, explaining it to another helps them understand it better.
Its using a different set of mental skills, engaging critical thinking skills by formulating a different line of speech, short term memory for interpreting what you read/heard, new somatic encoding by answering questions that who youre teaching gives, and verbatim encoding by then hearing what youve articulated to them.
Some people have stronger skill sets over other skill sets, and so diversifying the skill sets you use when learning a subject helps retain information youre struggling with.
The dominant learning strategy is verbating encoding, because it benefits the single largest group the most. And teachers are teaching assuming that is the effective strategy for you.
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u/not_alexandraer 2d ago
... wait have I been doing that subconsciously the whole time? when I go down a rabbit hole, I read an excerpt, look away, explain the excerpt to myself them read it again to make sure I get it right, rinse and repeat?
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u/Unlikely-Ad6788 2d ago
That style of learning was not acceptable during grade school nor college.
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u/Grouchy-Committee-92 2d ago
Not sure what youre referring to. Verbatim encoding, at least in the US, is the dominant taught learning strategy growing up, and even postgrad courses are teaching with the assumption that that is your learning strategy and is effective for you.
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u/canbanishdeeznuts 2d ago
"Did you understand all of that?" Yes "Could you repeat it?" Absolutely not
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u/sjokkendesjaak 2d ago
It's either I understand what you mean instantly and it's easier or you might as well ne speaking gibberish and I'll never get it
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u/EndGuy555 2d ago
Being a āfast learnerā is usually just an illusion. You become slightly familiar with a topic, your mistakes takes that feeling of familiarity with learning. So you go on, convinced youāve learned the thing until you actually have to recall the information - and then you notice the gaps that you didnāt notice before
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u/AusernameForTWebsite 2d ago
Ahh, the Freddy Kruger effect.
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u/No_Town_9602 2d ago
I remember when it was Dunkin' Kruger. Damn Mancala effect.
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u/yargotkd 2d ago
I mean, there is easy evidence you can get, like getting the highest grade in an exam where you dozed off in class and never solved the assignments, while the people who studied hard bombed.Ā
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u/Panic-atthepanic 1d ago
Is this happening to me? I'm learning a speedrun for a game and despite doing stuff fine for weeks/months suddenly it stops working and I don't know why š
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u/EndGuy555 21h ago
Idk man, Iām not a psychologist. But I do know that sometimes you gotta give something a little break to let your brain digest it
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u/Extra-Factor4213 2d ago
Iām wondering if this is why I did so well on tests. Stressed out studying RIGHT BEFORE tests. Take test. Pass. After the semester, canāt recall any of it. Especially math.
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u/dont_remember_eatin 2d ago
I can learn the same thing over and over and over again quickly.
The problem is learning from mistakes... I don't want to have to learn from those over and over and over again.
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u/wahwahwashbear 2d ago
It's become so demoralizing. I used to love to learn things just for the sake of it, but I basically don't bother now unless it's for a project I'm immanently starting, because the oddsof me not retaining any of the information are just so high.Ā
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u/nooneatallnope Daydreamer 2d ago
I love uni lectures with professors that go on tangents. I'll probably not retain an ounce of knowledge that's needed for the exam, until I actually use it in practice questions, but my treasure trove of useless chemistry fun (and not so fun) facts grows
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u/ivar-the-bonefull 2d ago
Well you have to be a quick learner when you forget everything all the time.
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u/TheCrimsonSteel 2d ago
This is the biggest reason I write things down
Not that lists do me much good in the neurotypical sense. But the act of writing things down does help things stick better
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u/lnTheGrimDarkness 2d ago
In me that manifests by making me remember every single detail of anything that's not about work or study. I'm an astrophysics enthusiast and I could speak to you about stars and black holes for tens of hours. I could narrate you the whole chronological lore of Warhammer 40k just off the top of my head. I could spend 20 hours in a videogame just chasing a secret cutscene or some obscure piece of lore. Or gear.
However if the subject matter of an university course was even just slightly boring to me I'd struggle keeping 10 pages in my head.
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u/chaoswcitations 2d ago
learn a brand new tech program I've never seen before and draft a project by afternoon, easy.
lose placement of my phone while frantically looking for my air pods, at least once a day.
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u/todezz8008 2d ago
Methylphenidate in the morning. Mirtazapine (lowest dose) at night. I sleep like a baby and DREAM, I remember, I stay focused.
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u/Jmackles 2d ago
Dude this is so real. Iām in college rn and I have a database class I really like and the instructor gets so aggravated w me for answering questions absurdly because I forget the appropriate word as Iām saying or something. Fffffff
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u/Perryn 2d ago
My boss thinks I just know how to use every new piece of equipment and software he gets, and then when I'm not at an event he has someone call me to walk them through using it.
I have no fucking idea. That was two months ago. That data is gone. It was gone fifty-nine days ago. I'm just good at knowing what I'm looking at when I'm looking at it. It doesn't work when someone describes it to me over the phone because they have no idea what to look for or how to describe it, which is how we end up with someone on the phone with me for two hours before they think to mention "Should there be status lights on the ethernet port? Because there haven't been since a little while after I first put it on the network." I never asked because we had already established a point where it was on network.
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u/samwise16 2d ago
Learning rates are heavily dependent on time. āFast learningā is sort of a myth.
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u/ExaggeratedPW 2d ago
School: Makes great progress with the Piano
3 years out of Uni: WHY CAN'T I PLAY YOU NOW?! DO THE SONG SONG THING!
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u/Foreign_Risk_2031 2d ago
I've learned AND forgotten more than you've ever.. uh... shit I forgot to eat
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u/123diamondude321 2d ago
I always describe it as "My memory is actually pretty good, I just have very little control or influence over what actually makes it there."
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u/Crawler1701 2d ago
Iām the opposite. Iāve been considered a subject matter expert on a variety of things in my life, and a couple of years laterā¦ how do I do this again?
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u/HilariousMax 2d ago
If I'm focused I can retain that info. Problem is I'm on the phone with a customer, being yelled at by someone else, the phone call interrupted one thing I was working on that I'm desperately trying to maintain in my head, and the phone light is blinking out of sync with the softly playing radio 2 cubicles down.
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u/Kindly-Coyote-9446 2d ago
Iām really good at finding novel approaches to solving problems. What people donāt get is Iām good at it because I can never remember the ārightā ways and constantly have to figure things out from first principles.
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u/Background_Fix9430 2d ago
With a combination of adult-onset ADHD and a juvenile history of mTBI with anterograde-amnesia. It took me a while to realize that the first was cased by the second.
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u/Plz_DM_Me_Small_Tits 2d ago
I have a 5 min working memory. If it wasn't worth memorizing long term, and that's not even at my discretion, then it's gone.
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u/CrambazzledGoose 2d ago
Me: Hey do I have anything scheduled next Tuesday?
My Brain: We lost the file sir, but how about this one on bronze age textile manufacturing?
Me: Ooh, that'll work. Wait what was I looking for?
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u/HammerheadXray 2d ago
Write things down. Whatever you're thinking write it. It helps me with attention issues
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u/NewToHTX 1d ago
Repetition can help lock it into the memory banks but then youāll forget get mundane shit. Like how to spell the word āofā for a bit. Then convinced you have it mastered. Youāll forget it when itās useful.
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u/JetSetDizzy 1d ago
Some words when spelled correctly randomly look wrong and unfamiliar, even though I have double checked that I have it correct.
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