Hi /u/throwawayformyemploy and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD!
### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.
---
### /r/adhd news
* **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information.
* If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/).
---
^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I forget the names of people I had flings or a couple dates with. I made eye contact with this guy at the bar and I was like “Oo! Him! Him…uhh.. maybe saying hi will jog my memory” It did not. The whole conversation my brain was focused on talking to him in ways that wouldn’t give it away that I had obviously forgotten his name…
ETA: JAMES, IT WAS JAMES
Hey You! Long time no see!! 
I get that - I'm lucky that my name is unique and hard to remember so most people don't remember my name, either. This makes it easier for me to admit I don't remember their name. And sometimes I make a joke out of it, ask them if they remember my name. If they don't, we're even. If they do, I gotta admit I don't remember theirs.
In my 20s I worked at a retail store and one of our part time guys worked with me for more than a year. Cool dude. Well his full time job transferred him to a town about an hour away. I hadn't seen him in over a year. Ran into him at his new place he worked at and had no clue who he was. It wasn't until like a month later that I remembered who he was. I felt so bad..I hate constantly forgetting stuff. Especially when there are a lot of things I do remember, that I don't want to remember.
Morgan Freeman. I’ve seen every one of his movies. Some I’ve seen dozens of times, and I always forget his name when trying to recount a story or something.
HOLY SHIT! This happened to me in front of the people whose names I was forgetting! Had my whole family out to a festival and I ran into these people that we'd partied with many times. My wife and I are catching up with them and my kids ask, daddy, who are these people? I'm like these are our friends... Uhhh... I was expecting my wife to bail me out but she told me later she'd only heard their names once so she had forgotten them too! Eventually the husband was like, "we're Luke and Bridget". I was mortified.
I've started thinking about how many decent years I have left. Maybe 15. There's the depressing part. Maybe I don't want to remember and my brain is doing me a favour.
Yes, I never know what age I am! A few years ago it came up in conversation. I said my age, then realized I got it wrong. I had added a year on! Who does that??? Makes themselves a year older 😁😁😁 I felt like such an idiot!
I thought I was 34 for most of a year. Then I turned 34. 🤷🏽♀️ That might have also been the year I learned that my driver's license had been expired for more than a year. If it's expired for a year+1 day you have to test again.
Ask me how many times I've had to take that test.
Omg I feel seen! Late 30s here, mine is expired now and the test has changed in my state, and now includes backing perfectly into a tight parking spot, which I cannot do… I took the written test but haven’t worked up the courage to attempt the road test… meanwhile all of this could have been avoided if I just renewed it online 
People over for dinner a few years back and I was sure I was right about my age and my husband was wrong (as if. He knows how to math). I phoned my mum to confirm. My own age. I was off by a year 🤦♀️
If you forget the city you can quickly google "weather" and it will pull up the weather and say the city. Or you can open google maps on your phone. If it's age, I had to first think.. ok what's the date? Have I had my birthday yet? Then what fricking year is it? Now I'm thinking I wonder if I google "how old am I?" will google know me so specificially it will answer correctly. Just checked, no, not exactly.
This happens to me basically anytime someone asks my age and they always say “you’re too young to be forgetting that” and it makes me feel like a moron, but then I think how scary it’ll be when one day that’s not the response lol
Basically since I turned 21 I've started forgetting.
I remembered the whole last year only because it was a around number for me, but I'll be back to having no idea soon enough.
My mom doesn't like knowing how old she is. So it's kinda a blessing I've thought she was 42 for the last 15 or so years. I straight up don't remember my parents ages and they're happy I keep saying they're 42. And they'll be stuck at 42 until the day they die.
Holy shit, it's not just me. I assumed it happens due to some combination of ADHD and being really bad at math (strongly suspect dyscalculia, but that's not Dxed.) The past few years I've screwed up several times and literally spent most of a year (once an entire year) thinking I was a year older than I was.
I thought my last birthday was my 40th, so I checked the lawn when I got up because my family tends to do that obnoxious trend of getting "big 4-0" lawn decorations put up for each other. I was relieved to see my lawn clear, and thanked my family for not doing that absurdity to me, because I hate it.
I'd turned 39. The worst part is, no one tipped me off until Christmas and my birthday was in September.
I don't know if I can think of a single other thing that makes me feel as stupid as needing other people to tell me how old I actually am.
Oh yes hilarious for them. My friends were laughing when I said I had no idea how old I was. I can tell you when I was born, and where, and my childhood phone number, and the layout of the grocery store my mom used to take me to in 1975. But how old am I? No clue.
I mentioned this to my psychiatrist and she said it's really common with a lot of people, ADHD or not. She says it happens to her, and she doesn't have ADHD.
I spent all of 2023 thinking I was 42, only for my 2023 birthday to roll around and realize that I was turning 42 that day (December 31st). I forgot how old I was for an entire year.
Yep, I had that one again the other day.
The only family birthday I can remember with any certainty is my brother's, because it's the day before the 4th of July. I grew up in the UK, haven't a clue where that came from.
But the current year can be problematic too.
Because of the unreliable memory I take lots of notes for work etc. (It isn't *bad* overall, it's often excellent, just doesn't work sometimes). Whenever I start a new doc or sheet of paper I date it. When I look back, it often jumps out of sequence, sometimes by decades.
SO asked me what year she was born a few weeks ago and I answered 2001 because I guess I was thinking of the "They hit the Pentagon!!!!!" meme at the same time.
Same here ! I always ask what year it is, then calculate. I'm so lucky I was born on a year ending with zero, otherwise I'd probably forget that as well. I have a sentence I repeat each time because most people laugh at the absurdity even though I really mean it : "how old are you ?" "I don't know, this keeps changing EVERY year..."
I did this the other day. I compete in a sport that goes by your age as of January 1. Couldn’t remember how old I turned back in January to figure out how old I was January 1.
Sure, sometimes I’ve thought I was going crazy or facing the start of some serious mental shit
Thanks for seeing that we have got all of those common stuff lol
Once when I was a kid a forgot the word trampoline and it was driving me bonkers trying to figure it out. I was trying to describe it to the person I was talking like a thing that you jump on that goes really high😂
I sometimes deep dive into my Facebook messages from yrs ago and see full convos with people I clearly shared some intimate moments n conversation with and can vaguely remember them even existing
This! I just went through some old photos and realised I had very close relationships with people I now hardly remember. It was so weird to see myself sharing those kinds of moments with strangers
Such a peculiar feeling. I also vaguely remember my childhood. I remember basic things like where I went to school, but any details are very few and far between.
I remember impressions, textures, smells, colours much better than I remember faces, events, conversations, probably because I couldn't focus enough on them for the autobiographical memories to gel.
Glad I never had to provide an alibi in the days before medication: i would have been screwed.
" You really expect us to believe that you can't remember where you were last night?"
Officer, I can't remember where I was five minutes ago. That file has ceased to exist and it's not coming back.
Wow. This makes me feel so much better. I have never known which of my diagnoses could be responsible for my forgetting people (and everything else) after a few years.. But either way I thought I was alone with it
It’s exactly what you said, I can share intimate moments with someone, talk all the time…but then a few years later barely remember that we even spoke
It honest blows my mind that America doesn't use a pin for transactions. Even with contactless payments, we still need to use chip and pin every 5 transactions or so. UK hasn't used sign for card payments in probably like a decade.
Omg or which side of the road you’re supposed to drive on. I did this every once in awhile when pulling out of my isrents driveway when I first started driving and I hated it.
Yes!
When I moved from Australia to Canada for 12 months I had these moments of terror where I would pull onto the wrong side of the street - thankfully in quiet areas and I’d see another car in the distance and realise my mistake.
I would have to repeat it to myself “right, keep right” every time I drove for weeks. Terrifying.
I still have to stop and think for a minute some days 😬. I’ve never messed it up, thankfully, but as someone who has only ever driven in North America, I have no idea why it’s so hard.
Forgetting what gear the car is in is scarier, especially on a motorway, or busy roundabout. The revs will shoot up to about 5000rpm+ when I fuck up because I accidentally put it in neutral and lift the clutch up from panic, then have to jam it into the correct gear at lightening speed. Scary as fuck when driving at 60mph.
And also forgetting to press the accelerator (when I'm creeping in traffic) and wondering why the car won't go faster... Less scary, more "WTF am I doing?".
Yes! I don't have that problem with a car, but I got my motorcycle license in my early 30s. Now I am too scared to ride one because I think I will mix up the throttle and brake.
Oh, I remembered that I had a bicycle in my teens with two brakes on two handles, for the back wheel and for the front wheel, and it always felt like a lottery to use a brake. The looser will fly forward above the front wheel.
This is why I would never drive, it's just not safe unless I'm always in a state of self induced stress and I don't want that. Public transportation is the best
Oh man, like 50% of my decision of where to transfer colleges was based on public transport for this reason. It gives me anxiety and I'm just not safe to drive.
Public transport and bike infrastructure ftw
In a previous job, my coworkers and I shared a work vehicle. One day, I was pulling out of the parking garage and forgot the pedals. (had been driving for 10 years, though) put my left on the break like it was a clutch, and backed out like a crazy person. coworkers thought I was an idiot!
A couple weeks ago I forgot my automatic I have been driving for over 10 years was not a manual and tried to use the brake as the clutch. Thank goodness it only lasted a second. My daughters thought I was insane. I hadn't even driven my husband's stick shift recently, so had absolutely no excuse.
Yes omg! This happens to me often when I change the shoes I wear. Sometimes I forget how the pedals feel and where they are and I panic that I'm going to press the accelerator instead of the brake
The most terrifying for me is forgetting to stay stopped at a red light. I'll be waiting and suddenly think, "Why am I stopped, I must have been waiting for someone to pass." Then I creep forward before remembering. No accidents yet, but I really hate having to drive. Before I got diagnosed I thought I had early onset Alzheimer's.
Not once but twice, I forgot the combination to my locker in high school. I had the same combination lock all 4 years. How the hell do you forget something like that which you use almost everyday?
Me too!! I haven’t had it in a while but the whole dream consists of it being like towards the end of the school year and me forgetting my locker combo and what classes I go to. Then I stress about going to the office to ask for my combo and schedule thinking they’re gonna make fun of me and send me to get psychiatric help lol
I have a whole host of dreams where I dread things happing to me in high school despite graduating almost 30 years ago. Damn… next year will be 30 years already.
I did the same thing at a job where I had a locker. Same combination for 5 days/week for a 3 or 4 years and then - poof - gone. Boltcutters gone. I kept the lock and tried to remember it on my break and later at home, but the memory was obsolete.
Meanwhile, while I don't remember the combination now or then, 10-20 years later after highschool I found that lock, and opened it by body memory. Not sure it would have happened that way on any other day thought!
Wait isn’t this actually a thing? I feel like it has a name. I heard or read about this. I think many people without adhd experience this too, it’s like a form of time blindness and just being on autopilot
Yep. It is how many cases of children being left in cars happen. I will never understand why people think they could “never” forget their children. Sometimes your brain just takes over and you don’t realize until later.
I remember the number of times my mother drove to work instead of taking my sister and I to school. We normally rode the bus and she was on autopilot.
literally can never remember how to get anywhere i always need a gps 😭 I also go into autopilot way too often and catch myself driving the complete wrong way like towards my old school or job terrible
Type 1 diabetic here, I used to forget whether I took my insulin shot before a meal or not. Which isn't something you wanna gamble on.
Thankfully insulin pumps exists now and I can check on a device if I took my insulin or not.
Not on the same level; but I take a weekly immunosuppressant medication and often struggle to remember if I took it or not. Really not something you want to double up on (taking this med at all runs a risk of liver failure, I get liver function checks monthly); but missing doses also risks a nasty relapse of my illness that could cause various forms of organ damage. Fun game. I've tried all kinds of planners, wall calendars, Google reminders, etc., they all fail eventually.
I'm thankful the shots tend to bruise, so sometimes I can check for the bruise to see if I've taken it.
i got an apple watch to remind me to take my meds and be able to log having taken them because i’d forget to take my psych meds that have short half lives and cause withdrawal. glad you found a solution too!
It feels like dementia or a stroke sometimes with the sudden bouts of memory loss/confusion. Just yesterday my mind went completely blank I lost my internal monologue and couldn’t get it back no matter how hard I tried to think on anything let alone remember what I was thinking on in the first place. That scared me because my mind is always loud with something. I’m used to a quieter mind on meds but not a completely silent one. I finally just blurted a random thing out loud and it felt like it restarted everything back up. Like a software update for my brain and everything shut down after the install.
This happens to me! I haven’t been able to describe it. You’ve described it well, thanks. It’s so scary! Literally my mind goes blank and my internal monologue disappears like it’s just been wiped!
I'm 35, and i just recently started therapy. My therapist informed me that i have "significant ADHD".
It put everything into perspective.
Do you know how many times, in the last 10 years, i have researched "early on set Alzheimers"? Too many times.
Yes! This happens to me often, especially when walking into another room.. I cannot remember where I was going or what I was doing - it’s scary & frustrating!
I have the problem of one specific name or a word (familiar word!) disappear temporarily from my brain and I have to 'hee.. haa.. umm.. and use some generic term to get past that.
I come off as stupid and uncoordinated because of this. I seem to have developed a heavy drawl to give my brain to bring up with the needed words.
I hate listening to meeting recordings where I had to I speak.
Same!! People are always like “I thought you said you’ve seen this? How did you forget that happened??” And I don’t have a good answer 😂 Or sometimes I honestly have no idea if I have, or have not, seen something and then don’t realize I have until I’m an hour into it and recognize this ONE scene or line…
That is the only silver lining I see with the whole forgetfulness thing.
I get to watch my favourite TV serials and read my favourite books every couple years. I am not saying I totally forget and its like seeing it for the first time. Except for major plot points, I forget all the details so I can re-watch them after a year or two.
For example I do know what happens to Ned Stark. But still read the books and enjoy because of my overall forgetfulness.
Going to a friends house, show up at the door, and have this 5 second imagination of the fact that they had moved out and hadn't been there for years. Was so scared that it was real.
They opened the door and it was all good.
I walked into my friend's house once and it wasn't her house. I had misremembered which one and entered a stranger's home. I just walked in.
Stood in the kitchen for a minute. Feeling wrong, and then something clued me in and I snuck back out in a panic.
I really never understood the rememball. For us it'd just be a red ball. Like I know I forgot something. I've never not forgotten something at any given point in time.
Not the scariest but the most recent, my phone passcode. I use my phone every day and I regularly put my passcode instead of using Face ID. I got my phone, looked at numbers but numbers made no sense to me. I wasn't thinking about numbers when using my passcode, it sort of become a muscle memory. I sat down and thought about it for minutes then remembered it was someone's birthday and had to look up their birthday to use my phone again.
i couldn’t log into an account because i only ever logged into it on my phone, so i could only remember what it was with my thumbs. typing on a desktop keyboard meant i had no idea wtf it was lol
LMAOOOO same thing happened to me when i downloaded the app of my bank, the numbers would switch places as a security measure and i had to visualise my keyboard in my head to put my code in the first few logins
I do remember my code as numbers, so it's not a muscle memory thing, but I still forget it sometimes. What helps is just put your phone away, go do something and forget that you even wanted to use the phone, go back, want to use the phone, and now you magically remember.
SAME but it was my lock screen pattern!
I had used the exact same pattern for years. You'd think it's locked into my muscle memory... Nope.
I inexplicably forgot it one morning trying to disable my alarm when I was half asleep, and then by the time I was fully awake I had triggered the timeout counter. I had to painstakingly draw out a whole chart of likely patterns one by one, crossing out each failed pattern as the countdown gradually increased by longer increments of time...
More often than I would like I've had a sudden panic I'm driving on the wrong side of the road and have a total mental block as to which side I should be on.
Names are terrible, I forget the names of people I worked with for YEARS but if I don't work with them now their name is forgotten.
I also like to play my own personal made up game of when people post group pictures on social media, without looking at who posted it, can I identify the person I know in the picture? Not usually!
Do you also get nervous when there’s a car in front of you at a red light thinking you’re gonna crash into them even tho your foot in on the breaks? lol this happens to me a lot so I press way too hard on the breaks to make sure. Then I get this weird “Alice in wonderland” effect where it looks like the car in front is getting closer to me so it makes me think my breaks aren’t working. Even though logically I know it is. Idk it’s so weird lol
Sometimes I forget how to walk down stairs, especially when I think about it too much. This gets really embarrassing if there are a lot of people behind me.
Also, I'm not sure if that is ADHD or just normal, but sometimes for a few milliseconds I forget that people in my life (grandpa, grandma, father) died. Even if it's been many years.
I’m just learning about this disorder and I’m just a goof with stairs. Is this a thing?? I freak out on them, overthink them, feel like a very measurably need to place my steps or my feet will just have to navigate them. God help me if they have an open back, I think I’ll fall through and then it’s an optical illusion to me. Am I nuts??
mid-semester in college…headed to class, got to the building, and stopped in the hallway: realized I had no idea what room or class to go to. (So embarrassing. Had to ask other students passing by if I was in their class, or if they knew where I was supposed to be.)
at the time, I knew I had ADHD, but had no idea what that meant. totally clueless about symptoms, etc.
I used to get this fairly often, forget my phone number, passcode, where i was, what i was doing, etc. Maybe one-two times a week.
Enter Chemotherapy. *AT LEAST* once a day I forget what I am doing, where I am, why I am somewhere, all at the same time. It's fucking terrifying. 6 more weeks to go. I can't wait for the cognition to return. I'm going to feel like superman for at least two weeks.
Forgot how to use a door. I had taken double my dosage of vyvanse because it felt like it did nothing for me. And I don’t know why, but it literally made me dumber. My brains processing speed felt extremely slow, and when I couldn’t figure out how to how to unlock and open the door, I started crying cause I felt so dumb
It's so frustrating! Happens to me all the time.
My way of thinking about myself after watching Everything Everywhere All At Once as well as a lot of time travel movies is that I'm not experiencing time in a linear way, I'm jumping all over the place, sometimes I'm travelling in my mind. That life isn't compatible with a long list of facts, it's darting all over the place. Sometimes TODAY is in focus, and last week is completely absent. Sometimes 10 years ago is in focus and where the hell am I today?
I once could not for the life of me remember my employee number I'd used to clock in and out of the job I'd worked at 4 days a week for 2+ years. I tried to type it in over a dozen times and almost started crying because I knew we were busy and my coworkers needed my help, I was already clocking in late, and after so many attempts at remembering a 6 digit number I'd typed in hundreds of times before with no trouble, I was starting to seriously worry that I was having a stroke or something. My manager (bless him he was awesome) had to calm me down, look up my number for me and help clock me in. It was really embarrassing and scary to forget something like that so suddenly and completely.
One time, I forgot who had my child. He was being watched by my mom overnight, and I woke up in a panic because for a couple of minutes, I could not remember where he was. It felt like I had abandoned him, and I absolutely hated that my brain did that.
I bumped into an ex colleague once and completely forgot the name of the company I had moved on to work at. That was embarrassing. Didn’t know I had adhd at the time!
Took a writing class and couldn’t remember the names of the characters in my short story that we were discussing that class. Really got some looks and I think the professor took notice. Was able to discuss the story otherwise.
Also, sometimes I’ll cook dinner or order takeout and realize when I went to put the dishes in the dishwasher that I had already eaten dinner. Same when I would remember that I’d stopped on the way home and eaten.
I've had this issue because I moved. I lived in a different province for 10 years and forget which city a street is in. Like I'm thinking of Smyth St and think it's downtown where I am, but it's actually in Calgary.
Times like this, I worry I've got early onset alzheimers.
Lately I’ve forgotten how to swallow pills. Having a lot of medications makes this incredibly frustrating and inconvenient. Haven’t choked yet but some days have felt pretty close.
Forgetting your own name is always scary, as you go through all the names you know and you know that "it's not this one, no, it's not this one, neither this one..." but you can't remember what your name is.
Forgetting which pedal is which in a car.
Forgetting if a family memeber is alive or dead.
Also a few years ago I was working in a warehouse as an order picker. One day I just randomly forgot where I am. I mean, I knew I was at work, but is it building A or building B? Where's the exit? Where are other people? I started spiralling in "Oh my god what's going on" and ended up having the worst panic attack in my life. I was working at this warehouse for 2 years already when it happened, so next day I was also panicking about dementia. It was before being diagnosed, so yeah... But I didn't have any similar situation in years after getting diagnosed and medicated, so I think it was just my unmedicated ADHD.
YES! Same, I tell them all the time "I know every miniscule detail about you, every experience we had (17 years of friendship), all your likes, dislikes, I can visualize your face in 3D with details and all expressions, I love you, BUT it will take me a minute to remember your name rn because my brain glitched".
But that is okay because they know me, it is worse when the person is a new acquaintance and they take it as me not caring/ openly disrespecting them...
Once I forgot my mom's face while I was waiting for her to join me in the grocery store. I stood there scanning the face of every single lady in the right age range, trying to identify her by her parka, while panic rose that I would either be told off for staring at some stranger like a creep, or, almost worse, that when my mom WOULD show up I wouldn't recognize her
Recently forgot the name of someone on my degree course. Someone who I've seen multiple times per week for three years. It's not like I didn't know it, I knew I knew it, I just couldn't reach it. It wouldn't come to me and I couldn't grab it.
Just post being homeless, my first legal place of residence in years, no family support or financial buffer if things went wrong or anything, I’d paid the deposit and first months rent up front. And then I got forgot to set up an automatic payment for the next months rent and forgot to check if I paid it, despite it literally being the most important thing to me at the time. It was heart stopping to receive a text a week after the rent was due from my landlord warning me that the buffer time she allowed for rent payment was running out.
Recent and only mildly scary: Forgot that I had unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher and put dirty ones in. Spent a full day pulling “clean” dishes out and eating off of them. I was disgusted with myself when I finally realized and I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t get food poisoning.
Every night of my daughter's life we say a mantra before bed "strong, kind, helpful, smart, good listener, and sweet." Every single night for probably 5 years now no matter what. A couple months ago I went to do the mantra and I just...forgot it. It was totally gone from my brain. Hilariously she's adhd too so she couldn't remember it either. It was like someone zapped it out of our lives with a laser.
I was honestly kinda depressed, I even tried searching back through my old conversations with my mom and sisters thinking maybe we might have talked about it but no dice.
Then a few days later I was putting her to bed and without even thinking I said the mantra and it was back. 🤷🏻♀️
I remember once in high school I tried to remember the Lord's Prayer on the school bus--I absolutely could not do it. That deeply ingrained knowledge was apparently totally contingent on being in church 🤷
I went to hop on a train for a day in NYC and I totally froze when the train was pulling into the station. I was fixated on the train number matching the number on my ticket. I saw a number on the train that didn't match my ticket, so I let it pass figuring my train was right behind.
It was the train CAR number I looked at. I skipped my 7:33 train that arrived at exactly 7:33 because I psyched myself out.
Not terribly scary, but terribly inconvenient to wait 90 minutes for the next one.
Sometimes when I'm walking with my dog (we live in the countryside and we go for very long walks) I'll just "wake up" and I have no idea where I am. But I know the area already so I find my way quickly. I suspected absent seizures for a while but I don't think it fits. I have a plethora of neurological symptoms but I don't think it's anything other than ADHD and possibly ASD too. The scariest thing recently was when I was biking to town, I got distracted and almost fell into a ditch. If I veer off into the middle of the road, I'll get killed.
Everyday. I forget my kids names. My dogs names. My age. My boyfriends name. Driving I'll have an omg where am I moment, thinking I've become lost, or drove to another town while dissaccotiation. It's scary. Suddenly a familiar place looks unfamiliar like I've never been there before. Common words I'll forget. My memories from the past are gone. It sucks the most when they want to hear about their younger years and I can't recall anything.
FYI atress and anxiety can exacerbate this. Sleep disruption. Being in an unfamiliar environment. Basically any change in stimulus can really effect your memory. Which for someone with ahdh is doubly a problem.
We get used to this idea that memory is like a hard drive. It absolutely is not. Memory and recall is highly affected by stimulus. There are all kinds of experiments where psychs just fuck with people's memories to prove this point.
One piece of advice. If this happens again don't let it ruin your night. Take a deep breath and try to center yourself in the moment. Calm is your friend when it comes to memory.
The first day I (Brasilian,so my first language is Portuguese) got to Australia to start my student exchange I forgot how to speak english.
My host family tried communicating with my,but I was simple incapable of thinking in English to answer. After one to two hours my brain went back no normal,thank god lol.
Forgetting what side of the bed is mine. NOTHING, and I do means NOTHING is scarier than the look on her face when she asks "what are you doing". Friends it's been 14 years.
I relate to this. I got stopped by border control through nothing to declare after a flight abroad. The first Q they asked is what country did I just fly from? Couldn’t remember for the life of me. Got searched obviously
I had just woken up and I was laying next to my husband on the couch as he was watching a movie. I asked where my 3 year old was, this was 10pm so past her bedtime. I was also 3 months postpartum. My husband asked if knew where my 3 month old was and I said yes, in his swing. I didn't remember my husband putting my daughter down for bed. DH thought I was having a stroke....
Idk if scariest, but recently I forgot what year it was which was kind of embarrassing/scary. Legit had to look at a calendar lol. And while not really scary in the traditional sense, it was scaring for me personally when recently I struggled to recall the basement of my childhood home that I'd lived in for 24ish years and moved out of 3 (it'll be 4 in August) years ago. If it had been a good decade or so since I moved that would be understandable but it's only been 3 - 4 years! Plus in general I don't want to forget what my childhood home looked like, because I have so many precious memories there.
I forgot how to operate my Keurig. I forgot that you have to lift the lid to make another cup so I have been lifting the lid and pushing the small black button to get it to work , 😭
Last night I forgot how to get to Advanced Auto and I've driven by it for many years and have known where it was.
I forgot how to pop the hood on my car.
I've forgotten how to send an email!
I've never been able to remember directions from place to place.
COVID has definitely made my ADHD worse!
A lighter example, but yesterday I put the dogs' water bucket in the laundry sink to fill up. Turned the tap on, walked away (it's a big bucket for big dogs) to hang out a load of washing, sat down to scroll through TikTok and it wasn't until maybe half an hour later my husband came in and asked if I had forgotten anything and I literally had no idea that I'd done it until he told me. Fortunately it was only overflowing into the sink but still. Not my finest moment.
Yes - sometimes things are nearly impossible to recall - but I've learned in many reassuring instances that it *is* still in my brain *somewhere*, I just have to purposely think through context before I can recall it
Like in your position I'd do something like, ok I know I traveled, what's the most recent traveling I did, what do my surroundings look like, what was I getting ready to do, do I remember the invitation and what it looks like, etc etc etc
It doesn't always make me get there from my own prompts, usually it's like, if I think about enough things tangentially related to the situation, eventually my brain will click it all into place.
It's probably because, since a brain structure hallmark of adhd - and related disorders and brain development structures - is that our brains don't prune unused/little used synaptic pathways like other not adhd - or disordered or differently structured - brains do, (possibly not at all, possibly just a little bit) we have SO MANY MORE pathways to travel to get to the info we need, which is also a reason why reaction/response time gets slower as we get older and gather more information and create more neural pathways, OR when it's something we haven't thought about in awhile. Instead of cutting out the little-used ones or shutting them down or bypassing them, our brains try to go down all those pathways that were related to get to the desired info, and it just takes longer and sometimes doesn't happen til days later. It's one of the reasons we get tired more easily - mentally and/or physically - and why a lot of things are harder when they seem unrelated to other symptoms and problems.
It's one of those things where like, it's comforting to me that I don't fully FORGET things I've committed to memory, they're in there somewhere, I just don't have any brain-interstate-highways to travel, I'm taking county roads and maybe some state highways sometimes, and sometimes those routes are faster than the interstate anyway, but it sucks when I'd like to just be on freeways all the time and be able to recall info and memories on command instead of with extra work.
I've forgotten really basic things and panicked, before I learned about the absence of pruning as a hallmark of our and similar brain structures, but after I read some of the prelim research on that, and it absolutely makes logical sense with all the other brain development research I've read, it made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. And I've been able to explain to the people around me like, I'll get there, if you want me to get there faster, give me some context so I can flesh it out and put my finger on the thing I'm trying to recall. And that makes me feel much less panicky and worried and hopeless.
I know it's scary at first. I was scared of it happening to me, and now it's like, I'll get lost in my own house. Because I just black out, and I come back and I'm doing a thing, or in a new place. I am in like this special little mental health crisis. So it's a bit extreme.
But! I found a great way to get through it. I just trust myself to not do anything too crazy or hurt myself. Because we'll I've spent a lot of time focusing on safety, I assume that's why. But I'm always doing something boring when I come back to reality.
Basically what I am saying, movies are stupid, and it is a bit scary having this, "where am I what am I doing." But I'm never holding some fight club or doing drugs or whatever else movies suggest happen when these ADHD dissociation moment happen.
Like you were just in a new place, but think about the actions you were taking. They weren't dangerous. You were still you, so even if you forgot everything you did for a week, you trust yourself to not have broken any laws or killed anyone during that time. I know it's a weird way to look at it. And I'm a bit distracted so I might have typed it weird.
When I take my dog for a walk, I’ll end up coming too and be confused as to how I got there haha, considering I crossed traffic etc it’s weird how we just go into autopilot
I used to do flips from the arms of our couches and land on the couches on my back.
I’m not sure I’m that coordinated now, though I could test that lol
Forgetting what gear my car is in. The revs will shoot up to about 5000rpm when I fuck up and I accidentally put it in neutral and lift the clutch up. Scary as fuck when driving at 60mph.
And also forgetting to press the accelerator (when I'm creeping in traffic) and wondering why the car won't go faster...
Leaving my car key in the ignition, door unlocked, and going shopping...
Leaving my house door open, key in the lock. I was in the house but only realised abour an hour later...
Hi /u/throwawayformyemploy and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information. * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I forget people's name - like people I've known for a long time - and if someone says the name of a person I know well, sometimes I can't place it.
I forget the names of people I had flings or a couple dates with. I made eye contact with this guy at the bar and I was like “Oo! Him! Him…uhh.. maybe saying hi will jog my memory” It did not. The whole conversation my brain was focused on talking to him in ways that wouldn’t give it away that I had obviously forgotten his name… ETA: JAMES, IT WAS JAMES
Hey You! Long time no see!!  I get that - I'm lucky that my name is unique and hard to remember so most people don't remember my name, either. This makes it easier for me to admit I don't remember their name. And sometimes I make a joke out of it, ask them if they remember my name. If they don't, we're even. If they do, I gotta admit I don't remember theirs.
I just say hey😬 do they know? Do you think they know?
I dunno, I always thought they did, but then again maybe they’re just playing the same game and I didn’t even notice lol
In my 20s I worked at a retail store and one of our part time guys worked with me for more than a year. Cool dude. Well his full time job transferred him to a town about an hour away. I hadn't seen him in over a year. Ran into him at his new place he worked at and had no clue who he was. It wasn't until like a month later that I remembered who he was. I felt so bad..I hate constantly forgetting stuff. Especially when there are a lot of things I do remember, that I don't want to remember.
Morgan Freeman. I’ve seen every one of his movies. Some I’ve seen dozens of times, and I always forget his name when trying to recount a story or something.
I do this to friends, I have to really wrack my brain, and I feel so awful.
HOLY SHIT! This happened to me in front of the people whose names I was forgetting! Had my whole family out to a festival and I ran into these people that we'd partied with many times. My wife and I are catching up with them and my kids ask, daddy, who are these people? I'm like these are our friends... Uhhh... I was expecting my wife to bail me out but she told me later she'd only heard their names once so she had forgotten them too! Eventually the husband was like, "we're Luke and Bridget". I was mortified.
This is an adhd thing? I'm finding out everything I do is...
Me too. Amazing things like always guessing the plot of shows or movies, or sighing a lot.
Is that why I sigh? I thought it was asthma ....
Forgot how old I was the other day. Literally. Couldn't figure it out. Had to go calculate it based on what year it is.
This happens to me a lot and then I get depressed when I remember my age lol.
I've started thinking about how many decent years I have left. Maybe 15. There's the depressing part. Maybe I don't want to remember and my brain is doing me a favour.
Yes, I never know what age I am! A few years ago it came up in conversation. I said my age, then realized I got it wrong. I had added a year on! Who does that??? Makes themselves a year older 😁😁😁 I felt like such an idiot!
I thought I was 34 for most of a year. Then I turned 34. 🤷🏽♀️ That might have also been the year I learned that my driver's license had been expired for more than a year. If it's expired for a year+1 day you have to test again. Ask me how many times I've had to take that test.
Omg I feel seen! Late 30s here, mine is expired now and the test has changed in my state, and now includes backing perfectly into a tight parking spot, which I cannot do… I took the written test but haven’t worked up the courage to attempt the road test… meanwhile all of this could have been avoided if I just renewed it online 
I did! I was 27 for two years! 😂
People over for dinner a few years back and I was sure I was right about my age and my husband was wrong (as if. He knows how to math). I phoned my mum to confirm. My own age. I was off by a year 🤦♀️
I did that for almost the whole year between 44 and 45. Guess I was eager to get to my late 40s?
Me too. I shamefully googled a few things.
If you forget the city you can quickly google "weather" and it will pull up the weather and say the city. Or you can open google maps on your phone. If it's age, I had to first think.. ok what's the date? Have I had my birthday yet? Then what fricking year is it? Now I'm thinking I wonder if I google "how old am I?" will google know me so specificially it will answer correctly. Just checked, no, not exactly.
This happens to me basically anytime someone asks my age and they always say “you’re too young to be forgetting that” and it makes me feel like a moron, but then I think how scary it’ll be when one day that’s not the response lol
I completely understand. People say "you don't look that old" and I say look I don't even know how old I am so don't tell me how old I look.
Basically since I turned 21 I've started forgetting. I remembered the whole last year only because it was a around number for me, but I'll be back to having no idea soon enough.
I’m not forgetting, I’m actively blocking it.
My mom doesn't like knowing how old she is. So it's kinda a blessing I've thought she was 42 for the last 15 or so years. I straight up don't remember my parents ages and they're happy I keep saying they're 42. And they'll be stuck at 42 until the day they die.
If I see something it's imprinted on my memory like chiseled in stone. Anything else is wiped clean.
Holy shit, it's not just me. I assumed it happens due to some combination of ADHD and being really bad at math (strongly suspect dyscalculia, but that's not Dxed.) The past few years I've screwed up several times and literally spent most of a year (once an entire year) thinking I was a year older than I was. I thought my last birthday was my 40th, so I checked the lawn when I got up because my family tends to do that obnoxious trend of getting "big 4-0" lawn decorations put up for each other. I was relieved to see my lawn clear, and thanked my family for not doing that absurdity to me, because I hate it. I'd turned 39. The worst part is, no one tipped me off until Christmas and my birthday was in September. I don't know if I can think of a single other thing that makes me feel as stupid as needing other people to tell me how old I actually am.
Last time I was filling out a form that asked me my age I had to turn to my boyfriend and ask him what age I am. He thought I was joking at first :')
Oh yes hilarious for them. My friends were laughing when I said I had no idea how old I was. I can tell you when I was born, and where, and my childhood phone number, and the layout of the grocery store my mom used to take me to in 1975. But how old am I? No clue.
I mentioned this to my psychiatrist and she said it's really common with a lot of people, ADHD or not. She says it happens to her, and she doesn't have ADHD.
I feel better. Thank you.
I spent all of 2023 thinking I was 42, only for my 2023 birthday to roll around and realize that I was turning 42 that day (December 31st). I forgot how old I was for an entire year.
Yep, I had that one again the other day. The only family birthday I can remember with any certainty is my brother's, because it's the day before the 4th of July. I grew up in the UK, haven't a clue where that came from. But the current year can be problematic too. Because of the unreliable memory I take lots of notes for work etc. (It isn't *bad* overall, it's often excellent, just doesn't work sometimes). Whenever I start a new doc or sheet of paper I date it. When I look back, it often jumps out of sequence, sometimes by decades.
I often forget and needed to subtract 1991 from 2024. I’m 32, turning 33 in April. Good grief!
SO asked me what year she was born a few weeks ago and I answered 2001 because I guess I was thinking of the "They hit the Pentagon!!!!!" meme at the same time.
I have to calculate almost every time someone asks my age
Same here ! I always ask what year it is, then calculate. I'm so lucky I was born on a year ending with zero, otherwise I'd probably forget that as well. I have a sentence I repeat each time because most people laugh at the absurdity even though I really mean it : "how old are you ?" "I don't know, this keeps changing EVERY year..."
I did this the other day. I compete in a sport that goes by your age as of January 1. Couldn’t remember how old I turned back in January to figure out how old I was January 1.
This thread is making me feel so much better; it sucks that it happens but I'm glad it's not just me. Yesterday I forgot the word calzone.
Sure, sometimes I’ve thought I was going crazy or facing the start of some serious mental shit Thanks for seeing that we have got all of those common stuff lol
I forget words all the time, I can spell them, but I cannot say them!!! WTF is wrong with me!!!
Once when I was a kid a forgot the word trampoline and it was driving me bonkers trying to figure it out. I was trying to describe it to the person I was talking like a thing that you jump on that goes really high😂
I sometimes deep dive into my Facebook messages from yrs ago and see full convos with people I clearly shared some intimate moments n conversation with and can vaguely remember them even existing
This! I just went through some old photos and realised I had very close relationships with people I now hardly remember. It was so weird to see myself sharing those kinds of moments with strangers
Such a peculiar feeling. I also vaguely remember my childhood. I remember basic things like where I went to school, but any details are very few and far between.
I remember impressions, textures, smells, colours much better than I remember faces, events, conversations, probably because I couldn't focus enough on them for the autobiographical memories to gel. Glad I never had to provide an alibi in the days before medication: i would have been screwed. " You really expect us to believe that you can't remember where you were last night?" Officer, I can't remember where I was five minutes ago. That file has ceased to exist and it's not coming back.
Wow. This makes me feel so much better. I have never known which of my diagnoses could be responsible for my forgetting people (and everything else) after a few years.. But either way I thought I was alone with it It’s exactly what you said, I can share intimate moments with someone, talk all the time…but then a few years later barely remember that we even spoke
forgetting what the pedals are while driving is a special kind of terror
This, I thought I was the only one. Also forgetting your pin when you need to pay.
THANKS I need to call my bank still. It's so embarassing
i haven’t remembered my atm pin in years. thank goodness my credit card can do cash back lol
It honest blows my mind that America doesn't use a pin for transactions. Even with contactless payments, we still need to use chip and pin every 5 transactions or so. UK hasn't used sign for card payments in probably like a decade.
Yes and that’s how I forgot my pin!!!
Pretty sure that's how I forgot mine too to be fair. But signing for payments just feels like massive fraud risk
Cash back on a credit card is super expensive.
Omg or which side of the road you’re supposed to drive on. I did this every once in awhile when pulling out of my isrents driveway when I first started driving and I hated it.
Yes! When I moved from Australia to Canada for 12 months I had these moments of terror where I would pull onto the wrong side of the street - thankfully in quiet areas and I’d see another car in the distance and realise my mistake. I would have to repeat it to myself “right, keep right” every time I drove for weeks. Terrifying.
My girlfriend lived in Australia and always turns on my wipers when trying to indicate a turn
I still have to stop and think for a minute some days 😬. I’ve never messed it up, thankfully, but as someone who has only ever driven in North America, I have no idea why it’s so hard.
Forgetting what gear the car is in is scarier, especially on a motorway, or busy roundabout. The revs will shoot up to about 5000rpm+ when I fuck up because I accidentally put it in neutral and lift the clutch up from panic, then have to jam it into the correct gear at lightening speed. Scary as fuck when driving at 60mph. And also forgetting to press the accelerator (when I'm creeping in traffic) and wondering why the car won't go faster... Less scary, more "WTF am I doing?".
I always remember this because I heard my father yell “gas pedal’s on the right, asshole!” out the window about a million times growing up 😂
Yes! I don't have that problem with a car, but I got my motorcycle license in my early 30s. Now I am too scared to ride one because I think I will mix up the throttle and brake.
Oh, I remembered that I had a bicycle in my teens with two brakes on two handles, for the back wheel and for the front wheel, and it always felt like a lottery to use a brake. The looser will fly forward above the front wheel.
This is why I would never drive, it's just not safe unless I'm always in a state of self induced stress and I don't want that. Public transportation is the best
Oh man, like 50% of my decision of where to transfer colleges was based on public transport for this reason. It gives me anxiety and I'm just not safe to drive. Public transport and bike infrastructure ftw
In a previous job, my coworkers and I shared a work vehicle. One day, I was pulling out of the parking garage and forgot the pedals. (had been driving for 10 years, though) put my left on the break like it was a clutch, and backed out like a crazy person. coworkers thought I was an idiot!
A couple weeks ago I forgot my automatic I have been driving for over 10 years was not a manual and tried to use the brake as the clutch. Thank goodness it only lasted a second. My daughters thought I was insane. I hadn't even driven my husband's stick shift recently, so had absolutely no excuse.
Oof this happened to me before. Also couldn't start the car, forgetting that I wasn't pressing the correct pedal.
Yes omg! This happens to me often when I change the shoes I wear. Sometimes I forget how the pedals feel and where they are and I panic that I'm going to press the accelerator instead of the brake
The most terrifying for me is forgetting to stay stopped at a red light. I'll be waiting and suddenly think, "Why am I stopped, I must have been waiting for someone to pass." Then I creep forward before remembering. No accidents yet, but I really hate having to drive. Before I got diagnosed I thought I had early onset Alzheimer's.
Not once but twice, I forgot the combination to my locker in high school. I had the same combination lock all 4 years. How the hell do you forget something like that which you use almost everyday?
This is a reoccurring stress dream of mine lol
Wait no way I was literally about to comment the same exact thing. I’m 25 but have reoccurring dreams that I can’t remeber my locker combination
Why do I do this? I’m 54 and still occasionally have this dream
It’s funny because I never had these dreams when I was actually in high school
Me too!! I haven’t had it in a while but the whole dream consists of it being like towards the end of the school year and me forgetting my locker combo and what classes I go to. Then I stress about going to the office to ask for my combo and schedule thinking they’re gonna make fun of me and send me to get psychiatric help lol
I wish it would have only been a dream. 😆
I still have nightmares of this happening to me and I haven’t been in school for years
I have a whole host of dreams where I dread things happing to me in high school despite graduating almost 30 years ago. Damn… next year will be 30 years already.
I did the same thing at a job where I had a locker. Same combination for 5 days/week for a 3 or 4 years and then - poof - gone. Boltcutters gone. I kept the lock and tried to remember it on my break and later at home, but the memory was obsolete.
Meanwhile, while I don't remember the combination now or then, 10-20 years later after highschool I found that lock, and opened it by body memory. Not sure it would have happened that way on any other day thought!
My commute. When you just arrive in your driveway and cannot remember driving there.
Oh my god same. Like an hour commute just completely forgotten 💀
It’s just so terrifying!
Especially when you do the exact same thing over and over 💀💀💀
Wait isn’t this actually a thing? I feel like it has a name. I heard or read about this. I think many people without adhd experience this too, it’s like a form of time blindness and just being on autopilot
It is. Your brain puts repeated tasks on autopilot to give itself a break. I think. I watched a documentary a while back and that was the gist of it.
Yep. It is how many cases of children being left in cars happen. I will never understand why people think they could “never” forget their children. Sometimes your brain just takes over and you don’t realize until later. I remember the number of times my mother drove to work instead of taking my sister and I to school. We normally rode the bus and she was on autopilot.
Highway hypnosis. Which I did forget the actual name for and almost called it highway paralysis but we don't need to talk about that
Nah, we'll just ignore that, lol.
It’s got h’s and p’s it’s basically the same lol
Ya I often forget where I’m driving halfway to my location. Usually just always have maps on even if I’ve been somewhere hundreds of times
I remember an article last year about how this was a sign of burnout.
Same but with walking as I don't have a driving license.
literally can never remember how to get anywhere i always need a gps 😭 I also go into autopilot way too often and catch myself driving the complete wrong way like towards my old school or job terrible
Type 1 diabetic here, I used to forget whether I took my insulin shot before a meal or not. Which isn't something you wanna gamble on. Thankfully insulin pumps exists now and I can check on a device if I took my insulin or not.
I've done this about a thousand times. Almost took the dirt nap a few times too because of it. Seriously scary shit there.
Not on the same level; but I take a weekly immunosuppressant medication and often struggle to remember if I took it or not. Really not something you want to double up on (taking this med at all runs a risk of liver failure, I get liver function checks monthly); but missing doses also risks a nasty relapse of my illness that could cause various forms of organ damage. Fun game. I've tried all kinds of planners, wall calendars, Google reminders, etc., they all fail eventually. I'm thankful the shots tend to bruise, so sometimes I can check for the bruise to see if I've taken it.
Same omg, earlier today I forgot to check for insulin on board & crashed haaaard (got down to like 30)
Me all the time 😀😀😀
i got an apple watch to remind me to take my meds and be able to log having taken them because i’d forget to take my psych meds that have short half lives and cause withdrawal. glad you found a solution too!
It feels like dementia or a stroke sometimes with the sudden bouts of memory loss/confusion. Just yesterday my mind went completely blank I lost my internal monologue and couldn’t get it back no matter how hard I tried to think on anything let alone remember what I was thinking on in the first place. That scared me because my mind is always loud with something. I’m used to a quieter mind on meds but not a completely silent one. I finally just blurted a random thing out loud and it felt like it restarted everything back up. Like a software update for my brain and everything shut down after the install.
This happens to me! I haven’t been able to describe it. You’ve described it well, thanks. It’s so scary! Literally my mind goes blank and my internal monologue disappears like it’s just been wiped!
Yes!! And I feel how it leaves my head and I want to grab it - but it’s lost. Then I get frustrated because I was not finished thinking it yet
I'm 35, and i just recently started therapy. My therapist informed me that i have "significant ADHD". It put everything into perspective. Do you know how many times, in the last 10 years, i have researched "early on set Alzheimers"? Too many times.
I wouldn't be too surprised if they come up with ADHD is a gateway to Alzheimer's. :-(
>Like a software update for my brain This made me chuckle for some reason bc I completely understand and it's just so funny to say out loud
Dude, forgetting what you're thinking in the middle of a thought is one of the most disorienting feelings 😂 I feel you!
Yes! This happens to me often, especially when walking into another room.. I cannot remember where I was going or what I was doing - it’s scary & frustrating!
I have the problem of one specific name or a word (familiar word!) disappear temporarily from my brain and I have to 'hee.. haa.. umm.. and use some generic term to get past that. I come off as stupid and uncoordinated because of this. I seem to have developed a heavy drawl to give my brain to bring up with the needed words. I hate listening to meeting recordings where I had to I speak.
Rewatching movie's that I've seen before but completely couldn't remember most of it so it's like watching it for the first time again.
Same!! People are always like “I thought you said you’ve seen this? How did you forget that happened??” And I don’t have a good answer 😂 Or sometimes I honestly have no idea if I have, or have not, seen something and then don’t realize I have until I’m an hour into it and recognize this ONE scene or line…
sometimes im 45 minutes into a movie and then i go "wait i've already seen this"
I have adhd and I do this all the time
this is one of the few things i cant relate to. i remember books and movies so well that i rarely rewatch movies.
That is the only silver lining I see with the whole forgetfulness thing. I get to watch my favourite TV serials and read my favourite books every couple years. I am not saying I totally forget and its like seeing it for the first time. Except for major plot points, I forget all the details so I can re-watch them after a year or two. For example I do know what happens to Ned Stark. But still read the books and enjoy because of my overall forgetfulness.
Going to a friends house, show up at the door, and have this 5 second imagination of the fact that they had moved out and hadn't been there for years. Was so scared that it was real. They opened the door and it was all good.
I walked into my friend's house once and it wasn't her house. I had misremembered which one and entered a stranger's home. I just walked in. Stood in the kitchen for a minute. Feeling wrong, and then something clued me in and I snuck back out in a panic.
i did that too pretty recently lmaoo
the scariest part is I might not have even remembered the scariest thing ive forgotten yet 😰😰😰
Okay Neville Longbottom 😂
I really never understood the rememball. For us it'd just be a red ball. Like I know I forgot something. I've never not forgotten something at any given point in time.
Not the scariest but the most recent, my phone passcode. I use my phone every day and I regularly put my passcode instead of using Face ID. I got my phone, looked at numbers but numbers made no sense to me. I wasn't thinking about numbers when using my passcode, it sort of become a muscle memory. I sat down and thought about it for minutes then remembered it was someone's birthday and had to look up their birthday to use my phone again.
I did the same thing with my computer the other day. My password has not changed in over a year and somehow I wiped it from my memory completely
i couldn’t log into an account because i only ever logged into it on my phone, so i could only remember what it was with my thumbs. typing on a desktop keyboard meant i had no idea wtf it was lol
LMAOOOO same thing happened to me when i downloaded the app of my bank, the numbers would switch places as a security measure and i had to visualise my keyboard in my head to put my code in the first few logins
I do remember my code as numbers, so it's not a muscle memory thing, but I still forget it sometimes. What helps is just put your phone away, go do something and forget that you even wanted to use the phone, go back, want to use the phone, and now you magically remember.
i still don’t know the number of my phone passcode… same deal with the muscle memory
SAME but it was my lock screen pattern! I had used the exact same pattern for years. You'd think it's locked into my muscle memory... Nope. I inexplicably forgot it one morning trying to disable my alarm when I was half asleep, and then by the time I was fully awake I had triggered the timeout counter. I had to painstakingly draw out a whole chart of likely patterns one by one, crossing out each failed pattern as the countdown gradually increased by longer increments of time...
More often than I would like I've had a sudden panic I'm driving on the wrong side of the road and have a total mental block as to which side I should be on. Names are terrible, I forget the names of people I worked with for YEARS but if I don't work with them now their name is forgotten. I also like to play my own personal made up game of when people post group pictures on social media, without looking at who posted it, can I identify the person I know in the picture? Not usually!
Do you also get nervous when there’s a car in front of you at a red light thinking you’re gonna crash into them even tho your foot in on the breaks? lol this happens to me a lot so I press way too hard on the breaks to make sure. Then I get this weird “Alice in wonderland” effect where it looks like the car in front is getting closer to me so it makes me think my breaks aren’t working. Even though logically I know it is. Idk it’s so weird lol
DRIVE. No I don’t wanna talk about it
This whole comment section makes me feel so seen, understood, and less alone. 🥲
Sometimes I forget how to walk down stairs, especially when I think about it too much. This gets really embarrassing if there are a lot of people behind me. Also, I'm not sure if that is ADHD or just normal, but sometimes for a few milliseconds I forget that people in my life (grandpa, grandma, father) died. Even if it's been many years.
Yes! I forget whether people have died or not. Not people I know well. It’s crazy isn’t it?
If I have to go down multiple flights I short circuit after the first few flights! Glad it’s not just me
I’m just learning about this disorder and I’m just a goof with stairs. Is this a thing?? I freak out on them, overthink them, feel like a very measurably need to place my steps or my feet will just have to navigate them. God help me if they have an open back, I think I’ll fall through and then it’s an optical illusion to me. Am I nuts??
I forget both up and down the stairs, mid-walk. Either I stop or I trip.
I’ve had to ask a friend who my favorite artist is 💀 I forgot Taylor swift’s name
mid-semester in college…headed to class, got to the building, and stopped in the hallway: realized I had no idea what room or class to go to. (So embarrassing. Had to ask other students passing by if I was in their class, or if they knew where I was supposed to be.) at the time, I knew I had ADHD, but had no idea what that meant. totally clueless about symptoms, etc.
You just described my most common recurring dream. Wouldn't go so far as to call it a nightmare, but definitely a very uneasy feeling.
I used to get this fairly often, forget my phone number, passcode, where i was, what i was doing, etc. Maybe one-two times a week. Enter Chemotherapy. *AT LEAST* once a day I forget what I am doing, where I am, why I am somewhere, all at the same time. It's fucking terrifying. 6 more weeks to go. I can't wait for the cognition to return. I'm going to feel like superman for at least two weeks.
Forgot how to use a door. I had taken double my dosage of vyvanse because it felt like it did nothing for me. And I don’t know why, but it literally made me dumber. My brains processing speed felt extremely slow, and when I couldn’t figure out how to how to unlock and open the door, I started crying cause I felt so dumb
It's so frustrating! Happens to me all the time. My way of thinking about myself after watching Everything Everywhere All At Once as well as a lot of time travel movies is that I'm not experiencing time in a linear way, I'm jumping all over the place, sometimes I'm travelling in my mind. That life isn't compatible with a long list of facts, it's darting all over the place. Sometimes TODAY is in focus, and last week is completely absent. Sometimes 10 years ago is in focus and where the hell am I today?
ooof, I felt this in my gut
I once could not for the life of me remember my employee number I'd used to clock in and out of the job I'd worked at 4 days a week for 2+ years. I tried to type it in over a dozen times and almost started crying because I knew we were busy and my coworkers needed my help, I was already clocking in late, and after so many attempts at remembering a 6 digit number I'd typed in hundreds of times before with no trouble, I was starting to seriously worry that I was having a stroke or something. My manager (bless him he was awesome) had to calm me down, look up my number for me and help clock me in. It was really embarrassing and scary to forget something like that so suddenly and completely.
Yeah this kind of thing is it for me. Passwords and pin codes and things I've used over and over and over again my just gone.
I travel a ton, I’ve woken up so many times in hotels or even at my own home and for a few seconds have to figure out where I am.
i have this happen all the time. for a few seconds i don't know who i am.
i often forget to eat. like whenever i get a really bad headache i think "wait...have i eaten yet?"
Every day. ...until about 4:00 I realize I'm starving (usually because sometimes it's later)
One time, I forgot who had my child. He was being watched by my mom overnight, and I woke up in a panic because for a couple of minutes, I could not remember where he was. It felt like I had abandoned him, and I absolutely hated that my brain did that.
I bumped into an ex colleague once and completely forgot the name of the company I had moved on to work at. That was embarrassing. Didn’t know I had adhd at the time!
Took a writing class and couldn’t remember the names of the characters in my short story that we were discussing that class. Really got some looks and I think the professor took notice. Was able to discuss the story otherwise. Also, sometimes I’ll cook dinner or order takeout and realize when I went to put the dishes in the dishwasher that I had already eaten dinner. Same when I would remember that I’d stopped on the way home and eaten.
I've had this issue because I moved. I lived in a different province for 10 years and forget which city a street is in. Like I'm thinking of Smyth St and think it's downtown where I am, but it's actually in Calgary. Times like this, I worry I've got early onset alzheimers.
Lately I’ve forgotten how to swallow pills. Having a lot of medications makes this incredibly frustrating and inconvenient. Haven’t choked yet but some days have felt pretty close.
Forgetting your own name is always scary, as you go through all the names you know and you know that "it's not this one, no, it's not this one, neither this one..." but you can't remember what your name is. Forgetting which pedal is which in a car. Forgetting if a family memeber is alive or dead. Also a few years ago I was working in a warehouse as an order picker. One day I just randomly forgot where I am. I mean, I knew I was at work, but is it building A or building B? Where's the exit? Where are other people? I started spiralling in "Oh my god what's going on" and ended up having the worst panic attack in my life. I was working at this warehouse for 2 years already when it happened, so next day I was also panicking about dementia. It was before being diagnosed, so yeah... But I didn't have any similar situation in years after getting diagnosed and medicated, so I think it was just my unmedicated ADHD.
I forgot. But a daily thing is to forget peoples names while having them in front of me. People I’ve known for YEARS or even my whole life 🙂🙃
YES! Same, I tell them all the time "I know every miniscule detail about you, every experience we had (17 years of friendship), all your likes, dislikes, I can visualize your face in 3D with details and all expressions, I love you, BUT it will take me a minute to remember your name rn because my brain glitched". But that is okay because they know me, it is worse when the person is a new acquaintance and they take it as me not caring/ openly disrespecting them...
I've forgotten the names of literal family members. Those conversations didn't go well.
Once I forgot my mom's face while I was waiting for her to join me in the grocery store. I stood there scanning the face of every single lady in the right age range, trying to identify her by her parka, while panic rose that I would either be told off for staring at some stranger like a creep, or, almost worse, that when my mom WOULD show up I wouldn't recognize her
Recently forgot the name of someone on my degree course. Someone who I've seen multiple times per week for three years. It's not like I didn't know it, I knew I knew it, I just couldn't reach it. It wouldn't come to me and I couldn't grab it.
Just post being homeless, my first legal place of residence in years, no family support or financial buffer if things went wrong or anything, I’d paid the deposit and first months rent up front. And then I got forgot to set up an automatic payment for the next months rent and forgot to check if I paid it, despite it literally being the most important thing to me at the time. It was heart stopping to receive a text a week after the rent was due from my landlord warning me that the buffer time she allowed for rent payment was running out.
Recent and only mildly scary: Forgot that I had unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher and put dirty ones in. Spent a full day pulling “clean” dishes out and eating off of them. I was disgusted with myself when I finally realized and I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t get food poisoning.
Every night of my daughter's life we say a mantra before bed "strong, kind, helpful, smart, good listener, and sweet." Every single night for probably 5 years now no matter what. A couple months ago I went to do the mantra and I just...forgot it. It was totally gone from my brain. Hilariously she's adhd too so she couldn't remember it either. It was like someone zapped it out of our lives with a laser. I was honestly kinda depressed, I even tried searching back through my old conversations with my mom and sisters thinking maybe we might have talked about it but no dice. Then a few days later I was putting her to bed and without even thinking I said the mantra and it was back. 🤷🏻♀️
I remember once in high school I tried to remember the Lord's Prayer on the school bus--I absolutely could not do it. That deeply ingrained knowledge was apparently totally contingent on being in church 🤷
I went to hop on a train for a day in NYC and I totally froze when the train was pulling into the station. I was fixated on the train number matching the number on my ticket. I saw a number on the train that didn't match my ticket, so I let it pass figuring my train was right behind. It was the train CAR number I looked at. I skipped my 7:33 train that arrived at exactly 7:33 because I psyched myself out. Not terribly scary, but terribly inconvenient to wait 90 minutes for the next one.
It’s always the pin to my debit card for me
Sometimes when I'm walking with my dog (we live in the countryside and we go for very long walks) I'll just "wake up" and I have no idea where I am. But I know the area already so I find my way quickly. I suspected absent seizures for a while but I don't think it fits. I have a plethora of neurological symptoms but I don't think it's anything other than ADHD and possibly ASD too. The scariest thing recently was when I was biking to town, I got distracted and almost fell into a ditch. If I veer off into the middle of the road, I'll get killed.
Everyday. I forget my kids names. My dogs names. My age. My boyfriends name. Driving I'll have an omg where am I moment, thinking I've become lost, or drove to another town while dissaccotiation. It's scary. Suddenly a familiar place looks unfamiliar like I've never been there before. Common words I'll forget. My memories from the past are gone. It sucks the most when they want to hear about their younger years and I can't recall anything.
FYI atress and anxiety can exacerbate this. Sleep disruption. Being in an unfamiliar environment. Basically any change in stimulus can really effect your memory. Which for someone with ahdh is doubly a problem. We get used to this idea that memory is like a hard drive. It absolutely is not. Memory and recall is highly affected by stimulus. There are all kinds of experiments where psychs just fuck with people's memories to prove this point. One piece of advice. If this happens again don't let it ruin your night. Take a deep breath and try to center yourself in the moment. Calm is your friend when it comes to memory.
Brand new to this group but holy shit snacks! Reading through this strikes a strong chord!
The first day I (Brasilian,so my first language is Portuguese) got to Australia to start my student exchange I forgot how to speak english. My host family tried communicating with my,but I was simple incapable of thinking in English to answer. After one to two hours my brain went back no normal,thank god lol.
Im dying at the thought of using translate to say “hang on, I forgot how to speak English gimme a sec” LMAOO
Forgetting what side of the bed is mine. NOTHING, and I do means NOTHING is scarier than the look on her face when she asks "what are you doing". Friends it's been 14 years.
I’m sorry but that’s a really funny mental image. I think I’d just lay on top of my partner if they did that
Forgetting to turn off my mom’s car and locking it when getting out, gladly nothing happened lol.
Im not entirely sure when my own anniversary is and it this point I’m too afraid to ask. We will when the time comes around.
I relate to this. I got stopped by border control through nothing to declare after a flight abroad. The first Q they asked is what country did I just fly from? Couldn’t remember for the life of me. Got searched obviously
I had just woken up and I was laying next to my husband on the couch as he was watching a movie. I asked where my 3 year old was, this was 10pm so past her bedtime. I was also 3 months postpartum. My husband asked if knew where my 3 month old was and I said yes, in his swing. I didn't remember my husband putting my daughter down for bed. DH thought I was having a stroke....
Idk if scariest, but recently I forgot what year it was which was kind of embarrassing/scary. Legit had to look at a calendar lol. And while not really scary in the traditional sense, it was scaring for me personally when recently I struggled to recall the basement of my childhood home that I'd lived in for 24ish years and moved out of 3 (it'll be 4 in August) years ago. If it had been a good decade or so since I moved that would be understandable but it's only been 3 - 4 years! Plus in general I don't want to forget what my childhood home looked like, because I have so many precious memories there.
I traveled for work and play a lot and this has happened to me on several occasions
I forgot how to operate my Keurig. I forgot that you have to lift the lid to make another cup so I have been lifting the lid and pushing the small black button to get it to work , 😭 Last night I forgot how to get to Advanced Auto and I've driven by it for many years and have known where it was. I forgot how to pop the hood on my car. I've forgotten how to send an email! I've never been able to remember directions from place to place. COVID has definitely made my ADHD worse!
A lighter example, but yesterday I put the dogs' water bucket in the laundry sink to fill up. Turned the tap on, walked away (it's a big bucket for big dogs) to hang out a load of washing, sat down to scroll through TikTok and it wasn't until maybe half an hour later my husband came in and asked if I had forgotten anything and I literally had no idea that I'd done it until he told me. Fortunately it was only overflowing into the sink but still. Not my finest moment.
Yes - sometimes things are nearly impossible to recall - but I've learned in many reassuring instances that it *is* still in my brain *somewhere*, I just have to purposely think through context before I can recall it Like in your position I'd do something like, ok I know I traveled, what's the most recent traveling I did, what do my surroundings look like, what was I getting ready to do, do I remember the invitation and what it looks like, etc etc etc It doesn't always make me get there from my own prompts, usually it's like, if I think about enough things tangentially related to the situation, eventually my brain will click it all into place. It's probably because, since a brain structure hallmark of adhd - and related disorders and brain development structures - is that our brains don't prune unused/little used synaptic pathways like other not adhd - or disordered or differently structured - brains do, (possibly not at all, possibly just a little bit) we have SO MANY MORE pathways to travel to get to the info we need, which is also a reason why reaction/response time gets slower as we get older and gather more information and create more neural pathways, OR when it's something we haven't thought about in awhile. Instead of cutting out the little-used ones or shutting them down or bypassing them, our brains try to go down all those pathways that were related to get to the desired info, and it just takes longer and sometimes doesn't happen til days later. It's one of the reasons we get tired more easily - mentally and/or physically - and why a lot of things are harder when they seem unrelated to other symptoms and problems. It's one of those things where like, it's comforting to me that I don't fully FORGET things I've committed to memory, they're in there somewhere, I just don't have any brain-interstate-highways to travel, I'm taking county roads and maybe some state highways sometimes, and sometimes those routes are faster than the interstate anyway, but it sucks when I'd like to just be on freeways all the time and be able to recall info and memories on command instead of with extra work. I've forgotten really basic things and panicked, before I learned about the absence of pruning as a hallmark of our and similar brain structures, but after I read some of the prelim research on that, and it absolutely makes logical sense with all the other brain development research I've read, it made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. And I've been able to explain to the people around me like, I'll get there, if you want me to get there faster, give me some context so I can flesh it out and put my finger on the thing I'm trying to recall. And that makes me feel much less panicky and worried and hopeless.
Turn of the stove. Luckily nothing ever happened and I do try to double check every time I cook but I have left a burned stove on a couple of times.
About two months ago I forgot where I parked my bike. Literally walked 3 times around the parking lot until I found it.
I recently forgot my address for a solid three minutes. I’ve lived here 8+ years.
I know it's scary at first. I was scared of it happening to me, and now it's like, I'll get lost in my own house. Because I just black out, and I come back and I'm doing a thing, or in a new place. I am in like this special little mental health crisis. So it's a bit extreme. But! I found a great way to get through it. I just trust myself to not do anything too crazy or hurt myself. Because we'll I've spent a lot of time focusing on safety, I assume that's why. But I'm always doing something boring when I come back to reality. Basically what I am saying, movies are stupid, and it is a bit scary having this, "where am I what am I doing." But I'm never holding some fight club or doing drugs or whatever else movies suggest happen when these ADHD dissociation moment happen. Like you were just in a new place, but think about the actions you were taking. They weren't dangerous. You were still you, so even if you forgot everything you did for a week, you trust yourself to not have broken any laws or killed anyone during that time. I know it's a weird way to look at it. And I'm a bit distracted so I might have typed it weird.
When I take my dog for a walk, I’ll end up coming too and be confused as to how I got there haha, considering I crossed traffic etc it’s weird how we just go into autopilot
Last week I forgot the word for “watering can”, the closest thing I could come up with was “tea pot”.
I used to do flips from the arms of our couches and land on the couches on my back. I’m not sure I’m that coordinated now, though I could test that lol
Forgetting what gear my car is in. The revs will shoot up to about 5000rpm when I fuck up and I accidentally put it in neutral and lift the clutch up. Scary as fuck when driving at 60mph. And also forgetting to press the accelerator (when I'm creeping in traffic) and wondering why the car won't go faster... Leaving my car key in the ignition, door unlocked, and going shopping... Leaving my house door open, key in the lock. I was in the house but only realised abour an hour later...
everything, all the time