I was diagnosed with adhd as a young child, and still very often forget stuff. My short term memory can be terrible and I often immediately lose a thought or forget an idea after just a couple of seconds.

However, I’m often able to recall an idea by going back to what I was doing, which is something I never hear other people with adhd talk about. Sometimes all it takes is going back to the visual that triggered the thought or reading back a couple of sentences. This usually doesn’t take longer than ~10 seconds. Other times I have to retrace my thought process, which can occasionally take up to a minute… If it takes any longer, then the thought is likely to be lost forever and I always feel terrible when it happens. At times I randomly remember something days later, even though it had felt like the thought was truly lost forever.

Is this common among folks with adhd? I only ever hear people talking about forgetting, and never about remembering.

  • @[email protected]
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    322 hours ago

    I tend to put all my epic plans and wise ideas together, and just watch them fade from my mind in real-time as I go back to confusion. Then people wonder why I don’t get anything done. Like, how. Physical work is extremely easy compared to this.

    • @PolyPigOP
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      213 hours ago

      I’m literally experiencing this while replying to these comments. I can come up with the greatest reply, and then watch it slowly fade away. Rereading comments does often help with remembering most of it, though.