Interrupter

[RachealCR]

I've been really bad at interrupting coworkers while they're talking lately. It's not on purpose, but I've become more aware of doing it since my diagnosis. There's one coworker in particular that I tend to do it to the most. I really don't know why it's worse with her, but she has gotten incredibly rude and agitated with me about it. The funny thing about her is that she has a son with ADHD, so you'd think she'd be more understanding, but, instead, she is actually the one person I really have to be careful around. Why do we do this? Why can't I let people finish their thought before jumping in?

[HadEnuf]

Often, it's because we are likely to lose what cogent response we have before they finish elaborating what, to us, is obvious; or, worse, we may miss the opportunity to respond because we are distracted by the mechanics of trying not to forget our response just long enough that they move on to something else—or, worse still, start repeating themselves on the assumption we're too slow-witted to understand what we understood well before they paused not quite long enough.

Most people don't realize how much redundancy they incorporate into their speech or how much effort others have to make not to be silenced, utterly by it.

Those who can easily keep their response in working memory and recall it after ignoring what they pretend to hear are believed to have listened. Unfortunately, both our working memories and our ability to ignore while feigning attention are seriously broken.

[Lovinit in reply to HadEnuf]

Well said!

[RachealCR in reply to HadEnuf]

Wow, this is a pretty good explanation. I'm super impatient with my husband sometimes because he tends to repeat himself a lot when trying to retell something to me. It drives me nuts.

[Lovinit]

I do the same thing, but I’m working to be better at listening and waiting til there done talking before I speak. I don’t like when people won’t pause at times when their talking to allow me the chance to speak

[HadEnuf in reply to Lovinit]

Very often, they pause, but more briefly than they believe: their anticipation of their own pause seems to them to be a part of the pause.

Being able to anticipate it with them is not easy when one has a “broken autopilot”. (Which may count also as a broken chameleon circuit, if you happen to be piloting a blue box or a diner around the universe at large.)

[cjnolet]

I’ll second the sentiments of HadEnuf and I’ll be quite honest, 90% of my life has been spent not giving a fuck about the outcomes of my impulses, the other 10% has been me impulsively ignoring others trying inform me that I’ve been impulsive.

Be urself. Laugh about it. If people can’t accept it, fuck em. We are the breed of dreamers and creators- that doesn’t come without a few quircks.

Most people are lucky I listen to em at all. I can generally complete sentences pretty easily and stay several steps ahead of what they are getting at. Tell em to keep up or ship out, lol.

[cjnolet in reply to cjnolet]

And if this wasn’t an impulse reply then I don’t know what is...

[HadEnuf in reply to cjnolet]

LOL!!!!!!

[toobusy7]

I do the exact same thing and hate it! You are not alone