Forgetting words?

Does anyone with adhd forget the words to things- like you go to say shut the water off -and then it takes like a few seconds to actually say water. Or I will say the wrong thing bc I am not really paying attention because my mind is all over. I also struggle with being concise. Just curious. I always freak out that I might have very early on see dementia because my grandma and great grandma had it.

[Salah_09]

I also struggle with being concise. I find it hard to properly start my speech when I wanna say something to someone. Like if I talk to someone at the front counter in a shop, I find it hard to get straight to the point and start my sentence. Although if I'm very concious of this I can try to fix it.

Like it won't be smooth at all like most people. I also tend to stumble at times but this depends and doesn't always happen. Saying the wrong thing I can relate to a lot.

I always thought this might have something to do with ADHD.

[Wasted71years]

Symptoms like poor working memory can stem from a number of different causes. You can't say in a vacuum that these things are dementia, or ADHD, or brain trauma from an accident, or other mental issues.

Part of the diagnosis process is to rule out other explanations for symptoms. My working memory is terrible, always has been. Being 71 when I was first going to a psychologist for diagnosis, they had to check for dementia as one explanation. In my case, my symptoms have existed for as long as I can remember, from elementary school onwards, so this is not a new degradation. The battery of tests ruled out dementia and showed the wide variation in performance on different sorts of activities that are one indication of ADHD.

For example, I could perform exceptionally well on tests where you reel off a list of different animals, but start slowing down when I have to avoid duplicates. A test where I alternate with one animal name and then a name of an item of furniture was agony, as my working memory killed my ability to remember the two lists I had already said.

Also, temporary lapses remembering words or missaying a word is a normal thing that happens to everyone with age. Tests for dementia discriminate between these age related issues that are common with neurotypicals, and with the kinds of symptoms that may be a flag.

[StanleyThyroid]

I have this. I had a head injury a few years ago which made this worse and my ADHD symptoms as well. It's been improving since but far from good. I tend to try and use brain as much as possible eg doing sudoku but try not to worry about it too much which is easier if you accept it may be part and parcel of the condition. However if its bad you can get a dementia test which I did after my accident when my recovery took ages. It involves remembering sequences of flash cards and tasks. I did well even though my brain function was rubbish. It's very frustrating as in my head my speech is 100% fluid!

[EllenAnnaPoe]

Yes! This happens, not always, but a lot. Also get tongue tied when thinking of a word. I am also hoping it's not dementia - chalked it up to "middle age" but if it is an ADD thing, that is understandable.

[Dell12345]

Yes I get this, even sometimes with people's names when I know the person really well. It's like my mind is in one mode and needs to fire up another database to retrieve information not in the RAM.

[AloeAnnie]

I have had a problem with word finding for as long as I can remember. Oddly enough when I started taking antidepressants (rather, found the right ones) and adhd meds, it improved greatly.

[breadandcircuses]

This happens to me and because my grandmother had early onset dementia, it also really freaks me out. It's part of why I went to get diagnosed with ADHD - I had read that this can cause this issue along with the whole losing every single thing I pick up and spending half my life searching for stuff that's right under my nose. I had a cognitive test at the same time as the ADHD symptom check and don't have dementia currently, but I do worry. Meds have helped with both issues and I've had them both my whole life.

[Musiclover56]

That happens a lot now but much better since I went on strattera. My psychiatrist just went from 80mg once a day to 60mg in the am and 60mg around 3pm. I hate when it happens because I am usually at work and it is so embarrassing and I feel so stupid . I just try and shrug it off and tell myself I am not stupid . I have ADHD and am working on myself .

[Ampersand1]

Just as one example as the contrarian, I do struggle tremendously with being concise (note: dang it, fail, and I tried too!) but I do not have trouble remembering the words I need to say. I think this could be something else besides ADHD that you're describing, but my predominant personal experience with ADHD has been spent addressing the inattentive-type, so perhaps there exists a correlation/causation to ADHD that I just don't/haven't experienced.

However, if there's one thing I've learned in my now 1.5 years since being diagnosed, it's that there are significant differences in individual experiences with ADHD. Some stuff really resonates with the symptoms I struggle with but I can find it irritating to see an Instagram Reel or some other social media post trying to lump every single experience of the stereotypical ADHD representation into a single, simplified "catch-all/bucket" diagnosis called ADHD. While the brain chemistry effects may be similar amongst all of us, the hormonal differences we each aim to regulate with medicine or other means can't so easily be categorized into one universal experience.

I say this previous paragraph just to illustrate that I recognize the bit of hypocrisy in my own saying "no, that doesn't sound like ADHD to me" when it's unrealistic for any of us to assume we know what an "average" ADHDer experiences in their world.