Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder.
Somehow I feel better, even though I have it !!
Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. = Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests itself:
•I decide to water my garden.
•As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.
•As I head towards the garage, I notice post on the porch table that I picked up from the postman earlier. I decide to go through it before I wash the car. I put my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the recycling box under the table, and notice that the recycling box is full.,
•So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the recycling first.
•But then I think, since I'm going to be near the post-box when I take out the recycling paper anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table and notice that there is only one cheque left.
•My extra cheques are in the desk in my study, so I go into the house to my desk where I find the cup of coffee I'd been drinking.
•I'm going to look for my cheques but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. The coffee is getting cold, and I decide to make another cup..
•As I head toward the kitchen with the cold coffee, something on the worktop catches my eye - a vase of flowers and the flowers need water.
•I put the cold coffee on the worktop and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning were lying beside the kettle. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers before I forget them.. . . . . . normally I have a razor sharp memory, but it’s been playing up this year (I think) The facts are there, but, with lupus the retrieval system no longer works so well these days.
•I put the glasses back down on the worktop, fill a container with water
•and suddenly spot the TV remote control. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
•I pour
some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor because my hand has begun to shake a little since Christmas (I think it was Christmas, anyhow )
•So, I put the remote back on the table, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill.
•Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
1.The car isn't washed
2.The bills aren't paid
3.There is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the kitchen work-surface
4.The flowers still don't have enough water,
5.There is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,
6.I can't find the remote,
7.I can't find my glasses,
8.And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all bloody day and now I'm really tired. I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mails.....
Do me a favour. Tell everyone you know about A.A.A.D.D. (Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder), because can't remember who the hell I've already told it to apart from you! and I'll forget that by tomorrow