Anyone else start reading big blocks of text from the middle and just assume they’ll pick up on the first half from context?
Every. God. Damn. Time… And then I realise that I understand nothing and I jump up about a third and read again and still understand nothing so I read from the beginning and then realise that the text is not interesting anymore so I skip reading any of it only to come back an hour later after frantically searching for other articles on the same topic only to realise that the answers were just right there all along if only i had read it properly the first time round.
If it’s too long I don’t even start reading, I back out immediately.
If I start reading and see it’s a bunch of back story with too much detail I might skip to the next block. If it isn’t to the point within the first five words of that block or the next I back out. I’ve got dopamine receptors to satisfy God dammit.
Right after my morning stimulants if I browse comment-centric stuff (like I’m doing right now oh no)…I have to be super careful I don’t suddenly produce an 8 paragraph comment outlining my points of view on the topic and then backing up each point against hypothetical but inevitable challenges to said point of view.
Sometimes this is in private messages to my long-suffering friends, sometimes it’s Lemmy…
Wish I could just bang out a novel instead but I feel like gradeschool programmed me for “persuasive essays” vs. creative writing at like a 5:1 ratio. :( :(
(Stopping here before I do it again ahhh!)
Is that actually something unique to people with ADHD? I often find myself writing way too much for other people to read kind of on impulse, get super focused on a topic and spend hours researching and adding on to the monologue, and if that’s also something someone with ADHD would do together with other stuff I suspect about myself, then maybe I should actually go and look for a diagnosis or something. Either that, or I’m boring asshole.
Well, I’ve only ever been me, but this is something that people with ADHD (or sometimes autism spectrum) tend to do.
Being interested or engaged and having a lot to say is one thing, but feeling compelled to dump everything you know about Gundams or something into a huge 10 paragraph read in the YouTube comments might be a little different. :p
Also, not a doctor, but it’s a tricky thing to pin down because “everybody does this stuff sometimes.” The question is whether these quirks happen to you so often that they disrupt your life. It’s hard to draw the line, especially when our “fast paced click-economy society” is also playing a role in lowering everyone’s attention spans.
I’d recommend a channel “How to ADHD”, and checking out the symptoms, and consulting a professional about your experiences.
I found out way later in life and it was a bit shocking, but also explained a LOT. I also got to realize “So I wasn’t just a lazy idiot who didn’t try hard enough – THE ENTIRE TIME!!” …and I found that quite liberating.
YMMV. :)
Well, I’m 33 and my mother got diagnosed with ADHD few months ago, and while I know it’s sometimes genetical, it’s also the way I was raised up where my mother would chatter for hours about stuff like why we can’t water some flowers too much. The thing was she was rather introverted and something had to happen for the dam to break and her to get comfortable. So I got some mannerisms that are similar to that, but I guess I’ll need a doctor to tell nature and nurture apart. I’m not sure though if I’m ready to learn all that’s wrong with me, lol.
Wish I could just bang out a novel instead
You’ll get there friend, you just have to hyperfocus on the novel.
Haha well writing isn’t my primary expressive art form, but I agree!
The trick is picking something that catches my monkey brain long enough to hit consistently, so it becomes a novel. :D
I’ve considered blogging when I gotta drop a ramble but…seems like that’s a dying medium. :(
Lots of small paragraphs at least :D Blocks of long text without any paragraphs are scary…
I’ve found that separating each few sentences (sometimes as little as one, since I have a tendency towards run-on sentences) or each topic into separate paragraphs works well.
This not only makes things easier to read and better looking, it also lets me play with emphasis by varying the length of paragraphs, like so:
Penis.
That last paragraph was very short. But I hear some don’t mind it like that.
But when the big block of text is well formatted and interesting enough to keep your attention all the way through ☺️
Even then, the last third, where things are wrapping up, really can feel like last level in a video game. You want to finish, but you’re pretty sure you get it already
