Do you get distracted?

Shawn Seeger

Shawn Seeger

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So, as an adult with ADD/ADHD I get distracted pretty easily (squirrel...) and today while sitting and tying it was worse than normal. Noises, clouds, smells (wife was making soup I got up twice uggh), more tea, etc... I even got "squirrelled" by a history video I was listening to, twice, had to look something up!

And then I gave up when the "neighbors" showed up...

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So, do you get distracted and if so with and by what?
 
This might be distracting as well.

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Got sent home first week of first of grade. Lived on Dexadrine until sophomore year. Would have been put in special needs if they hadn't figured out my IQ was upper 120's.
I was tying and watching seahawk football yesterday when I found out bluewood was opening today. Talk about focus and distraction issues.
 
I dunno, Shawn, those neighbors would be a pleasant distraction for me....

My distraction issues are internet centered. Can't stay on one topic or actual task for more than a few minutes without jumping on a device and checking my favorite bookmarks.
 
I just double checked, I must have finished the last fly I was working on. I definitely get distracted by, pretty much anything, when tying flies, or watching TV (or working). Got an ADD diagnosis decades ago, but was old enough to decide for myself what to do, ended up forgoing any drugs and just dealt with it as I had been. Now I'm just used to leaving half finished projects everywhere. They eventually get done.

As if to prove the point I just walked back to my computer and remembered that I had to send this. I'd walked away because I remembered that I was cooking lunch, and got distracted by questions at work.
 
My 2 cents.... It's only a "disorder" in terms of functioning in modern, hyper-structured life. Attention "deficit" is a matter of context. Drop equal numbers of "normal" and ADD/ADHD kids into a wilderness setting, then come back in 6 months. My money is on the "disorder" kids surviving. They are the kids who actually have the ENHANCED sensory attention needed for things like hunting, fishing, making fire from scratch, crafting weapons etc... They are bored stiff in our bean-counting, 1040 tax form world. Big surprise the abacus clackers that rule modern society think we're a bunch of ... <offensive "R" word redacted>. Medication is just a way to drive a round peg into a square hole.
 
Mike Cline said:
This might be distracting as well.

www.dailywire.com

Best Of 2025: The ‘Experts’ Are Finally Admitting That ADHD Is A Scam

Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. In this piece, originally published in April, Matt Walsh dismantles the ADHD scam.***At the risk of angering all the people who will scream from the rooftops that “correlation doesn’t equal causation,” like...
www.dailywire.com www.dailywire.com
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Thanks Mike for the article! I might send Matt a followup question regarding just ADD. What about the broader category of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder - which now lumps in PDD-NOS, Asperger’s Syndrome and others)?

To start I will say the same thing i told my son's doctor and educators "I don't give a sh*t what you call it or how you label him, just HELP HIM!". Background, Grandma was put in a closet for being disruptive in class, put in closet and then the teacher forgot her in there and parents went to teachers house and teacher freaked out (1922)! Dad was in trouble in school, many stories, had "ants in his pants" and "day dreamed a lot", to this day of we could harness his energy and movement we could power several homes! Dad (mid to late 40's) was "home medicated" grandma noticed he was able to control himself better after a couple cups of coffee. My mom followed suit with my brother and myself (early 70s), there was literally 3 coffee pots on the counter, staring when I was 12. This started after getting spanked by male principal and kicked out by male teacher before 6th grade. It had been a life long struggle. Then my youngest son came along, and from the time he was born he was "different", we started with pediatrician, then development specialist and multilevel specialists. And VOLUMES of research by myself! Eventually it was the "I don't care what the label, just help develop a plan!". With several really GREAT teachers and therapists (occupational, language and motor skill) and working a ton my son is doing just fine. He still add an adult needs moral and doctors support.

I have worked my entire life to try and calm my mind, slow my brain down, work to control my fidgeting, and practiced many exercise types to get to where I am now. So, again I don't care what it is called I was just making an observation... that at times even when I am doing what I want it is hard to stay focused on the pursuit of enjoyment and didn't know if I was the only one, not that I care of I am the only one... ps never been medicated.

SQUIRREL ...
 
Sorry, what was the question?



Baseball is just boring enough to keep me focused on tying. I'll take a quick break for import at bats or when certain players come up. That said I don't think I've ever been able to tie the exact same pattern twice in a row.
 
Getting old helps me avoid getting distracted:

Hard of hearing = fewer distractions.
Poor eyesight = fewer distractions.
Arthritis = fewer capabilities/distractions.
Reduced balance = more focus to not fall down.
Reduced mental capabilities = less ability to be distracted.

Naps = salvation of couch potatoes.
 
On a more serious note: my daughter with ADD did great in college. A major in biology with two biology minors. She just had to work harder to get her degrees. She loves what she is doing in her career in a research lab environment. She has several papers she co-authored and published a couple(?) she was primary on. Traveled the world making presentations too.

Her ability to focus and the love for what she does allows her to not be distracted by outside stuff.

Use your challenges as an asset in life. My wife and I encourage her to what she does well and take it to the next level.
 
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To slow the pace of your mind, slow the pace of your world. You ever watch an ant hill/hole and see ‘em scurrying about during their busy purposes? Don’t be an ant… 😉😁
 
RCF said:
On a more serious note: my daughter with ADD did great in college. A major in biology with two biology minors. She just had to work harder to get her degrees.She loves what she is doing in her career in a research lab environment. She has several papers she co-authored and published a couple(?) she was primary. Traveled the world making presentations too.

Her ability to focus and the love for what she does allows her to not be distracted by outside stuff.

Use your challenges as an asset in life. My wife and I encourage her to what she does well and take it to the next level.
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"Her ability to focus and the love for what she does allows her to not be distracted by outside stuff."

^ ^ ^
This right here is the reason I take exception to terms like "disorder" and "deficit". ADD is actually advanced focus capacity for things that spark interest. Speaking for myself I breezed through any subjects that interested me, mostly science, and art. The ones that didn't were like rubbing sand in my eyes to pay attention to what was on the black board. My grades were all over the place. Did not help my confidence, and pretty much killed my chances for going to a University. If it wasn't for the military ASVAB test, I'd doing some sort of manual labor to this day, likely outdoors. Not a bad thing, but my life would be dramatically different. Thankfully I actually found and took my ASVAB score card to a technician job interview in the early 90's. My future boss was ex-Navy and did a few years as a recruiter. About halfway through the interview I showed him the card. "So 98, 96, 92 percentiles in technical categories, but only 14th in administrative? -how bout we do a tour of the clean room?"
 
SilverFly said:
This right here is the reason I take exception to terms like "disorder" and "deficit". ADD is actually advanced focus capacity for things that spark interest.
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I'd agree, its just a different way of having focus. I don't often find the hyperfocus anymore, not sure why. But what I have found is that I can use the short attention span to my attention as well. My job involves dealing with lots of different pathways at once. Usually I'm able to stop what I'm doing and switch context fairly easily when needed (production support, questions about other projects, technical help, going to 5 meetings about 5 completely different things etc). Now I'm not likely to be in the weeds in any of those topics but thats also not my job, I just need to be pick up the problem, understand it, spit out an answer and switch back to whatever it was I'm supposed to be working on (which hopefully is not on the critical path) things get done eventually but in the meantime I also did 20 other things that needed to get done.
 
Great thread, I find a lot of positivity here. When I worked with the folk at Lourds, batteries of tests, they tied a lot of stuff together into a Autism Spectrum Diagnosis.
I'll tell you what though, those of us that have recognized it and learned to live within our own skin are fortunate. My wife has spent 27 years in the school district doing special needs. Some kids situations can break your heart. Especially when their caregivers just become overwhelmed.
 
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