Recently I was diagnosed with AAADD- Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests:
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 start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table and notice that the can is full. So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I’d been drinking. I’m going to look for my checks but first I need to push the Coke aside so I don’t accidentally knock it over. The Coke is getting warm and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye- they need watering. I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I’ve been looking for all morning. I decide I better put them back on the desk but first I’m going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote that someone left on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote but I won’t remember it’s on the kitchen table so I decide to put it back in the den 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. So I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the water. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day the car isn’t washed, the garbage hasn’t been emptied, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don’t have enough water, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses 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 day and I’m really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my email………….
Please do me a favor and forward this message to everyone you know because I don’t remember who I’ve sent it to. And don’t laugh-if this isn’t you yet, you’re day is coming!
