this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
30 points (100.0% liked)
ADHD
9625 readers
26 users here now
A casual community for people with ADHD
Values:
Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.
Rules:
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments.
- No porn, gore, spam, or advertisements allowed.
- Do not request for donations.
- Do not link to other social media or paywalled content.
- Do not gatekeep or diagnose.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- No racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, or ageism.
- Respectful venting, including dealing with oppressive neurotypical culture, is okay.
- Discussing other neurological problems like autism, anxiety, ptsd, and brain injury are allowed.
- Discussions regarding medication are allowed as long as you are describing your own situation and not telling others what to do (only qualified medical practitioners can prescribe medication).
Encouraged:
- Funny memes.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our values.
Relevant Lemmy communities:
lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Oh yeah I remember very little, and what I do remember is a story I've been telling or have heard told enough that I know the story but have no real memory of the event. Whenever I'm in my home town I'm constantly getting people telling me we went to high school together and I always feel bad telling them I don't remember them. I also don't really have the ability to conjure or remember visual things, everything is sort of a nebulous mix of vague emotional memory and useless encyclopedic fact-lists. I can rattle off every phone number I've ever had, but I can't remember what my grandmother looked like. I've been told most people do not have this issue, lol.
The grandmother memory loss absolutely hits with me. I don't want to psychobabble and misattribute things but relationships with me tend to suffer that short object permanence effect - if I don't see a friend for a few months they'll often just fall off my radar entirely... until I see them again and the memories will rush back. I have a good friend with ADHD and we meet up maybe once a year - they are an extremely close friend even if that doesn't seem to make sense... but when I walk into a coffee shop and sit down with them we'll talk for hours and usually end up getting kicked out when they close.
This hurts (kind of, it's guilt driven hurt) when it comes to grandparents or other people who have passed away... if they come up in conversation or because of some related strong association I'll think of them and have a little bundle of memories that have weathered the years. But, like, my father passed away only two years ago or so and I rarely think of him - so then I feel guilty for not thinking about him more often and cry (as I am now) but give me an hour or two and he'll completely fly from active memory again.
I have no idea if neurotypical people are being genuine or performative when they say "Not a day goes by when I don't think about them" but that's absolutely not my experience.
I've lost a lot of friends, and messed up at least one serious relationship, because of this phenomenon. If someone isn't around, I just don't think about them. When they are around, I'm fully invested, but that's not enough for some people.