ADD

In the days that I was in elementary school, each student had a desk with a top that lifted up and a space underneath to keep school supplies and assignments. My desk was usually so full of papers that I had trouble closing it. Finding a pencil or pen to write with was a constant challenge, as was listening and following directions. My teachers told me I needed to try to be more responsible.

In JunIor High School, I was frequently found in after school detention for not turning in assignments. In High School, I was also an underachiever, except in a couple of subjects that interested me.

ADD or ADHD just wasn't a thing in the 60's and 70's, so I was normally labeled as either lazy or, since I did so well on the standardized tests, as being just bored and not stimulated enough by school.

By the time I got to college, I was learning coping strategies. To read long assignments, I change positions constantly, walked around the room and sometimes sat on the staircase in order to keep focused.

Fast forwarding to the rest of my life, my forgetfulness has been chronic.

Just this morning, I carefully wrote down the size of our furnace filter and set out to our local supermarket where I knew they sold them. When I returned home an hour later, I had two newspapers, two ears of corn, a candy bar and a Starbuck's coffee but no furnace filter. At no time during my visit to the store did the original purpose of my trip occur to me.

Am I in the early stages of dementia? Probably not, since this sort of thing has been chronic through my life. Here is a short list of some things I have done:

Driven away from the gas station with the nozzle still in the tank.

Left my car running in the driveway, gone in the house and gone to bed,

Driven to a location, walked home and the next morning was unable to find my car.

Lost a countless number of baseball caps.

None of these can really be attributed to old age.

ADD has been an inconvenience to me, but I learned to cope and have a successful career.

A more recent challenge for me as I am aging has been depression and anxiety attacks, some of them rather scary. After refusing them for a long time, I have finally agreed to try a depression/anxiety medication. The medication is improving my mood significantly, but unfortunately, not my forgetfulness.