Oh Lord, I don’t want to write this post. But, yeah…I interrupt people. I can’t help it! I have ADHD and hence a lot of ideas. I want to tell you that thing before I forget it. This is especially embarrassing when I do it with new people that I meet. As if it isn’t hard enough getting know a new friend, now I interrupt that person 90 times because I want to commiserate with what they’re saying. Oy gavolt, as they say in Yiddish. I know that I’m not trying to be rude, but does the other person? It’s hard to gauge that when you’re just learning the ropes of talking to a new friend.
So now, I’m interrupting people and I’m anxious about how they feel about being interrupted. This shit is annoying, but it’s the life of someone with ADHD. We’re well-intentioned, but we may interrupt you when you’re telling a story. Listen, it’s not personal…well it is in the sense that we probably like your story and want to add to it. What’s wrong with that? It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, it just gets misinterpreted a lot. The biggest misconception is that a person with ADHD is rude. We’re not rude, or at least we’re not trying to be.
Our brains work differently from yours. You can focus on one idea at a time and communicate that concept without jumping to the next one. We have trouble doing that. We have a lot of ideas and we want to get them out all at once. Okay, so that’s not necessarily an effective way to get your ideas across but it seems like such a good idea at the time. If I blurt out all these ideas at once they’ll get out there. The person on the other end of receiving the ideas can let me know which one(s) they like best. Maybe some of them aren’t that interesting, but surely one of them resonates. I know we’re going to find an “idea match.”
It’s like when you’re trying to skim a bunch of rocks on a lake and your know that one of them will work. But in order to find out which one that is you have to try a bunch of them. The same goes for the overflow of ideas. But the trick is to focus on one idea.
If you’re out there with ADHD trying to hold in all your great ideas, try releasing one idea at a time. I know that shit is hard but you can do it! Think about the most exciting one of your thoughts and tell the person that one! They might relate to that one and if they don’t, you can move on to the next great idea! Another thing you can do is write your ideas down in a small notebook. Carry the notebook around that way they are always on hand when you’re ready to express them and you don’t have to worry about forgetting them! Whatever works for you to give your ideas value, do that. Your voice deserves to be heard.