Associations
Do you have any kind of "weird" associations that are completely out of context? Do you have "too many" associations? (See what I mean below.)
I'm totally overloaded with associations. When I try to concentrate on something, like reading, I start to "day dream" and have thoughts that are incoherent and out of context. It results in an infinite chain of associations. Example:
When reading the title of a book, like "The greek tragedies" I think of Greece then associate it with beards -> statues -> bookshelf -> bags -> literature -> post-impressionism -> van Gogh -> houses -> paper towels -> hotel -> and so on. This goes on forever until I finally stop "day dreaming".
It affects my concentration greatly and I get very incoherent.
Is this normal in AS standards?
TheMachine1
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TheMachine1
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Location: 9099 will be my last post...what the hell 9011 will be.
Is it possible to get rid of these associations and incoherent thoughts? Is there any medication that people with ADHD take?
Last edited by innocuous on 04 Oct 2006, 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
OCD is known for randomly associating things with another too - but I wonder if some of this is just a connectiveness that other people do not notice. Occassionally I have mentioned things that I have noticed and other people will say they have not thought of that before but that they agree. Some of these associations can be intrusive and unwanted though so I don't know how that fits into your description of daydreaming.
The trick is to set boundries, to learn to catch yourself when you get far enough out in associations that they become irrelevant to the original subject.
Return to the starting point and pick a new direction.
Just watch out for circles
As others have stated ADHD is common among those with AS but at least that part can be treated with medication and/or meditation.
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One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
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TheMachine1
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Yeah lots of drugs. Stimulants usually. Lots of pros and cons associated with there use.
First you very well may not feel like "yourself" when they shut down the theta brainwaves (by stimulating your brain to beta).
Side effects can be extreme: dry mouth, loss of appitite, nerious, increase BP in some,
sweating, etc
The most effective with fewwest side effects dexedrine or d-methamphetamine
(available in the US) will likely only be rx by and expensive $150 hour Dr requiring monthly visit. Control substances can only be rx for 30 days at a time. So That might be $200 or more a month.
The less effective more easy to get drugs include strettara (spelled wrong) (expensive patent medicine) or generic Wellbutrin can be obtaned from any GP DR and he can write up to a 6 months rx if he chooses. You might try a low cost health clinic that
will have a low Dr visit cost. But again they will be less effective and just as many side effects.
I was diagnosed as a teenager with ADHD (and, being female, it was kinda rare...). And that "associative" thought pattern was one of the reasons, apparently. But it doesn't seem to fit since aven as a child I used to read the encyclopedia / dictionary / thesaurus for hours without becoming bored... A child who reads both french and English and memorizes poems at the age of four CAN'T have ADHD...
I have the same pattern; and it really does distract me from my schoolwork, and from conversations with other people, which often get boring (and speech is such a slow way of communicating anyway).
But it even happens when I'm doing things I enjoy that just happen to have mildly boring parts--for example, leveling on "safe" monsters while playing an RPG. I don't know how many times I've died because my mind was off in la-la land, and I let my HP get so low that I get killed by a sickly rat or something else equally humiliating.
It's even happening right now, while I'm typing this post.
Lately I've been experimenting with caffeine pills (200 mg every 4 hours), and these seem to give me a little more focus.
I really do suspect ADHD at this point... or at the very least, ADHD-like symptoms caused by depression. The only thing is that my depression is fading, controlled by medication and counseling; but the ADHD-like symptoms are still there.
I had straight A's during my elementary days, and one or two B's total during high school; this wasn't because I knew how to study, but because, when I sat in class, the teacher only had to say things once, and I'd pick them up--even while daydreaming about my current special interest.
My thoughts were always so much faster than the world around me... only a very small part of my mind was actually needed to pay attention to the teacher. The problem is that, now that I'm in college with my intellectual equals, I need to pay attention to a higher degree than I used to when I was a child--but I don't know how. Not to mention that, when you are intelligent and just "pick things up", you don't learn a thing about how to study when you're not intensely interested in something...
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I really do suspect ADHD at this point... or at the very least, ADHD-like symptoms caused by depression. The only thing is that my depression is fading, controlled by medication and counseling; but the ADHD-like symptoms are still there.
I had straight A's during my elementary days, and one or two B's total during high school; this wasn't because I knew how to study, but because, when I sat in class, the teacher only had to say things once, and I'd pick them up--even while daydreaming about my current special interest.
My thoughts were always so much faster than the world around me... only a very small part of my mind was actually needed to pay attention to the teacher. The problem is that, now that I'm in college with my intellectual equals, I need to pay attention to a higher degree than I used to when I was a child--but I don't know how. Not to mention that, when you are intelligent and just "pick things up", you don't learn a thing about how to study when you're not intensely interested in something...
I'm still amazed at the fact that stuff like what I quoted above ISN'T JUST ME!...