Musings about the "Restarting Issue"

When I try to do something, I eventually hit a "groove"... if only I stay with it, long enough. Once I'm in a groove... the worst thing that can happen is someone interrupting me.

The problem?

It takes me forever to figure out "where I was" when I was interrupted, and then get back to moving forward again. In other words, a 5-minute interruption by someone who has an "unrelated question" can lead to my spending 20 minutes just getting back to the spot where I left off.

I have heard others who live with inattentive ADD speak of this issue.

It feels like I have an utter and complete inability to "bookmark" stopping points in the daily process of life... and sometimes I end up wasting what feels like a huge part of my day doing little more than "running in place," trying to get back to work.

I am actually remarkably productive when I am left alone in a quiet room with only my music and no interruptions and my tasks I need to get done.

As a writer, I can turn out 1500 words of high quality article prose in less than an hour... but if someone interrupts me-- even when the article is 95% done... it suddenly becomes almost impossible for me to finish the task. It seems stupid. Or dysfunctional... because it's all right there. Yes? I can't "access" my train of thought anymore.

I used to say (jokingly) "My train of thought has left the station, but I am still standing on the platform."

Alas, it's far more "real" than a joking matter.

It's hard to describe what physically happens. I can only think of it through the analogy of using your web browser. The "tab" I am working on, not only "closes" when an interruption forces me to switch to another tab... but when I need to get back to the closed tab, I need to spend all this time searching through my "browser history" to find the page I was working on. And once I get the "old" tab opened again... then I am struggling to remember exactly what my last "operation" was... and what my "next step" was supposed to be.

It makes very simple tasks extremely laborious. And I have not yet found an effective way around it...

An Explanation, of Sorts...

I need another blog, about as much as I need another hole in my head.

Ironically, my decision to start this one serves as a beautiful illustration of the condition I live with: I am an adult with the "Inattentive" version of ADHD. Or, rather "ADD." Because there is nothing "hyperactive" about me...

Even though I already have a dozen-odd "perfectly good" blogs, I have gotten sidetracked into taking on another one. "Sidetracking" is pretty much my middle name, as well as the bane of my existence.

There's a lot of information about ADD/ADHD on the web... but the vast majority seems to be about the "hyperactive" variant.

I'm not really sure what I am hoping to accomplish here.

Perhaps this is just going to be a "sanity journal," of sorts. Or it might end up being where I store useful information I find, insights and ideas. Then again, maybe it will turn into some kind of "social tool," through which I connect with others in the same boat as I.

I really wanted to use the name "Letters from La La Land," but that name (and the corresponding web domain) was already taken. So I nabbed this one, instead.

So what exactly IS "La La Land?"

It's the strange "brain fog" inattentive ADD sufferers live with. It's really hard to describe briefly, and by looking directly at... but in the months and years ahead, I shall endeavor to share experiences that might at least hint at what I am talking about.