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how has your attention span changed as you've gotten older?

how has your attention span changed over the years


  • Total voters
    16

prplchknz

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Agreed.

I also find it a bit irritating that everyone is so quick to label their self as ADD/ADHD.

I know for a fact I'm not ADD/ADHD. anyways I don;t know why I have no attention span, but that's not why. I'm one of those people that forgets words a lot or what I'm saying or easily distracted by what's going on around me, but that doesn't mean I'm add/adhd
 

Lexicon

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Agreed.

I also find it a bit irritating that everyone is so quick to label their self as ADD/ADHD.


Most people in the thread seem to have labels of "ADD/ADHD" given to them by a psychiatrist- they haven't "labelled their self." I realize this condition (along with a wide array of others) is over/misdiagnosed some populations. Is that aspect what irks you? Just curious.

I think overall, in terms of aging/attention span, the same would apply across the board to practically anyone with/without any existing diagnosis. Neurologically speaking, if you don't use it often enough (engage certain established connections), you lose it, right? :thinking:
 

Sunny Ghost

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I know for a fact I'm not ADD/ADHD. anyways I don;t know why I have no attention span, but that's not why. I'm one of those people that forgets words a lot or what I'm saying or easily distracted by what's going on around me, but that doesn't mean I'm add/adhd

I wasn't talking about you. I just meant in general, a lot of people try to claim they have add/adhd.
 

prplchknz

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I wasn't talking about you. I just meant in general, a lot of people try to claim they have add/adhd.

I know, but I wanted to share.

and also with aspergers, autism, and other things. Everything I say I have I've been officially dxed and been in psych wards multiple times (not to brag, just pointing out, that sometimes I wonder if someone claims to have schizophrenia or bipolar (the one that can cause psychosis) and never been hospitalized I get suspicious, Know that's wrong but it's the truth)

that being said I have my doubts about my own dx (what it is, is not the point)
 

Sunny Ghost

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Most people in the thread seem to have labels of "ADD/ADHD" given to them by a psychiatrist- they haven't "labelled their self." I realize this condition (along with a wide array of others) is over/misdiagnosed some populations. Is that aspect what irks you? Just curious.

I think overall, in terms of aging/attention span, the same would apply across the board to practically anyone with/without any existing diagnosis. Neurologically speaking, if you don't use it often enough (engage certain established connections), you lose it, right? :thinking:
The bolded.
 

Sunny Ghost

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If extroversion is a result of low mental arousal and introversion a result of high mental arousal, how does attention span differ between the two? :thinking:
 

Galena

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I marked that it has deteriorated because I have lost it for the important things. When I was in school, I had little attention span for maintenance activities and obligations, but was endlessly focused on things I actually loved, like my craft and like reading. I got a shitload done and do not regret the practical price. In college, this flipped over backwards. Now I can put more focus on security-related tasks and have more of a sense of my physical status and the condition of what I own, but find it very hard to get into my passions at the old pace. My internet use also went up in college, too, along with a greater distractability by escape activities like that. You can call what I am now normal, but normal to me has a stink of self-sabotage, as organized and well-housetrained as it appears.

Note: not blaming college for my own habits. It's just a convenient time marker.
 

Sunny Ghost

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I marked that it has deteriorated because I have lost it for the important things. When I was in school, I had little attention span for maintenance activities and obligations, but was endlessly focused on things I actually loved, like my craft and like reading. I got a shitload done and do not regret the practical price. In college, this flipped over backwards. Now I can put more focus on security-related tasks and have more of a sense of my physical status and the condition of what I own, but find it very hard to get into my passions at the old pace. My internet use also went up in college, too, along with a greater distractability by escape activities like that. You can call what I am now normal, but normal to me has a stink of self-sabotage, as organized and well-housetrained as it appears.

Note: not blaming college for my own habits. It's just a convenient time marker.
This is basically what I was trying to say, but you more eloquently phrased it.

It's funny to think about it now, but it's almost as though the grass is greener on the other side. I always wish my attention and focus were on the opposite of what it is on. When I was younger, I thought there was something inherently wrong with me because I couldn't get my attention to focus on the things people told me I should be focusing on: my future, a career, school, grades, money, savings, security. Now I've trained myself to adjust, and now I feel less creatively minded and can no longer bring myself to focus on the things I used to expend energy and attention on.
 
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