There are several things common to most people with ADHD. They are likely to lose their keys, drivers license, social security card, lunch money, pencils, and just about anything else more often than most. In conversation, they may be looking at you, but they are thinking about something else and haven't heard a word you said or they may interrupt you and start talking about a completely unrelated subject. Many people with ADHD have started numerous projects and completed few of them, are disorganized, and are unable to sit still.
To give you a clearer picture of ADHD in the "real world," let's look at "Joe," an adult with ADHD.
Joe's alarm goes off at 7 a.m. and he gets up and staggers to the kitchen to make his coffee. He starts his coffee and sits down at the table to think through his day. He thinks about the projects he has going on at work. Thinking about work makes him think about his co-worker, Linda, who has a number of plants in her office. This makes him think of the grass he needs to cut and how he really should start a garden this year. He gets up and starts looking for the seed catalog that he got in the mail last week and can't find it among his piles of paper and mail. While looking through the mail, he sees a bill he needs to pay and goes to get his checkbook. While looking for his checkbook, he sees the dirty clothes and thinks that he really has to do laundry. He goes to his closet to make sure he has a clean shirt for work. Oh yes, work! He looks at the clock and it is now 7:43 a.m. and he's going to be late for work again. Where does all the time go? He hurries to get dressed and starts to go to his car, but he can't find his keys. Where did he put them? And then he starts thinking about the extra key he keeps meaning to have made...
This can actually be a pretty typical morning for someone with ADHD. The person with ADHD tends to move quickly from task to task and thinking of one thing can lead them to something that seems completely unrelated to someone who hasn't followed the complex thought process. People with ADHD, like our fictional Joe, tend to lose track of time easily. They have a very hard time judging how long a task should take. Many try to plan their days, but put so much on their list of things to do that no human could possibly accomplish it all.
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