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Does your ADHD brain tune out and have a hard time paying attention, to your best friend who has invited you to coffee to explain why she broke up with the love of her life? Three sentences into her sad story, your mind has wandered. You hate to admit it, but you're bored. She is taking too long to get to the point. You feel like you've heard it all before—she parted ways with another boyfriend just three months ago. Later in the day, you find yourself tuning out again—but at the office. Your boss tells you about your next assignment, and you begin to feel scared that you won't be able to accomplish it. You become tied up with fear, and you stop listening.
Don't Beat Yourself Up
You're not weird or coldhearted. You have ADD. Your brain focuses on the connections and relationships between things more than on specific bits of information, so you are likely to drift away from a single thought into a complex web of feelings and ideas. Don't beat yourself up or feel helpless because of it. Here are a few stay-tuned strategies that have worked to make me a better listener.
Next: Engage the Speaker & Your Brain...
This article comes from the Summer 2009 issue of ADDitude.
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