You Know You Have ADHD When…

This is a perfect story for one of those "You Know You Have ADHD When…"

This weekend my favorite shoe store, DSW, was having a big sale. Conveniently enough, I was on the hunt for some new heels for work. If you’ve ever been to DSW you know that they probably have something like 500 different styles of shoes, all in one big store. And I’m not exaggerating. It can be a overwhelming for someone with ADHD. There are aisles and aisles of shoes. Usually, I head straight for the back, to the clearance section. During this massive sale, however, almost all the shoes are on sale, and you have to go up and down every row to find sale shoes.

Another thing I forgot to mention, I’m a size 6, so all the display shoes fit me. This is part of the reason I love shoe shopping so much. This is also where my ADHD gets me in trouble. I drift from shoe to shoe, picking one up and putting it on, then something else catches my eye and I move on… up and down every row.

I’m sure the employees love me; as I leave a trail of rejected shoes in my wake. Putting it back where I found it?! No way, I saw something else I liked better; I have to try that shoe on RIGHT NOW!

After about 45 minutes of trying on shoe after shoe (I especially like trying on funny looking ones that I’d never buy) my mom and I had narrowed it down to two pairs. I took off the pair I was trying on and realized… where are the shoes I was wearing when I came in? What shoes was I wearing when I came in? I gave my mom an ‘oops, silly me’ look and she replied, "put your flip flops on, we’re ready to go." Ok, I was wearing flip flops (not very helpful, because I have about 20 pairs).

"Mom, do you have my flip flops?" My mom rolled her eyes and said "well, what row were you in when you put them down?" Of course, I had no idea, and so the search continued.

At least my mom remembered that they were bright pink flip flops. How hard could it be to find bright pink flip floops? Apparently pretty hard, because 15 minutes later, no luck. Just as I was about to cut my losses and wear the new shoes right after buying them my mom thought to ask if I had put them in my huge purse.

"Why would I do that?" I asked, as I opened my purse to double check. Sure enough, there they were, bright pink flip flops, right over my shoulder the entire time. At this point, I had to laugh at myself.

I try not to get too worked up over these silly little lost-and-found, forgotten-and-remembered antics that happen daily. In the end, I had two new pairs of shoes, my old flip flops, and a funny story.