as small as a world and as large as alone, Do people with ADHD tend to have bad perceptions...

1:48pm July 4, 2014

Anonymous asked: Do people with ADHD tend to have bad perceptions such as like time, distance, speed, etc.?

neurodiversitysci:

actuallyadhd:

Yes, definitely. Time is a pretty non-concrete kind of thing, so it’s easy for something to feel like it’s taking a way different length of time than it actually is. Distance is more of a spatial relationship thing, though if you’re talking about distance traveled in a vehicle you’re looking at something more similar to time. Same with speed.

-J

Yes, for a couple of reasons.

1) A lot of us have additional learning disabilities. People with a variety of learning disabilities, including both dyslexia and nonverbal learning disabilities, often have difficulty perceiving time and space.

2) A huge amount of perception comes from attention. Also, conversely, attention must be allocated to a particular space at a particular time. ADHD isn’t all about attention, of course. But if you do have difficulty controlling your attention, this will also affect your perception of space and time.

One way this happens: think about how time flies by when you’re concentrating really hard on something interesting (say, an engrossing book or video game), but crawls when you’re bored or feel like there’s nothing to pay attention to. That paying attention changes your perception of time seems to be true for everyone, not just people with ADHD. But, to the extent that ADHD affects your attention, it may also affect your time perception. If you’re someone, like me, who concentrates by focusing really intensely, then time will vanish when you hyperfocus and afterward, things will seem like they went by really fast. If you tend to have difficulty focusing on anything, life may seem to pass by more slowly. Most likely, you’ll have both, depending on the situation.

I have difficulty perceiving both time and space. I don’t have any good tips for space other than to look for opportunities to practice dealing with situations where you will need to estimate size—like packing boxes and suitcases. For time, I recommend setting lots of alarms, especially if you tend to get absorbed in something while waiting and lose track of time. Best case scenario, you may also get a slightly better feel for how long things will take. Worst case scenario, you won’t, but the timer will still remind you to get things done. You can even get a waterproof shower alarm if you tend to get distracted by your thoughts in the shower!

I have terrible time perception. People have always blamed my temporal lobe epilepsy, but who knows.