I keep coming across relatable posts followed by someone saying it's ADHD and it's making me paranoid whether it's just good ol internet spreading fake news or memes or if I actually have ADHD. I don't think I have ADHD but I have to question myself every time this happens.
The actual name is auditory processing disorder, and I do actually have that, as it's often comorbid with ADHD. But your version is funnier and made me laugh.
I have a hearing defect that affects how I hear speech. It sometimes takes a second or two until the second level support in my brain could parse what was said.
This is why I always end up re-reading work emails over and over again before sending, and also use the outlook delay-sending to allow for “unsending” lol
Sometimes it's because their brain wasn't set to receiving mode.
If someone says "hey" or my name before starting a sentence, I am paying attention. When they just start talking without doing that, I tend to miss the first part of the sentence.
Then I'm like "huh?". And sometimes I'm able to guess what they meant. Other times, not so much.
So, one way my ADHD manifests is that my brain will just fucking fumble incoming sounds, particularly if I'm not paying attention beforehand. I've been near someone who just turned on the radio to the middle of a song and the music made no sense to me at all, like, it was just really weird noise that sounded like it should make sense but didn't, until it suddenly clicked and the music made sense again. With words, it happens all the time. Someone will just ambush me with words and instead of "hey, can you put the cap on the blender?" It becomes "hey, can you pole a cat fender?" Or sometimes it becomes just "dsfargeg". I know that nobody would say either of those things to me, so I use a dual track strategy of both playing with what I think I heard to try and make it make sense as well as asking the other person to repeat themselves. Sometimes, I work it out before they repeat it, sometimes I don't.
I've never misheard things with ADHD but I do regularly ask people to repeat things and it's not that I haven't heard but it's like my brain hasn't fully processed and understood what I've just heard. So when someone starts saying what they've just said, my brain has finished processing everything.
100% agree that this is an ADHD thing. Doesn't happen to me as often as it seems to happens to you. But sometimes I'll be actively trying to pay attention to someone talking, and need to have them repeat themselves 3-4 times because the sound isn't becoming words.
I don’t have ADHD but I experience this too. Audio processing disorder.
Sometimes I realise what’s been said after a second or so, other times I can’t figure it out. My go to solution is to just repeat what I’ve heard. It usually gets kind of funny so it takes the annoyance out of it.
My ADHD manifests this way as well and I explain it as, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand English just then." I only speak one language but it's true, I couldn't parse their language.
I also picked up a "quirky" habit where I'll say the nonsense phrase back at the person, who gets a laugh, then repeats themselves. Since it seems like I'm being cute and quirky instead of having an auditory processing disorder, people don't get annoyed as often.
I have this with languages. If I don't know what language to expect chances are I'm just gonna hear: w̶̛̫̥͚̎̾̍͋̏̽̀̊̉̈́h̴̘̯̜̖̘̦͈̺̍̾̐͆̿͒̂̔̉̒̀̿̈́̓͊͐͝ę̸̪̹͙̣̣̩̝̖͈͚͋͆̎r̵̫̪̲̬̫̾̓̓̑͊͒̈́̾̀̌̀̋̔̚̚͝͝͠e̵̦̤̲͎͑ ̸̲̪̜̒̈̂͝a̴̛̼̬͙̋̐̊̒̅̆͐̀͆̃̋̎͝ṛ̶̹̫̼̦̦̰̠̹̲͎̳͐̿̋ě̵̜͎͎̠̗͐̀ ̸̧̨̨̖̙̭͈̹̺̪̻̹̟̦̺̰̦̍̾̂̑̓̽̔̓͋́̎͑̉̔̏̇͘ẗ̵͓̙̰́̉̇́̊̌̔̄̅̄͛͒̔͒͠͠͠ḧ̶͎̗̯͉̟͉̘̗͈̜͎̝͙̺̙͉̠́̀̉͑̅͐͘͜͝ͅë̴̺͙͎̩̝̞͕̦͎̝͖̹̫͔̬̦̩́̆͒̄͆͆̍̉̍̈͒͌̚͜ͅ ̸̡̙̠͇̱̙̤̺̀̈̇̂̀̍̉̋̕ͅc̶̢̲̣̻͉̬͕̩̣͇͐̅͛̕̕̚ͅa̸͈̱͇̪͋̐̈̿̃̇̋̀̅̊̓̀̐̈̍̕͠ḃ̷̧͇͔͎͉͇̙͓͇͆̉̽͗͒̑b̴̗̬̺̤̳̈́ͅã̶̧̩̠̹̞̯͔͑̓̓̀̅̀̎͒̓͝͠g̸̨̧̧̱͉̱̲̗̬̟̘̟̩̉̋̇͒̎̇̿̋͌̓e̴͈̦̍̅s̸͓̎͆͛̾́͂̚ͅ.
It isn't necessarily the case that everyone who does this has ADHD, nor that everyone with ADHD has this as a symptom. You could just have an auditory processing thing. For me, I think it's related to my ADHD because it doesn't happen when I'm on medication for it.
Not gonna lie in my case it's a loading problem cause I hear and my hearing si fine but it comes up jumbled and then after 1 to 3 seconds the brain process what I heard.
My ADHD autist girlfriend does this all the time. She just needs a bit of extra time to process. I don't mind it and I usually don't need to repeat what I said. You get used to it.
I have ADHD and Autism too and this happens to me as well.
I think the autism makes it harder to understand people with background noise and the ADHD makes me blurt out "huh?".
After I have already said it, my mind will go over what has been said a few times and try to figure out what could have been said and it will probably figure it out.
Sometimes it takes my brain a moment to realize that what you've said to me is actually Words and to assign a Meaning to those words, and that you haven't just done the human equivalent of when the Roomba drives back onto the charger.
My main problem is I can't just ignore individual sounds. I either take everything in or ignore everything, and the latter is even difficult for me. I need time to sort through the information when people speak.
I’ve been playing this game called Morse Mania lately, that basically teaches you morse code.
It’s a very simple signal being processed, but based on what I know about neurology, and cognitive psychology, and meditation, I bet playing that game would help with that signal/noise processing.