Living with Adult ADHD: What Short-Term Memory Dysfunction Looks Like.
It’s easy to spot when you know what to look for.
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There’s a whole lot of theoretical and empirical data out there about ADHD. One of the frameworks lies in the area of “executive dysfunction” — something characterized by Kristen Carder as a sort of Inside-Out-esque team of executives in your head, each in charge of a different department. One of these departments is working memory.
What are the other five, you ask? I don’t remember…
That’s ok, though, because I want to give a couple of quick examples of how this works in everyday life. Or, perhaps a better way to put it: how it doesn’t work.
Episode 1: In which I go get chicken.
A couple of weeks ago we decided to splurge and get some fried chicken from our favorite chain. I offered to go get it, asking my partner “Would text me what you want?” I wanted to be sure to get her order right; last time I had to text her last-minute at the window to find out if it should be regular or spicy.
She shrugged. “It’s just the same as last time…” and rattled off the specifics of the order.
I repeated it back to her, and she nodded. Perfect! I had the information. I was off to hunt for deep-fried fowl.
Twenty minutes later I returned and handed her a bag containing her two-piece meal and my three-piece meal.
She looked at me quizzically. “You got a two-piece?”
I quizzicalled back at her: “No, you said you wanted same as last time, a two-piece, spicy.”
She shook her head. “No, I asked for a three-piece. You repeated it back to me, remember?”
And there was the dysfunction. I had repeated it back to her, I’m sure. But rather than bother to retain “three-piece” my brain focused on the other information…
