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#1

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My sweatshirt has a “tunnel” (for the lack of a better word). I can put in my glasses; a pretzel or two . . . and even my phone. (To have the “tunnel” clearly seen in the pic here, I popped in my small, wooden, hand-crafted pill box.)

An hour or two ago I heard my phone ringing. I knew it was nearby but could not find it.

Well of course, it was in the “tunnel”.

The moral of this story: Stick to landline phones . . . Don’t give up hope! Sooner or later you’ll figure it out . . . and find the phone! Even neuro-typicals lose stuff. The difference? They don’t forget where they lost the same item last time! But us :brain::brain::brain:’s . . . Every day is a new day . . . all over again! We like the “hunt” . . . the thrill of discovery . . . repetitions that are “new” . . . God bless short term memory . . . VERY SHORT TERM(?) . . . Wait . . . it’s coming back to me . . . . . . . . . Ah yes! “MEMORY” . . . that’s it!

:joy:

:sunglasses:

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#2

In your defense, it’s really hard to determine where a sound comes from if it sounds the same every direction you turn.

Heh, I remember when I wasn’t used to cell phones yet, walking around the streets of Amsterdam, thinking: well somebody sure isn’t answering their cell phone… Or that time my phone (my own this time, with my own self-chosen ringtone) rang just when I entered a café’s bathroom and thought: “That’s interesting, the bathroom has a different background music feed than the main area… good music, too. Hey, I know this song!”

I used to spend a lot of time choosing just the right ringtone only to never hear it because unless I’m expecting a call, I always put my phone on silent these days. I’d rather call back when it’s convenient (usually within a week or two) than have my day interrupted by somebody who thinks my time is worth less than whatever they want. I’d love to do that with our landline, too, but I’m one of three people using that.

Of course, the people who fail to reach me that way won’t have it. I see it as a way of curating my input - they see it as a cue to open the communication floodgates and try to reach me by any means they know - landline, mail, text, often several of the above at once. “You think one phonecall is annoying? Hold my beer.”

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#3

My kids have a tendency to be messy, just like me. Last night, I let them stay up late. Then, as they were just laying down, the youngest says “What’s that noise? It’s like a high pitch beeping sound!”

It was her wristwatch, buried in the clutter. I had heard it faintly the other night and tried to locate it in the dark (because on that night she was already asleep and I didn’t want to wake her), but couldn’t find it before it stopped beeping. So then last night, since she noticed the sound and was annoyed by it, I asked her to get up and try to find it by listening. By the time she was on her feet, the beeping stopped.

  • She is the curious type, that kid who loves to “try all the things”. So, of course, she keeps playing with the buttons on her watch. It’s a brand I’m not familiar with, but I bought it for her because it’s pink and she’s a girly-girl who likes pink. It’s easy to set the alarm, and you only have to push a button to stop the alarm while it’s going off, but to deactivate the alarm you have to be on just the right setting and press two buttons simultaneously…a process I have to relearn every time I do it.
  • Note to self: find a pink Timex, or a pink watch without an alarm (which will probably be analog)! Yeah, there’s an idea… I’ve been teaching her how to read analog clock, a watch like that will help her practice more (and Little Miss Curiosity will probably change the time on it every time she plays with it).

<JD’s thoughts go down the rabbit hole, wondering if he’ll ever be able to help find a lost watch that’s not beeping, …and if a kid is practicing telling time on a watch that they keep changing the time on, does it still count as learning to tell time if it’s the wrong time, …and when is breakfast this morning…>

Well, look at the TIME, I have to make breakfast. I promised to make my kids pancakes. :pancakes: :yum:

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#4

excellent percpective, i always moan about losing things, but actually hunting around the house searching for clues and interagating my family is much more interesting than just knowing where my keys are :joy:

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#5

Ever watch a movie called Memento? One of my favorites. Best scene you come into, he’s running and trying to figure out why, “Oh, I’m chasing this guy… noooo he’s chasing me!” Great movie, highly recommend.

I have been developing coping mechanisms all my life for this… and still I fail, often.

When I put something down I try and remember to look at it, with my hand on it, where I am putting it and take a snapshot. I try and develop places that I ‘usually’ put things. But they have to be all over the place. So it’s more learning how to recognize what kinds of places I tend to set things down so I can streamline my search.

But I know where everyone else’s things are! I know where, in which junk drawer and under what the thing my husband is looking for is because I saw it there 8 months ago. I can mentally search rooms while not there to help someone find something because somehow my brain will keep the 3d map for a long time.

I never get lost. I know where north is and if I follow the directions to a place once I can get there again, from a different angle without directions forever more.

I have to work so hard to make sure I don’t lose my car keys or my wallet or my phone. Other people always seem so organized compared to me.

Oh! And my satellite tv service has a find remote button on the console that hooks to the tv. Great idea right? Wrong… those d-bags made the tone that the remote plays several different notes so I can’t hone in to it properly. Just one note guys… one note, same volume so I know if I’m actually getting hotter or colder. It’s the most frustrating helpful thing there is.

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#6

I also have my phone on silent almost all the time. I can’t stand all the noise it makes at me throughout the day. It’s far better for me to have times I check it and see if anyone has contacted me. I prefer text to any other form of communication because it allows me to get back when I can.

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#7

I usually don’t lose keys or wallet. I lose the phone but thanks to the apple watch I can find it! And I always check for the presence of all 3 in my pants pockets as I am about to leave since I worry about being locked out of house! I once had to crawl through the doggy door to get in the house!

I usually remember where stuff is, if it has lain in the same place in my mess but if I decide to get “organized” I lose things! For “it was here just a moment ago” losing something, I close my eyes and try to replay what I was doing, go over the path I took and often I find it where I had temporarily put the thing down. Unless I get distracted during the retracing! But not found things can stay not found for years! Last month I found something that was lost in 2015 — while looking for something else and going through every closet and drawer!

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#8

Just one more benefit of being a dog owner. lol

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#9

That’s how I usually find stuff.

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#10

Well some years ago, a month ahead of time, we bought a present for our teenage son, the movie BATMAN RETURNS . . . To keep him from finding it we hid it . . . like the song in West Side Story . . . “Somewhere”!

Come his birthday we could not find it . . . went out and bought a replacement! Some 3 to 4 years later, guess what . . . BATMAN RETURNS!! :bat::rofl:

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#11

The dog was long gone by then but luckily my cat was still using it to go in and out! But yes!

BATMAN RETURNS RETURNS!

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#12

I have my phone on vibrate instead of just silent (because hearing it ring gives me anxiety), which is helpful enough whenever I need to find it. I wish all things could have a feature when you can have it on vibrate when you’re searching for it…

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#13

Welcome to the HowToADHD forums @pawlinne17 !

Yes, the vibrate function, also known as “haptic feedback”, certainly is attention -grabbing. But if it’s used for everything, might you become desensitized to it? Maybe if you could assign different buzz patterns to different types of items.

I work at a hospital (as an Information Technology technician), and in some of the required training for all hospital employees, I learned about a phenomenon called “alarm fatigue”, which causes people to ignore alarms if they hear them too frequently. (Priority has to be given to using alarms for the most important things in your environment, to avoid alarm fatigue. Because, if everything is a priority, then nothing is.)

#14

“I put the coffee maker on vibrate, and now there’s coffee all over the place!”

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#15

You’re supposed to get a “buzz” only after you drink the coffee!

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#16

but coffee just makes me sleepy – like really tired and compelled to just lie down and get Zzzz lol

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#17

Welcome . . .

:sunglasses:

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#18

It does that to me every once in a while, when I’ve developed a tolerance for it, but after a “caffeine fast” for about 5-7 days, I can start drinking regular coffee again.

If caffeine has always done that do you, then I would guess that you have the Hyperactive-Impulsive or Combined form of ADHD. (It’s just been my observation that the more hyperactive a person is naturally, the more likely it is that stimulants will calm them down. I don’t have any medical literature to point to about caffeine on this, but that’s why the most widely effective ADHD meds are all stimulants.)

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#19

Yeah, caffeine makes me calm, not jittery. I am hyperactive.

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#20

I’ll drink to that . . . :coffee::coffee::coffee::coffee: per day!
:sunglasses:

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