AAADD

You kids out there won't understand this one:

Recently, I was diagnosed with AAADD - Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests itself:

I decided to wash my car. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the trash can under the table, and notice that the trash can is full.

So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the trash first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take out my checkbook that is on the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the den, so I go to my desk where I find the bottle of soda that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the soda aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the soda is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the soda, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need to be watered. I set the soda down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, we will be looking for the remote, but nobody will remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day, the car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm bottle of soda sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

Do me a favor, will you? Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember to whom it has been sent.

Boy it's tough getting old ...

i giggled all the way while i was reading.

i remembered i read another article by the late Peking University professor Jin Kemu (metal takes precedence over wood), in which he described how he enjoyed his retirement life beginning at the age of seventy. he watched tv and took nap. he liked anything in the programs except for yong girls with three-point bikinis. he still could write well at the age of eighty two.

just like the late prof Jin, the author of this article wrote so well and so organized that i would think he was diagnosed without his doctor checking his writings.

his symptoms will disappear soon and he will do all right just as he did before... here is my prayer.

zzyzx, you are not alone. I have many very similar experiences like you... maybe even faster...

Thanks for sharing. Now I know why you are so good at writing. Thanks for telling me that.

Thanks for your understanding and compassion. Young lady, it's tough getting old. I』m even worse than that. Besides memory loss and a lack of focus, I keep forgetting to tie my shoes and zip up my pants after a leak at times, always misplace and can』t find my car key, and drive much slower in broad daylight than normal. And last Saturday after having gotten a parcel sent by myself, I called the guy that was supposed to receive it and blamed him for not letting me know about this prior to receiving it.

However, I have not forgotten to be here daily, and can read threads in both Chinese and English, can share my experience and thoughts whenever necessary, and most importantly, needn』t worry about my untied shoes and unzipped pants as well as my shaky driving when being with you.

So, when you are young, you might suffer from ADD for a while and you would be an annoying person in your community -----headache to your parents and grand parents, your teachers and peers and peeresses.

But when you are old, (as zzyzx illustrated here), you might suffer from AAADD. Alas, what a life!