If only I could remember

Kali’s ADHD story

Kali had always been labelled as unreliable. At school, she could never remember to take notes home to her parents. If she answered the home phone, messages would not be passed on.

Now, she felt that she was letting down her boyfriend, employer and friends with her inability to remember commitments, tasks and chores she had promised to do, or items she had said she would buy.

Kali would often go into a room and not remember what she had gone there for. She would go to a shop and buy one of the things she was supposed to but, often, a dozen she had not planned on getting, so she would return home without some of the things that were needed that day.

She had tried to use lists and various apps and organisational systems but had not been able to stick with any of them. She had also started to realise that the reason she butts in and can appear rude in conversations is because, if she waits until the other person has stopped talking, she won’t be able to remember what she was going to say.

Kali also found that she had to try so hard to keep in mind what she wanted to say, that she could not pay enough attention to what the other person was talking about and would lose track of the conversation completely. Her poor memory was getting her down and she felt disappointed and frustrated with herself, sometimes feeling incompetent and a failure in life.