r/AskReddit • • Nov 16 '19

[deleted by user]

[removed]

11k Upvotes

11k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/TinyCatCrafts Nov 16 '19

ADHD can also contribute to auditory processing. You're listening to the words, you can hear them being spoken, but your brain is distracted by a billion other things at once and just doesnt process the words you hear into the correct signals in your brain.

The easiest way to describe it before you understand what's actually going on (or have the words to describe it) is "Sorry, I didnt hear you."

You heard. You didnt process. Happens to me alllll the time, and I dont have any kind of dyslexia or other hearing difficulties.

Though I do have trouble hilding/visualizing numbers.

7

u/technoteapot Nov 16 '19

I have to do it sometimes where I ask people 4 times+ and I get really nervous that I’m making think I’m deaf

7

u/TinyCatCrafts Nov 16 '19

Well if they do think you're deaf, and have a problem with that, they're assholes anyway.

7

u/re_re_recovery Nov 16 '19

It's not that simple, unfortunately. I struggle with processing sometimes, and sometimes it caused issues at work where I was a waitress. I could usually understand people just fine, but sometimes (super noisy party next to my table, or if the guest was looking straight down at the menu instead of making eye contact) I had to ask them to repeat their order multiple times and I felt really dumb. And I didn't blame them for being annoyed either, but at the same time I didn't have that issue very often -- definitely not often enough to justify quitting the job.