Mental Health

I made it to 35 years old before I realized this ain’t normal. Saw a therapist and got a referral to investigate ADHD, and now my entire childhood education makes sense why I failed everything.

I cannot stress how much treatment has improved my life. Consider getting evaluated, you may have tons of other signs without even knowing. Things like picking up hobbies and rapidly moving to new hobbies, fidgeting even without noticing, struggling to remember someone’s name after just meeting, so many things.

We have learned a lot more about ADHD the last 20 years and have many different ways to treat it, even without medication.

Take notes and/or doodle. I can only listen when I'm doing something else with my hands.

You haven't got ADHD, have you?

I know most people want to jump to “You have trouble concentrating? You must have ADHD.” The biggest thing that differentiates a disorder from simply having symptoms is the severity of impact on a person’s life. If it causes a person so much distress that they cannot maintain classes or a job or family life, then intervention is needed.

I think it’s more likely a difference in attention stamina. I’m not sure about you, but going from high school to university was a large difference in attention demand. I didn’t have 70 min lectures in high school, but suddenly I was expected to pay attention for college classes.

I would highly suggest looking into attention stamina training, such as the increasing pomodoro training. Short spans of attention with breaks, and slowly increase the intervals. It is highly effective and used by medical student applicants in preparation for long attention demands for the entrance exam.

If the difficulty with attention is still very persistent, definitely talk to a counselor about it. Some of the first things they may ask you is whether you are getting regular and adequate sleep, and if you consume caffeine, as they each have a pretty large effect on concentration with everyone.

What really worked for me was attempting to type verbatim everything the professor said. You aren't going to succeed but you'll get better at making sure you get the important stuff but most importantly it forces you to take in what's said. Worked for me quite well, though obviously it won't work for everyone.

I recommend starting with 10 minutes of daily mindfulness meditation. It's a great way to practice recognizing what your mind gets up to and catching it during a lecture before it has a chance to wander off on you.

If your mind is wandering off to specific topics, maybe it just feels these need to be addressed now. The relative calm of the lecture gives it space to.

If that is the case, it can help to create a space for your mind to attend to these topics. You can talk with people about it, ventilate emotions, and/or write the thoughts down before lecture, so your mind has less need to cling to them.

This can also help when you cannot sleep because of thoughts.

I wouldn't discount the possibility of adhd. In my personal experience, I know I had issues with this at one point in my life and I don't have ADHD. Sitting up front helped. Taking notes. Doodling while listening actually helps me focus too. I have to do this during boring ass business meetings. Getting enough sleep is also a big one! Nothing will help if I'm tired as hell. Also consider getting a voice recorder and recording the lecture so you can go back to parts you spaced out on later.

My third and fourth year of college were also tough mentally. I was suffering some serious burn out at times and I couldn't stay on task. What helped was telling myself "k, 10 or 15 minutes of work then I'll take a break." I'd take a break and do it again. Yeah it took longer, but it got done.

Starting from highschool until after I undergraduate master, most lectures would trigger me uncontrollable naps.

Ritalin for your ADHD