I have to read out loud to myself to finish a book or an article.
It has made my reading comprehension go through the roof. And I didn’t understand that about myself for my first 45 years.
Ambien
It’s called ADHD.
Sure. Or it’s just tiredness and completely normal to happen.
Thank god this relatable to so many of us, I was wondering if this was a symptom of a larger disorder whenever this happens to me.
The worst is when I’m reciting word for word technical information about chemistry or physics, because I often like to explain how things work to friends and family while I work on stuff, and then I’ll get interrupted or distracted and have no memory of wtf I was just saying for the last several minutes straight.
Text-to-speech is your friend here.
I use a website called “speechify” but there are a lot of options.
Still helps to read along with it, but having that auditory input in tandem with visually reading will keep you on track like you’ve never experienced.
Or listening to an audio book and reading the book at the same time, but then often there’s the case where one is a different version than the other.
I think it could be argued for a state of hypnosis, like how people drive for miles but just don’t remember how they did it entirely.
Difference is, you clearly drove and got there safely. You didn’t read the words on the page, you just moved your eyes across ink blots.
I was a professional driver for 20 years. I can attest that autopilot is a real thing.
It’s easy to monitor traffic on either side but end up daydreaming and miss a turn.
I’ve been out of the transport industry for five years now and I still occasionally find myself auto-piloting to places I used to deliver to. It’s so weird.
I drove black cars for a bit, I’ve definitely just taken the airport exit once when I was out of it. Glad I’m not alone.
Yeah. It’s not a big deal, but how you handle it really matters. (This is advice for anyone else reading; I’m sure you know.)
If you miss your turn because you’re daydreaming or whatever, just keep going. DO NOT swerve three lanes over to an exit or whatever other dumb shit. You fucked up. Deal with it without putting other people in danger.
Lucid Reading?
Back when I came into the office every day, it was a 45-minute commute. At least one day every week, I had no active memory of getting from the north side of the beltway to my house (about 20-25 minutes). I’d reach this point, and it was like someone flipped a switch, and I became aware that I existed.
I’ve done this with Audio Books. I’ve listened to 2-3 chapters, and they’ll mention an assassin; Brain goes, wait, assassin? WHAT ASSASSIN? I start rolling back find out I completely tuned out 20 minutes of the story.
Yea but then you realize that you have now made the audiobook last 30mins longer, so it’s a win… especially if it’s a good book.
Yeah getting out of your car and realizing you have no idea how you got here is spooky.
This is why I can’t listen to audio books. I just get lost in the soothing voice and my mind wonders. Paper books are where it’s at.
Podcasts and technology connections on YouTube. I totally enjoy them, but if I’m halfway tired and my mind doesn’t want to focus and I put either on, I’m passing out after 10 minutes.
I call it “ADHD” because I damn sure was thinking about 3 other things while I was reading-notreading.
Disinterest
No I’ve done this when I was interested. This happens to me when I’m stressed about something and my brain goes off to think about it even though my eyes are going through the motions with the words on the page. Then I have to start again.
Cruise control.
Autopilot, like Szeth said below.I use the term Autopilot
That’s better. I think i mixed it up.
My brain goes into cruisepilot a lot.
I did find this paper where somebody used the term “mindless reading”
Smallwood, J. (2011). Mind‐wandering while reading: attentional decoupling, mindless reading and the cascade model of inattention. Language and Linguistics Compass, 5(2), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818x.2010.00263.x
Seems that is the term used for it such as this talk in 2006
https://ies.ed.gov/director/conferences/06ies_conference/posters/readingtq_reichle.asp
Abstract: “Mindless reading” occurs when, during reading, our eyes continue to move across the printed page in spite of the fact that we are busy thinking about things that are often completely unrelated to the text.
I can sometimes do this without my attention even shifting. I’ll mentally read every word individually for a while, but forget to put them together to actually understand them.
I do that stupidly often when reading stories.
I think we’ve got some drivers around here who drive like that.
I vary between spacing out, zoning out, or the already mentioned autopilot.
“School”
That’s called “School”.
This was a symptom of ADHD that I discussed with my doctor when I got diagnosed tbh
I could do this, reading out loud even. And not know what the fuck I just read for the last 10 minutes.
And yes, I have ADHD.
Is it an actual ADD symptom? I do this all the time.
It was for me, I’m not sure if it’s universal. Consider talking to a professional if you’re concerned about it.
I’m already middle-aged, so changing the way my mind works at this point would probably cause more harm than good. I’ve already figured out how to live productively with the unique workings of my psyche. Thank you though!
My wife was diagnosed at 42, it’s changed her life for the better. She is still the same person, adhd quirks and all, boy she has a better understanding of her behavior, and more control.
Right on. I’ll think about it.
we know we’re hardwired by a life of struggles and workarounds but our brains have more plasticity than we give ourselves credit for
Yeap, one of the BIG ones according to multiple doctors I’ve seen
Either that or dyslexia can apparently cause this too, according to my dyslexic friend in HS
I think I do have some low-grade dislexia, but not enough for it to cause any significant issues. Just occasionally, especially if I’m tired, I’ll read things completely out of order.
I actually thought I had dyslexia for a while because of this, plus if I don’t read correctly (which for me requires memorising each word in a sentence, then interpreting it as a sentence, as opposed to reading each word and interpreting it by itself), I get the order of words mixed up
Yep. It was actually one of my diagnostic questions.
Yes, but many things are symptoms of ADHD, but no single symptom alone is a sign of ADHD.
If it happens all the time I would say so. This happens to me when I’m tired so I just figured it’s my brain lagging
Is this an indicator or straight up ADHD specific? Because this is me constantly
