I don't want to draw too wild conclusions about this yet, but I accidentally skipped two days of taking Omega-3 supplements and I had extreme difficulties to concentrate and a really distracted mind at work. The incident might very well have been just an accident, but the difference in feeling was pretty concrete and significant.
I'm pretty sure I'm not a "real ADHD" insofar as concentration problems haven't been ruining my life or anything. I do feel that my relative inability to focus (at times) has had a negative impact on various aspect of my life, but it's not like I cannot function most of the time or anything. But anyhow, the feeling at work, which I did recognize as a familiar feeling from my past (I've had a leave of absence from work for over a year just recently), was pretty much what I imagine real ADHDs feel.
It's not like I would constantly feel an urge to check if I have new email or if there's anything new on the web. It's more like the whole mind is completely distracted and it feels almost impossible to focus on anything. It's like a buzz inside the head. The idea of starting something feels almost painful. (Luckily there's always something one can do even if some big task seems, at the time, impossible to get started with.)
The strange thing is that this feeling occurred just after couple of days of missing my Omega-3 supplements. After starting taking those supplements, I recall feeling pretty "normal" most of the time I'm working. But like I said, I'm not sure what the real reason was. Sometimes I get distracted by the nature of the work I have to do during the day. For example, a lot of different tasks concurrently usually distracts the mind.
Now, I do track my mood during the workday, but so far I haven't looked at the data. It will take a whole lot more than just couple of days, because my work days are so different that it takes time to eliminate the effect of different types of work days from these measurements.
[permalink] [1 comment] 21.01.2009, 21:46
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Posted by Sina Seifee at 01.03.2009, 08:35
Yea, tell me about it. Same problem here. It is sometimes like you can't focus on anything. And when you can, it won't last long. I don't remember I stayed more than 6 or 5 hours on one thing. And soddenly Pfff.. the interest is gone, vanished and replaced with ennui, weariness and anything else but the subject you are working on is shining fascinating. And there is always something fortunately enchanting there so you have always something to go with. You are working on a demanding project with a deadline(half a day) and soddenly in a drunken manner you think: hey this object oriented programming concept is really cool lets have a look at it,(3 hours). By the way have you thought about the revolutionary ideas in future management systems?(3 hours). Oh my god! This great idea of a dramatic theatrical piece with two actors and a dead horse occurred to me out of nowhere! I have to write it down,(2 hour). Why there is this need inside me that I have to paint an abstract painting,(30 minutes). And so on...
This is the story of my life. And I am beginning to understand it and like it. Despite the fact the inevitable sense of fulfilling a looser's path it brings.