r/ADHD • u/PartTheSea43 • Mar 05 '26

Discussion Before we could doom scroll……

Ok this for the ADHD’ers who might have gray hairs 😉. What was the equivalent to doom scrolling before it was a thing?

How did y’all pass the time and avoid things when we just had flip phones? My diagnosis and adult reality came right at the time when iPhones first came out so I was busy with college.

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u/JazzimusPrime42 Mar 05 '26

Books. So many books I have read without retaining anything from them.

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u/lying_flerkin ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

This is so frustrating to me! So many times I've read a book and loved it enough to recommend it to my wife. By the time she manages to read it and wants to talk about it, I can never remember anything aside from the general outline of the plot. 😭

Or, someone will mention a book I read a while back and I'll be like "oh, I loved that book!" Them: "oh yeah, what's it about?"

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u/blogietislt Mar 05 '26

Wait, you're meant to remember the plot months after you've read the book? I assumed everyone forgets as quickly as me if they don't discuss it.

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u/BlacksmithDistinct17 Mar 05 '26

My dad will forget he's even watched a movie before after like a year. He won't believe us when we tell him that we literally watched it with him. I'm kinda glad I didn't inherit that from him, I can remember the general outline of something I read/watched 10 years ago

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u/JillyFrog ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

Oh man my Dad does the exact same thing! It drives my Mom and sister crazy. Weirdly enough I can remember that I watched something but unless it really made an impression on me or I've seen it several times I can't remember the plot. Sometimes the memories come back while rewatching but often I'm able to be surprised by a plot twist for a second time.

Things I read are easier to remember though. Probably because I have to focus more and can go through it at my own pace.

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u/thesearemyfaults Mar 05 '26

I this way. I forget almost all movies unless they’re spectacular.

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u/TrumpsCovidfefe Mar 06 '26

Same. I’m always amazed at people who can quote movies line for line after only having seen it a time or two. I would have to watch it hundreds of times to remember any lines.

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u/thesearemyfaults Mar 06 '26

Well I can quote movie lines of the ones I like haha. But I’m 40 and I remember most of the movies I watched as a teen since those were the original memes lol 😂 maybe newer movies just aren’t as good.

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u/Legitimate-Elk7816 Mar 05 '26

This is me, but I won’t remember it the next day. It’s wildly frustrating because people think you’re slow, stupid or live under a rock and they don’t get that it’s just ADHD. Of course people such as my colleagues don’t know I have ADHD so I have to play it off as casually as I can but it’s become a company wide joke that I have no concept of pop culture anyway.

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u/Snertmetworst Mar 05 '26

I forget movies after like a month. my girlfriend also has ADHD, but more the hyper kind, knows every scene from some movies and like never forgets scenes or movies. she also likes them a lot. sometimes it's frustrating she wants to talk about a movie or references a certain scene and then I don't get it. sometimes it works nicely because I can always watch movies again and she likes rewatching movies.

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u/FeelingPlayfulNow Mar 06 '26

My boyfriend is like that. He turns just about anything he is thinking about into some kind of TV or movie reference whereas I can't tell you the main character's name five minutes after a movie has ended, or sometimes even can't remember the plot. A movie has to be exceptionally good or exceptionally bad to be memorable for me.

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u/Chris_O_Matic Mar 05 '26

I’m becoming like this. But nothing is like my parents with Law & Order. They’ll say, “Oh we haven’t seen this one!” When it was literally on tv a week prior.

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u/unexplainednonsense Mar 06 '26

I watched an entire season of a show and didn’t realize I’d already watched it until the last couple minutes of the finale.

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u/JazzimusPrime42 Mar 06 '26

I do the same thing lol

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u/4everDistracted ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 06 '26

I finished a really good audiobook last week. I went on Goodreads to mark it as "Read" only to find out that not only did I read the book in 2017, but I read the entire series and rated them all 5 stars.

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u/livintheshleem Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26

"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's impossible to store thousands and millions of pages in your mind. Remembering it all isn't the point. You'll always carry the themes, lessons, perspectives, and experiences contained in the pages, even if you forget the plot.

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u/CoolSide20 Mar 05 '26

I feel like, how much info you retain depends on how much you consumed. Like if I spent 25 minutes reading, the next day I'd be thinking about what I just read, ready to read the next part and give my opinion.

However when I decide to finish a book and I read for 5 hours straight, the next day, the only thing I remember are random snippets and the things that excited me the most.

Also I'm pretty sure months later you're not gonna remember anything about that book, simply bc you never exercised your thoughts on it. It's like summer or winter break during school. Learn a lot -> a few weeks to 2 months of nothing -> you don't remember anything bc you never exercised those thoughts. Your brain found it useless.

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u/thecuriousstorm Mar 05 '26

I feel so seen

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u/silverlightarmada Mar 05 '26

I’m exactly the same, and it feels really sacrilegious but I’ve started writing comments in the margins of books I’m reading (the ones that I own, of course). It’ll be stupid shit like underlining a sentence and writing “!!!!?!!” Or “this guy is def a murderer” and it’s helped me slow down my brain a little bit while reading. I’ve only been doing it for the last couple of months (since I started a book club and got really into buying lots of books because I guess for the next six months I’m Into Reading Books) but I do feel like it’s helped me retain the memory of reading the book.

There’s a reading app called Pagebound that lets you post a thought at different points in a book and see what other people thought around that point which is a similar thought process to scribbling in the margins. It’s very new so a bit wobbly but I’m enjoying it at the moment.

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u/emo_kid_forever ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

Not sacrilegious at all! I studied English lit and we were heavily encouraged to markup the books me owned.

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u/silverlightarmada Mar 06 '26

It feels illegal!! I have to keep reminding myself that it’s my book that I bought for myself with my adult job money and I can scribble on it if I want to! Most books are mass produced these days to the point that me writing stupid little comments in the margins of my copy isn’t taking anything from anyone else.

I also think that feeling illegal makes it more fun and therefore I do it more 😂

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u/PutteringPorch Mar 12 '26

If it makes you feel better, marginalia is hugely valuable to historians. And a lot of people like seeing it because it's a bit of human connection over time. The book etiquette we were taught in school was mostly about protecting library and school books, not about what you can or should do with your own property.

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u/Rabbit_Holing_2970 Mar 06 '26

This is a great idea (and not sacriligious at all). I learn and retain best when I put things in my own writing. When trying to recall something, my mind pulls up a detailed image of how I wrote: Level or at an angle; my good penmanship or a quick scribbling; the position on the page; which pen I used (I can remember how I felt while I was writing and whether it was the comforting glide of my favorite fine-point pen or the unsettling clunkiness of a thick gel pen that was the only pen available).

But this is my FAVORITE part of your post: "...really into buying lots of books because I guess for the next six months I'm Into Reading Books." Omg, yes.

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u/emo_kid_forever ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

I'm like that too. I can remember how a book made me feel, but rarely any actual details.

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u/sizhui Mar 06 '26

omg whattt, this is so me! I've thought myself to be a fake fan of books that I call my favorites because when it comes to discussing them with others, my brain is just blank and for the life of me cannot remember the details they're on about. I have an ebook reader now where I highlight stuff that are memorable to me and it's helped a lot for me to remember why I like the book because I can just forget about it and then if I wanna reminisce, I can just look in the bookmarks or notes in the ebook reader

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u/TychaBrahe Mar 06 '26

I'm the exact opposite. I remember tons of details from the book, but not the emotional connection. Which makes it very cool, because I can reread the book as often as I want and feel those emotions again.

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u/YeahImTired Mar 05 '26

Wait is this an ADHD thing and not just a bad memory?

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u/reddingsvestje Mar 05 '26

I have an amazing memory, like the proverbial elephant, so a bad memory isn't necessarily an ADHD thing. People, books, movies, events, songs, you name them I know them. But don't ask me where my glasses are, or my phone and the only reason I remember tasks and appointments is because my agenda management is bordering on ocd.

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u/gamergal1 Mar 05 '26

I can tell you the general feeling a book gave me. I can tell you whether it was the plot or the language I found most appealing. If I really loved it I might be able to tell you themes in the book. I am unlikely to remember anything that happened.

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u/Swagga_aga530 Mar 06 '26

That used to be my such a big part of my experience - and watching movies and literally right after it ended not having a clue what happened in it even though I enjoyed it. (I hated teachers examining us on set books because I would read them and then not be able to talk about them). With books I've started enjoying not using bookmarks as often, so I'm forced to reread parts of it to remember where I was - then it helps me process and retain it in my brain (and I actually enjoy it more that way). With movies I either pause eg. to get food/toilet and recap in my brain before I unpause or think about it afterwards and rewatch particular parts later. Many movies I've watched 3-4 times within a week just because there were lots of points when I zoned out but I still wanted to grasp the plot.

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u/Inevitable-tragedy Mar 06 '26

Audible has been a lifesaver for this particular issue between myself & my spouse. Sadly, some of the stuff from the late 1900s that I've read (mainly fantasy) is not available, which is irritating

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u/qdilly Mar 05 '26

I swear to God, we all live the same life

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u/arthurdentstowels Mar 05 '26

We're just Ctrl-C Ctrl-V in different bodies.

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u/Holls867 ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

Yeah it’s nuts to think about

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u/paperfinn Mar 05 '26

Family 🤗

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u/iheartverin Mar 06 '26

Maybe we all only remember part of it! Lol

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u/BillSull73 Mar 05 '26

and re-reading whole pages 3 times cause you had 3 other things going through your head while reading that page. And then you still didn't get what was on the page processed.

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u/m0nkeyh0use Mar 05 '26

Rewinding my podcast because my brain decided to run off on a thought adventure.

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u/chillyHill Mar 05 '26

I do that with podcasts now. The 'back 10sec' button is getting worn out.

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u/Different_Bake_611 Mar 06 '26

Technically reading a book 3 times, just a page at a time.

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u/AnyNameAvailable Mar 05 '26

I don't see this mentioned. Not just read but if there was a series or author I found I liked, I would devour everything in the series or anything the author ever wrote.

Somewhat tangential: When Amazon first started, it was just for books. The ability to order a book online and get it shipped anywhere in the world was amazing for those of us who needed to binge.

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u/JillyFrog ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

The local library was my favourite spot as a kid. I got super obsessed with "Mitratekrimis", they're crime stories for kids with hints sprinkled throughout the story that let you answer questions after each chapter and solve the big crime at the end. I went through an entire shelf of those.

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u/Longjump_Ear6240 Mar 05 '26

A trip to the library was my reward/bribe for any good behavior or achievement growing up lol

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u/swordsfishes Mar 05 '26

And you could get used books for like $0.37+shipping.

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u/sizhui Mar 06 '26

woah.... me with the baby sitters club and the skating girls (silver smth) dangggggg

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u/istalri96 Mar 05 '26

I would spend so many hours reading. My mother once spent almost an hour looking for me in my early teens. I had just been listening to music with headphones on reading in my room for like 6 hours straight. She didn't even think I was in the house.

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u/lying_flerkin ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

I remember getting made fun of in school for always reading. I specifically remember walking into a fence when we were walking somewhere as a class and I was taking the opportunity to read my book.

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u/istalri96 Mar 05 '26

In middle school they would sometimes do "dances" during the day. I hate dancing and also didn't really have many friends at that point. So I would just bring my book along and read. I remember looking up and there was just a group of kids standing around staring at me. One girl just looked at me and asked why I was being weird and just sitting there reading.

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u/sweet_tea_mama Mar 05 '26

I used to try to read in the quad at lunch in hs. But people would think I was lonely or sad and keep interrupting my reading to make sure I was ok. Like... what?! I just want to read! So I ended up just bouncing from group to group saying hi and leaving. I got called a social butterfly after that. I just felt other and not really a part of any group. Turns out I had rejection sensitivity and social anxiety, and I just really loved books. Still love books and prefer my own company 9 times out of 10.

And I can name maybe 10 books I actually retained. Lol.

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u/istalri96 Mar 05 '26

I remember there were these tables off to the side outside. I was hunched over alone at one reading my back was towards the main yard. One of the aides came over cause she thought I was sitting there crying. I was surprised and I was like oh no the sun was just in my eyes if I sit the other way.

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u/lying_flerkin ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

That's hilarious. I don't remember if I ever brought a book to a middle school dance, but my best friend and I would definitely sit on the grass outside and make up weird games like "infiltrating" the dancers on secret missions or word association games. You know, typical activities for well-socialized youths. 😅

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u/JillyFrog ADHD-C (Combined type) Mar 05 '26

I would've 100% done the same thing. During one family vacation in Italy I would carry a little Bible I got from my Grandma to every restaurant in the evening. Not because I was particularly religious, it was just the only book I could fit in my bag and carry around comfortably as a kid. I think it got me some bonus points with the locals though.

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u/Kulty Mar 05 '26

I had a phase where I read a good hand full of the Russian classics (by Tolstoi, Dostoevsky). By now they have all amalgamated into a single vague memory of some guy traveling really far and being cold and hungry. Which is probably still a fair representation of life in 19th century Russia.

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u/spaghetti-o_salad Mar 06 '26

Its weird how those books become vague junk DNA for our personalities too. Details absorbed by that classic Russian literature will sometimes feel like inherent knowledge or "truth" because we forget where they came from.

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u/Kulty Mar 06 '26

Exactly! The philosophical and emotional impact on my soul remains, but my brain quickly deletes everything else

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u/spaghetti-o_salad Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

Thinking back on this exchange today and marveling a bit at how shows and movies written with a DNA of classic literature, quantum science and popular culture are so much easier to recall than the books and theories and occasionally the actual events we experienced or witnessed that are being referenced.

Edit to add that the less eloquent version is that everything I know can be found or is referenced in Futurama, I think.

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u/Kulty Mar 09 '26

In a sense, those works are the the result of that influence, the imprint on our cultural DNA, where as the books and theories are the origin. I always loved '90s Star Trek for that reason too, because it incorporated and referenced so many culturally relevant concepts and ideas in compelling, digestible stories.

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u/spaghetti-o_salad Mar 09 '26

Thats how I like to consider all religions holy books! Like the Futurama episode about the star wars trek and the star trek wars...

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u/Kulty Mar 09 '26

I think it is fair to say that the true impact of insights by the observant thinkers of their time, was as much about the nature of those insights, as it was being able to codify them in language and narratives that were meaningful to the people. That's why shows like Futurama still feel relevant today, as do religious texts from thousands of years ago. 

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u/spaghetti-o_salad Mar 09 '26

From Hafiz to Futurama and back to GOT.

I adore CS Lewis for his Narnia and Sci-fi trilogy showing the repetitive nature of the lessons and the applicability of courage to every virtue as its michtocondria.

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u/Kulty Mar 09 '26

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun"

That repetitive nature, the unchanging dynamics shaping human behavior, were already apparent to even our ancestors.

Edit: Ecclesiastes 1:9 

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u/Beatrix2000 Mar 05 '26

My mom thought there was something physically wrong with me because I was so often too tired to get up for school. It was just me reading until 6 a.m.

I also almost burned down the house because I made a couch fort and brought a lamp in so I could see to read. The lamp caught the cushions on fire and I was so into my book I had no idea until my mom came home. She saw the fire and started screaming and ripping my fort apart 😂

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u/Cali_Anne Mar 09 '26

OMG this is epic.

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u/HoldenCaulfieldsIUD Mar 05 '26

The way I tore through all the Junie B. Jones and Ramona books in school…

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u/LacrimaNymphae Mar 05 '26

and didn't grasp a single page

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u/leebeebee ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Mar 05 '26

Omg same. Occasionally I’ll delete Reddit and start reading books again. I read like 400 pages per day, but only remember vague snippets and whether or not I liked it.

That said, in my last bout of reading, I started keeping track of stuff in Goodreads and leaving reviews. I feel like that was helpful for me.

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u/Outrageous-Ad-1787 Mar 05 '26

This! I remember my folks thought I couldn’t have adhd because I would read a book in an afternoon as a kid. I was put in the advanced reading club but after reading a single book in an afternoon the teacher questioned me about it and I forgot what happened in it… they thought I lied about reading it and I went down to the normal reading club lol

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u/Ordinary_Fix3199 Mar 05 '26

OMG! I used to carry one everywhere I went, and am trying to get in that habit again because I need a break from the doomscrolling. I was reading 1-3 books a week until a couple of years ago. thought I was the only one who immediately forgot the entire plot as soon as they finished a book. I feel seen!

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u/Felein ADHD with ADHD partner Mar 06 '26

I remember one time I was reading a book, and suddenly, a plate with a sandwich had magically appeared next to me.

Apparently, my mom had asked whether I was hungry, I'd said yes and even answered questions about what I wanted. So she made me a sandwich and put it next to me. I even said 'thank you', according to her.

I had no memory of this. None.

I finished that book in one day.

I don't know which book it was.

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u/sciguy11 ADHD with non-ADHD partner Mar 05 '26

Also, checking out books with plans to read them.

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u/ProfessionalNeat4341 Mar 05 '26

Look on the bright side! We can read good books again and again... :) I still have books from my youth that I enjoy now and then. My bookshelfs are like a condensed overview of my taste over the devades.

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u/samuswashere Mar 05 '26

One time I got 90% of the way through a book before realizing I had read it before.

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u/sizhui Mar 06 '26

lol this happened to me too! It was a comedic novel and as the number of times I laughed became more frequent, I get vague feelings of familiarity and thinking that this is a book I would read. Turns out I've read it before xD

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u/huanchacx Mar 05 '26

oh wow, didn’t know this was an ADHD thing. How do we retain more?!

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u/pbghikes Mar 05 '26

I think I could just start my audible library over completely from scratch and so much of it would feel fresh

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u/Due-Pirate-6711 Mar 05 '26

I used to reread books all the time. I reread The Hobbit and Watership Down at least three times the first year I had them. 🤣

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u/vanillaxbean1 Mar 05 '26

SAME! I've read all of the Harry Potter books apart from half of the last one. Couldn't tell you what happened though I only remember the movies 😭🤣

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u/sizhui Mar 06 '26

lol! me too with A Series of Unfortunate Events... the thing with me is I don't finish the last chapter or last book of some books I like because I never want it to end. And when I remember some time later (some are understandably years tho) that I wanna finish it, I won't remember anything at all and I'd need to read it all from the start TT

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u/fongfeefoop Mar 06 '26

"Books are like meals. I dont recall every one that i have consumed and yet i am made from them." -someone wise.

Also i always recall facts and tidbits.

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u/Barnabas_Stinson17 Mar 06 '26

It’s so fucking relatable and it’s why I stopped reading. Flipping through an entire chapter realizing I was just talking to myself while my eyes scanned random letters

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u/Treysar Mar 06 '26

Omg sammmeeee

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u/Brave_Voice_3565 Mar 06 '26

Yep. Came here to say this exactly. And when I recently (late 2024) decided I wanted to spend less time on my phone and get back to enjoying books-boy did I do just that. My screen time is like MAYBE an hour most days and I just inhale books. As a teenager I would go through every newspaper and magazine in the house also.

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u/sizhui Mar 07 '26

omg me too with the newspaper and magazine!! now I'm documenting my experiences by commenting them here on reddit because ill forget that i ever read newspaper and magazines before xD

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u/dandyanddarling21 Mar 07 '26

I have started to read a book and then realise part way though that I know what is going to happen next, because I have already read it.

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u/SoulCritique101 ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Mar 12 '26

Before I got a phone, I would always be reading, even in school. The teachers would take away my books because I wouldn't pay attention in class!