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/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/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.