Do You Become Time-blind With ADHD?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been linked to various conditions but did you know ADHD causes time distortion? Inattentiveness can be a major cause of your ADHD making you time-blind.

ADHD is a disorder which deals with inattentiveness, impulsiveness and hyperactivity and can be seen in children as well as adults. Have you noticed that your friend with ADHD is never on time for most of your lunch dates?

It can be because they struggle with time perception. It is very difficult for them to keep a track of time. Now, that is because paying attention to one thing for a longer time is not their strongest suit.

Let’s first understand what time blindness is…

What Do You Mean By Time Blindness In ADHD?

Time blindness is basically the inability to make a rough estimate of how much time has passed. Many people who suffer from ADHD claim that they don’t see the time they feel it. People with highly distorted perception of time are called time blind people.

Time blindness is one of the unpopular symptoms of ADHD. Both Adults and children with ADHD can suffer from time blindness because they don’t view time as a sequence, they view it as a collection of events.

That’s why people with ADHD are almost always late for most events because the previous one according to them didn’t feel like it ended.

Here are some problematic behaviors exhibited by people with ADHD because of time blindness;

• Missing deadlines
• Procrastination
• Doing thing in an incorrect jumbled order
• Highly underestimation the time it may take to complete a task

Also read: Untreated ADHD In Adults Can Have Lifelong Consequences: Here Are Some Of Them

How ADHD Affects Perception Of Time?

The only known cause of time blindness is ADHD till date, so it’s quite evident that ADHD does affect your perception of time. The question here is how ADHD affects your idea of time? ADHD is marked by a high level of inattentiveness and that’s also the reason behind your distorted perception of time.

When you have ADHD, your mind is in ten different places in one single moment. When your mind is so heavily occupied its but natural for you to lose track of time. Can you recollect a memory of the time you were multitasking and you completely forgot how long you have been working?

Well, that’s how time blindness feels. With ADHD your mind is never at rest, there is a strong urge to do another thing before you finish the first and this goes on for a bit till you remember you have a commitment.

How does Time Agnosia Feel In ADHD?

Time Agnosia (time blindness) feels like you have too many things to do and you can’t decide what to pick first. As a result of which you lose track of time and find it very difficult to complete tasks on time. Most tasks are left half done because in the middle of doing one task you feel like the other is more important.

Let me explain it to you with the help of an example; you go to a perfume store and you are fascinated by so many different scents to choose from. After a few minutes you are frustrated because you don’t know which one is better and you can’t seem to find that one smell you were looking for in the first place.

Now, that feeling is similar to how time blindness feels!

Also read: Is There A Link Between ADHD & Hoarding?

Tips To Deal With Time Blindness In ADHD

Although procrastination happens a lot in ADHD, time blindness is not always because of you being lazy all the time. If you suffer from time blindness there are clever ways you can learn to keep a track of your time;

• Have many clocks/watches around you: include as many clocks and watches as you can. This will help you automatically look at the time and losing track of time will not be an issue for you anymore.
• Time your tasks: Keep a track of how much time you take to complete certain tasks. You can begin with timing your bathing time or your eating time and use them as reference to estimate the time you’re going to take to complete other tasks as well.
• Break the long term into short term: when you get assigned a task that might take a lot of time, break the task into smaller goals and work from there. Smaller tasks will not make you feel overwhelmed.
• Use huge visual timers: huge digital timers can make it even easier for you to not lose track of time because time will be running literally ‘in your face’.

That’s all folks!

I hope you found this blog about ADHD and time blindness helpful. Make sure you share this blog with all the people you think struggle with time blindness and ADHD.

Thanks for reading.

Take care and stay safe.