My work colleague is ASC+ADHD, impulsive, hyperactive and inattentive, full set. After 6 weeks working together, while we do not see each other a lot (it is more like 1h daily, he is about to finish and I start my shift), I came to conclusion, that if he gets any help and advice how to deal with it is not working very well. Other workmates have no understanding how big difficulty that is, and they make it more difficult for him, even comparing him to me to imply that he is not trying. How fair is to compare someone in his first job to someone who has worked for 20 years in many places? That makes me feel guilty, even though I know I am not, and angry. It is his first job, and I wouldn’t like to see him broken already, he is nice and shy and mini smiles a lot, he even found a girlfriend recently, his life has only just begun. 
I did a lot of reading online, and I couldn’t find anything that would actually explain what happens during what they called ‘’losing attention’’, lots of official propaganda, that is trying to put a sticker on a person only.
I came up with a hypothetical situation, that or something like that probably happened to each of us. I am trying to figure out what was your chain of thought during that situation:
During classes at school and your favourite subject:
|
Trigger |
What you are doing |
Interruption |
What you are trying to do |
|
Teacher speaking to class |
Your focus is on what teacher is saying |
|
You are trying to focus on teacher, |
|
You noticed a bird outside the window |
Your focus switches to the bird |
Teacher asks you to pay attention to the classes |
You are trying to focus back on the teacher feeling slightly guilty |
|
Classmate sitting at the next bench giggles |
Your focus switches to the classmate |
Teacher asks classmate what was so funny? |
You are not trying to focus back on a teacher thinking you are the reason of giggles |
|
Classmate answer that nothing, you notice your laces untied |
Your focus goes to your laces |
Teacher says let’s continue the lesson |
You missed what teacher said trying to tie your laces |
|
Someone else moved their chair scraping the floor |
You immediately think about covering your ears, the sound makes your skin goosebump |
You cover your ears |
Every thought about paying attention to lesson forgotten, you are thinking about escaping |
|
Teacher asks you if you would like to go to the toilet (to give you the reason to leave and relax) |
Your only thought is to run |
You trip over laces you haven’t finished tying |
Trying to get up to continue escape |
Question two is how do you feel about multitasking? Could it be possible for you to switch attention between two things you are trying to focus on?