Language processing

(romankogan.net/adhd/#Auditory Processing)

I understand the above is typical of auditory processing disorder (APD), occurring in a subset of people with #ADHD. I suspect it's not actually about audio and more about language processing, because it happens with sign language too (for me).

I can have trouble listening to someone for especially long without spinning up a parallel track of thought. When I watch video I like to have my fingers on the speed control (varying video speed between 1.5x to 5x depending on the scene) to keep myself fully stimulated.

People talk so slow, especially in professional film.

Exceptions occur with people I like a lot, who don't need to talk fast with me, because I can spend the leftover part of my consciousness on just enjoying our company. Or if I drink alcohol, I can enjoy its buzz.

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I can also feel slow at translating words into meaning. The meme community calls this Buffering, waiting for the brain to receive the message, and sometimes the lag is significant (up to 10 seconds).

It's not that I'm being distracted. I remember hearing the sounds in your sentence and I've recognized every word. It's just that those words carry no meaning at all for a while, until the appropriate part of my brain is plugged in. Then I go "oh, yeah yeah sorry, I'm with you now".

I've found it helps if I don't watch someone's face but an empty spot next to them, as eye contact seems to make my brain reserve a majority of CPU cycles on spinning its wheels doing nothing.

Subtitled video doesn't have these problems so much.

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When reading something really cool, for some odd reason I start skipping like this person:

Maybe it's because the cool idea is now occupying my head and I have less resources for language processing.

What links here

• My ADHD signs and symptoms
• Meatspace conversations
• Understand my memory issues
• 2021-10-21