'Tossing' and Adult ADHD

'Tossing' Could Be A Potential Sign Of ADHD. Do You Do It?

Let me know what you think about this problem. Does it affect you? If so, or if you accumulate clutter, how do you deal with it?

Thanks!

[quenyasansel]

Not in a million years would I do this. The very thought fills me with anxiety.
Those piles must be gone through with a fine-toothed comb, and every item considered carefully. Which I won’t ever do, and so the piles endure.

[ThePegaiai]

I'd never toss things, but getting doom piles was very frequent when I was younger, before I moved out and was in control of my own environment. Since then I've found my solution: inserts, plastic boxes and drawers everywhere, and keep as few things as possible out in the open. Create a space for all the things!

[ASpaceOstrich]

I don't just toss them, but I absolutely acquire piles. Clothes in particular, though jokingly you could say a pile is a self sorting storage system based on frequency of use.

[agnesagni]

I tend to keep things because l have a bad sense of time and a fragmented memory. If some object comes into my hands, like my old school uniform signed by all my classmates, images, scents, feelings come flooding back. I can put my fragmented life together a bit by sorting objects. I even fit into my teenage clothes. 59 year old recently diagnosed ADHD here.

[kowe]

I can relate. I get frustrated with the clutter. I have thrown papers and bags out without looking through them, I tell myself if I don't know what's in it, I don't need it. 😅

[passions]

I'm a female - age 63 .. Yes! But I have tossed the entire drawer of stuff in a box to later go through but now I have a lot of boxes 😭😂😂

[WilfulFox]

I’ve gotten a fair bit better at making piles, but not being able to commit to closing browser tabs that I may want to look at or revisit later is a massive problem for me. Bookmarking would be overkill, and I fear I’ll forget about it if I close and/or bookmark it. I especially don’t want to have to go through the effort of finding these sources again if they’re good, and worry I mightn’t find it again. I have many hundreds of tabs open between my phone and computer. Difficulty making decisions is one of my biggest issues, and both anxiety and depression drastically worsen it further.

[cobuck]

I’ve got plenty of doom piles, but I could never toss them. I would get terrible anxiety rather than relief.

[SkibidiWaPaPaPaPa]

Literally today, I though about throwing out boxes of accumulated crap in my garage, not even thinking about going through but luckily my lack of executive function abilities resulted in not get to it.

[patriciajump]

Noooo! I scrutinize all stuff as to whether to keep it, store it away, share it, donate it, or trash it. Afraid or being out of money and needing stuff. I like to save whatever might be useful. I have downsized several times now, and it is time consuming and exhausting.

[hananc]

I have a funny saying that's relevant to me as a person with ADHD but it's also relevant to others: "even non-organic things need to rot before they are thrown away".

[copiouscat]

Me crying in bed next to my doom pile of clothes

[snowmonster]

This is absolutely a problem for me. I recently threw away boxes that I hadn't looked at in 10 years and didn't look at anything because I knew that if I did, I wouldnt have even started the job. The only way I could even do anything about the clutter was to tell myself that if I hadn't used it in ten years that it probably isn't important. I'm sure there was important stuff in those boxes, but at least I don't know about it. I'm 57 and was diagnosed with ADHD 30 years ago. I take my meds and have pretty good strategies, but I still *definitely* have ADHD. Watching this was agonizing, but I'm glad I forced myself because of the reminder to be kind to myself.

[rachael]

OMG. THIS IS AN ADHD THING??? Because I don't just toss, I order a dumpster AND YEET IT ALL because I'm too overwhelmed to donate, sell it, or find space for it.

[paxdriver]

2 mins is less daunting than 10 things so that goal will help you open the box.

Then once the box has been opened, switch to "10 things"; because definitely without a time limit looking for 10 things to decide on will either take 20 secs or 20 mins, rather than 2mins. Either way organizing is time well spent not just for ADHD and anxiety, but also actually more for productivity in knowing the full value and scope of those items by taking the time, by feeling good about tackling more than the minimum despite depression or anxiety, and maybe even relief of not tossing something legitimately valuable you'd otherwise have missed.

Hacking the goal system and shifting the goal posts is so incredibly helpful when you struggle with daunting tasks. It's not about finding one trick that works everywhere, it's about having so many tricks you can direct the flow of chaos into order.

I can't control a kitten's every action, but I can control a laser pointer and pull it out when it will prevent the kitten from running into traffic.

[midnightoil]

Accumulate 100 tabs or articles and wikipedia links and after 3 months just close them all, not reading even one of them.

[NinaGothMambaNegra]

Great info! Both my parents were hoarders. I'm autistic and somehow the need to control my environment overrides those hoarding tendencies. But I remember tossing pile like this when I was younger. The reason why I didn't see it as hoarding was because all of my collections relate to different things but if you add them all together it's a massive mega cluster. Thank you the video!!!

[jennyrlewis]

I didn't get the reference, but you starting this with a Garrison Keillor quote just brings a huge smile to my face and makes me feel right at home ❤️

[wafflesv]

I have these piles but I have anxiety in addition to ADHD so I don't think I could ever just toss it. I would be obsessing over "what if I threw away something I needed"

[passions]

...Thank you to Russell Barkley for this YouTube channel !!! I'm female - 63 with ADHD with a comical personality enjoying her senior years 🥰🥳💥🎉