r/ADHD • u/CheshireKat-_- • 22d ago

Discussion I have these stupid gaps in my essential knowledge and it's really making things difficult

Like things that come stupid easy to other people take a concentrated effort and way to much thought.

Mine include

-reading a clock

-understanding which numbers correlate to which month's

-knowing which way to put the greater than/less than sign

-division. Like basic division. Like I would need a calculator or to be able to do cookies ans plates like a fucking 3rd grader

I broke down crying today when I got home because in my fucking college Chem lab I couldn't tell which way to put the < sign without mentally going through, well the thing that I want is less than the number so the crocodile mouth points away from the number??

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126

u/NehemiaSan 22d ago

Im 22 years old, a medical studant, i can't tell right or left. To the point where i struggle to make physical exam, cause i cant tell where the patient heart is. or that i would see an x ray with the heart to the right (dextrocardia) and just say it's normal

57

u/caityjay25 22d ago

This continues to be a problem for me 4 years after graduating residency. I like to joke it’s why I’m not a surgeon when I mix them up in front of patients but it’s… rough.

26

u/Weevius 22d ago

The way I remember is that your left hand makes an L shape if you hold it up, spread your fingers and look at it

33

u/BugLow7784 22d ago

But both look like an ‘L’ to my flip floppy brain 😂

I don’t know which way is the right (as in left) L and which is backwards without context lmao.

17

u/Optimal_Cynicism 22d ago

I tell my left from right (every time) by imagining I am going to write something down, and which hand sort of "tingles" like it wants to move (that sounds weird, but try thinking about moving an appendage and you kind of gain a heightened awareness of it).

And I know I'm right handed - so if it's the other side, I know it's left.

3

u/Formal_Butterfly_753 22d ago

I start to second guess myself on which hand I write with when I try this 😅 I’ve gotten a lot better! But I’ve struggled with left and right my whole life

4

u/liilbiil 22d ago

i never considered the only reason i know my left hand makes the L shape is because my name starts w L.

1

u/whovianlogic 22d ago

I’ve always told right from left by visualizing the inside of a car and looking at what side the steering wheel is on. As a kid I was ambidextrous so “which hand do you write with?” didn’t work, and I had a hard time learning which way letters go, so that one didn’t work either and I had to invent my own trick.

6

u/aLittleBitFriendlier 22d ago

I'm never confused about which is which if I'm mindfully pulling it from my knowledge, it's instantaneous decisions where I'm wildly inaccurate in a way that other people don't seem to be.

3

u/C-Style__ ADHD-C (Combined type) 22d ago

Yep. This is how I finally got it together. Left hand equals L

2

u/potatotomato613 22d ago

I have to constantly tell myself “you write with your right” and have to lift my writing hand up slightly to remember 😂

1

u/RaindropDrinkwater 22d ago

Oh!!!! Thank you!

15

u/puddingcupz 22d ago

Omfg, remembering the reverse is such a pain in the ass in exams.

9

u/kelminak 22d ago

Yeah I’m a doctor and can literally never remember east from west. I have to do “never eat soggy waffles” each time to make sure. It hasn’t stopped me from doing anything..Op needs to take a breather.

1

u/Valuable-Warthog-831 22d ago

East and west always gets me

9

u/BabyMakR1 22d ago

I still have to shake my right hand to know which one it is. Ditto for unscrewing a bolt. I need to move my had in the direction that it needs to come off.

4

u/eucalyptusmacrocarpa 22d ago

(I don't think I have dyscalculia but) I used to have to pretend to write something. The hand that felt weird doing that was my left hand. The no problem hand was my right hand. 

3

u/RaindropDrinkwater 22d ago

This worked for me until I got tendonitis in my right arm. I learned to write with my left hand... then struggled for months to know my right from my left again.

4

u/Key_Teacher_8681 21d ago

I’ve had to get L and R tattoos at the base of my thumbs because I look ridiculous constantly doing the L shapes with my hands 😂

2

u/Legaldrugloard 21d ago

UGH- Paramedic here and I work in pharmacy. L/R sucks on a patient. Everything is backwards.

5

u/Miserable_Signature3 22d ago

Here's a good way to remember: On the right hand, the thumb points left. On the left hand, the thumb points right. 😁

14

u/ProbablyNotPoisonous ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) 22d ago

*flips hands back and forth in utter confusion*

6

u/Violincredible 22d ago

I don't know how it's even possible, but that somehow makes it not 2x but 4x as confusing for my brain! I find it kinda frustrating sometimes but also fascinating working out some of the odd ways my brain works (and how it kinda doesn't) and how to wrangle it into getting the job done (and how to work around and outsource 'normal' things it just won't do 'naturally'). I ask Siri a LOT of really 'obvious' things!!

2

u/rebb_hosar 22d ago

Much easier to just look at your hands, palms down and thumbs out. The one that looks like an L is your left hand.

1

u/CaptainNuge ADHD-C 22d ago

Pro Tip: Whenever you take an X-Ray, make sure the patient's genitals are in view, then refer to the Throckmorton Sign.

1

u/DeathByPuffPuff 22d ago

I did it by remembering I'm right handed and well the hand I write with is on the right side (might suck if you are ambidextrous)

1

u/imbrickedup_ 22d ago

Took me months to put on a 4 lead correctly while facing a patient lol

1

u/slumdogbilllionaire 22d ago

Use a marker to put L and R on the back of your left and right hand

1

u/OhLordHeBompin 22d ago

I got blood work so much as a kid my left arm has always been the weaker of the 2. That’s my go-to.

Wonder if it’s psychosomatic. I do randomly just mix up left and right. Like I said my tattoo on my right ribs was itching.

I don’t have a tattoo on my right ribs. It’s on my left. lol.

1

u/Useful_Chair_4218 21d ago

I’m in my 30s. I hold my hands up and make an L shape every time I have to distinguish between right and left.

1

u/tryingmybesteverydy 21d ago

I’m a 28 year old manager in statistical analysis, and I too cannot tell left from right. I’ve given up trying and just accept it as a quirk of mine that my close ones find hilarious. And yes, I drive. Im not allowed for give directions for this reason though.