I have a really hard time following conversations. I find it slightly easier if there is only one person that I need to focus on.

Sometimes if I am in a large group, I will lose focus on what is being said and then I will say something that is completely out of context.

Everyone will look at me as though I am out in left field, which in a way, I guess I am.

Sometimes, I get really depressed about it. For this reason, I tend to keep to myself a lot.

My son takes medication for his ADD symptoms. He says that it really helps with his college classes.

I know how you feel. I keep to myself a lot too. I also find it easier to focus when it's just one person that I'm with. In that case, I'm quiet and space a lot, but not as much with a group of people

My daughter has a really hard time with groups of people and she does what you do, she can't focus on the conversation at hand but she knows everything that is going on around her. The special ed coordinator at her school says that a lot of times kids with ADHD focus from the outside in meaning that the stuff on the periphery (sp?) comes in first and the stuff right in front comes in last or doesn't make it in at all. I see it ALL THE TIME. The other thing with her is she freaks in large crowds and I think it might be overstimulation? Does anyone else with ADHD find Disney just way over the top?

I have ADHD and take ritalin for it. It has been working really well so far and I am able to follow conversation more than I use to but I notice it wears off in the evening and I have trouble focusing again.

Wow, Kelly, that's exactly what I do!! I spend all my time observing things going on around me rather than in front of me. Your daughter has ADD I'm assuming? The way you explained that makes so much sense to me now!

I do the same thing. I just watch everything else. Oh, LOL, and when I am with a big group it is worse, it almost gets crazy for me. You know like, when you are with a big group and one conversation some how stems off into braches of different conversations like people divide themselves into pairs and take off in thier own conversations. When this happens I am always the one not talking to someone. So I watch everyone else which can get crazy. Turning your head from person to person, switching attention to two or three different topics. During the episode feeling stupid, left out, and ridiculous for moving your head so much, LOL. At the end you feel exauhsted and relieved that its over. Your not alone.

I can soooo relate to cjsaunt. In my family we rarely ate at the dinner tabe, rather mostly in front of the TV. There was no conversation, nobody ever put me on the spot with "what did you learn today" or anything like that.

My husband's family is highly social and always have a couple of conversations at least going on at the table, as well as young children babbling away happily. I can not follow conversations for very long, and what I do take in I don't have the energy to respond to or even think about. It's like watching TV really lol

I keep to myself a lot too. Not a talker, though I've been learning to change that, mostly just by talking to you guys.

Good topic, shorty : )

I do that, I do it alot while in a car it is like i drift off to nowhere and just watch every thing going by. My husband will be talking away and i hear nothing. I do it alot when talking to people in school half the time i couldnt tell you what a teacher said if they talked for an hour i would catch nothing. It is something i would love not to do but i dont know how to change it.

I have a hard time focusing on people talking when I am in a public place. It is part of ADD/ADHD. to much to look at and to much to hear.

Yea im the same a big group and i ture off but one to one i find helps.I am like that the more info i get the long it takes to process.

Thanks for all the responses! I'm glad to hear I'm not alone. I also get very overwhelmed when there are several converstaions going at once. I'm always the one trying to keep up with all of them, but not saying anything. I guess I feel the need to take in everything going on around me at once, rather than focusing on one thing and actually responding to people. Frusterating!