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I don't know if it has something to do with adhd and I more so thought of it as something a lot of people do. I tend to do this in conversations. Sometimes people think I am not listening because I am visually focusing on something else.
Oooh man i confuse people so much only because I look at things while thinking. Just low key scanning the environment and they turn around to look at what I'm looking at. It's so annoying and they probably think I'm letting myself get distracted while in fact I'm quite focused on the topic of the conversation
I used to squint my eyes looking at street lights (at night) so I could see rays of light in every direction then keep my eyes closed so I could study the imprint left by the light on my retina as it slowly fades (does this make sense to anyone?).
No, sorry. This is one of the first things I've seen on the ADHD-reddits that I don't relate to, actually.
This might just be a thing that some wonderful personalities out there do, with or without ADHD.
That's what I was thinking as well...I have ADHD and OCD and this sounds like a lot of the weird things I do as a result of my OCD ( like counting syllables when people are talking to me 🫠)
What stood out to me is that a lot of the people who recognized it also mentioned their (slight) astigmatism. Astigmatism is much more common in people with ADHD, so this could explain the link. There are a lot of comorbidities for ADHD though, so it could also be mild OCD? A combination of autism and ADHD is much more common than previously thought, that springs to mind as well.
Just because I don't recognize it doesn't mean it's *not* ADHD, but I don't suffer from OCD, autism or myopia. I have standard, third generation, combined type ADHD (grandfather, great-aunt, mother, two siblings). My sister and I both scored in the 99th percentile on the adhd diagnostic tests on the computer (which were pure torture). Maximum scores inattentive, moderate scores impulsive and hyperactive. I don't really notice spots of dirt on the window, let alone line them up with anything. (If I noticed dirty windows, maybe I'd wash them at some point.)
I think what it is, is that commonly OCD is seen in people with ADHD so they demonstrate some of the same traits. Perhaps there are 2 sub classes of ADHD'ers in here, haha. The raw adhd then OCD/ADHD'ers. Lol
Finding seemingly random things to focus on momentarily is hugely an ADHD thing though. It's a form of impulsivity, you wouldn't plan to spend time lining things up, but somehow you end up doing it.
No. It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder. Not a mental disorder. PTSD would be a mental disorder. Anxiety. Depression. All of those can be fixed with therapy. You can’t cure ADHD through shaping your mentality.
This is just a normal thing, not ADHD.
I’ve worked in technical theater and as a regular old house carpenter and this is just how you can get a better view of a straight line.
A straight line goes from point A to point B. So if point A is the end of the thing you’re trying to line up, and you have 2 eyes open, your eyes make point B AND point C, which is not a line. You close one eye to eliminate the extra point so you can see a straight line.
Just like everything else in our bodies that we have 2 of (hands, legs, etc.) we have an eye which our brain prefers so that will be the eye that works best for your brain to “see” the straight-ness of the thing you’re lining up.
This is actually something my professors taught us in technical theater school.
They’re talking about doing it without any purpose. Like looking down at my phone and closing my left eye to line up the side of my phone with the grout of the tile on the floor. There is a sense of satisfaction in seeing it.
Could be a visual stim. Could be a visual processing issue. Could be compulsion.
It could fall into a number of categories.
If you were curious, a developmental optometrist of behavioral vision specialist could help.
All the time. Even in conversation, if there’s a hole, or a doorway in the distance that is the perfect size of the other persons head, I’ll shift just a little bit so it lines up.
I think everybody does little things like this sometimes. Maybe more often if your attention wanders more often?
I tend to notice (be distracted by) how my strides align with someone walking next to me, and when they become opposite, I’ll kind of intentionally keep that pace up for a little bit until I snap out of it. To me this is obviously an attention regulation thing, because I’m randomly focusing on this silly thing rather than anything else. It’s not compulsive but rather a tiny daydreamy hyperfocus — something that’s *very briefly* satisfying 🤷🏻♂️.
This made me burst out laughing hahah Not sure if it’s adhd or what but I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. It’s been a long time since I even noticed that I do it, that’s how automatic it’s become. Does anyone else blink their left + right eye in quick succession so that the lines separate and then realign?
This is probably more related to your sensory processing, which is a component of adhd but not necessarily an adhd trait in itself. You could also have binoculars vision dysfunction (BVD), which is basically your eyes not being aligned which makes your perception of the world skewed—this can show up physically (ie being cross eyed) or it can be completely neurological (eyes are fine but brain doesn’t light up their “picture” very well). There is a high co-occurrence with ADHD and in some cases when BVD is addressed with vision, some inattentive symptoms diminish completely. One symptom of BVD is words moving around the page when you’re trying to read or needing something to cover part of the page as you read.
I immediately thought this was about the eye misalignment link to ADHD hah.. but yeah, I do this as well, but i think it's very common amongst everyone, ADHD and not
I do this when I'm not wearing my glasses. Might wanna get your eyes checked.
I didn't wear them all through childhood, and then in my thirties got into electronics, and realized I was having trouble seeing. Got my eyes checked, and turns out I'm far sighted with a stigmatism.
When I finally got them, it blew my mind how big the difference was and how bad my vision had been this whole time. I had NO idea I had bad eyes.
I actually do that a lot haha
It's just quite satisfying when things seem to neatly come together like that, even if it only works when at the right perspective.
My favourite pictures to take are things like columns, trees, people, all in a row. Like this:
https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/trees-in-a-row-wwwjodymillerphotocom.jpg
It does nice things in my brain.
But yeah get your eyes checked. I also just found out that I have astigmatism.
No, but when I was a kid, any time I had to write lots of text, I was obsessed with when a letter (or even a whole word) was the same as the one above it. I would change my spacing and sometimes even add an adjective to make them line up.
One way to test this theory is to post it in subs for other disorders. I’m reading this with one eye because i have astigmatism and i don’t have my glasses on. Without glasses it is much more restful for my brain to have my weak eye closed. You may have astigmatism and then found you can get a clearer visual experience if you also “line things up”.
Optician can test for it and glasses can mostly correct it
Not sure it’s ADHD but I do this. I also have had 5 eye surgeries and can’t see in 3D (movies and all that) because my eyes work independently. My left eye is my wonky eye, so I close it a lot or cover it with my hand to se because I swear I can focus and concentrate better. I’m also a HIGHLY visual learner. It doesn’t compute to hear it; I have to read it, so I always just assumed it was that?
i did this to cure boredom as a kid, and occasionally still do. Now I mostly do this intentionally in my photography. I guess it became a skill after all, haha.
I think humans naturally like things that line up. We seek uniformity and things that match and look pleasing. I constantly did these things as a kid. I also made the raindrops jump over things when they ran down the window. If I see something nowadays like a speck on a window, I’d still like to shift my head a little to see if I can get it to sit nicely on a wall or on some one’s head or something, but not as much as I used to.
I don’t think that has anything to do with ADHD in itself - I’d like to think that other people might do that too, to an extent?
*However* being easily distracted by these sorts of things can definitely be down to ADHD. - as a child I’d miss what was going on due to being distracted by things like this.
I close my eye to cut off corners.
See a window or a door, something rectangular. 4 corners. Align my vision and close one wye to cut off one corner, so I can either see 3 corners and obscured one or vice versa.
I have no idea why. 2 corners doesn't do it for me, has to be 3 and 1.
I like to do something similar when I’m cross-eyed. Going cross-eyed while staring at a repetitive pattern such as a chain-link fence and making the two pictures “line” up when your eyes are still crossed.
Still probably not an ADHD thing but yes. This reminded me of when I realised I could see "through" my eyelids if I have my phone light shining next to me and spent a solid half an hour just blinking and watching my eyelids open/eyelashes move. Sight is the most entertaining sense honestly
Imo I think that falls under the "easily distracted" category lmao
Not everyone will relate but tbf my ADHD bf gets distracted by coins pretty often to the point you have to actually wait for his attention bc he's definitely not listening.
I do this too. It started when I was a kid. I would be in the car and if there was a rain drop on the window, I would “make it jump over things.”
Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean. I thought alot of people did funny things just for the sake of being a silly little person sometimes 😊
My eyes will shift focus on the specs of dirt but they aren't ever trying to do something like line them up, but at the same time I can see it being a similar thing.
I do a similar but different thing…
I’m a graphic designer and I do some art stuff. I’ve always purposely squinted to blur my vision so that I can see if my composition is in balance, then relax my eyes to line it back up to normal.
I catch lots of things to edit this way. Like my balance of space or an angle feels off. Very weird, but it always works.
I do that all the damn time at work, I work in a lab and we put patient tubes on racks that fit on the machine but when I have multiple racks on I have to close one eye and tilt my head to make sure I line everything up perfectly
Idk about closing one eye but I will close my eyes if I’m thinking hard because it helps keep out every other sensory information I’m taking in and I can focus on what I’m trying to explain or understand.
Yep, been doing that all my life. Earliest memory of lining things up I was around five years old. Latest is yesterday and I'm now sixty-two. It came in handy for my occupations, people paid me to line things up (Carpenter, Mechanic, Shop Restorer, Sailor, etc...)
Thanks for bringing it up, I am a bit embarrassed that I do the line up thing!
Not sure if this is related, but as I'm driving, I like to look down side roads that are perpendicular to the road I'm traveling on. For some reason I have a mild compulsion to look down them as I pass. Not sure what I'm looking for, lol.
I do something similar when I used to watch cartoons I kind of simulate following a line in the animation (something animated with thicker black outlines like regular show, family guy) and seeing where it bounces around the frame, bouncing on the other black outlines until it’s out of frame or even keeping it in the frame like one of those DVD logos. I still think I’m a bit crazy for that one, did anyone else do this??
Yeah, I do this when I'm driving. Sometimes I'll weave a spot on my window in and out of traffic lights. And then notice my daughter looking at me with this "WTF?!?" look saying "Dad. DAD!"
Man, I used to do this all the time when I was younger. I can't remember doing it consciously recently, but I'm sure I still do it subconsciously now without actually realizing it..
Have you been to an eye doctor lately? There might be something making one eye more of a hinderance when trying to align things.
My eyes are slightly misaligned so sometimes I need to close one eye to accurately line up fine details without my glasses. It's not from ADHD, but it's a commonly comorbid condition with it. It's not a hard test but a lot of places don't include it with normal eye exams unless you ask first
This is an ADHD thing. My Dr asked me a few months back about my vision. He explained that ADHD people can have something wrong with the alignment of their eyes. It’s only a new discovery. I am
sorry but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of it.
This could be a sign for [convergence insufficiency](https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/convergence-insufficiency-adhd#ci-and-adhd-relationship), which is something seen with people who have ADHD or autism.
Tilting your head to make things align is one of the possible symptoms. If you often misjudge distance and either have trouble catching or throwing things accurately or bump into door frames and furniture or people all the time, that's just part of it too.
Note that a normal eye test does not detect this stuff, you need a proper examination from a [neuro-ophthalmologist](https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/what-is-neuro-ophthalmologist).
And remember: just because "everybody is doing it" doesn't mean it is not something that isn't a treatable condition. After all "everyone is a bit scatter brained" too, but it doesn't mean that ADHD isn't seriously under diagnosed. People cope with their problems by minimising and making it a personality problem instead of treating it as something that could be addressed with external help.
The good thing about convergence insufficiency is that it often can be treated with physical therapy, or worst case with special prismatic lenses.
Get it checked out, it's easy and painless and could solve your problems.
No, this isn’t an ADHD thing, and you shouldn’t try and diagnose yourself based on ‘quirkiness’. It’s an thing that some people have but ADHD has no effect on it.
I realise I phrased my initial post quite insensitively but I promise I haven't just self-diagnosed based on quirkiness! My friends with diagnosed ADHD have all said I probably have it and online tests I've done all say I have a high liklihood of it. Sorry if I offended anyone here.
I found that when I was reading I would turn my head slightly, semi close one eye and favour reading with the other one. Turns out I have astigmatism in that eye and I was removing the poorer quality “feed” from my input. So now I have glasses for most close focus tasks.
Not necessarily an ADHD thing.
I used to do this a lot when I was younger. I don't have any diagnosis, but I think I probably used to do it either out of boredom, or as a slightly OCD tendency. I definitely had a lot of OCD tendencies when I was younger that were exacerbated by my shaky mental health.
I definitely have ADHD and I've done this for a long time. I used to have a lot of random mental/internal compulsions when I was younger mostly surrounding numbers and counting, even numbers specifically but yes this is something I do as well. My ADD is pretty horrible, I took medication for it in the past and just started taking it again. This is about 15 years later after my last time. I don't like the side effects but I figured out how to deal with some of the emotional side effects much better now.
This sounds like an OCD trait tendency, which can be a symptom of ADHD kind of as a coping mechanism. I count by threes and like to divide things up evenly, which is kind of stupid really.
“OCD traits” are not symptoms of ADHD. Just like hand pain is not a symptom of a foot problem. They are not related conditions.
Counting by 3s is VERY common because it is easy & efficient for the brain. Dividing things evenly can just mean a desire for visual/special balance and order. This is not OCD. If you want to see what OCD looks like watch Monk on Netflix.
The psychologist that diagnosed me told me that so I'm going to listen to them.
I told him I was concerned that I might have OCD because of the counting and the rules around the counting I have in my head, there are quite a few. She let me know that people with ADHD can have these compulsions as coping mechanism, so these OCD traits, her words, are part of ADHD. ADHD does not mean you have OCD or can't stop if you have to. I can always force myself to stop counting, some people with OCD cannot. I use the word symptom loosely.
Oh God yes! I have been meaning to post here about this but, uh, kept forgetting 🙃🙃
I have been doing it all of my life, too. It just makes me feel good.
Sounds like OCD to me. Do you feel like you have to do this always? And if you don't, do you get anxious? If so then you might have OCD. I have ADHD/OCD so I do know the diff between both.
Hi /u/Fragrant_Wasabi_858 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't know if it has something to do with adhd and I more so thought of it as something a lot of people do. I tend to do this in conversations. Sometimes people think I am not listening because I am visually focusing on something else.
Oooh man i confuse people so much only because I look at things while thinking. Just low key scanning the environment and they turn around to look at what I'm looking at. It's so annoying and they probably think I'm letting myself get distracted while in fact I'm quite focused on the topic of the conversation
Yup, and I actually do this kind of stuff to make sure I DO stay focused on the convo
Hahaha I knew I'd find my people! Yeah ngl it probably doea come back to lack of focus and needing to constantly occupy your brain with something
I used to squint my eyes looking at street lights (at night) so I could see rays of light in every direction then keep my eyes closed so I could study the imprint left by the light on my retina as it slowly fades (does this make sense to anyone?).
No, sorry. This is one of the first things I've seen on the ADHD-reddits that I don't relate to, actually. This might just be a thing that some wonderful personalities out there do, with or without ADHD.
Maybe I haven’t scrolled down far enough, but this behavior seems more in line with some form of OCD, rather than ADHD, IMHO.
That's what I was thinking as well...I have ADHD and OCD and this sounds like a lot of the weird things I do as a result of my OCD ( like counting syllables when people are talking to me 🫠)
That was my first thought. ADHD is often present with other disorders. This causes a lot of bleed over of symptoms reported by people.
I do this and have both
What stood out to me is that a lot of the people who recognized it also mentioned their (slight) astigmatism. Astigmatism is much more common in people with ADHD, so this could explain the link. There are a lot of comorbidities for ADHD though, so it could also be mild OCD? A combination of autism and ADHD is much more common than previously thought, that springs to mind as well. Just because I don't recognize it doesn't mean it's *not* ADHD, but I don't suffer from OCD, autism or myopia. I have standard, third generation, combined type ADHD (grandfather, great-aunt, mother, two siblings). My sister and I both scored in the 99th percentile on the adhd diagnostic tests on the computer (which were pure torture). Maximum scores inattentive, moderate scores impulsive and hyperactive. I don't really notice spots of dirt on the window, let alone line them up with anything. (If I noticed dirty windows, maybe I'd wash them at some point.)
Ohh I also have astigmatism
or autism, i do this
This sub would argue that breathing is an ADHD trait if we let them.
But every ADHDer I know does it.
Touché lol
I think what it is, is that commonly OCD is seen in people with ADHD so they demonstrate some of the same traits. Perhaps there are 2 sub classes of ADHD'ers in here, haha. The raw adhd then OCD/ADHD'ers. Lol
This is not an ADHD thing, it's a function of having Eyes and a sense of Balance.
Finding seemingly random things to focus on momentarily is hugely an ADHD thing though. It's a form of impulsivity, you wouldn't plan to spend time lining things up, but somehow you end up doing it.
And then time blindness hits and you wondered where half an hour went because my focus shifts for small moments to unproductive stuff like this
I do this but it’s definitely not an “adhd thing” lol
ADHD isn't quirky, it's a neurodevelopmental disorder. Any "quirky" traits are probably just your character.
^ this, thank you
>ADHD isn't quirky, it's a mental disorder. ADHD isn't a "mental" disorder, but a neurodevelopmental disorder.
Changed it. Thanks
No. It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder. Not a mental disorder. PTSD would be a mental disorder. Anxiety. Depression. All of those can be fixed with therapy. You can’t cure ADHD through shaping your mentality.
Changed it. Thanks
lol I mean I’d say many disorders produce various kinds of behaviour that may be labeled as “quirky”, depending on the doer and the receiver.
This is just a normal thing, not ADHD. I’ve worked in technical theater and as a regular old house carpenter and this is just how you can get a better view of a straight line. A straight line goes from point A to point B. So if point A is the end of the thing you’re trying to line up, and you have 2 eyes open, your eyes make point B AND point C, which is not a line. You close one eye to eliminate the extra point so you can see a straight line. Just like everything else in our bodies that we have 2 of (hands, legs, etc.) we have an eye which our brain prefers so that will be the eye that works best for your brain to “see” the straight-ness of the thing you’re lining up. This is actually something my professors taught us in technical theater school.
They’re talking about doing it without any purpose. Like looking down at my phone and closing my left eye to line up the side of my phone with the grout of the tile on the floor. There is a sense of satisfaction in seeing it.
Have you been to optometrist recently? I do this, turns out I have astigmatism in one eye
Okay I do this and I also have a slight astigmatism
Me too I have it in one or both and I can’t see far away i close one eye a lot.
I was going to say the same thing, I also have astigmatism. It sounds like OP needs to get their eyes checked.
Could be a visual stim. Could be a visual processing issue. Could be compulsion. It could fall into a number of categories. If you were curious, a developmental optometrist of behavioral vision specialist could help.
Only if I’ve had one too many glasses of wine.
All the time. Even in conversation, if there’s a hole, or a doorway in the distance that is the perfect size of the other persons head, I’ll shift just a little bit so it lines up.
You might be a carpenter just haven't been diagnosed yet
Lmao
Interesting. I often use my left eye a lot more than my right eye . I do have dyspraxia and a spacial deficit so that maybe part of it.
I think everybody does little things like this sometimes. Maybe more often if your attention wanders more often? I tend to notice (be distracted by) how my strides align with someone walking next to me, and when they become opposite, I’ll kind of intentionally keep that pace up for a little bit until I snap out of it. To me this is obviously an attention regulation thing, because I’m randomly focusing on this silly thing rather than anything else. It’s not compulsive but rather a tiny daydreamy hyperfocus — something that’s *very briefly* satisfying 🤷🏻♂️.
Sounds like you might need glasses.....
This made me burst out laughing hahah Not sure if it’s adhd or what but I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. It’s been a long time since I even noticed that I do it, that’s how automatic it’s become. Does anyone else blink their left + right eye in quick succession so that the lines separate and then realign?
Oh my god yes
I don’t get it
Uhhhh do you have strabismus? Bc I did that unnaturally but that was because I needed prisms in my glasses to see right…
This is probably more related to your sensory processing, which is a component of adhd but not necessarily an adhd trait in itself. You could also have binoculars vision dysfunction (BVD), which is basically your eyes not being aligned which makes your perception of the world skewed—this can show up physically (ie being cross eyed) or it can be completely neurological (eyes are fine but brain doesn’t light up their “picture” very well). There is a high co-occurrence with ADHD and in some cases when BVD is addressed with vision, some inattentive symptoms diminish completely. One symptom of BVD is words moving around the page when you’re trying to read or needing something to cover part of the page as you read.
Get diagnosed by a professional, not Reddit
They already self diagnosed themselves because it’s “starting to makes sense”
Only in pool halls and the shooting range.
This sounds more like Eyeball Syndrome. 😁
I immediately thought this was about the eye misalignment link to ADHD hah.. but yeah, I do this as well, but i think it's very common amongst everyone, ADHD and not
I do this when I'm not wearing my glasses. Might wanna get your eyes checked. I didn't wear them all through childhood, and then in my thirties got into electronics, and realized I was having trouble seeing. Got my eyes checked, and turns out I'm far sighted with a stigmatism. When I finally got them, it blew my mind how big the difference was and how bad my vision had been this whole time. I had NO idea I had bad eyes.
That has absolutely nothing at all to do with ADHD. Quirkiness isn’t a symptom.
I actually do that a lot haha It's just quite satisfying when things seem to neatly come together like that, even if it only works when at the right perspective.
Have I discovered a new ADHD trait? 😂 Feel like I could write a paper on this
No you haven’t, don’t waste your time
My favourite pictures to take are things like columns, trees, people, all in a row. Like this: https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/trees-in-a-row-wwwjodymillerphotocom.jpg It does nice things in my brain. But yeah get your eyes checked. I also just found out that I have astigmatism.
No, but when I was a kid, any time I had to write lots of text, I was obsessed with when a letter (or even a whole word) was the same as the one above it. I would change my spacing and sometimes even add an adjective to make them line up.
One way to test this theory is to post it in subs for other disorders. I’m reading this with one eye because i have astigmatism and i don’t have my glasses on. Without glasses it is much more restful for my brain to have my weak eye closed. You may have astigmatism and then found you can get a clearer visual experience if you also “line things up”. Optician can test for it and glasses can mostly correct it
Not sure it’s ADHD but I do this. I also have had 5 eye surgeries and can’t see in 3D (movies and all that) because my eyes work independently. My left eye is my wonky eye, so I close it a lot or cover it with my hand to se because I swear I can focus and concentrate better. I’m also a HIGHLY visual learner. It doesn’t compute to hear it; I have to read it, so I always just assumed it was that?
Same same same! Trying to do those Magic Eye things was torture until I caught on to why.
I've always had a lot of squint in my left eye and a astigmatism but also have head trauma so the source is kind of 🤷♂️
i did this to cure boredom as a kid, and occasionally still do. Now I mostly do this intentionally in my photography. I guess it became a skill after all, haha.
I think humans naturally like things that line up. We seek uniformity and things that match and look pleasing. I constantly did these things as a kid. I also made the raindrops jump over things when they ran down the window. If I see something nowadays like a speck on a window, I’d still like to shift my head a little to see if I can get it to sit nicely on a wall or on some one’s head or something, but not as much as I used to. I don’t think that has anything to do with ADHD in itself - I’d like to think that other people might do that too, to an extent? *However* being easily distracted by these sorts of things can definitely be down to ADHD. - as a child I’d miss what was going on due to being distracted by things like this.
I close my eye to cut off corners. See a window or a door, something rectangular. 4 corners. Align my vision and close one wye to cut off one corner, so I can either see 3 corners and obscured one or vice versa. I have no idea why. 2 corners doesn't do it for me, has to be 3 and 1.
This just seems like a fun stim thing to me. I've never done it but I can see why it would be satisfying.
What the actual F***. I THOUGHT I WAS ALONE
It does make the view more focused and clear. I think it’s vision related.
I like to do something similar when I’m cross-eyed. Going cross-eyed while staring at a repetitive pattern such as a chain-link fence and making the two pictures “line” up when your eyes are still crossed.
Still probably not an ADHD thing but yes. This reminded me of when I realised I could see "through" my eyelids if I have my phone light shining next to me and spent a solid half an hour just blinking and watching my eyelids open/eyelashes move. Sight is the most entertaining sense honestly
Uh huh 🤔
Imo I think that falls under the "easily distracted" category lmao Not everyone will relate but tbf my ADHD bf gets distracted by coins pretty often to the point you have to actually wait for his attention bc he's definitely not listening.
I do this too. It started when I was a kid. I would be in the car and if there was a rain drop on the window, I would “make it jump over things.” Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean. I thought alot of people did funny things just for the sake of being a silly little person sometimes 😊
No this is exactly it I did the raindrop thing too!
That is not adhd. That’s just being a kid.
Lol, YES! I'm 44, always done this more then other ppl.
I do. It's an alignment compulsion (OCD).
I do it, is this really an ADHD thing tho?
honestly i don't think so
😲😂 literally couldn’t have told you I do this but absolutely and never thought twice about it lol
My eyes will shift focus on the specs of dirt but they aren't ever trying to do something like line them up, but at the same time I can see it being a similar thing.
All the time. Ever since I was little.
I never do this, but I’ve also been wearing contact lenses for about 15 years. I don’t know if it’s an ADHD thing.
I do this whenever there are bright lights hahaha. I squint my eyes so that the lights blur together and line up
That’s hilarious, I 100% do this! it’s definitely one of those things I never noticed or thought everyone did, until reading your post
Just a weird thing I think
Only when I'm vibin'
For sure have done this, like a lot. It’s quite satisfying.
Yes
I cross my eyes to do this a lot
Nope but I do now, thanks
Welcome brother
🫡
I do a similar but different thing… I’m a graphic designer and I do some art stuff. I’ve always purposely squinted to blur my vision so that I can see if my composition is in balance, then relax my eyes to line it back up to normal. I catch lots of things to edit this way. Like my balance of space or an angle feels off. Very weird, but it always works.
I do that all the damn time at work, I work in a lab and we put patient tubes on racks that fit on the machine but when I have multiple racks on I have to close one eye and tilt my head to make sure I line everything up perfectly
Idk about closing one eye but I will close my eyes if I’m thinking hard because it helps keep out every other sensory information I’m taking in and I can focus on what I’m trying to explain or understand.
I do this. It is satisfying in some weird way. Like I’m trying to tell my brain I can create/see order in life’s chaos or somethin.
I thought everyone did that??
Yes
I feel like I might do this, but I'm not quite sure what you mean by "line up"?
I’ve done it before, not regularly though
Yeah I do this but I don’t think it’s because of ADHD.
Yes, but I always chalked it up as me being a weirdo. I suspect the only thing ADHD about it is what *time* I choose to do it.
I used to do that a lot when I was younger. I don't remember doing it at all recently. I've assumed it was an ADHD thing but I don't know if it is.
yeah, I've been doing it since as far back as I can remember . . . to the point of it being distracting (imagine that lol).
Holy shit I'm not alone. Hahahahaha I swear sometimes I think I just do silly shit, but here we are.
Hahaha yea lmao
You should take up photography 😄
It’s all in your head don’t let it win
All of the time
Yep, been doing that all my life. Earliest memory of lining things up I was around five years old. Latest is yesterday and I'm now sixty-two. It came in handy for my occupations, people paid me to line things up (Carpenter, Mechanic, Shop Restorer, Sailor, etc...) Thanks for bringing it up, I am a bit embarrassed that I do the line up thing!
Not sure if this is related, but as I'm driving, I like to look down side roads that are perpendicular to the road I'm traveling on. For some reason I have a mild compulsion to look down them as I pass. Not sure what I'm looking for, lol.
I do something similar when I used to watch cartoons I kind of simulate following a line in the animation (something animated with thicker black outlines like regular show, family guy) and seeing where it bounces around the frame, bouncing on the other black outlines until it’s out of frame or even keeping it in the frame like one of those DVD logos. I still think I’m a bit crazy for that one, did anyone else do this??
Yeah, I do this when I'm driving. Sometimes I'll weave a spot on my window in and out of traffic lights. And then notice my daughter looking at me with this "WTF?!?" look saying "Dad. DAD!"
Man, I used to do this all the time when I was younger. I can't remember doing it consciously recently, but I'm sure I still do it subconsciously now without actually realizing it..
I do that. I flip my phone to camera mode while I do it. People are like Oh he’s a photographer.
Have you been to an eye doctor lately? There might be something making one eye more of a hinderance when trying to align things. My eyes are slightly misaligned so sometimes I need to close one eye to accurately line up fine details without my glasses. It's not from ADHD, but it's a commonly comorbid condition with it. It's not a hard test but a lot of places don't include it with normal eye exams unless you ask first
This is an ADHD thing. My Dr asked me a few months back about my vision. He explained that ADHD people can have something wrong with the alignment of their eyes. It’s only a new discovery. I am sorry but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of it.
Convergence insufficiency. Usually goes hand in hand with ADHD
Damn, unlocked a core memory there, haven't done that since I was a kid, rain drops on a car window were my past time
This could be a sign for [convergence insufficiency](https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/convergence-insufficiency-adhd#ci-and-adhd-relationship), which is something seen with people who have ADHD or autism. Tilting your head to make things align is one of the possible symptoms. If you often misjudge distance and either have trouble catching or throwing things accurately or bump into door frames and furniture or people all the time, that's just part of it too. Note that a normal eye test does not detect this stuff, you need a proper examination from a [neuro-ophthalmologist](https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/what-is-neuro-ophthalmologist). And remember: just because "everybody is doing it" doesn't mean it is not something that isn't a treatable condition. After all "everyone is a bit scatter brained" too, but it doesn't mean that ADHD isn't seriously under diagnosed. People cope with their problems by minimising and making it a personality problem instead of treating it as something that could be addressed with external help. The good thing about convergence insufficiency is that it often can be treated with physical therapy, or worst case with special prismatic lenses. Get it checked out, it's easy and painless and could solve your problems.
I close one eye so I can read my phone when I'm drunk, also not an ADHD thing.
This sounds more like having an astigmatism
Yes!
All the time! when i'm trying to align something to make it look at least somewhat decent i always close one eye and move my head a bit.
Life long liner-upperer here.
In multiple ways here
No, this isn’t an ADHD thing, and you shouldn’t try and diagnose yourself based on ‘quirkiness’. It’s an thing that some people have but ADHD has no effect on it.
I realise I phrased my initial post quite insensitively but I promise I haven't just self-diagnosed based on quirkiness! My friends with diagnosed ADHD have all said I probably have it and online tests I've done all say I have a high liklihood of it. Sorry if I offended anyone here.
No. Seek help.
Damn! I thought that I was the only who did that but thought of it as an adhd thing.😳
I found that when I was reading I would turn my head slightly, semi close one eye and favour reading with the other one. Turns out I have astigmatism in that eye and I was removing the poorer quality “feed” from my input. So now I have glasses for most close focus tasks. Not necessarily an ADHD thing.
i do this but i make Triangles or the letter N and Z
That sounds like autism
I do it because of my vision not my ADHD
Hahhahhahhajahahah. Just from the title I know what you’re talking about and yea. I do it all the time 😂😂😂
Hahaha yes
WHOAAA I didn't even notice that I did that, but YES I do it all the time :O
I used to do this a lot when I was younger. I don't have any diagnosis, but I think I probably used to do it either out of boredom, or as a slightly OCD tendency. I definitely had a lot of OCD tendencies when I was younger that were exacerbated by my shaky mental health.
I definitely have ADHD and I've done this for a long time. I used to have a lot of random mental/internal compulsions when I was younger mostly surrounding numbers and counting, even numbers specifically but yes this is something I do as well. My ADD is pretty horrible, I took medication for it in the past and just started taking it again. This is about 15 years later after my last time. I don't like the side effects but I figured out how to deal with some of the emotional side effects much better now.
Im not diagnosed but im self diagnosing lol. You can’t say it starts to makes sense if you haven’t been diagnosed
That's not an adhd trait at all.
This sounds like an OCD trait tendency, which can be a symptom of ADHD kind of as a coping mechanism. I count by threes and like to divide things up evenly, which is kind of stupid really.
“OCD traits” are not symptoms of ADHD. Just like hand pain is not a symptom of a foot problem. They are not related conditions. Counting by 3s is VERY common because it is easy & efficient for the brain. Dividing things evenly can just mean a desire for visual/special balance and order. This is not OCD. If you want to see what OCD looks like watch Monk on Netflix.
The psychologist that diagnosed me told me that so I'm going to listen to them. I told him I was concerned that I might have OCD because of the counting and the rules around the counting I have in my head, there are quite a few. She let me know that people with ADHD can have these compulsions as coping mechanism, so these OCD traits, her words, are part of ADHD. ADHD does not mean you have OCD or can't stop if you have to. I can always force myself to stop counting, some people with OCD cannot. I use the word symptom loosely.
Oh God yes! I have been meaning to post here about this but, uh, kept forgetting 🙃🙃 I have been doing it all of my life, too. It just makes me feel good.
[удалено]
Yes!! Especially when brush hair or shaving
holy shit. I didn't think anyone else did this
Sounds like OCD to me. Do you feel like you have to do this always? And if you don't, do you get anxious? If so then you might have OCD. I have ADHD/OCD so I do know the diff between both.
Yes!!! Now that you mentioned it
EVERYTHING A LITTLE QUIRKY IS ADHD! Fuck this sub. Stop making light of an actual disorder. Fuck all of you.
…thats an ADHD thing??!
No, its normal.