Any area of life that requires comprehensive reading gets screwed for me because of this issue. Every time I try to read any book, either out loud or quietly to myself in my head… While I’m attempting to do so, my mind wanders. And then, by the time I’m done reading I can’t remember anything I’ve just read because of all the wandering my mind did during the reading process. This has been a problem since I was a child, I’m 40 now and it’s still a problem, and it feels like it is getting worse as I age.

For example, it usually goes something like this, if I’m reading about gardening for example, and in the first sentence, tomatoes are mentioned… Suddenly my mind starts going off on a tangent about the first time I had tomatoes, the different types of tomatoes, then I start to think about how some tomatoes taste better than others, at some point, I’ll probably think about the scene in lord of the rings where Denethor is eating cherry tomatoes, then I might start going off on a tangent about Lord of the rings, hobbits, Gollum, Ian McKellan, which will then make me start thinking about Magneto, X-Men, Patrick Stewart, then onto Star Trek…but then I will try to get back on track with reading.

But as soon as I start reading text again and I see the word tomato, then I start to think about a general overview of the history of things I enjoy tomatoes on versus things I don’t enjoy tomatoes on. Then I start thinking about tomatoes on burgers, then I start thinking about burgers from various places, which burgers are better, which ones are not. Then I start thinking about different types of cheeseburger preparation methods. All while this is happening, my eyes are still technically reading the text in front of me.

By the time I’m done reading about gardening, I don’t remember anything that was in it. It’s like I see one thing and it triggers my mind to go off on a tangent, and then another tangent, and then another tangent and then, by the time I’m done, my mind is so far removed from what I’m actually reading. It’s ridiculous. This has hindered so many areas of my life over the years. It’s also why I enjoy comic books, because comic books have visual depictions along with the text and so the issue does not happen there. does anyone else struggle with this?

I can’t figure out what to do about this. I’ve tried medication over the years, Ritalin, Concerta, now I’m on Strattera and it doesn’t seem to be doing anything good but I am experiencing some other unfortunate negative side effects, so I’m probably gonna be going back to the drawing board soon with my doc to see what other medicinal options I have.