At the very end of 2018, I was screened for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder after a slow awakening to the possibility that my inability to finish long-term projects, to sit still, and to follow through on an ever growing list of “new interests” were not moral shortcomings to think, pray, or wish my way out of, but perhaps indicated a larger underlying condition. I arrived at the office for my exam late, having gotten lost and then frustrated with myself. The doctor was strangely accepting and understanding of me when I called to ask how to get to him.
I took a computerized test that involved watching a succession of colored shapes (either red or blue, either squares, circles, or triangles) appeared on a screen. Any time that two exact images appeared in succession, I was to push the button on a clicker I’d been handed. The test, supposedly only 5 minutes in length, stretched on endlessly, it seemed. At last I finished, feeling strangely winded.
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