This afternoon something embarrassing happened to me. Someone asked me a question – twice – and because I wasn’t paying attention, I had to ask them to repeat it a third time.

I wasn’t trying to ignore them or be rude, I was just distracted. I was in an unfamiliar place and a little stressed out.

That kind of thing happens a lot when you have ADHD, but the embarrassment never goes away.

I’ve learned the best way to handle it is to apologize and tell the person I was distracted. Most people are OK with that.

I’ve also learned to never try and guess what they asked and then attempt an answer.

Once someone asked me a question that I didn’t hear and I gave what I thought was a safe answer: “I don’t know.”

Not such a safe answer after all when the question was “Where do you live?”.

So if you’re like me, getting caught occaisionally at not paying attention, remember: honesty is always the best policy.

And then try really hard not to do it again – at least in the next hour or so.