What is “Time Blindness?”

Trouble focusing and hyperactivity are the two symptoms of ADHD that get the most attention. But there are many, many others – some of which go completely ignored or unnoticed, because they do not fit what most people know about ADHD.

We’ll talk about many examples of this over the next few weeks, but one of the ones to talk about today is what’s known as “time blindness.”

Time blindness is, as the name suggests, the inability to really understand and notice the passage of time. What this means is that, when a person is doing a task or engaging in an activity, they do not have an internal sense of whether minutes or hours have gone by. They may overestimate or underestimate the amount of time that has passed, or they may not have a concept of how much time is needed in order to complete a task.

Examples of Real Life Situations of Time Blindness

Let’s look at some examples of how time blindness would look for a teenager that is struggling with it:

  • Wasted Phone Time – Your teenager has a lot to do, acknowledges they have a lot to do, but ends up spending hours upon hours on their phone anyway. Not only is phone addiction a common issue with ADHD, but also those teens don’t necessarily realize how much time they’re spending on it, causing them to lose track.
  • All Nighters – Because a teen with ADHD may not realize how much time a task takes, they may procrastinate confidently, assuming that they have plenty of time to complete a homework assignment, only to find that they’re up later and later as they misjudged how long it would take.
  • Lateness – Being late to things often can also be an example of time blindness in action. A student that always seems to be running late to the bus, or hits “snooze” even when not tired because they assume they have plenty of time, may have this issue.
  • “I’ll get to it!” – Someone with time blindness may not recognize how little time they have left to get something done before they’ll have too much to do. For example, if your student has to fill out the FAFSA for college by February 15th, and it’s February 1st, the idea that they may have to get it done sooner or that it might be difficult/take time may be hard for them to understand.

Teens with ADHD may stay out too late with friends and not realize how late it’s getting. They may not be able to identify things they have to do in order, or pack things too close together because they don’t recognize the difficulty managing all the commitments. They may arbitrarily and firmly decide they’re going to move out of your house “by January” only for you to find they haven’t completed a single task for them to do so by March, and don’t seem to recognize how long it’s been.

People experience time blindness in many different ways, but in all situations, it’s an ADHD symptom that often goes unnoticed and forgotten. For more information about ADHD, or help supporting those with ADHD, reach out to ADHD Training Center, today.

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