A.B.O.U.T. Behavior #14 : Missing Details
As the impeachment process unfolds, Mr. Trump keeps repeating that his phone call with Ukraine’s president was “perfect” and urges people who question that to “read the transcript”. However, even his staunchest critics acknowledge numerous comments in the current version of the written record that are at best ambiguous, rather than being exculpatory. Only if one omits all of the details could one conclude this was a “perfect” conversation.
I am not wading into arguments about whether one individual conversation exonerates or incriminates the president. Similarly, I am not going to take sides on whether God, or the devil, is in the details. Rather I will delve into the role of ADHD in causing individuals to neglect details.
Because of problems with directing and sustaining attention, people with ADHD often miss details. When they are in an attentive state, and proffered a few facts in isolation, most people with ADHD can master that information. And many individuals with ADHD can memorize vast quantities of trivia about subjects that fascinate them. But on a day to day basis, they are much more likely than the average person to skim over, omit, and never process items presented in a sea of other elements.
