Severe Concentration/Memory Issues in the Workplace

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After returning to a working environment for the first time in almost 6 years, I have learnt that there are many occasions where I am profoundly overwhelmed by the overlapping sounds I can hear in our company's open plan office. I seem to hear everything and as a consequence I find it immensely difficult to focus on what is being uttered by the person whom I am shadowing.

Furthermore, my employers frequently ask me to review my day, yet shamefully I can seldom remember what has transpired during it.

Does anyone else experience similar difficulties? If so, how do you overcome them?

You could keep a list of things that you have done during the day.

Same issue here. Although I do have Dyspraxia and suspected Attention Deficit Disorder.

I would recommend filling out Dr Amen's ADD test - http://addtypetest.com

If you're like me, you're probably not the best judger of yourself. But try to answer each question as honestly as you can.

According to the test, I might have:

Over focused ADD
Ring of Fire ADD
Temporal lobe ADD
Anxious ADD

Whilst I know a poor working memory is directly associated to autism, I fear that mine is ludicrously bad. Irrespective of what condition one might have, I suspect most can remember what happened during their day. For me it always seems to be a haze.

I too returned to work after almost 3 years off. Plus it had been over 10 years since I had done the line of work returned to. Like you all the distractions of an office made it difficult to do. I was in sensory overload to the point I kept shutting down. And if a co-worker or boss needed to converse about something or a phone call came in, it took me forever to get back to where I was at in the projects. In short, it was a total disaster and doctors couldn't find anything that worked. That was back in 2011. I am now on SSDI and unable to work due to these issues and others.

I was up-front with my employer about what was happening and the treatment I was getting. All that did was to hasten my end. He had a business to run (rightly so) and could ill afford the anchor I had become. I do hope you have better success then I. I truly believe that all the years of pushing myself to achieve at the level of NTs, I could no longer do so at my age. Younger minds are more easily able to cope then when brains age (they do people won't always admit it) and the ability to keep up and compensate is diminished.

Edit: For me too the day was a haze. It was basically a roll of the dice to remember what had gone on or who called. I kept notes but one doesn't always have them at hand in the workplace. And we won't even go into remembering details...

I took the test as well. Haven't gotten the email as of yet, however I took a screen shot of the results and same as your results! Your description sounded somewhat similar to mine so thought I'd have a look for myself...

It happens to me as well. If somebody asks me what I had for breakfast that day, I often find myself thinking long and hard about it. It comes to me eventually, but certainly not as quickly as it should.

There are some supplements out there that can help with this type of issue however. For example, i'm taking Ginkgo Biloba along with Omega 3 fish oils. I can't comment on their effectiveness yet, as i've only started taking them. But based on what i've read about them, my hopes are high for improved working memory function. I would also recommend brain training games to help "teach" your brain methods for remembering things. Doing these kind of training exercises helped me to remember Pi to over 100 decimal places, which is astonishing considering just how bad my memory actually is. So I would certainly recommend giving them a try.

I also received the exact same results.