Edit: it appears that this is not exclusive to ADHD.
Posting this meme stemmed from my own efforts to explain my thought process when doing math and how it is similar to other people with ADHD doing math, while being different from every neurotypical person I’d talked to on the same subject.
While I didn’t make the meme itself, instead finding it in my saves and wanting to share, I did accidentally spread misinformation that I had only backed up with personal anecdotal evidence.
I’ll leave this up just so people can see the explanation below but this appears to not be ADHD related and just due to different people doing math in their heads differently…
Omg i think I have adhd
wait, no, this is how everyone does math. right? …right?
I think so, but I’m so deep on the autism spectrum that I’m probably SCUBA-certified, so…
I calculate percentage like this. If 100% is the value, then I know what 10% is, then1%, so I do increments of both until I get to the correct value.
It may sound stupid,but it does help me get a % fast enough.
Ooh good trick
Thank you! That’s pretty neat. I tried 27% of 65
I added two 10% increments (6.5+6.5)… but instead of adding 0.65 (1%) seven more times, I added a 5% increment (6.5/2 = 3.25) and then 2 increments of 1%
So 6.5+6.5+3.25+0.65+0.65 = 17.55
I still had to use a calculator to add those weird numbers (and also check my work), but it does seem really practical for easier numbers. I usually need percentages for pricing (i.e. discounts/tipping), and the percentages are normally in increments of 5%, so that’s pretty useful for figuring out a 15% or 75% of something real quick… or at least get me really close (when talking about something like $X.99)
Regardless, I appreciate the head trick!
Edit: I guess I could’ve done 30% and then subtracted 1% twice; but it’s the same issue (of adding weird numbers) with the same outcome anyway. So thanks again!
Another neat trick: X% of Y is equal to Y% of X. That is, in your example, 27% of 65 == 65% of 27. So check and see which combination might provide fewer steps/messy numbers.
13.5 (50% of 27) + 2.7 (10% of 27) + 1.35 (5% of 27) = 17.55
This is a good approach, but for this example I break it up as:
7+6=7+3+3=10+3=13
I did 5 (+2) + 5 (+1) = 10 (+3) = 13
For me it’s:
6 is half a dozen, so 6+6=12, then 7 is 6+1, so 6+7 is 12+1=13
For anything times 5, I just take the other number, half it, and then multiply by 10. Voila. Times 5.
This has nothing to do with ADHD… mixing up stuff is just confusing people
I try not to be all “that’s not ADHD that’s just normal” here but yeah this one has nothing to do with ADHD.
And I try not to be all “I’m not ADHD and I do this” on this com, but it’s true.
One of the worst parts of the latest ADHD wave
A Therapist told me that there is a lot of nonsense on the web, especially in the AuDHD space, and yeah it tends to go in a “you are a scorpio, you do X” way
I’m a scorpio and I do X all the time
7+6=? 7+3+3=? 10+3=? 13=13 (Not ADHD)
That’s just called using heuristics, friend, though if ADHD impeded their progress in math, maybe ADHD people rely more on heuristics than neurotypicals do.
Yeah this is just math.
6=3+3, 7+3=10, 10+3=13
PS I had to edit this post because of typos.
Prostrate yourselves, defective prole masses. I’ve memorized my +/- tables all the way up to 8.
My brain actually computes it first as 7 + 5 = 12 + 1 = 13.
I add 5s together a lot at my work (14, 19, 24… 63, 68, 73…) hard to explain why, but my brain jumps to 5s very easily for addition because of it.
Similarly, when I’m counting stuff I always do
Group of 3 Group of 3 Group of 4
Okay that’s 10
Rinse repeat.
It just works very well for me to count lots of things very quickly and easily. I can easily see what a group of 3 or 4 looks like so the whole process is super fast.
Same but for some reason 7+5 giving 12 is so amusing to me. It’s like two ugly people giving birth to an adoring baby. I hate odd numbers btw.
Same! I don’t have ADHD, but I do 7 + 3 = 10, then 10 + 3 = 13
For some reason, 7 and 6 aren’t addable to me.
Wait, let me check the math…
6+6=12 and 7 is one more than 6, so 6+7=13
Cool. Checks out.
Dude trying to get it from first principles!
Which is what I also lean towards. Give it to me step by step and I need to clearly map out each one… then the mind wanders and when I snap back to attention, I’ve lost the plot already, my mathematical surroundings are unclear, disorienting.Add to this an erratic series of math teachers - some of them good, some of them blah - and this day trigonometry to me is a jumbled mess, but I loved calculus and was pretty good at probability and statistics.
7 + how much is ten? 3
How much is left? 3
Ten plus however much is left = 13Wait I do that kind of math and I am not adhd?
I’m aspergers with adhd, so 🤷
I’m sorry, but this is a silly statement. This is by no means an ADHD thing. It’s a pattern understanding or logic
I’m trying to teach my kid this. Not to use this specific method for addition, but recognize and understand patterns in math.
What most people misunderstand about mental illness diagnoses is that most people have most of these symptoms. It’s only when these symptoms overlap and disrupt your ability to function as an individual that they require a diagnosis and medication/therapy.
