Do you miss details?

[picklenose]

I always thought this is just because I'm not a detail-oriented person but I've also wondered if it may in some way be related to E.

Here's an example of what I mean. Let's say I meet someone who's wearing a red hat that says Coke on it. I will usually notice that the person is wearing a hat and I'll probably even take note of the fact that it's a red hat but unless I'm particularly "sharp" that day, I will more than likely not notice it says Coke on it unless Coke happens to be my favorite soda.

I have noticed that other people seem to be much sharper in noticing very insignificant details while I frequently miss them until someone points it out and says something like "You didn't notice that?"

[epileric]

Let's say I meet someone who's wearing a red hat that says Coke on it. I will usually notice that the person is wearing a hat and I'll probably even take note of the fact that it's a red hat but unless I'm particularly "sharp" that day, I will more than likely not notice it says Coke on it unless Coke happens to be my favorite soda.

If you would notice the hat if it has your favourite soda then I would think that it's not your sense of awareness that is poor as much as that you don't retain details that you perceive as irrelevant.

I'm very much the same way but I feel that my sense of awareness is also very poor. For example I tend to play solitaire when I need to focus on something different for a change & I've noticed that I tend to be more likely to miss moves if the cards involved are at opposite sides of the game.

[picklenose]

If you would notice the hat if it has your favourite soda then I would think that it's not your sense of awareness that is poor as much as that you don't retain details that you perceive as irrelevant.

However, it bothers me that I do this because you never know when a seemingly irrelevant detail is going to be important.

If you asked me 20 minutes later if I saw a guy wearing a red Coke hat, I would say I saw a guy wearing a red hat but I would not even recall there was any writing at all on it.

It makes me wonder how some people perceive even those details they don't need. Not only that but they retain them and are able to recall them very precisely. I wonder if that's just a matter of them being extraordinarily detail-oriented or if there is something lacking in my mind that makes me unable to do it.

[occb]

My partner nightfighter, who is experiencing seizures, is waaaaayyyyy more detail-oriented than I am. I am not kidding. He says, did you see that?" to me on, pretty much, a daily basis, and my answer is normally "uh... no? What?"

I may notice more detail about what happens to him, because his awareness is affected during seizures, but when it comes to noticing stuff in the world, it just flies right by me.

I was on the train a few days ago, and there was a man who was apparently spouting off offensive rhetoric. I was so lost in thought that I completely missed what he said. I just knew there was some sort of kerfuffle going on -- and I was standing right beside the guy! Brushing shoulders! Yeesh.

[Rae1889]

I am very keen on details. I have a photographic memory. with even 2 minutes of looking at soemthing.

There was a test I did in school and you looked at this photo and they didnt tell you why. then you had to answer questions. I remembered license paltes of cars in the photo, how many people drinking coffee and where and what they were wearing etc. and it was wierd that I was the only one in the class that could

[Zoofemme]

I am detail oriented to the extreme if I am focused. If I'm not focused I could care less, lol. Riding in a car has little interest for me...I usually venture off into my own little world then, it really annoys my husband because he is always pointing things out much like nightfighter does to occb

[picklenose]

I am very keen on details. I have a photographic memory. with even 2 minutes of looking at soemthing.

I always found that fascinating when someone could do that.

I can do it to a certain extent when my mind is firing on all cylinders but even then, I don't have that 100% retention. I do tend to sometimes remember things almost exactly the way I saw them.

[Endless]

I always had an iron-clad memory, and an eagle eye for details. As my seizures have been getting worse, my eye for detail has been sliding. It's gotten serious, to the point where I walk into a room in my house, know it is completely out of order and messy with stuff everywhere, but if you asked me which items are out of place I couldn't tell you. I walk by it every day and it never registers. Now my friends help me and I hire a cleaning person once in awhile. I've told my epileptologist about this, but he dismisses it and thinks it only counts in keeping a clean house. But it has screwed up my whole life - paying bills, noticing things about my friends, pretty much everything in life.

I am wondering if where my seizures are coming from affects the decline in my ability to notice detail. I've noticed when I'm feeling better - aka seizures under control - the mist clears and I begin seeing all this stuff again. Then I'm shocked at the state of my home and I start to pick everything up and put it away. Then the meds don't work out and I'm taken off, I feel cruddy again and the house goes to h*$$.

So far my coping mechanisms: auto bill pay online which automatically pays 95% of my bills whether I owe something or not, housekeeper, a backpack that I put anything in that I can't do without so I can find them (e.g. meds, purse, cellphone), a white board on the inside of my front door where I keep a checklist for that day (remember to feed animals, water plants, etc.), bins with labels for my closets & pantry so when the bin is empty I know to go look for the thing in the house. Not all of it is perfect or all in place yet. I work on it on my good days. There don't seem to be many of those yet, but I have hope.