![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsOne of the symptoms of my ADHD/interictal syndrome/whatever the fuck this is has reared its head in my learning how to tie people up.
When I was a small child, one of the tests they did to determine my ADHD was a orientation test, and it went something like this:
“You are facing north. Turn left, turn right. What direction are you facing?”
“North.”
“You are facing South. Turn left. Left again. What direction are you facing?”
“North.”.
“Okay. You are facing north. Turn left. What direction are you facing?”
“East.”
You are facing north. Turn right. Turn right. Turn left. What direction are you facing?"
“East.”
Essentially, my north and south were always correct. My east and west were always random. And they couldn’t figure out why. But I knew why: I didn’t know what direction “left” or “right” was.
But I knew that if I was consistent, then “left” always meant turn their same way. “Right” meant, for that particular session, turn the opposite way.
Every time I started, when they said turn left or turn right, I could easily have gone clockwise or counterclockwise. At random. Because I had ADHD, I couldn’t pay attention to directions like that.
I remember when I was learning to tie my shoes, my mother had such a trial teaching me which direction to wrap the string around my thumb to make the loop for the bow. I could never know if I was going up over the the thumb or below the thumb. Of course, every kid was taught to go up and around the thumb, not down and around the thumb, and with enough effort I eventually memorized “tie up, tie up.”
I have rediscovered this problem while practicing my Shibari knots because I can’t remember which direction to make the loop for the final tie to make the cuff for a single column. I do it clockwise or counterclockwise at random. That information doesn’t stick in my brain.
I’m going to have to repeat it a lot until it does stick.
The special irony of the shoelace anecdote is that it has long been known that going under the thumb while making your loop actually creates a stronger and more balanced knot that is less likely to come undone during the course of the day.
Here's a TED Talk (eyerolls are acceptable, but it's only three minutes long) documenting how the "going under" version of the knot is better:
When I was a small child, one of the tests they did to determine my ADHD was a orientation test, and it went something like this:
“You are facing north. Turn left, turn right. What direction are you facing?”
“North.”
“You are facing South. Turn left. Left again. What direction are you facing?”
“North.”.
“Okay. You are facing north. Turn left. What direction are you facing?”
“East.”
You are facing north. Turn right. Turn right. Turn left. What direction are you facing?"
“East.”
Essentially, my north and south were always correct. My east and west were always random. And they couldn’t figure out why. But I knew why: I didn’t know what direction “left” or “right” was.
But I knew that if I was consistent, then “left” always meant turn their same way. “Right” meant, for that particular session, turn the opposite way.
Every time I started, when they said turn left or turn right, I could easily have gone clockwise or counterclockwise. At random. Because I had ADHD, I couldn’t pay attention to directions like that.
I remember when I was learning to tie my shoes, my mother had such a trial teaching me which direction to wrap the string around my thumb to make the loop for the bow. I could never know if I was going up over the the thumb or below the thumb. Of course, every kid was taught to go up and around the thumb, not down and around the thumb, and with enough effort I eventually memorized “tie up, tie up.”
I have rediscovered this problem while practicing my Shibari knots because I can’t remember which direction to make the loop for the final tie to make the cuff for a single column. I do it clockwise or counterclockwise at random. That information doesn’t stick in my brain.
I’m going to have to repeat it a lot until it does stick.
The special irony of the shoelace anecdote is that it has long been known that going under the thumb while making your loop actually creates a stronger and more balanced knot that is less likely to come undone during the course of the day.
Here's a TED Talk (eyerolls are acceptable, but it's only three minutes long) documenting how the "going under" version of the knot is better:
