Consuming media with ADHD

After watching Brand New Home, my husband and I decided that we wanted to rewatch the whole of the MCU from the very beginning – TV shows and oneshots an all.

To be honest, I remember basically nothing. I think this is about my ADHD (it might not be. I'm not completely sure), but I only really remember plot details well once I've consumed a piece of media four or five times. I can say such interesting things about a text when I first watch or read it, but then it just flies out of my head.

Frankly, it's a good thing that I still love consuming the same content over and over again like I did when I was a kid! Otherwise this would be very tiresome. Although, maybe that's the reason I love rewatching things so much? And it definitely helps with my main job as an English teacher! Reading Hamlet at least once a year really doesn't bother me because I guarantee I will remember something absolutely important that I forgot was even there.

I can promise you I'm going to watch Sinners another six or seven times before you catch me writing anything about it. And I'm on, like, episode 200 of One Piece for the first time right now, and my husband is saying things like 'Do you remember when...'. No Absolutely not. Frankly, I don't even remember the order of when the current straw hats joined the crew! Was Usopp before or after Nami? Who knows?

It's holding me back, to be honest. Mainly because I really want to watch loads of the classic films and TV shows that impact pop culture. But right now, even when I do watch them, it seems like I haven't because I forget so much. I can't connect with people over the content and when I say 'Oh I've seen that' and people try to engage with me, I have this deep paranoia that they'll think I'm lying.

So, being at teacher at a film school, I just can't keep up. Watching The Gladiator another four times before engaging with it means that I don't have the time to rewatch E.T or watch Jurassic Park for the first time. And I really, really want to be able to connect with students on the media they love. Discussions in the staff room would be much easier, too.

When I was young – before I even considered ADHD a possibility, let alone got diagnosed with it – I used to worry about the fact that I didn't have a good memory. The people in the books I read used to be able to give detailed descriptions of people who grabbed their purse or something to the police, enough to get a whole police sketch done! I wonder: if I ever need to do something like that, will people think I'm just lying because I can't even remember what I had for breakfast? I wonder if this is the reason why my memories before age 11 are so hazy...

The funny thing is that I remember random facts very well. Go figure.

But if there's anyone here who's found my ramblings interesting, wish me luck on my MCU marathon! It might take a while! Maybe I'll post about it here. For posterity (except the posterity in this case is just me when I've forgotten I rewatched them in the first place).