Reading and Attention?

I think it's an attention issue.

Anyway, many times I'll be reading, and I have to reread the same sentence because it didn't sink in. Then again. Sometimes again. It seems to happen the most if I'm reading something of any length (more than a page or so). It's incredibly frustrating, as you can imagine. I've tried reading faster, because maybe I'm just overthinking what I'm reading, but I find that I honestly do not know what I just read and that I have to go back. Sometimes I get stuck on part of a sentence, and keep repeating it in my head till it gets through.

Unsurprisingly, reading becomes very taxing, and something I love ends up becoming painful. It's like I have to really strain my brain to understand anything. Anyone else have a similar problem? Any suggestions? I've mentioned it to my psychiatrist, among others, and basically they say it's a symptom of depression. Fat lot of help that is. Mood-wise, I've been stable, but I still have memory and attention issues. Is there anything I can do?

Bark, I have similar problems when I am during a down period of depression, but when my mood is stable I don't have the problem. I also have similar problems when I am very tired or stressed. Could one of those be affecting you?

I'm constantly stressed, so that might be it. Assignments to finish, family problems, financial worries... not to mention feeling tired often. Actually, sometimes when I want to read something, especially something I have to read (but am still interested in), I get very tired and start falling asleep. Drives me crazy, because I wasn't tired to begin with. As soon as I see the words, it's like someone flicked a switch.

Any suggestions?

I haven't been able to read for the last 10 years as I have no attention span. Longest I can watch telly is a half hour program if I'm lucky

I have the same problem. I tend to skim through not really retaining what I'm reading. I have to read againa and again...I'm totally aware of it and have to make myself slow down and read at a pace as if I were speaking what I'm reading..

I have a different sort of problem. I get bored before the page ends and I stop reading. It takes ALOT to keep me interested in a book.

But as far as your problem, if you can find a quiet place with no one around you and you can focus in a peaceful environment, like a library or park, you may be able to read with better ease.

i just don't read because its boring... i have ADHD and books just seem so... slow! haha have you thought about that for your lack of attention?

I know what you mean, you can sit there and read all of the words but none of it has really registered.

Sometimes I'm able to refocus myself and concentrate to reread it and allow it to penetrate, other times I just need to take a break.

Sometimes I find my mind is thinking about something totally seperate, the only real part of me that's reading is my eyes.

Thanks for all the replies!

Heather11, I have to do the same. If I want to read something and have it sink in, I have to read at a snail's pace. Interestingly enough, when I have to read something, say, for an exam in an hour or so, I magically acquire the ability to read quickly. It's like the anxiety helps me focus. Not quick enough to finish reading everything I should have, though. I wish I could take that focus and bottle it up.

I find reading incredibly interesting. As I go along, I start picturing the concepts in my head, or the interactions, even for nonfiction. For instance, the book I'm reading mentioned microfiches in envelopes, and I could see the envelopes and the letter and the library and then thought about the microfilm magnifiers in my university library and how they moved them somewhere else just like they changed that other room to a graduate study room and now you have to scan your ID to access the room and... I think I have a little ADHD in me. :P I don't only have problems gaining attention, but keeping it. Even with TV shows. And then my lousy memory for what I've even just said... I think my memory and attention are related. Anyway, back to the thread.
Oh, I'm not totally off. As you can see by the above, Phreak, I find myself wandering off as well.

Good article on the subject, Bark, from someone with the same problem:

Paris Review - Life-Affirming Reads, Sadie Stein

Thanks, Perna, I'll try reading it. :P

Oh, and about reading in a park or library or... anywhere really: I get easily distracted. There's no way I could read in a park. I could birdwatch or peoplewatch or identify trees or go for a run or.... I've tried reading outside. I got distracted by the above.

Use your finger and point to the words. Go slowly. Cover the lines below where you are with a bookmark. There are ways to keep your focus on what you are reading. Don't go too fast or you will have to repeat things, or too slow either. If you go too slowly you will get bored and lose track of what you are reading. Going too slow is as bad as reading too quickly.

I think you can only read things that you want to read now, and things that are "basic" at that. I love many children's books and books of quotes and poems, etc. and would read them.

The problem is that I'm a university student, so I have to be able to read a lot.

I guess I should feel fortunate that I am able to wade through books, albeit with difficulty. I remember one day, I was able to read like I used to; I'm going to strive for something like that again.

I do have some shorter books, poetry, essays.... I think if I finish a couple of those, I might gain a bit more confidence in my reading. Maybe I should set aside the mammoth I started and read something a bit more manageable.

Any ideas about how I could build up my attention? Could it be a practice-makes-perfect thing?

Inedible, I should do the bookmark thing. I find my eyes wander a bit too easily, and when I did have a bookmark or ruler or the like, it helped.

I usually don't have trouble concentrating when I read except when I'm having a panic attack, which these days happen infrequently. When I have a panic attack I don't read slowly...I read more quickly. My eyes race through the page before I can absorb everything and my concentration is poor. So only when I'm having a panic attack do I have difficulty reading properly.

I am also in university and struggle with reading too. Some of my readings can be very difficult to comprehend, especially research papers. Sometimes, hearing spoken text helps me understand. Have you considered trying text to speech software? It works with pdf, word and text files.

Reading out loud has also helped.

Are you interested in your courses? Boredom may be a part of it. Where are you reading? Could the environment be contributing to the problem? What about lack of sleep?

Regular reading improves comprehension, speed and concentration.

Reading shorter books is certainly a good way to build up confidence.

I agree about the research papers. As for hearing text, that might work if I read at the same time. I sometimes zone out when listening (even when I'm interested).

I find it helpful as well, when people aren't around.

That's the thing, I am incredibly interested in what I'm reading. That's what bothers me so much. I read somewhere quiet, because I get distracted by conversations. As for sleep, I get enough, but often I'll still feel tired. I think exercise might help with that.

Thanks. I have a couple shorter texts I'll read when I'm done with assignments (which sadly involve reading and writing).

Something that's been confusing me for a while now: today, I was reading some things with no problem at all. If the text is short and I don't feel like I need to read every word, I'm fine. For instance, I have no problem with most PC posts. However, the longer the text, the more problems I have. A long PC post might make me wary, even though I do want to read it all. The more pages in length an article is, the less I want to read it. It's funny, because I might end up reading the same amount in shorter articles. For some reason it's more tiresome and draining, like I have to hold more in my head. This counts for interesting stuff as well. I find that I can't keep my focus and give up. Any idea why this might be the case?

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all your replies. bluecupcake, I find my eyes keep wandering to other paragraphs, but that's a bit different to your problem. I think the bookmark idea will help with that. I'm glad you don't have the attacks as much anymore.

I also have trouble reading. While in grad school, with research papers to do, I really had to just pace myself....read for a specific amt of time and then just get up and do something else. Now, not having that demand, I find I can't read much more than half an hour. I do listen to audio books, mostly at bedtime, to which I fall asleep. These are history type books, no non-fiction. I will restart the book the next night where I drifted off to sleep. I do this primarily to avoid my obsessive thinking which keeps me awake. Listening to the book (history...no fiction) really helps me!

You are reading mainly college textbooks? If so, I think that's normal. I had to re-read every text book when I was in college. College text books are full of information and it's not easy to get the full meaning of what's written most of the times. I was an engineering major and had to read physics and math books countless number of times. Same thing goes for the liberal arts stuff like psychology, etc. And carrying five courses at the same time is very hard. I had a semester where I had lots of trouble taking tests (very easily distracted) and got two Ds, two Fs. Next semester I took a medical leave of absence for my mental disorder.

I've found my attention in regard to reading sometimes is affected by the medications I'm on at the time. I've taken some that gave the same problem you are having then and the dr change my meds and I can read normally. Also, depends if I'm depressed. I can't seem to concentrate when I'm depressed. Hope it gets better for you.

I agree it's an attention issue, Bark I think it's also possible you're just in over your head, that the material, the courses etc. are just too difficult for you. That's something for you to think thru. I believe that if you find you're in over your head, you'll need to rethink what you want to do, find something you like, want to do, would enjoy, could earn money at, etc. I would suggest that if you're in over your head, you stop beating your head against the wall.

Have you tried what's called the SQ3R method? It can work well for textbooks. First, Survey the material. Try to get a general idea of what it's about. Second, Ask Questions you want the answer to. For example, let's say you're trying to read a chapter in psychology, perhaps it's on Freud. So, here you are, skimming through the material, and you encounter the word "superego." Your questions might be: What's a superego? How does it fit into Freud's psychoanalytic theory? Third, Read the material, searching for answers to your questions. Fourth, Recite the material. Talk yourself through the information. When you get done, go back and Review the material.

The last psychology intro texts I taught from had this technique already built in. The usefulness of this approach is its call for active reading.

Of course, some students use highlighters as they read. The danger to this approach is that students might end up just coloring up the pages, but not really accomplishing anything. If you can write in your textbook (assuming it doesn't have any handy-dandy techniques built in), then you might try looking for the topic sentences of paragraphs and then how the author supports them. For instance, say the topic sentence is "Learning to read a textbook can be a difficult process." The author is obligated to support this statement. So, why is it a difficult process? Ideally, the author will develop the paragraph using words such as "first, second," etc. So, you might underline the topic sentence and then write the number "1" for the first point, and underline it. If such a nice approach is not used, then you will have to hunt for the supporting points and number them.

If word definitions are given (and not handily put in bold or such), then put "def" before the word, double underlining it and then underlining the definition.

Make sure to read all the chapter, including any introduction and any conclusion. If tables or figures are mentioned in the text, then stop and actually look at them. They are there to help explain the information.

If the book is not a textbook, then you might find taking notes helpful. My memory is somewhat poor now, so even when I read a novel for my book club, I take notes. (The other members kid me, but, hey, whatever works. Otherwise I tend to get confused about the plot and the characters.)

Note that each technique requires activity, not passivity. That way getting distracted is less likely.

When I was in school (in the Dark Ages), I would try to learn material as I went along. For instance, if I encountered a list of steps that needed to be memorized, then I would try to figure out a way to cue my memory. So, I might note the first word in each step and check to see what the first letter was. Then I would end up with an acronym--say, RMST. I would try to commit that acronym to memory, so when test time came, I would know the steps in order by recalling the letter and then what the rest of the step was. I also tried to use other cues. I learned the hippocampus of the brain is associated with memory by noting this word has the word "campus" in it, reminding me of a college campus. I also used acrostics--sentences made from the first letter of a list. Medical students historically remember the twelve cranial nerves in order by memorizing the acrostic "On Old Olympus' Towering Tops, A Fat-A**ed Girl Vended Snowy Tops." (The first nerve starts with an "O," the second with an "O," etc.)

BTW, yes, as someone said, attention is directly related to memory. If something isn't paid attention to, then it's not going to be remembered. Of course, that's probably obvious!

Finally (yay!),trying to re-read a text over and over is not generally a very effective method. When I used the techniques I mentioned, I generally only had to read a chapter one time.

Hope this long post contains something that's helpful. Happy reading and learning! (Oh, dear, did I put you to sleep?)

Thanks everyone for the replies! Where to start....

seeker, I don't have any audio books, but I think I'd fall asleep and not remember a word! If I'm not actively paying attention, I probably won't have a clue what's being said.

cool09, it's basically for any book, anything that's long and that you have to keep up with. I'll admit, halfway through Payne's post I had to work a little harder (my brain was like: ugh, long, forget it).

gayleggg, when I'm depressed, it's worse. I lose the motivation to read as well. As for medications, one that I was on made me constantly forget what I was saying. Bad times.

Rusty9, sometimes I feel that I'm in over my head, and the reason I can't read or write papers is that I'm not smart enough. But I'm tons interested in psychology, and I can recall the Belmont Report, ganglion cells, the sodium-potassium pump, and William James writing the first psychology textbook (to varying degrees). So I don't think it's a matter of difficulty.

Payne, I've heard of SQ3R. What I've found regarding textbooks is that if I manage to read the text once, I'm set. The problem is reading the text once. I think I'll try it out when classes start up again. As for writing in textbooks... that's something I'm slightly obsessive about. It drives me crazy if a page is bent; what if it had highlighting all over it? The textbooks I have generally have the features you mentioned, though, so I think I'm okay.
And I think I'll try out the memory cues you mentioned. Thanks, and no, you didn't put me to sleep. :P

Last night, I tried reading a relatively easy book I have. I kept reading and rereading sentences till they sunk in, otherwise I had no clue what I'd just read. As usual, I got frustrated and put it aside after I read a few pages, if that.

I've noticed something. If I'm reading a news article or something I expect to forget, I can read it pretty quickly, not reading all the words but getting the idea. I can't do that with a book, a story, something long. I have to read every word, and understand every sentence. And my brain sees how much reading is left (with a book, there's always a lot left), and decides to just give up. I can read pages of short PC posts, but one page of long PC posts and I sometimes give up. I see all the words and my brain shuts down. It's like staying focused for that long is too draining. A short post is a couple words, with a beginning and an end, and I don't need to hold those ideas in my head when reading the next post. But if I approached a long post with the same mindset, I'd forget the beginning by the time I reached the end! (Or so I feel.) From a totally unscientific standpoint, I know my working memory is horrible. If I manage to get it into long-term memory, great. But holding it in working memory is a feat in itself. I can't even remember what I've just said sometimes: I can tell you it was something like so.

Hope what I wrote made sense. I don't tend to go back and reread and edit because I tend to be a perfectionist as well. I wonder if I'd have trouble reading all this? Hm, that's a thought.