“Tossing” Might Be A Symptom Of ADHD — Here’s How To Tell If You’re Doing It

Many of us have heard of the DOOM pile.

An acronym for “didn’t organize, only moved,” a DOOM pile could be a junk drawer with receipts, bills and other papers you’ve put off sorting. It could be a cardboard box in the corner of your bedroom full of desk clutter from your old job and other things you forgot you owned.

For many with ADHD ― or others who stare down DOOM piles and feel overwhelmed ― it’s easy to default to a less-than-ideal solution to all that organizational chaos: tossing. Yep, just throwing it all away, with fingers crossed there’s nothing too important in there. 

Cate Osborn, an author and ADHD advocate and educator, has tossed her DOOM pile and said she knows plenty of others in the ADHD community who’ve done the same thing. 

“It’s not something that I would brag about or say that I’m particularly proud of, but I do know what it’s like to be so completely overwhelmed that it’s easier to say ‘you know what, I don’t need any of this’ and just throw everything away.” 

Osborn, who’s known online as Catieosaurus and hosts the podcast “Sorry, I Missed This: The Everything Guide to ADHD and Relationships,” gave an example to illustrate: organizing her desk. 

Inevitably, there are some items that don’t have an assigned place in her house. She’ll put that bric-a-brac in a box to sort through later on in the day. But then later comes and Osborn has run out of steam and focus.

“I’ll say, ‘OK, I’ll set this bin of stuff aside and go through it later,’ but because I also struggle with task prioritization and management and working memory, I keep forgetting about the box until I see the box, and often when I see the box, I’m in the middle of another task, so it sits for longer,” Osborn explained. 

Finally, days, maybe weeks later, she’ll go through the box, only to experience choice paralysis: “What should I keep?” she’ll ask herself. “What if I need it? What if it’s useful later on.”

Just like that, DOOM boxes pile up, until one day, she finally decides to sell the stuff online or, more likely than not ―  toss it. (In her case, dropping it off at a local donation center.)