My name is Lindsay Victor and I have a serious problem.
CLTOPCD, or compulsive listening to other people’s conversations disorder, is an issue of mine that always seems to make an appearance whenever I am doing homework, reading, or especially, taking AP tests.
I have always had a problem with being distracted by noise, but have adapted my habits to address my shortcomings. Instead of spending nights doing homework in front of the television or in a room filled with music, I have spent my high schools years doing homework in COMPLETE silence. My mother joking plans to send me to college next year with a pair of noise cancelling headphones, but I am seriously considering asking her to buy them for my graduation present so I can control my CLTOPCD.
I still cannot figure out why I have not been able to teach myself how to block out outside noise. Whenever I am in a room that is silent besides one or two people whispering, my brain focuses in on the conversation, totally determined to figure out what amazingly interesting topic they must be talking about.
My latest CLTOPCD outbreak occurred during my AP Literature Test last week. The room was silent and everyone in the cafeteria was working on reading through passages and answering multiple choice questions. All of a sudden, I hear a noise: the Sports Center theme song. I turn around and see that the televisions in the cafeteria have been left on. Really? I am testing in a freezing cold cafeteria, in an uncomfortable chair, AND the proctors have left Sports Center on?
Although I know that I will not be able to avoid the sound in the room, I am the type of person who will just sit there and fume internally, instead of just calling someone over and asking them to turn off the television. Fortunately, my new favorite person, Jes Vasko, decided to call over a proctor, who quickly proceeded to turn the television off.
The main issue with my situation is that I refuse to address it. Instead of realizing that most people are probably having conversations about topics that have no relevance to me, I decide to listen, because maybe, this one time, they will actually be talking about something important to me.
I hope that my discussion today is the first step on the road to coping with my CLTOPCD.
If you have any advice about how to help me deal with my extreme nosiness and fear that I will miss out on some juicy information, please do not hesitate to email me!
I'm pretty much the same way. I can occasionally do some homework with music on, (it depends on the subject and the assignment), but, otherwise, I have to work in silence. I get easily distracted, and I can never finish my homework if I have some sort of outside stimulus. It's the curse of having a single track mind!
ReplyDelete-Katie
Don't look at this problem as a bad thing! Look at it as you just being very observant and cautious of your surroundings! These traits would definitely come in handy at UVA when you're going to be walking home from the library at 2 in the morning (which will occur very often because you're going to study super duper hard all the time, right!?).
ReplyDeleteIf you broaden the scope to pretty much anything found around a house or school, that'd probably be what I have when I try to do anything work-related. It seems like if there's any sort of excuse I can find, I'll usually take it. That sense of "maybe it'll be important THIS time" describes my response to distractions very well, I'd say. It's nice to know that I'm not the only "paranoid" person around, haha.
ReplyDelete-Kevin
Blargh, noise is probably the worst distraction. If it's something that simply looks distracting, you can turn your head away at least, but you really can't block out sounds short of looking like a lunatic who keeps his hands over his ears nonstop.
ReplyDelete--Marty
I love to eavesdrop on conversations that contain juicy tidbits of gossip!
ReplyDeleteI also love to listen to short snippets because then they're out of context and I'm like, "This conversation sounds so awkward!"
It makes my day. And I know, that's sad that I still have conversations with my imagination. But hey, what else am I supposed to do in high school?
Oh, that was Emily by the way.
ReplyDeleteI love to eavesdrop on other people's conversations! Sometimes when my family and I go on road trips, I put my ipod in and start listening to my music, but then my parents start having an interesting conversation (I can tell my their intense hand gestures). So, I put my ipod on mute and listen in secret to what they are talking about. Needless to say, I also suffer from this disorder.
ReplyDelete-Nicole