The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Hyperfocus

6 Comments: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Hyperfocus

1. Hyperfocus is a huge thing in my life. I am extremely artistic. Im crafty and handy. These are the projects I usually get lost in. I’ve accidentally spent all day making something. People don’t understand that once you are locked in there is no concept of time. I didn’t stay in the backyard until after dark on purpose, I stopped working because all of a sudden it was too dark to see what I was doing! Sometimes everything just sounds like background noise, even when I know someone is talking to me and I try and pay attention! And when I get snapped out of that mode I still can’t stop thinking about it. It takes a while before I loose the feeling of needing to go back to doing that thing. Although it mostly happens with things I enjoy, this can happen with things like cleaning. Sometimes I’m afraid to sweep the floor because I know I’ll end up on my hands and knees scrubbing and polishing it! Or I’ll look up something and end up reading for hours about a random subject.. It sounds silly saying that outlook but its true. I now set timers for myself but that doesn’t always work. The other problem is complete exhaustion after, even if it was a project I was doing sitting down. My husband says its “selfishness” which is very hurtful. I have created some beautiful things. Every piece of furniture in our house is antique or salvaged and refinished. But it does get in the way of every day life. I had a job I loved and would hyper focus on work. Now I stay home so my hyper focus is all over. I try and put routines in place and that also helps some but I can’t change the way my brain works and it’s very frustrating when someone can’t understand.

2. I’ve had similar problems and challenges with test taking. In my case, I found background noise the biggest problem in maintaining focus. Beside taking ADHD medication (which does work!), I found using earplugs extremely helpful with combating this (the big orange ones), especially math problems where I have to slow my brain down and pay closer attention to the language being used.

   Also, if you’re in post-secondary it may be worthwhile seeking out accommodations. I did, and I found it well worth the effort and inconvenience getting them processed, because I ended up getting extra exam time and was able to write them in separate room, therefore eliminating my greatest obstacle, which was noise. With that stated, I did have to pay $2600 to get officially diagnosed, which was a huge detractor. However, my gpa performance afterwards, was well worth the investment, as it put my on the Honours track, versus struggling to get exams completed on time. As a result, I also received awards that completely offset the entire cost of my tuition, so the payoff in my case was doubly worth the investment.

3. For me I struggle with all these things. However, I find the worst aspect of this is the aftermath of intense hyperfocus episodes, where I sometimes struggle with extreme physical, mental, and emotional fatigue for days afterwards. I find now that I am at least aware of this, it is easier to manage and plan for in the event of, but it is definitely quite debilitating when it happens. I sometimes liken it to having a big-block engine, capable great displays of power, but quickly overheats and takes a long time to cool down. I often envy people with ‘normal’ brains, who output less, but have greater consistency, and have never known the frustration and struggle that comes with frequent mental burnout.

4. So, this happened recently to me when I was about to pass my testpaper, i think it’s a compensation mechanism because I didn’t get to focus on taking my test because im near where people pass by and with the teachers roaming around i wasn’t able to focus and got distracted the whole time and just when i was about to pass my paper, the last thing i remember was im thinking where should i sort my testpaper(there’s two sets w/c are color coded) so thats what i kept thinking that i completely zoned out while standing in front of the room. If hadn’t the teacher tap the testpaper on my hand i would have stand there for an hour just thinking where to put my paper(and there’s only 2 sets!!!! Like, why did i have to think that hard where to put it?like???come on!) and i got so confused after she did that and i think she’s saying something but i can’t process it and hear nothing , i only stared at her for a second or two until i heard her telling me to just leave the paper there. And the funny thing is i walked out of there like nothing happened. And that night i realized the teacher was still talking when I left confused haha like, sorry for being rude but i really didn’t meant to walkout without letting you finish talk, I was just soooo confused that i even forgot that there’s still students behind me passing the testpaper. Oh boy this is getting out f hand haha

5. As an ADHD person, the ability to hyperfocus caused me numerous times to tune out my wife and children during our 40 years of marriage. I really don’t recall that my behavior caused any great problems at work, however.

   Now that I’m divorced and retired, I only have two major hyperfocus issues: I tend to spend hours on Facebook almost every day, mostly communicating with my family and friends.

   The other is much more serious. I have had a porn addiction since I was 12 years old. This is one of the reasons my wife divorced me 8 years ago. Now that I live alone, I spend many hours overnight, some weeks, viewing literally hundreds of pornsites and loosing much sleep in the process. I am now taking steps to curb or eliminate my addiction all together, but when I’m ready to turn in for the night, along comes that urge to view porn online.

   My advise for those with ADHD hyperfocus is to seek professional counseling and to time yourselves when you know you’re about to get deeply involved in something you truly enjoy. It could save your marriage, your family and your job.

6. This is exactly what I do. My house will go untouched for weeks while I’ll watch netflix for hours . I like to Garden and I will spend hours and hours gardening and not touch my house.

   This article hit it right on the nail. I have started setting an alarm to stop myself.