I cannot watch The Real Housewives without getting sucked in, and I’m not ashamed of it. When you layer that with the intermittent rewards of gaming or streaming television you get a recipe for hyperfocus. Many of us struggle with awareness of time, or FEELING time. You might be unaware of how your environment impacts your ADHD symptoms. Even small changes in your environment can make a huge difference. If hyperfocus has a negative impact on your life don’t be afraid to seek support. He was completely unharmed, and I learned a valuable lesson about starting a project late in the day. When I tell people about leaving my son at childcare until 6pm I can laugh about it and nobody seems judgy. If your tendency to hyperfocus is not negatively impacting your life, let it go. #ADHD AND HYPERFOCUS FREE#If you have the resources check out coaching, or you can do something completely free like journaling. There’s great value in understanding yourself better. Even if you find that you’re hyperfocusing more than you’d like, you still have more information to work with. You can practice observing yourself and your behavior without judgment. In coaching we teach clients to become a “keen observer” of themselves. “If I don’t finish this NOW it will never get done. There’s always that fear that you might forget where you stopped and never complete the job. Some of us have a hard time with “open loops” when we cannot finish a project. If it’s hard for you to put down the phone, you might want to consider one of the apps that lock you out. There’s something really enticing about that intermittent reward when someone likes your post or tweet. Social media is a notorious brain drain for many of us. Many ADHD’ers have issues with the internet and video games. Awareness is keyįirst, consider what types of things trigger you into negative hyperfocus. And that’s the thing, hyperfocus can feel like you’re not in control of yourself. When you don’t feel in control of your own brain YOU suffer as well. Relationships suffer when we forget other people exist. On the other hand, if you are so focused that you ignore your children/family or forget about important appointments, that is a conundrum. Again, that could be useful to break out of the inertia that sometimes comes along with ADHD. Hyperfocusing on a topic of interest also gives you a break from the mundane. So I’d never want to discourage anyone from experiencing that feeling of accomplishment. Feeling successful is a good feeling, we need more of that. When our ADHD brain get excited about something, and that dopamine starts flowing, we are able to master it quickly. Transitions are very difficult for the ADHD brain. But if the next thing on the list doesn’t feel good at all, or even worse feels hard, we will avoid shifting to that task. If what we’re doing feels rewarding we’re on it like white on rice. Most of us struggle to task shift in the context of work and day-to-day activities. Even with medication your brain needs to be stimulated by whatever is in front of you. It’s not something you can force to happen. I’ve found that the negative consequences outweigh any perceived benefit.īut here’s the kicker, with ADHD you generally only hyperfocus on things that interest you. They think it’s the same as flow or whatever. There are those who enjoy the hyperfocus feeling. The ADHD mom whose brain is suctioned to her computer screen. What kind of mother forgets to pick up her child?! There was this immediate recognition that I’d lost about four hours of my life, my head was pounding, and I’d apparently forgotten to pick up my child. #ADHD AND HYPERFOCUS FULL#That phone call was like running full speed into a brick wall. “Mrs Lewis it’s nearly 6pm and normally you pick up E by 4pm. At one point my phone rang and when I picked up this is what I heard: My husband was out of town and my son was at childcare less than a mile from my home. Years ago I was working on an article, probably for this site. When a person focuses on something so intently that they fail to notice changes in their environment, other people, and sometimes even neglect to eat or drink. What is hyperfocus? It is exactly what it sounds like. Everyone talks about lack of focus, but there’s little understanding of ADHD hyperfocus.
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