I am still aware of the passage of time and I still have music playing in my head and other thoughts, etc.

I do not ever get so into it that I become completely unaware of the world around me though. Often I would have some interest that I become so obsessed with that it's all I could think about throughout my day and I would spend lots of time researching it. I know it's described as being so intensely concentrated on one thing that you become completely unaware of your surroundings and you completely lose track of time, until something else interups you and you snap back to reality.įor me, it's not that intense but I do usually go through obsessions with things. Surround yourself with people who appreciate that you sometimes take the road less traveled.Įdward Hallowell, M.D., is a member of ADDitude’s ADHD Medical Review Panel.I'm curious.The experience, however disappointing, can open up new horizons.

Once you’ve found something you like, dig deeper. Don’t be afraid to try lots of off-the-wall things - star-gazing, ice-climbing, training for a triathlon. Hyperfocus is more likely to occur when you are engaged in a task that is challenging, that matters to you, and in which you make progress. Finally, if words don’t break the spell of hyperfocus, a gesture-placing a hand on his shoulder or standing between him and the computer screen-will do the trick.Can you take a break with us today and get back to painting the car tomorrow?” For an adult who obsesses about restoring an old car, you can say, “I see you have been completely focused on repainting your car for the past two weeks, but your family misses you. In the case of the teen with the flash cards, a parent could start quizzing her on vocabulary words. Agree on a cue to help you to snap out of hyperfocus.Assure your wife that your focus on things other than her isn’t a reflection of your interest in, or love for, her. Explain that it is part of your ADHD and that you can’t turn it on and off at will. Talk with your spouse or significant other about hyperfocus.Having a trustworthy assistant at work and setting up automatic bill payments are good ideas. Assemble a support system to see that the basics get completed.To ensure that family or coworkers aren’t left in the lurch, do the following: But remember that it may cause you to forget about everything else - a Friday-night dinner with friends, a wedding anniversary, paying the bills. If you hyperfocus regularly, congratulations! I do, when I am writing.

With hyperfocus, you can easily lose all sense of time and perspective. A teen who creates vocabulary cards for an upcoming test, for instance, may spend hours decorating them instead of studying. PET scans have shown that the hyperfocusing brain literally “lights up” with activity and pleasure.Īt its worst, hyperfocus becomes a trance-like state in which you do the same pointless act over and over again. When things finally run smoothly, they lose interest and move on.Īt its best, hyperfocus is what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow” - a state of mind in which you are so immersed in a task that you become (not to sound too far out) one with it. Adults can find that kind of focus in a new job - working intensely for a year, say, to fix major problems in their department. When parents tell me how their daughter breezed through a challenging science fair project only to settle into a spotty classroom performance, I know that she was hyperfocusing. Unfortunately, hyperfocus can’t be reliably sustained or controlled. A musician may write a symphony in only a few weeks. Someone with an interest in computer programming may happily hunt for a bug in thousands of lines of code, regardless of the fact that he usually can’t sit still. Attention deficit disorder is all about distraction… until it’s not! One of the most surprising aspects of ADHD is hyperfocus - a person’s ability to hone in on a specific task, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else.

Adhd and hyperfocus