![]() ![]() He had not seen our child yet - but he just had to complete the car first.”Īnd hyperfocus isn’t always directed at “positive” tasks. Keisha, also 39, said, “When I gave birth to my son, he spent so much time and detail on cleaning our car that it upset me. “I have to remind him constantly that it’s time to go, time to eat, time to sleep,” said Emily, a 39-year-old woman whose husband has ADHD. To outsiders - particularly the friends and family members who depend on someone with ADHD - it can be frustrating to try to break someone out from under its spell. The Bad Side of ADHD Focusīut hyperfocus is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. Alison, 34, agrees: “When he’s hyperfocused on how much he loves me, he shows it,” she said. “ very often hyperfocuses on doing kind things for me,” said Elizabeth, 49. Hyperfocus may be trained on people, too - often resulting in whirlwind romances or deep, lasting friendships. “You can’t do that if… your brain doesn’t work the way ours does.” “I landed with a bestselling book,” he said. Author and entrepreneur Peter Shankman, who has ADHD, says that he once wrote an entire book on a round-trip flight to Tokyo. While she admits that it can “monopolize” his attention, she believes that the skills it gives him outweigh any lost time.Īnother, less welcome ADHD tendency - procrastination - can occasionally be canceled out by some well-timed hyperfocus. “His hyperfocus means he usually excels at the things he chooses to do,” said one 38-year-old woman whose husband tends to hyperfocus on sports. Not only does it allow people with ADHD to get a lot done in a short amount of time, it allows them to fully devote their attention to something that interests them - improving their skills through hours and hours of focused, dedicated effort. Hyperfocus can be - and often is - an extraordinary gift. Here, we explore the positives and negatives of hyperfocus, and offer strategies making it work for you. But it has its drawbacks, too - particularly when the task being hyperfocused on is frivolous. Hyperfocus is often painted as one of ADHD’s “superpowers” - and it’s true that it can be used for extreme productivity. It’s what’s known as hyperfocus, and it’s a critical (and complicated) manifestation of ADHD. ![]() As it turns out, this ability to direct intense focus at one area of interest for an extended period of time isn’t antithetical to ADHD at all. To the layperson, attention deficit disorder ( ADHD or ADD) is defined by distractibility - and anyone who’s able to focus with laser-like intensity couldn’t possibly be diagnosed with ADHD. You also know the frustration of explaining to people that your ability to focus in certain arenas and not others is not a matter of choice. You can fill in the blanks better than we can you know the feeling of falling into a deep well of focus and swimming around the bottom of it for hours before realizing you’ve run out of daylight. All rights reserved.“You can’t have ADHD you focus so intently on your fantasy football league.” The divergent findings might reflect multiple hyperfocus dimensions (situational and motivational) assessed in different studies which need to be addressed in future research.Ĭopyright © 2020 The Author(s). Hyperfocus experiences are not specific of ADHD patients. ADHD patients and matched controls did not differ in the occurrence, frequency, duration and pervasiveness of hyperfocus, but hyperfocus was less likely to occur in educational and social situations in ADHD patients. In healthy adults, the frequency of hyperfocus was positively correlated with ADHD traits older age and higher education were correlated with fewer hyperfocus occurrences in a smaller number of situations. An ADHD patient group (n = 78) was compared to matched healthy participants on all hyperfocus variables. Within a healthy sample (n = 1124), we analysed correlations between scores on the ADHD Rating Scale and self-reports of frequency, duration and pervasiveness of hyperfocus. This study aims to investigate the association between the frequency, duration and pervasiveness of hyperfocus across different situations in adults with and without ADHD. ![]() Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with hyperfocus, a transient experience of enhanced attentional focus and diminished awareness of time and the environment.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |