Hyperfocus - which I never talk about on this ADHD channel 🙈
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2024
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Hyperfocus Hyperfocus Hyperfocus, but what is it and why haven't we talked about it on the channel before? Well then, let's talk about ADHD and hyperfocus now!
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I wish they had interlingua :)
i absolutely love it that you are learning dutch now !
(did you know dutch is (one of) the most difficult language to learn for non native speakers?)
I Love This Video! Thank You
Sock drawers as mentioned in this video: Have a dedicated shelf, basket or similar space, for socks missing their pair. Soon as I get one, I chuck it in there, then go through it every so often. Hope this helps! Good morrow! 😋🏳🌈
Hi Jess! After that video with Dr. B (and revealing you're dating him), no wonder you would love to learn Italian.
As a Filipino, I hope I can learn Spanish (had basic levels in college, pero me gusta estudio español) and Italian (which my own partner speaks and teaches to fellow Filipinos).
Good luck learning Dutch!
I like to view ADHD as like driving a semi truck vs a sedan. It takes longer to get up to speed, takes more effort to stop, but can carry a lot.
Ooooo that's a cool analogy!
😂😂 so true
yup
Also you have to warn people that you make very wide turns or else they'll tailgate you expecting you to be able to make sharp corners and then get on your case after the inevitable collision.
additional useful analogies:
I am a fire hose, not a garden sprinkler.
I NEED sufficient water pressure.
And that level of water pressure is not sustainable long-term.
Also, my mind is like an aircraft carrier, but people only pay attention to the planes.
A friend of mine started referring to her ADHD as "Involuntarily Hyperfocus Disorder" and I definitely feel that...
That's such a good way of putting it cause when I can't focus on something it's usually because I'm hyper-focused on something else and can't stop thinking about that other thing hence why I can't focus on the new thing 😅
"The problem with 10pm is that it's just a moment away from 4am" 😅
It should just be "Dysregulation" instead of "Deficiency" in the name: Attention Dysregulation Disorder. And then the H, maybe. Or just "Impulsive" (ADID) as an explanation for hyperactivity or the opposite, whatever is most true for each person.
I'll literally hyperfocus on something like hair care for a few days to the point that I can't sleep at night because I ordered a styling tool and now I need to know everything about it and have to check my mail to see when it will be delivered every 5 minutes... it's so exhausting because I can't stop it even though I know it's irrelevant and it won't be interesting for me in two weeks
Oh yes, the hyperfocus that makes you feel on top of the world… and the hyperfocus that you completely regret when you come up for air. Another great and super relatable video 😊
Yeah like when the sun goes down on a Saturday and you suddenly realize you're still rabbit-holing on TH-cam from when you started with your coffee in the morning and missed that trip to the nature area you really wanted to do that day.
@@Sypherz uh😕😅, I guess I have to go and eat now...bye
This is especially bad if the hyperfocus lasts multiple days. By the end there are so many things I've been ignoring and need to catch up on, plus this sort of 'focus withdrawal' where I just had this intense focus and suddenly I have no focus again and it's hard to adjust back.
Father with ADHD (who just spent hours on a project and came out dehydrated and near starved) with 2 daughters with ADHD who just had the worst day at school thanks you for this video. Not only helps to understand myself but empathize with why they had such a terrible day.
To me, my hyperfocus is mostly annoying because I can’t choose when it’s happening and it tends to not help me do anything useful. If I could turn it on and off, I’d be happier, because it’s just annoying as-is. Just because I hyperfocus sometimes, people tend to assume I am able to do that continuously and consistently every day, which is not true.
Yeahhhh, some hyperfocuses can't easily be directed and it's can be so frustrating... especially when others expect it to occur regularly when in reality that's not... how it works and even if it did, it'd not be healthy.
It’s also so common for them to assume you have control over it. “Well if you can play video games for 4 hours you mustn’t have ADHD”. All around, it’s a real challenge
I get this I feel like with hyper focus used strategically in my old job I could hit like 150% of the 8 hour day productivity in 6 hours of work and my bosses were always so irritated I would trail of after that and get so focused and irritated that I wasn’t always working my very hardest all day, even though I was still a top producer, it’s frustrating people don’t understand how our brains work
One annoyance for me is when I'm involved in a Group Project. Hyperfocus has randomly kicked in and I didn't notice it OR the cues from the group. I've ended up doing the whole project by myself and was oblivious to the fact that I accidentally took over the group and the project.
Personally it's mostly the perception of hyperfocus that bothers me. Aside from when I forget that I have to pee, that can lead to infection 😅
As a little kid I would devour books, and people wouldn’t bat an eye looking at the “smart” kid who loved reading. I definitely loved to read, but no one probed farther and asked if I could put the book down 😂
One thing I love about this channel is how you openly say how you work with your ADHD, along with taking meds. At first I thought they’d just make me exactly normal, but at the end of the day I still hyperfocus, I still have ADHD.
Which is really frustrating to be honest. The medication is barely helpful. We could really use some better treatments
@@MaxOakland mindfulness and journaling, used in conjunction with meds has helped me so much in this last year to have more control over my attention and where I put it. Might be worth a try 😉
@@mherbert6563 I’ve been thinking about journaling more so I’m going to use your thoughts as motivation!
Never got diagnosed when I was younger because no one considered my obsession with reading to be odd...and because said obsession allowed me to easily pass most any test I was given in school.
Oh my goodness that’s me too! I’m still reading at a ridiculous rate. I really can’t put that book down. 😂 I sometimes can get my brain to get into hyper focus by listening to an audiobook while doing things I don’t want to do. It’s not always successful, but when it does work it’s good.
Hyperfocus is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I get 2 months of work done in 2 weeks at work, other times I want to quit because someone DM'd me asking for help on something unrelated to what I was focusing on, and not only did I fail to help them, but the constant reminder that I hadn't replied (but couldn't switch gears) turned my brain into a chaotic mess for the rest of the day.
Hyper focus is actually why I began suspecting I have ADHD. When I was in college, a professor noted to me that I had “the opposite of ADHD.” He said it was great for studying, but would bite me in the butt later if I decided to have kids. It feels great at times, but as you noted, there are ways you pay for it. Desperate for help, I did an internet search for “what’s the opposite of ADHD” and that’s when I learned about hyper focus and that it’s not the opposite of ADHD, but part of it. So many things in my life began to make so much more sense. I was still lost on what to do, but at least I had an explanation for some of my struggles. Your channel has been a tremendous help.
Actually hyperfocus is more of its own thing but it can also be a part of adhd. Having the ability of hyper focus doesn't absolutely mean you have adhd.
I think it can also be an autism\spectrum or neurodivergency thing. As the other said, it's not a sure indicator of ADHD
.. But it could be a symptom of it
As an ADHD addict in long-term recovery, hyper-focus can be devastating to me. There are times when an alcohol craving hits me, and my brain decides that is what it wants to spend its attention on for the next 12 hours. Even three years sober, it's a horrible experience. Back before I knew I had ADHD, I used to think hyper-focus was proof I didn't have it. I used to describe to my drug and alcohol counselor that I thought I was addicted to general dopamine. Anytime I was into a book, a show, a scientific principle, or anything my brain enjoyed thinking about, I would spend hours or days on it. I nearly got fired from my job for not answering my phone or showing up because I was nose deep in a book. Or I would stay up for 48 hours learning how to knit and be exhausted from it. My counselor was the one who informed me that hyper-focus was a thing in ADHD and got me to seek a diagnosis.
I hear you
Congrats on your efforts to be sober!
Hyperfocus is sooo hard to break out of. It's usually something that we are so much more interested in than our mundane responsibilities of real life
Do you have a website or a tiktok or something of the sort that some of us can reach out to you for some advice?
@Noah Simmons - I also thought I couldn't have ADHD because of my hyper focus. The fact that a misleading name cost me YEARS of delay in getting help makes me passionate now that it should be renamed ASAP. I'm really glad you happened upon a counselor who knew to suggest that you seek a diagnosis, and that you did the hard work of getting sober. Kudos and good wishes to you! ❤
In comparison to my ADHD friends I have an unusual amount of control over my hyperfocus. Not so much on how to drag it away, but to turn it on for "boring" tasks, so that's how I coped with my ADHD was fairly constant hyperfocus. I didn't know I had ADHD or what hyperfocus was, I just thought it was normal.
And as you said, that's not sustainable.
So I crashed and burned and didn't know why. And now I'm left with this gnawing feeling that any time I'm not in hyperfocus mode Im not doing enough.
Yeahhhh, it's hard to balance our own expectations of productivity when we have hyperfocus mode, "normal" focus mode, and "bad brain day" focus mode (and maybe other modes), all of which have varying limits and limitations.
Yes, sounds like me. Hyperfocus made me an overachiever at Uni but eventually I just got burned out. Now I try to be productively "lazy" but can't always get everything done (like certain chores that I think I need to do). I still get hyperfocus on things that "excite" me... usually solving a problem.
This is me. Hyperfocus is how I managed my master's, how I wrote my PhD thesis and how I navigate work now. But to make it work at work (ha!), I need a job that basically constantly requires trouble shooting. Which I love but which i also beyond exhausting. Still trying to find some kind of healthy balance.
I can relate. I hyperfocus at work with every student I tutor. I'll get so immersed in what we're working on that I leave myself completely exhausted by the end of the day.
Did the same to get through school without studying and without failing 😅
This was a really relatable video. I recently got diagnosed with ADHD and the diagnosis is helping me to make sense of things I’ve done and felt my whole life and I’ve always relied on hyper focus and could never understand why I struggle to motivate myself so much but when tight deadlines come along I thrive. As a TH-camr, I thrived the most when I was doing daily videos or a lot of videos a week. The pressure of constantly having to churn out videos made me the most productive I had been in my life. Now I’m only able to make one video a week ( long story ) and I really struggle to find the focus to make one good video. I feel like a normal person would be able to use that whole week to make something great but I just don’t work that way. I still wait until the end of the week to do it. It’s frustrating because I feel like the pressure helps. But on the flip side I don’t like always being under pressure. What’s with that? 😂
So relatable!
I'm scared to start making videos because I'm just like this!
Major relate. 😢
It’s ok sir or ma’am I have had ADHD since I was born and I’m 15
I am the exact same way. It's extremely frustrating. 😏😞
This is one of the hardest things for me as a mom with ADHD, and having a young child who needs my attention in very frequent intervals. Most days, my whole goal is just to stay patient with her while constantly being pulled from whatever I was doing, be a good parent, and do my best to resume tasks and not forget them.
💯- so hard to be a ‘good’ parent and give your children - bits of attention - whilst working like a steam train.
I like that analogy. Sometimes we have to slow down and pull up at the train stations
I'm the same.
This is one of the reasons why I will never have children! I am having trouble taking care of myself - sure, not as bad as someone with autism, but yeah finding the motivation to do that small tasks (household chores, paying bills etc.) is hard for me and having someone (or even something - so a pet or a plant!) that constantly needs my attention? That would be suicide!
This is why when my kids were little, I always spent time doing things like computer games that I didn't mind if I was pulled away from. Getting pulled away while actually trying to do a huge project or cleaning was so frustrating! Again, because it's so hard to get back into hyperfocus when something pulls you out. My house was a disaster and bills didn't always get paid, but my kids knew that I was always there for them when they needed me. Oh, and lots of alarms to remind me to do laundry and pick up kids on time!
Not looking for sympathy. But, as a single dad, with a absolutely wonderful four year old boy; I can relate to your sentiment 1,000%!
Hyperfocus is the only time my brain feels calm (even in a crisis) without the constant bombardment of thoughts. Great video 👍
Same or sleep
For me, a crisis is the only time I can do stuff, stay calm and collected and feel alive, so there is that also x-x
Exercise is one time for me as well. Cycling at high speed and paying attention to pedestrians. Or running outside in nature and focusing on slowing down if my heart rate it too fast, as wells as the running it self, the route, the milestones, when I go faster again etc. Add music to that or a podcast and I feel calm :D
Yours is a calm experience? Wow. Mines filled with angst a lot of the time
never had hyperfocus but i got that feeling when i take my like adhd pills
Just five minutes ago I was talking about this to my husband. I have been watching a YT channel with ferrets and for some reason over the last couple weeks I became obsessed with wanting to figure out the floor plan of the home the ferrets and their owners live in. I couldn't stop thinking about it. So last night I spent a few minutes watching one of their live streams and rewinding and skipping forward and tracing what I saw into a notepad once I figured out the shape of their apartment I was done. No more obsession, no more hyperfocus, nothing. Sometimes ADHD can be so weird. LOL
Haha, I can totally see myself do this too! I hope the ferrets had an awesome home 😊
So that's an ADHD thing too? For me, it would fall squarely into my autism bailiwick: my mind getting snagged on needing to figure out a particular pattern. (I'm AuDHD BTW)
@@janinawaz4596 OK, maybe it's my autism. I thought it was a hyperfixation/hyperfocus thing from ADHD. Too many possibilities when you have multiple diagnoses.
This is something that would happen to me! When something catches my eye, when something awakens my curiosity, Im screwed for the next few weeks, or months, who knows! It becomes such an intense interest, I cant stop thinking about it and have to watch or read more, like an itch I really have to scratch, and then after Ive achieved whatever the arbitrary goal is, the interest goes from 100% to almost zero in seconds xd it makes my life interesting but I wish it wasn't always as intense as it is!
@@PamelaRubel That happened to me with Harry Potter when I saw the first movie in 2001. I was completely engrossed until I read the last book the night it was released in July of 2007. I spent 6 years, 24/7/365 watching, reading, talking, eating, and everything else Harry Potter that you can imagine. I even took a trip to England (from my home in California) for the release of that last book. Picked up the book at midnight, spent the whole night reading it in my hotel room, and by 10am I finished it and my obsession went *POOF* and was gone. Like magic. LOL
Hyper focus is probably my biggest strength as someone with adhd. I’m an artist and hyper focus allows me to enjoy marathon painting sessions in the studio. I love the creative flow that can come with hyper focus. But-and this is a huge caveat, I do forget to eat (and binge later) and forget appointments and ADLs to the point where I really struggle to transition into a different activity. Because my adhd symptoms are very mixed with symptoms of depression and anxiety I still value hyper focus over days of depressed lethargy or panic attack symptoms
Lq
Absolutely!
I struggle to LET myself out of hyperfocus because it's SO hard to get back into being able to focus on anything after I come out of it, so I just keep going until there is a natural wind down. It's really hard and is something I need to work on. I get so focused that I get asked so many times if I'm wearing headphones because I legitimately do not hear them calling my name and trying to get my attention even though they're right next to me.
I feel you…I’m the same😂
I am exactly the same. I tried working on it in the past, but I haven't found any strategies that work for me for getting things done without hyperfocus. Despite the downsides, hyperfocus is overall a positive for me. I want to learn to control it so I can get into it "on demand", but I haven't found anything that works so far.
Hyperfocus is the thing that made me realise I have ADHD. It's a huge part of my life and everyone thinks I'm amazing for getting things done. I do rely on hyperfocus a lot unfortunately.
Yeah that's not uncommon honestly! What do you do in order to recover from those? If you feel comfortable sharing, that is!
I feel robbed. I have ADHD and get "nothing" done - at least not to the extent where anyone would praise me.
same here
Ugh how do y'all do that I barley have any hyperfocus on my work
Not to be mean but that doesn’t necessarily mean u have adhd
I personally recommend looking into executive functions, anxiety disorder symptoms and low dopamine symptoms for a better idea, good luck
Some tips that work for me are:
1. Allow your hyperfocus....BUT prepare for it.
2. Set a timer. It's on you if you feel like using a snooze or not. (It's about that awareness that makes your attention move away for a bit, which allows you to set yourself back to reality.)
3. Allow yourself to use that four steps ahead thinking which ADHD is known for...
Example: If my timer goes off at 18:00 to make dinner and i am playing a videogame or reading a book, i will set myself small goals of what i want to do in that remaining time while playing that videogame. Or on how many pages i still want to read in that book before the timer goes off by 18:00. (aka four steps ahead)
4. If you feel anxious about the said timer going off while finishing that match or page. Allow yourself to finish it but immediately quit after.
5. BE KIND TO YOURSELF.
for me with video games, I make sure to not allow the console charger to be in my bedroom or near my bed :-) that way when the game is about to die, it's time to turn it off. Bonus points if the charger isn't near a chair or a comfortable place to lean.
I was going to ask if anyone had tips on how to put up some guardrails when it comes to hyper focusing. Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a try to see if they work for me too.
💯- I set limits and allow myself to go over a bit. I can ‘feel’ when it’s time to pull out.
Down side is body trauma - in the hips, from sitting in one spot for way tooooo long.
Need reminders to get up and stretch and go got a walk. I find that difficult at times.
I think it comes down to building a routine. ❤
Somehow I always lose the mental battle to stop doing whatever fun thing I’m doing even when I know I should be studying or getting ready for work or whatever. I honestly can’t tell if it’s a mental toughness issue, my condition, or both. Trying to find strategies that will help mitigate this atm. 😢
@@CODlogist same. I found tougher barriers that don't rely on me having will power. I place chargers far away in awkward areas so my game will die about the time I need to go to sleep. Honestly, my dog is a great barrier because I know he deserves care and I feel guilty if I oversleep and miss his walk. Sometimes just having a good friend who will hold you accountable but not abuse that power is the best.
I’m 46 years old and have never been diagnosed. I didn’t really even know what ADHD was until recently. I am now realizing that I may have hyper-focused my way into divorce after 13 years of marriage to a woman I loved dearly. I’ve always referred to it as my “mad-scientist” mode and considered it a super-power. But now I am asking myself, “At what cost?”
I'd love a more in-depth step-by-step on how you deal with not relying on hyperfocus, I have relied on hyperfocus in my life and always wondered why I got burned out so easily! Just diagnosed with ADHD at 28, so a lot of things are falling into place, but sometimes I hyperfocus so much and I have nothing else to work on so I end up using that to shop and surf the web for things I "need," doesn't help my impulsive spending at all and it's so hard to stop myself. I just find myself hyper-focusing way more than I need to. As a mom, as well, I always get interrupted at home, so I can't hyperfocus to get tasks done anymore, I have to learn to how to stop in the middle of things and it's so hard. Thanks for all you do on this channel!
Oh yes, more in-depth step-by-step would be wonderful. Any tips would be priceless. Most I can do is sometimes resist hyperfocusing, telling myself I need to do something else right now, but usually I just end up doing nothing instead :( and if the work is not done anyways, I could at least spend those hours happily hyperfocusing on whatever was calling to me...
Back in college, about a year before my ADHD diagnosis, I was taking a Utopian Fiction class for my English major and had to create a utopian society for a project. We had to do a five minute presentation and five page paper and I ended up doing a 20 minute presentation with 100 Power Point slides and a 60 page paper. And since my last name starts with A, I was the first person presenting.
pov me on every single of my assignments
I either do that or one page with 2 sentences wich is the powerpoint at the same time lol
So did you get to give your entire presentation or did you get cut off after five minutes?
@@ruthfeiertag I gave the whole thing
@@anlasbry Excellent! I’ll bet it was an amazing talk.
Thank you so much! I feel like hyperfocus is so misunderstood by people who don't experience it. I especially hate when people claim it is some kind of superpower of productivity hack. Yes, sometimes the stars align and I hyperfocus on the thing I'm actually supposed to be doing. But sometimes I get out of the shower and wonder what the oldest tree in the world is and decide to give it a quick google. And suddenly it's six hours later and I'm still sat on the edge of my bed in nothing but a damp towel, shivering from being cold and damp and half-naked and in pain from sitting hunched over like a shrimp for hours without noticing.
Yes, sometimes it can be very useful or fun. More often though it feels like I'm being held hostage by my own brain.
I've done the exact same thing before (minus the topic being about trees). I hate when moments like that hijack my entire day, especially when I put effort into planning my day ahead of time.
This! Especially the sitting in the same position for hours part. I think certain levels of hyperfocus might actually be shutting off the pain receptors in my brain or something. Then I finally come out of it, I'm in pain, suddenly it's 4 in the afternoon, past time to do my work-from-home tasks, and I haven't had lunch yet.
@@lurker1316 Ack! Thanks for snapping me out of it! I was just doing it just now, hyperfocused on this video and the replies. The kitchen light is on because I was going to make lunch (woke up about 430pm and it's 947pm now). I'm hungry. LOL. Thank you so much. I need to quit this and go get something to eat and start working on something else.
This sounds like my recent Monday afternoon
Oh ya... that... gonna go dry my hair and get dressed now. Smh
As a writer with ADHD I totally feel this! Low key sometime’s it feels like time is our enemy.
Same, when she talked about writing for 8 to 10 hours, I felt seen lol
I never realized how much I relied on hyperfocus to get things done when I was in school, till I grew up and realized how impossible it was to do that with my work/life schedule. I still get caught in it (usually with the less productive things), and the best way I can think to describe trying to get out of it is like when you get a gift card and you try to pull it off the paper backing. That glue might not leave a residue, but it is TOUGH and doesn't like to let go.
I love studying because it allows me to hyper focus. I now work as a teacher. Happy place. 😊
Oh god. Do I have ADHD? Damn.
I am currently unmedicated as I'm switching up my prescription, and it has finally made me realize just how much my meds have helped me achieve. It's almost scary to be forced to rely on hyperfocus, because it's this constant cycle of "I can't screw this up, I need to finish this, I can't stop without being a terrible person"
It collides with unhealthy work ethic, and makes you feel like if you stop you are awful for doing so, or like it's the only way you'll ever get anything done.
YES! This is the part that gets me. If I’m not this focused, I’m a bad person. Ahhhhh! Why?
@@angryface01 It's not like I have a medical condition or anything!
Similar experience here. I'm at least aware that I can trick my mind to be productive but it involves raising the stakes, negative self talk, and stress. Then, I can flow.
When you mention that... I feel less anxious since I started taking meds. I have intrusive thoughts a lot less frequently. But perhaps I also stopped relying on anxiety to produce focus.
The hyperfocus for me is usually related to physics. That would be helpful if I had a degree in physics.
I experience hyperfocus as very similar to dissociation and the hardest part for me is not being able to keep track of time. I often come out of a hyperfocus unaware of how much time has passed which is incredibly disorienting. I sometimes have no idea what time it is or what has happened while I hyper focused which is scary. These days I ask my husband to give me reminder of the time every half hour in the evenings and it helps me regulate my attention or at least be less disoriented after
I feel similarly, but I try and keep track of time as I’m moving and it makes time feel like it is melting away it actually stresses me out more because once I feel the hyper focus I start planning out how I’m going to move through the rest of my day, inevitably expect to get more done than is reasonable and just watch as hours fly by in what feels like minutes until the day is over and half of my to do list is done
Same! It really is unsettling sometimes to “wake up” and realize how much time I’ve just spent on something.
I use an app that chimes the westminster chimes every 15 min so I can at least be reminded that time is passing
@@brooke_reiverrose2949 I have this app, too!
I had this memory of being a child and visiting my neighbour's house. They had a grandfather clock, and the chimes sounded great, but also marked the passage of the day, and I realised that was what I needed. Was so excited to find an app to replicate that. These days I use the chime that sounds like the inflight attendant call button :)
I deal with this too. I can spend what turns out to be many hours on something, and it only feels like a few minutes. And then of course, even though it may be bed time, I'm not tired because I was only working a few minutes!
God, thanks for this.
I haven't used that word. I once hyperfocused a daily TV show for 6 weeks with 40 people working on it in teams working round the clock but I was there in it every single minute and lost 3 stones.
What I've found with hyperfocus is when I've come out of it or finished 'the thing', I'll spend hours if not even days staring at it.
Replaying it. It feels like drowning in dopamine and I take intense pleasure in it even though I want to move on and make something new.
It's like I'm stopping myself from hyperfocusing again... I guess, watching this.
I always thought it was self-indulgence, but maybe it's just self-protection.
Anyway, thanks again
Being in the zone is amazing: your movin', your groovin', your moving heaven and the mountains with your mind, your.... suddenly ripped out of the matrix by your boss asking for some ridiculous report that can wait until next week. It is so frustrating when I'm disengaged from hyper focus, and everything in my mind is starting to slip away every second his dumb face is talking at me. It's also exhausting and I feel defeated. Now I'm dragging ars on what ever mundane thing I have to do. Abruptly changing gears like that is the worst, and it's often impossible for me to re-engage. My brain now feels like some one threw an explosive into a china shop.
As an ADHDer I was talking about this with my therapist yesterday. Because I have comorbid anxiety that double edged sword is literally burning me out on both sides im behind because I hyper focused on some but im behind because I didn’t
Oh my, I relate so much! 😭
Ugh yeah, adding anxiety to the mix is... tough. Hope you and your therapist are able to help work out some strategies for ya!
I know the extent of the struggle.
Yes, please be careful. I have anxiety too, and hypervigilance helped moderate my inattention. But I took a high pressure job about 12 years ago, and as near as I can tell, over reliance on adrenaline caused my fight or flight to get much worse, and the stress and never taking down time to recover degraded my executive functioning, worsening every symptom. Then everything fell apart. I think my inherited neurology lent itself to a worst case scenario, but if I had applied what Jess described here, the last chapter of my life (I’m early 60s) might have been much better than it is now.
I just realized that when citing my recent history as a cautionary tale, I should have noted that I have been undiagnosed and untreated my whole life, diagnosed AuDHD and GAD last week. Outcomes can be worse for long untreated ADHD I think.
I was struggling to pay attention and retain info from an accounting class I'm in. I also tend to hyperfocus on fanfics and fall into research holes when I write them. I ended up writing a fic where accounting is a major plot point so I could make my brain absorb some of the class material
clever
Literally big brain energy, that's amazing.
When you can leverage a weakness into a strength, the reward can be great! ... even if you have to trick your brain at times. Lol!
I'm actually an accounting nerd so sometimes I can't wrap my head around something til I make a spreadsheet about it!
The anger thing! I never thought of it like that. I'm always so ashamed for reacting like that, and ashamed when I have to ask close ones to please organise times to talk about such things. But now that you've explained it I won't feel ashamed now!
I find myself reading unecessary articles anytime I sit down to do my school projects or homework and leave them till the last day and also find sheets from other subjects in different subject books. Also I find myself not being able to focus on my environment once I start to do something especially ones I'm interested in and also find it difficult to read massive texts cos it looks boring, my friends in school also tell me about how I have too much energy for school
I have arthritis which comes with chronic pain and hyperfocusing really makes it difficult for me because I'm not only mentally tired, I'm also in a lot of pain after a whole session. But even though I know that, I sometimes cannot stop, and I only feel the pain after I'm out of the zone.
Thank you for sharing this. Watching your videos helps me hate myself a little lesser. ♥️
This resonates so much with me. I also have arthritis (since I was 11), and have also had to face the toll that hyperfocus takes on my body. There's the chronic pain, but also the chronic exhaustion which makes that post-hyperfocus-haze even more difficult... You're not alone ❤
@@93runninggiraffes Thank you for sharing. What do you do to help manage your pain while also working effectively?
I am also in this boat. Having arthritis and other skeletal issues and sometimes getting swept along like a kayak shooting the rapids by hyperfocus before becoming truly aware how seriously I've overdone things when the state dissipates. Definitely a tough situation to cope with. I truly sympathize.
Thank you SO MUCH for posting this. I’m currently recovering from a couple of days of hyperfocus on switching out and trying to declutter seasonal decor.
It is helpful, though a little sad too, to know I’m not alone.
Hang in there. Sending soft hugs. 😊
My hyperfocus begins with a feeling: to me it feels like being productive. For the longest time I would wait until I had that feeling to try to figure out what to do and a lot of times would get stuck in a loop of trying to figure out what's most important so I could channel my hyperfocus on that... but when I couldn't decide what's most important I would spin out all my effort into that decision and waste my energy not getting anything done. I have since learned to choose one thing every day *before hyperfocus hits* that needs to get done, regardless of whether it's the most important or not, then when that productive feeling hits I already know where to spend my energy. On good days I can get more than just that done but as long as I START with that one thing I'll be satisfied with what I was able to do ❤️
Wow! This is exactly my experience too! I’m also working on deciding what to hyperfocus on before I get into it and it’s changing my life. Before I would do nothing because I got trapped in the loop of trying to focus that energy onto something and I couldn’t. Now I can usually tell when it’s coming and do something with it.
This is SO me! I'm only just realising that I may have ADHD (aged 59!) and this resonates with me so much! Such a useful tip...! Thank you!
I've found that talking about difficulty directing my *intention* rather than *attention* has helped me contextualize why I come out of hyperfocus with a well organized sock drawer when I went into it trying to select old cloths for donation.
Sadly, I feel like I partially lost my ability to hyperfocus.
I used to write SO MUCH.
Then I had a kid, and I've never gotten my "interruptions free space" back.
But the bigger part of it is that I went from "creating" to "consuming"; watching a show instead of writing a story. Listening to a podcast instead of drawing.
My curious raven brain loves the internet because I can literally learn *everything*. But I have become an adult with responsibilities and my day still only has 24 hours - so...
I'm 36 years old and am just now realizing, thanks to your content, that I probably have ADHD. This especially solidifies it. I'm realizing part of why I've never been diagnosed is because I USED to be able to aim my hyperfocus pretty efficiently by letting deadlines motivate me. So it seemed like I was doing well and I tricked myself into thinking I was. But in reality I was absolutely setting myself up to fail because I'm definitely using my hyperfocus as a crutch. When that hyperfocus doesn't align with what I want to focus on, there's just nothing I can do about it because my one weapon in my arsenal isn't just gone but is working against me.
Again, thank you. And yes, I'm already working with my Doctor on getting referred for an official diagnosis.
I've increasingly realized that this was basically how I got through high school and college, and that strategy doesn't translate well to office work, unless I somehow translate office work into a school work like structure. I didn't realize how much of a crutch it was for me until recently
For me it's exactly the same
I am 40 and just got diagnosed 2 weeks ago. I hope you are able to get the help you need!
im kinda in the same situation as you. i realized there is no shortcut but to build solid discipline and mental strength. relying too much on hyperfocus as the main source of strength doesnot work. hyperfocus works like coffee,sugar rush. its a bonus when it randomly kicks in, but its not reliable.
Omg!! Yes! Same.. it was something I was so proud of... now it's the source of sadness and disconnect because I don't know how to aim it...
Thank you for talking about this! when ppl see me hyper focus they think i don’t have ADHD 😭😭
Of course! I'm surprised I didn't do it sooner -- exactly for that reason!
I can hyper focus on a google maps image search that begins in a place where some news item happened and winds up 5,000 miles away looking at beaches in the middle of the ocean and wondering what kind of fish inhabit the reefs.
Thank you for your content. I know you invest in it.
Your content helps me. It is my 60th birthday. I scheduled my B-Day celebration for 3/5 as with Spring Break it was more likely to be successful (meaning attendance). I SCHEDULED and paid for my birthday party because a surprise one would have been awful for me.
I could only get through half of this video but emailed it to myself. Made me cry. I see so much of the lack of focus vs hyper-focus plus scheduling based on the best outcomes throughout the year.
Even at age 60 I am trying to achieve many things at one time. But mountain cedar allergies have been bad this year and SAD always hits in the Winter.
I feel this hyper focus vs multi-tasking. Each has its place.
This year didn't feel as bad regarding depression, but allergies were worse. In any case, I chose to take 4 vacation days starting today to recover from Winter and refocus. I never have taken more than 2 days in a row to reenergize, but this year I feel it is a good investment.
I am motivated but risking burnout. People think that fully pulling back from goals is what is needed in these circumstances. Or taking the non-essential items off plate.
But...The non-essential ones are not only the ones which keep me going, but are also the ones higher management sees.
Not listening to that.
Will just step back and prioritize and relax during vacation. (Plus study because I know I need to in order to meet a long desired goal.) Time to see what priorities there are, and to start cleaning up the house and financial clutter which impacts my quality of life.
Never been diagnosed ADHD, and I do not believe I have it.
My attitude is that the diagnosis need not fit if the solutions do. Your content helps me and that is what matters. BTW, have nothing against being diagnosed as ADHD. It may make some things easier. I just believe I do not fit the diagnosis but your videos help me, if that makes sense.
.
The concept of our brains plugging into something with the tendrils is a great analogy! The part about it hurting/anger when someone pulls us out too quickly made me think about my 5 yr old granddaughter. Both her parents also have ADHD and everyone recognizes that she does too.
This part helped me realize that ordering her to "Stop playing with that & do xyz" is often yanking her out of hyperfocus. She's not being defiant. She's really into what she's doing and doesn't know how to pull herself out for other concerns. WE must help her learn what nobody figured out how to teach us in a healthy way. I'll be talking with my daughter about this, for sure!
Thanks!
I took the GRE as a practice to decide if I should take a course to improve. I went into hyperfocus mode and got perfect scores in both math and logic and did well on reading comprehension. I later decided to go to law school instead of a different grad school and had to take the LSAT with way more pressure. It is basically the same test I had already gotten a perfect score on. I took it 3 times and never got that much higher than average.
I was diagnosed a few years later, after passing the bar exam.
The fact you passed the bar exam undiagnosed is incredible! I hope it didn't come at too high a cost in the moment! 🧡
@@HowtoADHD It was 2008. I was able to pass the bar... but not apply for jobs in a bad market. Yeah, the cost was high, which lead to my diagnosis.
That’s impressive🎉
Curiosity Question. Has anyone ever BEEN IN hyperfocus and NOT known it until they COME OUT OF hyperfocus, or is it just me that this happens to?
Yes. Every time. Now almost everyday... 😅
@@MathildaMolanderMolin About the same for me. I still have my moments of having issues getting going, but once I do hyperfocus kicks in and I don't know it until I'm done
I have an alphabet soup of diagnosis (Autism, ADHD, OCD, and Bipolar) and sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between a healthy amount of hyperfocus or more of an obsessive or manic state. I'm currently medicated for everything but ADHD, and I couldn't help but notice the striking similarities in behavior between ADHD and Bipolar. The main difference for me is that with ADHD, I don't have the aggression or combative behavior like I do in a manic state.
I realized just a couple weeks ago that my particular brand of hyperfocusing can be manipulated (scarily) easily with music. I tend to listen to one specific track on repeat when I'm doing an intense writing session, and it's now become both a blessing and a curse. When that track starts playing, I immediately switch into writing mode, and when it ends I turn off. Luckily, I found a 30 minute loop video of it on youtube, so that's how I chunk out my writing time now. I make sure the video isn't on auto-play/repeat, so whenever it ends I know I need to get up and do something else for a little while.
Learning about hyper focus (as well as the rest of the backlog on your channel) this past month is what is really cementing to me that I have undiagnosed adhd (as a BIPOC woman, go figure). How frustrating that I’m coming to this as an adult when my childhood years and esp HS/college years could have def benefitted from this knowledge. Thank you for creating this community! 💗
I remember seeing a self help TH-camr who said something like “You don’t need ‘work ethic’ or ‘coping skills’, just use your hyperfocus like I do and accept that it only works once a week” and I was like 🤨🤨 They are a *self employed* TH-camr with a weekly upload schedule. We would get FIRED or FAIL out of school if we did that. Most of us were already doing that, and it stopped working somewhere around high school, when the hyperfocus cycle stopped being enough to study hard subjects.
And no matter how accommodating employers are, they’re not gonna pay you for full time for you to work a 12 hour shift once a week _maybe_ on a sporadic schedule. You have to attend meetings and meet daily quotas on something you probably don’t even enjoy doing. Hyperfocus is just too unreliable for bigger projects that require coordination. And that applies to hyperfocus in general as well.
I’ve found that hyperfocus is a trap. It feels amazing, aaaand most likely leads you no where. In high school most of us probably banged out an amazing essay in 3 hours and have been chasing that high, but it just doesn’t work on your college thesis. It doesn’t work when you’re learning a language, or writing a book, or working at a job every day. It can feel amazing or be a lifesaver at times, but that’s where it should stay-as an indulgence, not our life strategy.
Hyper focus both helped and hurt me in college. Sometimes I would get stuck on a problem and refuse to give up until I solved it, and that was just what the situation required; a little brute force. Other times I would need to step away because I was going down a wrong path but couldn't see it until I took a break. I've gotten better at determining which one is needed, but it's still a struggle sometimes.
I used to binge watch entire season after season of a show until I missed grad school classes or work that day. Now sometimes I allow myself to go into hyper focus to complete a task, but it’s almost never the task that I needed to prioritize that day. I turned 40 this year and this is the year I first thought maybe ADHD applied to me and got medicated for it. The medication helps so much.
Ah hyper focus, the old double edge sword that lets me do so much but is probably my biggest crutch. Currently learning how to separate hyper fucos standards from “normal” adhd standards of what I can do in a day.
That's so relatable and that's good to hear! Definitely important to differentiate between your normal non-hyperfocus standards and your hyperfocus standards. That's very wise!
Love this! I also have bipolar II and I find the when I'm in more of a hypomanic state I can hyperfocus on planning, people and fun things, but when I'm depressed I might hyperfocus on my anxieties and things that make me feel worse.
That is an excellent way of putting it. I’ll add to what I posted earlier: hypomania plus hyperfocus is generally smart, productive and enjoyable for me, hyperfocus in a state of heightened emotions feels like unpleasant compulsive behavior, and hyperfocus in a distressed or depressed state is...rumination.
My problem with hyperfocus is a long time ago I recognized that there were things I'd hyperfocus on that were not actually productive, so I would start to just ignore the hyperfocus... not a good idea. Yes, I still go to work, do my job, etc. The problem is I then think about the thing I'm wanting to hyper focus on, and when I get home, I try to ignore it and try to work on things that need to be done (my job I do without issue because if I don't I'm fired... simple for me). At home I have no one to tell me what to do or set deadlines, so essentially when I ignore a hyperfocus and try to do things that need to be done, I just end up shutting down and nothing gets done. 41 years old and this had been my life for 20 years.
I mention some of these ADHD traits to my wife sometimes and say I think I do that sometimes.
I get the quizzical look with "You ALWAYS do that!"
I love her♥️
Hoi Jessica, leuk dat je Nederlands leert! Veel succes!
And yes the sounds are insane, funny thing is those sounds carry through in my English 😂
It's a 20/60/20 mix between hyperfocus/can't focus/mild focus at work & school. I have INSANE hyperfocus when a deadline is approaching though. Often times I can't find the motivation until I *have* to get something done. But I will sit for 8+ hours, skip eating/drinking/using the bathroom. It's crazy! Thank you for bringing attention (haha) to hyperfocusing
This was a very timely video for me. I’ve been working on de-stigmatising how I think about my ADHD, particularly around how I study. I’ve been a good student for most of my life, but only because I have been using hyperindependence and hypervigilance to compensate for every struggle I had in the classroom. I cannot continue doing that (it’s a recipe for anxiety and depression), but without it… I have no idea how to learn anymore. It may have been a negative coping mechanism, but it was still a coping mechanism, and now that I’ve let it go… I have no idea how to actually learn anymore. I have to entirely rebuild a new system for myself, and one of the things my counsellor and I have discussed is trying to build study routines that follow the cyclical nature of my attention span. Although I have trouble sustaining attention, I do notice the things that I pay attention TO are kind of always there, always returning.
I’m trying to give myself a routine that allows for the natural flow of my brain, but it’s hard. And it’ll be a long journey, too.
Hyperfocus can be a euphoric. I think it's why we can react so aggressively to being taken out of it "against our will." It's interesting to consider in the greater context of not being neuro-typical and addiction.
Oh yes we have addictive personalities we have to be very careful
When I read, I have to start and finish a book in one sitting, because if I put it down and try to do something else, I can feel my attention still stuck in the book. It feels like being half asleep, or even a little drunk. My perception becomes odd and disjointed and my mind feels even more spacey than normal.
I hyperfocus on things that aren't books as well, but pulling away from those things doesn't feel as detrimental as reading.
It does feel a bit like a superpower to be able to hyperfocus so hard that I can go 48 hours without sleep. But that destroys my limited control of my attention (and sleep schedule) for days afterwards.
The things I NEED to do are almost never the things I can hyperfocus on, so it doesn't feel at all beneficial to my life. It's mostly just the thing that pisses off my husband when he's trying to talk to me, makes me late for stuff, keeps me up too late, and wastes my time.
Hyperfocus is a superpower & a kryptonite 😛
Yuuuuuuuuuup!
Just wanted to say thanks for talking about this. It's not widely understood.
I had ADHD before the "H" was there, nobody talked about this stuff back then and going into adulthood without understanding it was hard. Knowing now about executive function and hyperfocus has helped me understand why I am the way I am and thus try to work around it and not be hateful towards myself because I didn't understand that my magical "doing my best" came with some strings attached.
For myself, hyperfocus was my superpower during my career. I admit that it was also a curse that required a lot of self management (to keep me from crashing and burning), but since most of the 'linear's' don't have a superpower, having ADHD was a great advantage for me. When I 'locked on', I was able do things in a short time that far smarter linear's couldn't. Maybe I was lucky because I didn't know why I was different until recently. The only thing I would like to add is, I found it helped to keep my life simple, so you aren't overwhelmed by hyperfocus temptations, and (if necessary) set daily alarms to remind yourself to evaluate if this hyperfocus is worth your time. This is such a good channel and group. Thank you Brains.
One really important takeaway I had from this is now I know hyper focus can cause us to feel exhausted, while previously I often feel frustrated because I can’t get into hyper focus like the last time I did, and feeling tired, and I couldn’t recognize that’s because I’m tired from the last focus
I never realized that how I spiral over texts is that hyperfocus...realizing that feels like it will help me manage it better. Thank you!!!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for producing these videos. I was recommended to your channel by my own psychologist - and I can sincerely say that your content has changed my life. As a 38yr old woman who has only recently (finally!) been diagnosed with ADHD - your videos have been so incredibly insightful and helpful. It's made me laugh, feel seen and... sometimes cry, whilst watching your videos. I've sought out many resources on ADHD, and can honestly say, your content has been the most authentic and accurate depiction of how (I) experience ADHD - thank you, so much -
I've learnt to see hyperfocus as a tool. I can't control it fully, but I can direct it just enough to get things done. Writing is a great blessing for me: whenever I need to learn some boring stuff for university, I end up treating the information as research for my world building project, and then my brain agrees that the thing is actually really fun and I can use hyperfocus to help me with things I really do need to do
I have ADD and my oldest was diagnosed with ADHD currently I don't take medicine, my son does, now I'm struggling with how to help him because I just learned to cope with this, but not necessarily productively. And that in itself comes at a cost. Now with my son. I'm trying to help him as much as I can but I also feel like I don't know where to start or what tools to look for and find myself reverting back to broken tools that help me. I truly appreciate your videos because I feel like it is helping me not only understand myself but understand my son and I just want to say thank you and looking forward to more videos.
Yeah, my daughter and I both have ADHD and I feel the same. I did learn (by default) certain coping mechanisms and strategies. Many are I think "functional" but some are not. Also my daughter is growing up in a very different world than I did (e. g. social media) so I don't think everything that worked for me would be useful to her. Lastly, one of the reasons I was a reasonably "self-sufficient" child is that my parents neglected me in many ways and I HAD to cope. My daughter has a lot more support (from me). However, I'm also trying to encourage, support but not "enable". I find this a difficult balancing act.
Hello, we have the same hat 🐺 Also, thank you for for promoting a language learning tool 💙
You have great taste in hats! :D
I want this hat! 😍😍😍😍😍
@@HowtoADHD Yes! And it has so many applications, not the least of which is making TH-cam videos 🎬
I gotta get this hat! Where do you get it?
Yes! Where can one purchase such a hat?
This is TOTALLY me. Totally! Hyperfocus is a superpower AND a curse. Still learning how to harness it and also forgiving myself when I can't. I use my physical "pomodoro" timer to jolt me back into any plans I've made.
Something I love about hyper focus is that when a new skill is my focus, my memory retention is almost perfect.
I've understood my hyperfocus when it was gone away in a bad depression period. I realized that this is the kind of "electricity" that characterize me, that give me the sparkle of life. Hyperfocus make me so strange and comic but it's also a huge part of my personality, and I've learn to love it and (try to) use it for my benefit!
That sounds more like bipolar.
@@lijohnyoutube101 no ,it doesn't . Probably ,you've never experienced hyperfocus which is not a mood disorder .
@@lijohnyoutube101 nah, it was just a year of grief, but it explain me a lot about myself!
Great video! I wish there were more content and research on hyperfocus. It's such a dominant part of life as someone with ADHD, and, like you said, it comes from the same place as our inattention. Hyperfocus and distractedness, the good and the bad, are two sides of the same coin.
It usually takes me awhile to “settle in” to my work space before I can get anything done- and then when I am finally ready to do real work- I get interrupted. I have found that I am able to dig into my “work” quicker when I leave myself really good notes about where I am in the project and what I need to do next. I was kind of forced into learning that when I was working as a staff accountant at a CPA firm. It was tax season, and I was pregnant. I started making really good notes in case I went into labor before a tax return was completed. I wanted to be sure someone else could pick up my work and finish without having to go back thru everything. Now that I think about it….I should probably try that approach again!
This was really helpful. I've spent years celebrating hyperfocus, but I hadn't put together how many of my issues are caused by the downside of hyperfocusing.
The timing of seeing this video notification was hilariously perfect and helped me realize that I should take a break and eat something.
I hyperfocus more than I would like to; usually on things I don't need to be doing when I have other things I need to be working on. For example, right now I was hyperfocused on a Photoshop project that was non-essential. It feels like I blinked and it was almost 3 hours later.
Almost 15 years ago I went in hyper focus to complete some task that a teacher assigned to me, only got her to yell at me for not listening to her babble about other stuff. I went in hyper focus a few times since then and most of them resulted in being startled greatly by people coming to talk with me. Being able to hyper focus also caused me to miss a very good opportunity to get diagnosed of ADHD so now because I’m over 25, psychologists from primary care are reluctant to diagnose me and I had to go on huge waitlist for private diagnosis. But I still appreciate my super power of being able to hyper focus because I feel so quiet and peaceful when doing it. Of course I need to be very careful and unplug myself when needed (usually via a timer), or otherwise I get exhausted afterwards - but I still very much enjoy when I hyper focus. Just the quietness that I usually don’t have during a distractive day…
Thank you for making this video. I always felt my hyperfocus was like a pendulum on wheel of task that my brain wants to do. Sometimes I cannot stop they way it wants to swing but I can put the things it wants to do that doesnt help me get what I need done, out of the picture by moving it to another room, shutting the phone completely off, or telling people to not to disturb me. Allowing my brain the freedom to float between a set of tasks has helped me get things done...sometimes. Sometimes it just dont want to go. Then I have to look at why and how the heck that wall got there and what I can do to remove it.
What you said about being brought forcefully out of hyperfocus rings so true to me. I had a coworker who knew I had ADHD but didn't know much about it, but he could tell when I was in hyperfocus and he knew I would be agitated if he pulled me out of it - BUT HE DID IT ANYWAY! Every time!!! Like I'm /finally/ getting work done, finally in the zone T v T for me being broken out of my hyperfocus is one of the few ways to get me genuinely /angry/ (an emotion I rarely feel.) I tried talking to him about it, even giving him alternative methods about how to relay urgent information to me during hyperfocus but he still did it right until I quit LOL I wish more jobs would create spaces for us to thrive and do our best work
The hat made me smile
Hehehe glad to hear it! Makes me smile too :D
Hyperfocus is such a challenge for me. I find it hard enough to get into a flow state because of coursework and lectures flying in at inopportune times. If I have class at 5 and it's 2 P.M., I can't get myself into the hyperfocus state. So those days end up being a wash because I keep getting distracted and panicking when it's time to leave.
And when I do finally get into a hyperfocus, that's when I get interrupted by loved ones and I don't want to lash out at them, but it's incredibly frustrating.
... Wow I wrote a lot 😅
being stuck in Waiting Mode is so frustrating!
I don’t have adhd but this is so relatable, I’ve had those moments of intense focus where I can’t do anything else, and I don’t stop because I fear i wont have capacity to work on it for the next two weeks. I have depression so it is like I need to get the most out of those brief lucky moments that I can have focus. But of course it backfires because I’m left more tired. I can only imagine how tough it is for people with adhd 😖. So this video is great advice not just for people with adhd!
63 y/o male. I was watching Homeland with my wife a few years ago, and when the bipolar lead character went manic doing an analysis over a weekend, I told my wife the hyper focus is somewhat similar. So much so that when I saw a psychiatrist for meds 7 years ago (your channel helped in that decision 👍), a differential diagnosis was for a manic disorder. Judging from their questions, seems the big difference is we don’t experience the euphoria. I like your explanations on how it feels.
Uh-oh, I don’t get euphoric either. I thought this had to do with my autism and generally depressive/alexithymic state, but I’m more hyperactive than anything and have wondered at times about mania...I’d have to be hypomanic, no delusional thinking and lots more doesn’t line up with bipolar. But a manic disorder? Maybe. If you get this and are willing to talk a little bit more about the length of your cycles or your dx, I’m reluctantly curious. 62 yo male.
As someone who has been the focal point of a brains hyperfocus, I'm happy that you touched on the subject.
Noone has ever made me feel that amazing, while the hyperfocus was on me, but never felt so in the dark after it ended, as I didn't know really anything about ADHD at the time.
Thank you for giving me the language to describe "being plugged in"! That was so aptly put. It IS actually pretty painful to come out of a hyperfocus abruptly and it's so hard to explain that to people. Understanding that getting stuck on things like rewriting a sentence a million times is a part of hyperfocus is actually really helpful too!
Regarding brain spinning on things -- I often find it hard to start a project (very hard. Major push back in my mind) but when I do start, I get super into it and don't want to stop. 🙂
YES! I know how you feel. Very well. I, too, lost a (girl)friend to hyperfocus. But it also allowed me to jumpstart a career. It truly is a double edge sword.
Hyperfocus has definitely been a blessing and a curse throughout my life.
I was just diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago, when I was 42 and had just resigned as a teacher for 19 years.
This video is AMAZING!
Ever since we met in college, my husband has said I have to have a “project” in my life. I always associated this with OCD. I didn’t know then about hyperfocus.
I have hyper focused on video games (I even created a username beginning with the word “addict” because of this), the yearbook I advised at my high school (talk about so many things to spin on!), decluttering my home (which has actually helped my ADHD in other ways😅), and now my TH-cam channel.
I still primarily live in hyperfocus mode, as you can tell, and so this video has been a good reminder of the detriment of this mode of loving.
I recently began meds, and I’ve been seeing a bit of improvement on getting the more mundane tasks of my life accomplished…doing dishes, scheduling appointments, and dealing with laundry…but the hyperfocus has not subsided. I will definitely need to hone this skill.
Thank you for this channel. I have been a subscriber for awhile now, even before my diagnosis, and it has helped me in so many ways.
Keep up the great work.
Yeah, meds help so much but things like hyperfocus still remain. But the meds can help work with or around hyperfocus, we just have to be aware of it in the first place. Which I'm not good at doing yet lol, plus every pharmacy around me is out of my meds anyways so I'm struggling extra hard again
@@darmakx99 , thanks for commiserating with me!
The shortage is tough. My son has ADHD as well, and we’ve been lucky to locate a pharmacy that had it. We did have to have our doc call the scrip in to a new place, but it’s worth it!!
Your videos are so validating for me 😊💕
A small way I use my hyper focus is I only allow myself to watch whatever Korean drama I’m watching (which requires me to read subtitles) while taking a lunch break away from work. This incentivizes me to actually take a proper break away from my work, and it prevents me from bingeing kdramas.
I love your content. I am convinced I have ADHD and I plan on seeking help for it. This video has hit the nail in my head. I set alarms for everything... to the extent that I make jokes about needing to set an alarm to remind me to blink or even breathe. Thanx for this one.
Thank you for the video! Hyper focus has been a double edge sword for me. Before I knew I has ADHD, and before I really knew what hyper focus was, I learned that I could get into this “zone” where the rest of the world faded, and I would do my best school work. I learned about it around Jr high when I would get frustrated that I had to switch classes every 40 minutes, I would get into math, and just want to do math. I did my high school through independent studies that was much better. I would work on one or two subjects per day, and that was much easier to regulate. In university I would set aside massive chunks of time for lab reports as I knew I needed my “zone” for them. I would eat, use the bathroom, get everything ready before I started, as I knew once I started it, I couldn’t break the zone.
As a teacher now for over a decade, I don’t need the hyper focus as much anymore, I need the ability to leap from task to task. After teaching throughout covid, the stress spartan kicked my brain off the edge of functional, and I became a complete wreck, with no ability to regulate my focus, what I had done for 35 years didn’t work. I got a diagnosis and am now on meds, and learning more about my ADHD, and how it really has been a huge part of my life and personality without me knowing it my whole life. It’s bad, I’m 95-99 percentile in each of the categories in the Browns scales. It has its pros and cons, but sometimes I would like a vacation from it for a day.
Hyper focus for me is very similar to yours Jessica. I am/was a Labour Relations Expert operating at a very high level in a large health care organization. Following a concussion, I began having severe symptoms and was diagnosed a little over a year later in April of 2022.
When writing on a specific question, I will spend hours getting the words of every sentence, paragraph, section absolutely perfect, but often I unknowingly shift the focus of the document away from the real objective, to the point it becomes irrelevant. I have even blown apart the expected format (and content) with a virtual tsunami of verbosity, that even I can’t figure out when I finally come up for air. Executive level bulleted briefing notes would become a 5 page diatribe, and not even get the the point! That’s one reason I am no longer working in my field of expertise. E.G. I just spent 20 minutes on this paragraph before I forced my self to stop). I did get to the point though, that’s hopeful! 😂
Another terrific video, Jessica! Thank you for sticking with the channel and being an ADHD advocate. I found your channel years back and used your vids for research on how to help accommodate a new coworker who was ADHD Hyperactive, only to realize through discussions with him and by watching your videos that I might have ADHD as well. 5 years and one diagnosis later, I’m happy to count myself among your fellow brains! You’ve helped reduce stigma around ADHD I didn’t even know was there and made it much easier for me to come to terms with my diagnosis and better understand myself. And I’ll always appreciate you for that. Keep on keeping on, and I CANNOT WAIT to read your book once it releases. :)
I felt so seen and called out by EVERYTHING you said. Thank you so much for putting it into words in a helpful way.
"til we're DEAD, we're DONE, or someone SNAPS us out of it" was a perfect nutshell from the get-go goodness SAKES
Hyperfocus is a comfort zone. It is a struggle to get started with things, but once I do, hyperfocus kicks in and takes over. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with hand brakes so I constantly lose track of time and run head first into a time deadline like an appointment at which point I am in panic mode to get to the appointment. Once the hyperfocus has been broken my brain is tired and it is at least twice as hard to restart on same activity.
Thanks for the hyperfocus discussion. It's good to hear that I'm not alone. There are activities that I know will spin my brain up and suck me in like you said so I try to only even look at those activities when I know I have 6-8 hours to kill because that will be what happens. Unfortunately there are other tasks that grab me no matter how hard I try to avoid them and as a result get nothing helpful done for hours at very inconvenient times. Hyperfocus got me through university but now nearly 20 years later, it hinders me more then helps me I think. What I would give to be able to direct that beautiful, easy, focus on the tasks that need doing. Instead I struggle and use all the tricks I know to just get through life/work while most of my brain power goes deep dives on random ass things without my consent.
Hyperfocus is awesome!! Only thing is I end up hyperfocusing on entertainment type of things rather than school and stuff lol
Yeahhhhh, it can be super fickle about what it decides to focus on.
I wrote my bachelor thesis in 10 days. 12-14 hours of work a day. Needless to say, it were the last 10 days before failing. I just recently discovered your channel and I never thought about it, but I might have adhd. Hyper focus is super rewarding, but I can only achieve it when it is almost too late or too late.
My biggest challenge with getting focused or trying to direct myself into productive hyper focus is that I have trouble starting these big tasks if I anticipate interruption. I can use tools like “review yesterday’s work” or “just do it for 15 minutes and see what happens,” if I know I won’t be pulled out of it, but if I have an appointment later in the day or know something/someone else is likely to interrupt me it feels impossible to start (probably because getting back into it is even harder than getting there in the first place). For some reason my brain stubbornly refuses to believe it’s worth focusing on something challenging if we don’t have a 4 hour block of time to sink into it. 😅
I've relied on hyperfocus to get me through grad school and to the end of my PhD... but as I've gotten older, my body has become less resilient to my hyperfocus sessions. I've really struggled with what I saw as "loss of productivity" in recent years because I couldn't hyperfocus every day for hours on end day after day without having to then spend my weekends in bed too exhausted to even eat a full meal at best (but usually, having to take a day or two off in addition to weekends to just mill about in a haze). I'm finally in CBT to learn how to manage my ADHD better than medication + hyperfocus + noise cancelling headphones and grumpy looks at people interrupting me. It's kind of scary to even consider letting go of hyperfocus as it's the only "productivity" method that I've known, but it has really not served my greater well being in recent years.
Yes, i left a similar comment. Hyperfocus made me an overachiever in Uni but eventually burned me out.
Ditto. Among other things, dopamine tends to drop for women when menopause hits, which further dysregulated my mother, and I have the idea that it happened to me in some way too, even lacking menopause. Then, stress can cause the prefrontal cortex’s dendritic extensions to wither and the amygdala’s dendritic extensions to lengthen, and that sure happened to me. Finally, ambient inflammation tends to increase in older adults, one of the factors behind cognitive and I think even physical decline. In my case, lifelong undiagnosed and untreated ADHD probably didn’t help either.
Same here. I thought hyperfocus was what people meant when they would say that they worked hard for e.g. a week. That made me feel so lazy because I could not keep that up for so long! I wish I had gotten my ADHD diagnosis earlier, it would have made doing my PhD a lot easier (also for my supervisors...).
Your comment about hyper focus in a new relationship set off yet another lightbulb in my brain. That’s totally me. I can be obsessive not just about new ideas or hobbies or job or whatever, but people/relationships too.
Now as a mum, nurse and adult woman recently diagnosed with ADHD, I realise that as great as hyper focus can be for certain things, because I used to rely on it so much, I keep trying to make it happen again. But my life is not conducive to that anymore. My kids need caring for, my work needs doing when it is scheduled, and now I’m back at university doing graduate studies and I can’t just rely on insane last minute efforts to get everything done. It’s already exhausting but now I have live with working on things slowly. And without meds, that feels unbearable. Even with meds, it’s a slog.
Thank you so much Jessica for your content. It’s been the best and earliest resource for me as I slowly discovered myself and my brain.
I haven't been diagnosed but very much suspect I have ADHD, I can relate to your comment about balancing parenting, work and studies among our other "interests". I wouldn't say I rely on hyperfocus to get things done but I've noticed my sweet spot of flow strikes at about 3 pm and considering I have day care pick up at 4:30 work days it's a problem. 🙄. For courses I scheduled specific times that I'm going to study/ do papers and tell my hubby that I have to focus on that and it means I can't parent. I try to not do it more than an 8 hour chunk in a week and get as much done in that time as I can. Because I plan it that way I have a few days to ruminate about what I'll do with the time so my spool up time is shorter. Good luck striking your balance!
Thank you, How to ADHD! In the nonprofit world, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is the law of the land; yet, intersectional approaches to an equitable workplace tend to put neurodivergence in last place. I appreciate your unpacking the experience of the ADHD employee struggling to make a meaningful contribution to their org. Sending love to anyone bringing hyperfocus to their org's projects (perhaps TH-cam channel) without clear and reasonable expectations, roles, and responsibilities.