Hyper-focussing and Adult ADD

I have a strong ability to hyperfocus. Or some may say it's my curse. One thing for sure is that it is a huge sign of ADHD.

My Definition of Hyperfocussing For Me With ADD

The ability to do a project, be it writing, painting, building, or some other creative thing, without getting sick of it, bored, tired, or pre-occupied with something that might actually be more important. It can last days, sometimes weeks and the rest of time seems to stand still.

Do You Hyperfocus?

First off, hyperfocussing tends to happen to the more crafty type individuals, the left brainers if you will. It is when something becomes very important to you, you get an urge to complete something and suddenly it becomes all that matters around you. This doesn't mean that nothing else gets accomplished, my children are fed and bathed and loved, but every spare moment I have to work on this sudden project, I am working on it. It might be a quilt, or a poem, or a novel. Maybe you like to build, and you are suddenly enthralled with making a bookshelf for your bedroom, or redecorating one that you have.

How I Hyperfocus

I become completely involved in something, usally writing. If I am interupted in mid-thought during complete concentration I will loose my thought and often can not get it back. However I can still go back to what I was doing. I give baths, do homework, play games, and all of those other funfilled family things but when the kids go to bed I am right back where I was, often times for hours.  I'll sit down at nine and before I know it, it's well past midnight and I fell like I've only been sitting there for twenty minutes.

Eat, sleep, drink it, eat, sleep, drink it, and then one day, maybe a month from now, maybe a few days, and it's gone. Hopefully I got something done because otherwise it will probably sit there until the next episode brings me back to this particular project, if it ever does at all.

I can redo an entire room, including primer and paint on the walls, in less than a week. That's a pro because a week for my episodes is nothing and allows me to finish a full project.

I love to get involved in my characters when I am writing. I can spend weeks so involved that I let them take over allowing me to be a better character writer.

The biggest Pro, and I truly believe this will happen, is that one day soon I will hyperfocus myself into finishing one of many almost finished novels, starting a small business, and finishing my entire home. As long as I keep coming back to these things I am another step closer to finishing it.

My Con List

My only con is the inability to control my hyperfocus.

Games like Farmville, Angry Birds, and some of those other addictive games. Man, I spent months on the perfect farm, for what? I could have been working on something more meaningful for myself. Like a quilt.

I have read a lot into this and I have read a lot of this and thats. Plain and simple, in the science books hyperfocus is believed to be from low levels of dopamine. This can affect and slow down a persons thought process when it comes time to change tasks, making it difficult to shift gears efficiently. It can also cause a person, once out of their focus, to have trouble returning to the same point, if at all.

I also found that as a symptom of ADD, hyperfocussing is more likely to be considered a distraction, and disturbing to the people close to you. However, for many non ADD adults it is considered a form of meditation, and relaxation. It is very similar to a stage of hypnosis.

Go figure.

My Conclusion

For me, I'll just keep enjoying it when it comes.  I'll continue to catch time alone when I can and I'll continue to come closer to a finished project.  If I didn't have hyperfocussing, what would I do with all that left over time?