I hyper focus while I’m drawing or crafting sometimes. I will ignore texts, not eat, not use the bathroom, or drink anything for hours. I blink and it’s been 3 hours focusing on a task. I also cannot hyper focus when other people are around, only when I’m alone. Even if I’m being left alone, the knowledge that someone else is there keeps me out of it.
I've lost entire days (and honestly weeks) to hyperfocus before. Staying up working on whatever-it-is-at-the-moment until I literally crash (usually more than 20 hrs later) and repeat for several days in a row. An honest-to-god hyperfixation is not a 'tee-hee' bragging moment. It can fuck you up (not eating, not sleeping right, not moving your body when/ how you should as often as you should, not using the restroom as often as you should, etc.) Then there's the ever so delightful rage you experience the moment someone or something rips you out of the hyperfocus. And the immense guilt after the rage passes because the person 100% did not deserve that out-of-proportion tantrum.
I love this, I hate how people overuse terms that actually have meaning and then it becomes a casual thing that everyone thinks they experience. I will hold my pee until I’m in physical pain and not eat until I have low blood sugar and spend 3-4 hours just comparing shampoos because I just feel the NEED to keep going down a rabbit hole or say “just after this” for hours on end 😂
Enter me hyperfocusing about the difference between bipolar and ADHD… and so happy I stumbled upon your video… trying to convince myself I have ADHD because doctors will not give me medication because … 70%of people with bipolar have ADHD but it’s not the other way around… just like i had to self diagnose myself that I’m allergic to milk. 🤦🏻♀️ we know ourselves more than anyone can learn in an hour appointment argh. Thanks for doing these videos to help people like me ❤
I think my ability to hyperfocus was why I never got diagnosed as a kid. I could read for HOURS and be pretty much oblivious to anything my mother said to me while I was reading.
I'd love to see a video about the differences between hyperfocus and hyperfixation if you haven't already made one! I personally find it hard to understand the difference when I look it up
I'm not diagnosed with ADHD but I am a diagnosed autistic, and I do experience hyperfocus the way you describe it ever since I was a small child. I just get so focused on one of my special interests it's like the world around me disappears. Not only I forget about it, but I also can no longer see, hear or feel what's going on outside of the thing I'm focusing on. The world is just no longer there unless someone happens to manage to get my attention either by touching me or by getting directly in front of my line of vision. It happens mostly when I'm writing or reading. I can just spend hours doing those things without even remembering to go to the bathroom, eat or drink water, or sleep. It can get pretty scary tbh
I sometimes hyperfocus while drawing, but it most often happens with video games. When i come out of the hyperfocus, I often have dry eyes, cramped legs, sore fingers, and like ten other debuffs. Can't focus on fuck all usually, but when that hyprrfocus hits... Oof.
I considered anxiety dirsorder having this hyper focusing talent. Bc they obsses over a certain kind of bad situation that might happen and they do everything in their power to avoid that catastrophic event. My bf has anxiety and when be focus too much in avoiding a bad event i redirect that anxiety towards a hobby, like building lego sets.
I'm diagnosed adhd. I think I may have hyperfocused once or twice. I genuinely wish I could do it more. On demand would be brilliant! Oh my god all other stuff just disappearing for a while. Heaven! No external sounds 🤩 Irritating though I guess when you need to do other stuff 😖
Be careful what you wish for. As someone brilliantly and spot-on specified, in a previous comment, hyperfocus can (and usually) means neglecting super-important things, like going to the bathroom (until you're in pain [or you have an "accident"]) or ignoring hunger signals (until you go into low blood sugar [think: headaches, dizziness, about to lose consciousness, even causing malnutrition, if you do it often enough]), sometimes simply to do something like finishing watching a program (that you've possibly seen before and/or could just pause...if you weren't hyperfocused) or because you have to finish "researching" something, as if the fate of the universe rested on you finding the answers to the mysteries of life (or researching the best shampoo, to borrow the previous commenter's example), right then and there, because who needs to eat or pee or go to a doctor's appointment, when you're about to unlock the mysteries of the best possible shampoo for your hair type or finding out how this episode ends? Yes, if you could unlock it on demand -- *and* assign the target of your focus *and* put it away, all on demand -- that would be awesome!!! Otherwise, not so much 😅 PS: Not that you can't take steps to curb it, it just takes *a lot* out of you to do that (think of someone asking you to hold your face to an open flame, that kind of resistance) and, if you suffer from anxiety and, specifically OCD, where it becomes even more of a compulsion, the dread of not finishing alone, all while you know, in the back of your mind, that you're missing something truly important (like a previous commitment) is enough to feel like you're about to get swallowed alive and, if you're on the autism spectrum (like with AuDHD), that kind of intensity burns you out and can lead to a meltdown or even a full-on shutdown, where you now feel so wiped out that you literally can't function, because you're feeling mentally, physically, sometimes even emotionally, fried (spent). Fun times (so not)!!!
Oh yeah, I get everything you said! I'm laying in bed writing this comment, knowing I need a wee, and that it's going to be a very horrible experience when I get up - I actually slipped down the stairs and wet myself the other day 😳🤦🏻♀️ But still laying here typing so I can just finish what I'm saying. But that to me is a transition problem. In my comment I just simply meant how nice it would be for me if all other sounds around me disappeared for a while. No matter what I'm doing, I can *always* hear every bloody other thing happening around me 😭😭 When my partner is hyperfocused, he doesn't hear other conversations around him, just stays in his own little world. That, for me, would be heaven - be able to switch off other sounds. Obviously, not all the other distressing stuff 😢
I am not usually one to be out of bed after 9:30 pm, but, me being the horrible procrastinator I am, I had a geometry project do third period the next day and for extra points we could make our nets cool. (we were taking shapes like cubes and cylinders and coloring them before cutting the nets out and making the shapes.) I sat down at around 8 pm, the project should have took 10 minutes max, by the time I had completed this project it was 1:30 AM. ... I had no clue that time had passed while I was working on this. I only found out after showing of the cylinder I made, a Morton's salt substitute shaker that actually shook out the correct product (I mean this thing was amazing bar code and all), that the news was on full volume telling everyone in my household that there was a tornado that was getting close to us and another one right by my friend who lives in/by Sulfur. I got extra the points.
So it’s like when I start a drawing on the iPad and don’t use the restroom, eat, drink, or anything until it’s done and fully rendered. Hours will pass and I will not realize unless someone tells me.
I dont think I have adhd, but sometimes, I get "hyperfocused" for hours without doing anything else. Not even eating/drinking or going to the toilet. I think the longest time I did that was 8h but usually its mire around 4h. Is that still neurotypical focus or is that considered hyperfocus?
As someone who thinks i have adhd, can one of my hyper focuses be my favorite CZcamsrs so much so that it literally takes 7 hours out of my day to binge watch everything. Its that a valid reason to say its a hyper focus? Or naw
What is that background music supposed to be doing apart from dustracting the heck out of us? Music cannot ignored and why play somtething that needs to be ignored?
I hyper focus while I’m drawing or crafting sometimes. I will ignore texts, not eat, not use the bathroom, or drink anything for hours. I blink and it’s been 3 hours focusing on a task. I also cannot hyper focus when other people are around, only when I’m alone. Even if I’m being left alone, the knowledge that someone else is there keeps me out of it.
I've lost entire days (and honestly weeks) to hyperfocus before. Staying up working on whatever-it-is-at-the-moment until I literally crash (usually more than 20 hrs later) and repeat for several days in a row. An honest-to-god hyperfixation is not a 'tee-hee' bragging moment. It can fuck you up (not eating, not sleeping right, not moving your body when/ how you should as often as you should, not using the restroom as often as you should, etc.) Then there's the ever so delightful rage you experience the moment someone or something rips you out of the hyperfocus. And the immense guilt after the rage passes because the person 100% did not deserve that out-of-proportion tantrum.
Yes!!!! We have trouble regulating !! 😮
I love this, I hate how people overuse terms that actually have meaning and then it becomes a casual thing that everyone thinks they experience.
I will hold my pee until I’m in physical pain and not eat until I have low blood sugar and spend 3-4 hours just comparing shampoos because I just feel the NEED to keep going down a rabbit hole or say “just after this” for hours on end 😂
So helpful! I thought I experienc hyperfocus but clearly I don't. Thanks.
Enter me hyperfocusing about the difference between bipolar and ADHD… and so happy I stumbled upon your video… trying to convince myself I have ADHD because doctors will not give me medication because … 70%of people with bipolar have ADHD but it’s not the other way around… just like i had to self diagnose myself that I’m allergic to milk. 🤦🏻♀️ we know ourselves more than anyone can learn in an hour appointment argh. Thanks for doing these videos to help people like me ❤
More please good series keep it up
I'm sorry I was distracted again, gotta rewatch😅
The background music did not help.
I think my ability to hyperfocus was why I never got diagnosed as a kid. I could read for HOURS and be pretty much oblivious to anything my mother said to me while I was reading.
When I was a kid, my doctor told me to call it ADD because it bothered me to add the hyperactivity when that wasn't something I had.
This seems like a great idea, thanks for sharing. (I love your nose ring!)
I'd love to see a video about the differences between hyperfocus and hyperfixation if you haven't already made one! I personally find it hard to understand the difference when I look it up
I'm not diagnosed with ADHD but I am a diagnosed autistic, and I do experience hyperfocus the way you describe it ever since I was a small child. I just get so focused on one of my special interests it's like the world around me disappears. Not only I forget about it, but I also can no longer see, hear or feel what's going on outside of the thing I'm focusing on. The world is just no longer there unless someone happens to manage to get my attention either by touching me or by getting directly in front of my line of vision.
It happens mostly when I'm writing or reading. I can just spend hours doing those things without even remembering to go to the bathroom, eat or drink water, or sleep. It can get pretty scary tbh
I sometimes hyperfocus while drawing, but it most often happens with video games. When i come out of the hyperfocus, I often have dry eyes, cramped legs, sore fingers, and like ten other debuffs.
Can't focus on fuck all usually, but when that hyprrfocus hits... Oof.
I hyper fixate on lockpicking, I spent a LOT of money on gear
A hyperfixations and Hyperfocusing ARE NOT the same thing, even if only contextual in separations...
I had the term “ADHDer”, it sounds like im supposed to be in a fan group for adhd
I considered anxiety dirsorder having this hyper focusing talent. Bc they obsses over a certain kind of bad situation that might happen and they do everything in their power to avoid that catastrophic event. My bf has anxiety and when be focus too much in avoiding a bad event i redirect that anxiety towards a hobby, like building lego sets.
I'm diagnosed adhd. I think I may have hyperfocused once or twice. I genuinely wish I could do it more. On demand would be brilliant! Oh my god all other stuff just disappearing for a while. Heaven! No external sounds 🤩 Irritating though I guess when you need to do other stuff 😖
Be careful what you wish for. As someone brilliantly and spot-on specified, in a previous comment, hyperfocus can (and usually) means neglecting super-important things, like going to the bathroom (until you're in pain [or you have an "accident"]) or ignoring hunger signals (until you go into low blood sugar [think: headaches, dizziness, about to lose consciousness, even causing malnutrition, if you do it often enough]), sometimes simply to do something like finishing watching a program (that you've possibly seen before and/or could just pause...if you weren't hyperfocused) or because you have to finish "researching" something, as if the fate of the universe rested on you finding the answers to the mysteries of life (or researching the best shampoo, to borrow the previous commenter's example), right then and there, because who needs to eat or pee or go to a doctor's appointment, when you're about to unlock the mysteries of the best possible shampoo for your hair type or finding out how this episode ends?
Yes, if you could unlock it on demand -- *and* assign the target of your focus *and* put it away, all on demand -- that would be awesome!!!
Otherwise, not so much 😅
PS: Not that you can't take steps to curb it, it just takes *a lot* out of you to do that (think of someone asking you to hold your face to an open flame, that kind of resistance) and, if you suffer from anxiety and, specifically OCD, where it becomes even more of a compulsion, the dread of not finishing alone, all while you know, in the back of your mind, that you're missing something truly important (like a previous commitment) is enough to feel like you're about to get swallowed alive and, if you're on the autism spectrum (like with AuDHD), that kind of intensity burns you out and can lead to a meltdown or even a full-on shutdown, where you now feel so wiped out that you literally can't function, because you're feeling mentally, physically, sometimes even emotionally, fried (spent). Fun times (so not)!!!
Oh yeah, I get everything you said! I'm laying in bed writing this comment, knowing I need a wee, and that it's going to be a very horrible experience when I get up - I actually slipped down the stairs and wet myself the other day 😳🤦🏻♀️ But still laying here typing so I can just finish what I'm saying.
But that to me is a transition problem.
In my comment I just simply meant how nice it would be for me if all other sounds around me disappeared for a while.
No matter what I'm doing, I can *always* hear every bloody other thing happening around me 😭😭
When my partner is hyperfocused, he doesn't hear other conversations around him, just stays in his own little world.
That, for me, would be heaven - be able to switch off other sounds.
Obviously, not all the other distressing stuff 😢
I am not usually one to be out of bed after 9:30 pm, but, me being the horrible procrastinator I am, I had a geometry project do third period the next day and for extra points we could make our nets cool. (we were taking shapes like cubes and cylinders and coloring them before cutting the nets out and making the shapes.) I sat down at around 8 pm, the project should have took 10 minutes max, by the time I had completed this project it was 1:30 AM. ... I had no clue that time had passed while I was working on this. I only found out after showing of the cylinder I made, a Morton's salt substitute shaker that actually shook out the correct product (I mean this thing was amazing bar code and all), that the news was on full volume telling everyone in my household that there was a tornado that was getting close to us and another one right by my friend who lives in/by Sulfur. I got extra the points.
So it’s like when I start a drawing on the iPad and don’t use the restroom, eat, drink, or anything until it’s done and fully rendered. Hours will pass and I will not realize unless someone tells me.
I dont think I have adhd, but sometimes, I get "hyperfocused" for hours without doing anything else. Not even eating/drinking or going to the toilet. I think the longest time I did that was 8h but usually its mire around 4h. Is that still neurotypical focus or is that considered hyperfocus?
As someone who thinks i have adhd, can one of my hyper focuses be my favorite CZcamsrs so much so that it literally takes 7 hours out of my day to binge watch everything. Its that a valid reason to say its a hyper focus? Or naw
Can you be hyper focused on love?
Dr Russel Barkley calls it an intention deficit
What is that background music supposed to be doing apart from dustracting the heck out of us? Music cannot ignored and why play somtething that needs to be ignored?
Neat