I'm not sure if this is just me. But if I have an extended period of focus on a topic. When it ends I am pretty burned out. I get these super hyperfocus periods that last for weeks or sometimes months if the interesting parts of a project last long enough. When I come down from these periods I feel as though I can't do much of anything. Of course it is right when I could be handling the finishing touches of whatever project I was so focused on. The result is that I put the project to the side and then never go back to it. Or go back to it much later only to have to practically start over from the beginning.

Am I the only one?

Nope.

I need to push whatever I was stuck on AWAY. I can go back to it... but only if it has been on the back burner for a while.

That's what keeps happening to my novel :(

Eek, she's got bipolar now. Well a little bit anyway.

I never noticed what happens when I'm done hyperfocusing but dropping the project is a likely scenario.

My hyperfocusing usually doesn't last for more than a few hours...so I don't crash and burn too hard.....

but I tend to feel a little drained and itching for more stimulus, though nothing works again till I have rest.

I have a lot of trouble switching gears and getting back to other things. This is part of the reason why my house is such a mess...lol

That usually happens to me when I tackle remodeling/redecorating projects. I go like a bat out of he//, but then lose my focus and end up with alot of niggling unfinished details that rarely ever get completed.

I can go for 16 hours if it's really something captivating for days on end. Lots of little cigarette breaks. You know, now that I think, I don't think I have a problem with coming down after. When I'm hyperfocusing, I'm in a good mood & I don't think I crash, typically. I'll think about that though & try to notice.

I "hyperfocus" everyday when I take my medicine. I don't notice a drastic drop, but I do become tired physically and mentally. On the weekends, if I want to have a lazy, relaxing weekend, I don't take my meds. But if I know I have to hyperfocus and actually get things accomplished... bring on the Adderall!

Thats interesting that you feel you hyperfocus on meds. I do a good job hyperfocusing without meds but I can't choose my hyperfocus subject. The things that I need to get done the most rarely become focus points for me.

This is an interesting line of thought. I'm going to have to give it some more consideration. My goal is to be able to use some of the potentially positive aspect of ADD to my benefit. I know it can be done but actually doing it is a whole different thing.

After focusing on something i usually feel very very tired...sometimes it's painfull...

And when i look to the work i have done, well, I think i wasn't able to do much ...I can't say enought about my wife's patience when she repeats, year after year, that i have done a good work and that i should feel pround of myself... of which i almost don't register a single word.... :(