I am doing my senior project in order to graduate on the hyperfocusing subtype of ADHD. So, if you guys dont mind, I need examples of symptoms/criteria for hyperfocusers (basically OCD/ADHD right?), and examples of it in your life, or stories, or whatever you want to contribute! Thanks in advance...

I don't know if I can be of any help to you but I think I would fall under the catergory of hyperfocus ADD/OCD. I tend to perseverate on a particular thought or activity over and over again. I realized once I took meds that I do this on a minute by mintue basis too. For example- when I am doing some kind of activity I 'latch' on to what I am doing. It is extremely difficult for me to shift to another activity. I have found that I 'hold on' to things because when I do shift I forget where I was at before. Its very frustrating. I also 'hold on' to thoughts. I will run the same things over and over in my mind- sometimes this is good things but it also can be negative things. I can never leave well enough alone. I did read that this was the brains way of organizing itself. When you latch on to the negative thoughts it anchors the flight of ideas running thru your mind. Is this what you believe also? I would love to learn more about this tendency and course of treatment. Any bits of advise would be appreciated.

I'm not exactly sure if I fall into your catagory but I'll give a wing. I have been dx'd ADHD-innetentive, impulsive/OCD/PTSD/Depression, I also have the skill of disassociation if the need arise.

ADHD for me is an advantage above your normal person. I have the skill of multi-tasking and use it very well. I've managed to do dishes, cook supper, clean the kitchen, do laundry, help two kids with homework and feed the baby at one time. But, during a truly OCD moment which can last for days at a time I can't manage to do one thing good enough and nothing meets my high standards. When I'm having one of these days I will clean my house from ceiling (meaning sweeping, mopping the ceiling) to the floors, then I will shower and scrub myself raw and start all over again. I have gone in the past over 72 hours without rest or sleep and have literally driven myself to hospitalization. Usually, an OCD period is brought on by something triggering my PTSD and until I face the trigger and the memory the OCD will not let me function as a normal adult and I will never get satisfaction from anything I've accomplished and I will never see anything worthy in myself.

It's a general outline but don't want to waste our time going to into it if it's not what your looking for.

I was just diagnosed ADHD 3 months ago. I am 33 years old, married, and have two sons (7 and 4). Both exhibit ADD characteristics.

Here's my example of hyperfocusing.

When something interests me I totally emerse myself into learning about every aspect. If the interest involves material things, they have to be the best available. If something is offered at a store, but it is not in stock, I have to have the next best thing before I leave. I can remember being this way since childhood. As a specific example, back in 2000 I became interested in astronomy. I had to have a pair of binoculars to start out. My mom and dad got a very nice pair of Nikon 10 x 50's for Christmas. Of course, they weren't big enough. So we returned them. How rude of me. Looking back I feel so bad, but I guess it goes back to that impulsiveness of the ADDer. So I did some research and found a pair of 15 x 70's. Of course I needed to have a tripod to mount them too. Then I needed to buy a telescope. I researched all brands and styles. I got the telescope and then had to have better eyepieces. Again, I did all the research and ordered. Then I saw some astrophotography pictures done with a web cam. Guess what I did. More research then bought a web cam. Found out it worked better with another type of telescope, so I bought a new scope. Then I wanted to try some 35mm astrophotography, so I did more research and bought a 35mm camera. Needed some additional lenses so I searched e-bay. Then I saw a homemade large aperture telescope. I figured I would give it a try, so I bought a 12.5" mirror, accessories and some cabinet quality plywood. Oh yeah, also a book on how to make a large aperture telescope. All along, I would search the web for knowledge, buy reference books and subscribe to magazines. I would live and breathe astronomy. I also belong to a local astronomy club. I'm not just a regular member. I am a board member and program presenter. I also led the effort to get the local school system to refurbish their 1920 telescope and observatory. This took it's toll on my relationships too.

Here are some other examples of the things that have interested me over the years. All involved hyperfocusing.

Trumpet (5th and 6th grade, quit playing)
Guitar (7th and 8th grade, 28 years old, present)
Classic Cars - 68 Chevelle (10th grade to present)
Woodworking (8th grade and presently building my own telescope)
Snowmobiles (5th and 6th grade)
BMX Bikes (5th - 8th grade)
Mountian Bikes (present)
Photography (7th - 8th grade, present)
Astronomy (2000 to present)
Building Telescope (2003 to present)
Astrophotography (2002 to present)
Art - drawing & painting (all my life)
Dungeons and Dragons (5th and 6th grade, 19 years old)
Football (7th - 9th grade)
Baseball (5th - 8th grade)
Track/Field (7th - 8th grade)
Cooking (all my life)
Landscaping (last year and this spring)
Hunting/Trapping (9th - 12th grade)
Building Personal Computers (20 years old to present)
Computer Networking (21 to present, current occupation)
Model Trains (young child, presently because my 7 year old is hyperfocused now)
Model Rockets (5th - 8th grade, present)
Skiing (19 - 22 years old)

Now that I am diagnosed and medicated, all of this makes sense. As I've said in a previous post, ADDer's tend to be good at everything, but masters at nothing. It all comes down to the simulation thing. The release of chemicals in your brain. One day you are focused and the next you don't want to have anything to do with it. Or it can go in phases, as you can see by the time-line I have mapped out up above. I have revisited many of them throughout my life.

Hope this helps you in your research. If you have any questions, please reply.

- Tim

Tim posted above: One day you are focused and the next you don't want to have anything to do with it. Or it can go in phases, as you can see by the time-line I have mapped out up above. I have revisited many of them throughout my life.
This is very much the way I am too. I have had many interests over the years that I have researched to death. I kind of think of it like going full steam ahead until I burn out. An example: I became interested in organic gardening. I began to eat organically. I grew veggies organically. I grew herbs organically. I began to sell organic veggies, herbs at a farmers market. I soon added free range eggs, free range chickens. I began to become less interested in veggies and more interested in herbs. I expanded my herbs. I wanted to make herbal soap. I grew my own organic herbs. I raised my own mild goats. I milked my own milk goats. I made my own natural soap. I sold my soap. I started to get more interested in herbal bath products. Made my own 'tub tea' and other herbal types of products. I enjoyed making gift baskets with the soap etc. I liked decorating them with dried flowers. I started to make dried herbal wreaths to go with the herbal products. I began to expand and sell not only at the farmer's market but restraurants, garden shops, health food stores, florists. I got tired of gardening. I burned out and got into my 'hobby' which was horses. I opened up a 20 horses boarding stable. I burned out after a couple years after I literally ran myself into the ground. I have done this sort of thing over and over again in my life.

Coincidently I am also dx'd with PTSD like the other poster. When I do things I usually do them big. How do you get off the merry go round?

I hyperfocus and what it means to me is that I'll start something and all of a sudden four hours have gone by, sometimes longer sometimes shorter. I used to think I couldn't control it but found that if I play music in my headphones, I can make myself hyperfocus (Unless someone interrupts me). It can be a great thing (Just ask my engineer) or a bad thing (last night I was online for 4 hours before I realized the time pass). I also hyperfocus in things I like. I can play my gameboy for hours, or a computer game (hence last night), I can also do it cleaning but I can't get interrupted and I first have to overcome my hesitation to hyperfocus. (Its another ADD issue for me, only with cleaning). Hope that helps :)

Most of the examples given so far sound to more like what I know as overfocused, not hyperfocused.
Overfocused could be easily classified with or compared to OCD.

To me, Hyperfocus is in an intense state of mental concentration where every fiber of my being, every aspect of my entire conciousness, every one of my senses, are all focused together with laser-beam intensity on one single thing.

Good point SD. Can you give a specific example of hyperfocus (i.e. using all of your senses)?

Thanks,

I don't know hyperfocus, from overfocus or nofocus...but one thing that I can finally admit about myself is that whatever I placed my aim on (I use the word aim because "focus" is so easily confused with attention- which I tend to think of as in-the-moment) anyway, whatever my aim of the moment was...that was it. Everything I did, thought about and bought, all revolved around that aim.

A good example is: I decide to lose weight. That's my aim, all I think about is what and when I should eat, when I'm going to exercise, what workout clothes and shoes I should buy, how many times a week I'll pay a personal trainer, etc. I get aggravated when I have to think about something else like work, the house, errands, etc. I go to buy groceries and everything I buy and cook is for my "diet". I buy book after book, magazine after magazine, ad nauseum...all about diet and exercise.

All goes well until I have to put my aim somewhere else, like..who is this doctor and why does he think I have ADD, when I have hidden it so very well my whole life? Now my aim is Adult ADD...books (14 to date...scanned 'em every one!) Internet research, message boards, etc. Forget diet and exercise...my every waking thought is about my ADD.

Now it's November and I am determined to get a head start on Christmas shopping. Forget losing weight, forget ADD. I am making lists, shopping the internet, shopping the...(I was gonna say malls but I can't lie - the mall makes my head explode) Anyway, Christmas is all I think, worry and obsess about.

I bought my daughters scarves for Christmas but couldn't find one for my little granddaughter, so after Christmas I decide to make her one. I dig out the box of yarn and needles from the past (I aimed on crochet before so of course I have boxes of yarn and needles of every size, books and patterns galore...never actually finished anything but...) Anyway, I made her a scarf and everyone loved it, so now I crochet every spare (and some not so spare) moment. And so on and so on and so on....

With all of that said, I don't think that's hyperfocus. That's probably more like overfocus. I think hyperfocus is when we're able to tune out everything to focus on what we are interested in. Like when my ADD son can play a computer game while the house is on fire...or like me when I'm cleaning the bathroom (too bad housework was never my aim!) Anyway, I'll set out to clean the bathroom and after scrubbing the tub I'll find myself with a toothbrush meticulously scrubbing every square of grout and then what-do-you-know? Four hours have passed and it's time to start supper. Never mind that I never got around to the toilet or sink, or emptying the trash, or sweeping or mopping....

Nofocus? That's the part we all know and hate so well...cleaning the kitchen, pick up a pair of shoes, take them to the bedroom, make the bed, trip over the pile of dirty clothes, put them in the washer, get thirsty, go to the kitchen for a drink, oh yeah- I was cleaning the kitchen...where was I? oh yeah, about to sweep the floor...into the laundry room for the broom...what's in the washer? Whites? I need to wash jeans...back to the bedrooms to gather dirty jeans...pick up jeans and uncover that scarf I'm making...crochet a while-- just till the whites are done so I can wash these jeans.... RING...RING..into the kitchen to answer the phone...Hi Honey...what am I doing? cleaning the kitchen...you're bringing WHO home for dinner? Guests? OMG...the kitchen is a wreck! I haven't been to the store yet! I hope he doesn't have to use the restroom..Kids!! get in here... You clean the kitchen, you do the bathroom...I'm going to the grocery store....

The good news is that now that I've started on Ritalin, I still have the same tendencies but I catch myself. Now I can take the shoes to the bedroom and as I start towards the unmade bed I hear myself think...no, don't make the bed now, finish the kitchen and get to the grocery store. Once dinner is on you can sort the laundry and make the bed. I still get distracted, but at least I know I'm being distracted...if that makes sense. But hey, that and the fact that I go to bed and actually fall asleep..WOW! Anyway, I'm rambling - I guess I'm between doses and had a little hyperfocus....

Most of the examples given so far sound to more like what I know as overfocused, not hyperfocused.
Overfocused could be easily classified with or compared to OCD.

To me, Hyperfocus is in an intense state of mental concentration where every fiber of my being, every aspect of my entire conciousness, every one of my senses, are all focused together with laser-beam intensity on one single thing.
correct.

if i am reading something that highly interests me, the outside world is almost compeltely blocked out. if i am interupted while hyperfocusing, i tend to be irritable and can be extremely ****ed.

i remember reading a book at one point, and a former roommate came in, i didnt realize it. and i think i jumped about 3ft when he said my name.

The best way to describe my untreated over-focus ADD is that my brain has two speeds, 100mi/hr and STOP.

How do you distinguish between hyperfocus and overfocus other than the time frame in which it happens?

From what some of us have described, we overfocus for long periods of time (days, months, years) and others talk about hyperfocusing for hours, as in getting so absorbed oin something that the whole world fades away.

I think what was referred to as overfocus is long term hyperfocus.

I have been able to indentify how I overfocus/hyperfocus on a minute by minute basis (ex. blocking out all else so I can read and write down a number in the yellow pages) to how I overfocus/hyperfocus in order to live my life (workaholic, hell bent on getting something done to the exclusion of everything else.). Its how my brain works. Sometimes its a blessing and sometimes its a curse. I used to just think I was intense. Now I am told its a 'disorder'. I get so busy thinking about all whatever I am perseverating about at the time I can't remember to put gas in my car or drive 20 minutes without getting lost.

I now am hoping I can lose myself in my art project.....

I find this thread really interesting, because I've long regarded my overfocus as being a really great thing- My doc recently put me on Effexor which is supposed to help with the focus (and irritability) and the only thing it has done is give me a new appreciation for SpongeBob cartoons and completely eradicated my overfocus. Now I'm just bored, and normally I'm never bored. I'm always absorbed in something... I could read something and get intriqued by the concept and literally spend the rest of the day searching the web researching.

I don't know what I'll do when I go back to school- because when I used to write papers, I'd find a topic that fascinated me and start from there. I'd find out everything there is to know about the subject until I could repeat it backwards and forwards. I'd often get mired in the details, which made things more difficult, but I could churn out really great work that way. Now, I've lost that drive and I don't care much for it.

I don't want this thread to become an argument over the semantics of two different words; I'm just trying to describe two different aspects of ADD/ADHD.
TimH and TDSully both describe what I think of as being overfocused or even obsessive thinking/behavior--basically a very strong or intense interest in one thing, to the exclusion of anyting else--until something else comes along and grabs their attention.
I do this also, but hyperfocus is different, although it can occur with something I'm obsessed about.
Hyperfocus is a state of intense mental concentration for me, where my thinking locks on to one single thing; my mind stops racing and every thought is dedicated to this one single thing. When this happens, outside stimuli are mostly blocked out, whereas at other times I'm easily distracted by any type of noise, movement, or anything like that around me. When I'm in hyperfocus, my internal clock stops so I have no awareness of the passage of time, I'm only vaguely aware of being thirsty, hungry or needing to go the the bathroom.
A typical circumstance where it occurs is when I'm trying to solve some sort of a technical problem, such as trying to make a spreadsheet to graph out automotive camshaft profiles, or designing something at work, or working out a new way to modify a fuel injector.
Its sort of like going off into a daydream, but for me it always involves some sort of activity and is directed towards a specific purpose or goal.

When my son was about 7 or 8 I had his hearing check and the doc. said he just had selective hearing, I now now the correct term, was hyperfocusing. He could be watching a movie or doing something and you could hollor his name over and over before you would get his attention. He would blow my mind because he could tell you the whole movie. he could repeat dialog to a tee, it amazed me he was diagnosed adhd years ago, he is now 19 and he does it at work, he upolsters and in less then a year, the top payed one, other guys that been there for years don't like it, but I use to be the same way on machines I use to run, I would zone into it like becomeing one with it and I would run the crap out of it and make top pay in production. They used me as a floater because they could put me on machines no one else ever run and I would learn it and just get into it. ...........Thinking back I always have done it with my art too. I would get into it and not stop for days straight, and if I am trying to figure out how to do a paticular thing with a project I have in the plans, that thought stays there all the time, I will go weeks thinking about the answer for it and have jumped up and said I have it, I know how to do it now, and it will hit me like someone slapped me upside the head I will have a perfect mental picture of it. I have to see it in my mind, I am also like Nuking_futs in that I do a ton of things at the same time when I am cleaning, to bad I am not an octupus!LOL I use to not have a problem when someone spoke to me if I was hyperfocused on something I could answer them but never lose where I was on the project. Now I can become very annoyed I can not think about what I am doing and listen to them too, I just lose it. Some times if I am reading on one of the thousands of interest like the others have mentioned. Get totally into learning about something, I can litterally notice everything about myself at the time like the way the book feels and the way my eyes are moveing across the page and its like I am aware of my brain taking the knowledge in, like aware of the electrical impulses. and if someone or something takes me by surprize, I get jolts come out of my fingers and forhead, It hurts too... I thought everyone done this, but when I mentioned it one time, my daughter was like no I don't know what your talking about, and since then I have asked others if they ever did this and no one I have asked, does this. It's really sharp when it comes out my forhead. Any one else do this?

Hyperfocus is a state of intense mental concentration for me, where my thinking locks on to one single thing; my mind stops racing and every thought is dedicated to this one single thing. When this happens, outside stimuli are mostly blocked out, whereas at other times I'm easily distracted by any type of noise, movement, or anything like that around me. When I'm in hyperfocus, my internal clock stops so I have no awareness of the passage of time, I'm only vaguely aware of being thirsty, hungry or needing to go the the bathroom.
Now that you described hyperfocus, I can totally relate. When working on something I completly lose track of time and can forget to eat lunch. It gets to the point where I sometimes forget the need to go to the bathroom for an entire day.:eek: Not good for the kidneys. I feel the need to just keep plugging away because I am in the "zone". Then I look back a wonder where the day went.

But while sitting in meetings, I get easily distracted by my surroundings. Noises and birds flying past windows ...

I guess the hyperfocus/overfocus are closely realated. I am overfocused with my interests (hobbies) and hyperfocused while performing tasks (work and hobbies).

Most of the examples given so far sound to more like what I know as overfocused, not hyperfocused.
Overfocused could be easily classified with or compared to OCD.

To me, Hyperfocus is in an intense state of mental concentration where every fiber of my being, every aspect of my entire conciousness, every one of my senses, are all focused together with laser-beam intensity on one single thing.

All right what's the difference between OCD, hperfocus and overfocused because in your second paragraph you described me to a T. Only it's not something I enjoy it's something I have had to force myself to do such as laundry, paying bills, listening to lecture's at work. IMHO there isn't much difference just another name.

I am overfocused with my interests (hobbies) and hyperfocused while performing tasks (work and hobbies).
yes, i think that is correct....

I don't know to me it's all the samething. Whether you call an Donkey a donkey or an *** it still boils down to a stubborn ugly horse.

OMG just to clarify it was an example of how you can call one object or subject by more then one name...I do not think of SD as an ugly horse...I had to clear that up or feel guilty all night.

LOL,

A Swamp Donkey is a moose.

Big.

Dumb.

Ugly.

(Not me, the moose. I'm tall, dark and handsome.) :D

Overfocusing is more than just getting locked into something that is novel and interesting. It is walking into a room full of people and overfocusing on some flaw you perceive in yourself or someone else in the room. This can make those about you very uncomfortable. The person who hyperfocus's tends to focus on some irrelevant thing or idea, and then finds himself with a seemingly non-existent ability to shift attention away from the thing or Idea.

Many times the overfocus is in the form of latching onto a problem. The more you focus on the problem and the worse things get. The problem keeps getting bigger and bigger until the mind just shuts down. ADHD is an undersized attention span, or working memory. When an overfocuser locks into some trivial idea the problem keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it doesn't take long to use up his low capacity of working memory. When we lock into something we cease to see the big picture. We cease to be aware of our surroundings, and we cease to be able think and act appropriately. We become detached from our own minds and our abilty to think and reason.

Stimulants alone seem to make overfocusers worse because they cause him to get more focused and locked into the trivial objects or ideas.

yes abres, I think you definitely nailed it there. It is the OCD part of our disorder that causes that. if i have one pimple, and the rest of my face is fine, all i see is the pimple when i look in the mirror. also, i constantly obssess with how i am going to think for the day or act around people, ex: confident, live in the moment, trust in god. it is a common OCD practice that is a coping mechanism to ease anxiety.

I remember reading in "Driven to Distraction' that this is the brain's attempt to anchor the thoughts that are flying thru the mind. The anxiety created by focusing on the 'problem' is preferred than the unorganized thoughts going every which way.

I can't seem to find much information on this phenomenon. Dr. Amen's books are the only one's I've read that have documented this condition at any kind of depth. I've had fairly good success with Prozac, but it tended to take some of my passion and drive away, which made my ADD worse. Zoloft has been a life-savor, and it is even effective for my ADD. In fact, Zoloft is the only SSRI that actually increases vigilance, while the others decrease it. This is important because many phychologist/researchers believe ADD is a disorder of decreased vigilance.

I have inattentive type ADHD. I’m very keen to understand hyperfocusing and overfocusing properly because it seems to be a huge part of my problem. If it’s what I think it is then to me it’s like an on/off switch and there is an extreme difference between the two states. When I am “off” I can barely read or speak because my ability to process information is so poor. However, when I am “on” I can suck up vast amounts of information for hours on end. Also when I am on I turn from someone who cannot string two words together to someone who can effortlessly keep 10 or 15 people entertained and have often been called “intoxicating” or “exhilarating” company. Is this hyperfocusing or overfocusing? Any advice is much appreciated.

Most of the examples given so far sound to more like what I know as overfocused, not hyperfocused.
Overfocused could be easily classified with or compared to OCD.

To me, Hyperfocus is in an intense state of mental concentration where every fiber of my being, every aspect of my entire conciousness, every one of my senses, are all focused together with laser-beam intensity on one single thing.
This is more my understanding of hyperfocus too. My psychologist told me my IQ and ability to hyperfocus were the reason I was able to do so well in college despite AD/HD. If I'm really interested in something, I can hone in on it and tune everything else out. In fact it is hard to get my attention when I'm hyperfocusing, because I tend to tune out verbal and other stimuli. I'm not OCD.

Scattered

Hyperfocus is a state of intense mental concentration for me, where my thinking locks on to one single thing; my mind stops racing and every thought is dedicated to this one single thing. When this happens, outside stimuli are mostly blocked out, whereas at other times I'm easily distracted by any type of noise, movement, or anything like that around me. When I'm in hyperfocus, my internal clock stops so I have no awareness of the passage of time, I'm only vaguely aware of being thirsty, hungry or needing to go the the bathroom.
A typical circumstance where it occurs is when I'm trying to solve some sort of a technical problem, such as trying to make a spreadsheet to graph out automotive camshaft profiles, or designing something at work, or working out a new way to modify a fuel injector.
Its sort of like going off into a daydream, but for me it always involves some sort of activity and is directed towards a specific purpose or goal.
Wow, well said. This is just my experience! I'm interested to hear it compared to daydreaming, because I was justing thinking about that and how similar the experience is. For me both are relaxing, because the outside stuff is tuned out.

OK, got a pretty clear cut demonstration of hyperfocus, this one in a college environment.

My area of study is Theology, but took a required Art History class to fulfill a requirement - a big no-no considering it required writing a paper. I found a fascinating topic that related to my field of study and became "locked into" the the process of researching and writing it. Normally my written work is done two months after it is due and slapped together... I wrote half of this term paper literally sitting on my couch smack dab in the middle of a keg party... screaming drunk people surrounding me, loud music, everything... there was absolutely nothing that could distract me from it. I did three hours of work in that environment and continued through until dawn the next day simply because I couldn't be distracted with sleeping. And to finish my hyperfocus posterchild story... I got the one A+ the professor has given in 15 years of teaching... yet came close to failing another class that semester because I never made time for it!

P.S. If you want some indirect information about hyperfocus, try reading "Flow: The Optimal Experience" it's not specifically regarding ADD, but it does a good job of estimating what hyperfocus is.

I found some information at learning disablilities online.

“flow” or “hyperfocus”: so absorbed in a task that other stimuli fade into oblivion

ADHD is not characterized by an inability to sustain attention, but rather by the inability to appropriately regulate the application of attention to tasks that are not intrinsically rewarding and/or that require effort.

I find it very easy to hyperfocus when playing music on the piano.

I'm not sure what things about me are ADD and what are just me, and I'm not sure whether I hyperfocus. But I do sometimes get totally involved in researching some topic, and spend all my time reading, writing and thinking about it. In days/weeks when I'm doing that, I find it very difficult to switch off, even for a few minutes, to think about more routine things. And I read heaps, and skim read heaps. Whereas otherwise reading, even browsing, is extremely difficult - to the extent that I often cannot even read/browse the paper in the morning. I mean I have gone through the motions of reading the paper many a time, to appear normal, but am unable to take much/anything in.

My boss thinks I am the best troubleshooter he has ever seen. I have a hard time with the day-to-day rituals of work, doing the boring, mundane tasks. Paying attention in meetings, listening to directions, etc. But put me on a problem and I can become totally immersed in it. I suddenly have the ability to logically think through it, research it and study it till I fully understand how it works and why it malfunctioned. The bad part is if someone or something breaks that concentration it can be hard sometimes to get back on task. Used it extensively in the Navy and my younger days as an industrial electrician and now in solving Excel spreadsheet and Access database problems. It just suddenly becomes a challange for me and I have to conquer it.

Another thing I'm seeing here, especially in the posts by ifso and Slide is that hyperfocus truly is a state of heightend mental ability, not a useless hypnotic daydream.
A lot of people take street drugs like stimulants or halucinogens believing it gives them hightened mental abilities, but I've never seen one single person pull off a feat like ifso describes.

I love this part of ADD. I started taking piano lessons when I was 42, before my diagnosis and medication for ADD. My kids were in lessons and I decided to join them. One of our teachers demanded participation in regular recitals and insisted that his adult students participate with the kids.

Before it was my turn to play, I would worry about who was sitting in the audience, if I would forget parts of my piece, or generally screw up. When my turn came to play, my anxiety level was often very high. If I managed to start a piece well, the music became everything in that moment. I was often surprised, even startled to hear applause and realize I had forgotten I was in a room full of people. Adjudicators always commented on my ability to really "listen" to the music I was playing.

Unfortunately, my ADD often makes me a grumpy, irritable member of an audience if people rustle programs, talk, hum, etc., until the music connects with whatever turns on the hyperfocus mode in my brain. I love the phrase, "Can you see what I hear".

Re: false perceptions induced by street drugs: I have worked with kids who swore they got high snorting Tylenol. Go figure?

I am doing my senior project in order to graduate on the hyperfocusing subtype of ADHD. So, if you guys dont mind, I need examples of symptoms/criteria for hyperfocusers (basically OCD/ADHD right?), and examples of it in your life, or stories, or whatever you want to contribute! Thanks in advance...I don't know what hyperfocusing is...I'm trying to figure that out, 'cause my doc just told me I'm hyperfocusing, and I thought he said it'd go away, but now I'm looking at this and going 'Oh, crap, it's an actual thing and it's not just going to even out!' I just sent my professors a mistaken message that said that the reason why my papers were so jumbled and odd (didn't mention that it's taking me 2x as long to finish them--why is bad stuff happening when I am at the same time suddenly able to truly think well?--was because my doc said I'm hyperfocusing but...I think I said something like "We'll fix that and it will go away." AUGHH! This doesn't..you can't...you can't fix this?

I think I'm gonna cry. Finishing assignments in a matter of hours last term, pre-ADD meds, pre-good functioning/memory retention, was a matter of "Here we go, best I can do." Then I spent time with my kid.

Now, it takes me a lot longer, and my explanations are far more complicated and much more long and drawn out (which my professors are noooot liking)...this is not good. This is really, really not good. If I can't fix this, this whole "Takes twice as long and still doesn't make sense" thing, then why even bother? It'd be easier to go back to being forgetful and at least spending more time with my family (and communicating with a bit more simplicity/less detail derived from actually absorbed information which apparently equaled clarity. Basically, the more I know, the less my papers make any sense!) And looking at this, since it's a subtype and apparently I didn't grasp that message from my doc on the phone today, this is here to stay, and I'm actually crying. This is nooot good. It's like time consuming, neurotic, and in the end, unorganized jibberish, at the same time. Crap...I'm wearing mascara and I have a white blouse on....and the mascara isn't waterproof.

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/gifted-ed/articles/add_kaufman.shtml

Excerpts from this link:

"In this context, Silverman (1998) notes that some professionals erroneously assume that a child who demonstrates sustained attention, such as a gifted child engaged in a high-interest activity, cannot have ADHD. It is understandable that an observer might discount the possibility of ADHD because from all appearances the child is so absorbed in a task that other stimuli fade into oblivion. While this state of rapt attention is often described as "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), it can also be ascribed to "hyperfocus," which is a similar condition that individuals with ADHD frequently experience (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994)."

"Recent work (Kalbfleisch, 2000) suggests that the gifted child with ADHD is particularly predisposed to exhibit this state of "flow" or "hyperfocus." While this can be a positive aspect of task commitment and a sign of motivation, it becomes a problem when the child is asked to shift from one task to another. Therefore, while cognitively this state can have positive aspects, behaviorally it can also cause problems (Moon, Zentall, Grskovic, Hall, & Stormont, in press). Furthermore, ADHD is not characterized by an inability to sustain attention, but rather by the inability to appropriately regulate the application of attention to tasks that are not intrinsically rewarding and/or that require effort. Such tasks are, sadly, characteristic of much of the work that is typically required in school, even in programs for gifted students."
L.

Oh wow, I just spent most of last night putting together an essay for class. I got sooo focused on it, nothing got through to me as far as time, urination, and all that other fun stuff until my roomate walked in to find me rewriting a paragraph for the 5th time because I didn't like it. It's like I know what I want to say and I have everything in my head, but in the process of expressing all these thoughts and ideas another thought will pop in my head that I really like, so I scrap the original idea and go with the new thought, and so on. After nights like this when I'm just mentally fried I will go to lie down to sleep and my mind keeps going over what I was just working on to the point where I either have to get up and change something or just let the thoughts run their course...
It's been like this my whole life, but once I got to college, the hyperfocuser in me really emerged.

That's sooo funny. Kind of embarrassing, but I'll sit there working on a paper (you know, one that pre-diagnosis and treatment might have taken 2 hours but I wouldn't have absorbed as much of what I was supposed to be writing about, is now taking, like 7 hours just to write as I literally overanalyze every single thing in the dang paper) and I'll have been sitting down since, oh, 3 p.m., and my husband walks in, and I say "Oh, wow, you're home early!" and then he says.."nooo..." and I look and it's 10:30 p.m. (he gets off at 10:00) and then I'll realize...

"I didn't pee this whole dang time. That cannot be good.":confused:

The rest is exactly right, too! That's why it takes so long to write it. But you know, my doc has ADD, and he's been on meds for years (ok, decades) and he still does that--I've seen him dictate some letter or something for his secretaries, he'll sit and talk for half an hour and make one mistake (what he views to be a mistake) and instead of saying "scratch that last part" for the secretary (like my dad does when he dictates patient notes) he goes "Oh, ****!!!" And erases the whole thing and starts over. Ughhhh....I have to improve on this. He swears I can kind of make it go away. I hope so. I've tunred into the ultra-perfectionist, hypercritical of every single thing I write and do...like you said, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting...when the first one was probably perfectly good.:rolleyes:

I guess part of it was probably there when I was a kid, but it didn't show up extremely until I got on meds and everything...before, I could say, "Oh, well...tried my best...let's see what grade I get." And turn it in. Now? Can't really do that. (And still I get these negative comments! So it's fruitless.:cool:

Right on target.


Oh wow, I just spent most of last night putting together an essay for class. I got sooo focused on it, nothing got through to me as far as time, urination, and all that other fun stuff until my roomate walked in to find me rewriting a paragraph for the 5th time because I didn't like it. It's like I know what I want to say and I have everything in my head, but in the process of expressing all these thoughts and ideas another thought will pop in my head that I really like, so I scrap the original idea and go with the new thought, and so on. After nights like this when I'm just mentally fried I will go to lie down to sleep and my mind keeps going over what I was just working on to the point where I either have to get up and change something or just let the thoughts run their course...
It's been like this my whole life, but once I got to college, the hyperfocuser in me really emerged.

Wow. A whole board full of people who experience life like I do.
And it took 50 years to find out that I'm not just an annoying person through choice, no matter how hard I try to act appropriately.
Hmmm...are we sure that the non-ADD people are not the unfortunate ones who can't think outside the box?
Anyhoo, it's probably too late for the original poster, but here is a word picture I made for my Dr. to explain how it is: url removed by moderater, please read forum guidelines.

(http://thesmudge.com/shapeshifter/Roswell/stuff/being-me-web.jpg)

The best way to describe my untreated over-focus ADD is that my brain has two speeds, 100mi/hr and STOP.Consider yourself fortunate. Mine didn't come with the Stop button. :p

"I have found that I 'hold on' to things because when I do shift I forget where I was at before. Its very frustrating. I also 'hold on' to thoughts. I will run the same things over and over in my mind..." - NuckingFuts

Actually I do that too. Also, that is often why I feel the need to interrupt people. If I don't say it now, I won't remember!

Whizper

I personally think hyperfocus is the only reason I ever accomplish anything in my life...if I don't get obsessed with it, I just don't do it!

One by one the penguins are stealing my sanity......:eek:

I hyperfocus on something everyday. Sometimes I can use that to my advantage, such as when I was in college I would write the term paper all in one night. Sometimes it is a disadvantage, such as when I read something that I feel driven to find out more about and suddenly realize that not only has the entire day passed by, but I am late to pick my son up from school. The Adderall XR 20mg does not seem to help me much here. Not sure if dose too low or if I don't make enough effort. Oh well been ignoring screaming baby too long already ( been overfocused on this topic).