What is it called when you get an idea in your head, say you want to research something, doesn't have to be for anything like work, just something that is important to you. Once you get the idea you just have to dive in right then, and then you are so into it that you can't do anything else until you find out as much as you possibley can. Which I'm sure you are all aware that if you type just about anything into Google, you are bound to come up with a ton of links, so this could take hours, even days if you are really deteremined. I spent hours yesterday researching something that was like looking for a needle in a hay stack, really, I had no idea exactly what it was that I was looking for, but I had to keep looking and looking hoping to find something. Basically I was hoping that something that I was researching would trigger a memory from years ago. It didn't happen, so now I am about to start all over again. And there are no guarentees, I have no idea if what I am searching for even exsists. But I am determined and I am going to try again today.
What is that? Is it simply hyperfocus or is it something more that includes hyperfocusing?

Could very well be hyperfocusing. Maybe obsession. Has this happend with things other than researching?

Could very well be hyperfocusing. Maybe obsession. Has this happend with things other than researching?
Yes, it has. If I have something in mind to do to my house to be more organized, that is a big deal to me since those kinds of things rarely cross my mind. I get so excited about it that I want to implement it immediately, which is almost always impossible. So it will be on my mind constantly until I get it done. There are other things too, just can't think of any off the top of my head.:o

Ok so you may have obsessive tendancies. But that doesn't mean you have OCD or anything like that. In order for it to be an official diagnosis, it has to impare your life in some way. At least that is what my psychiatrist told me. I have issues with counting things. Trees, telephone poles, orange construction zone cones, and so on. But, I can function while doing those things and it mostly happens when I drive. It would be best to talk to your doctor when you see him/her again. Just to give you piece of mind.

Andrea:

In my case, it's an impulse issue.

I'm an author and earn my living that way.

I have a huge problem with 'great' book ideas (golden unicorns) that pop into my head and drive me to suddenly (impulsively) research and explore obsessively. In some severe cases, I'll drop a current project and pursue the new golden unicorn until I run out of curiosity. This drives my agent and editor crazy, especially when I'm on deadline.

And it's because of this that I sought treatment. I'm learning to store away the golden unicorns and then chase them after my current work load is complete.

I know what you mean,spent the last 2 years googlin and i still doin it right now!thats how i ended up here a couple of months ago, it must be hyperfocus and a combination of inner restlessness.
Good luck in your search,suggest setting a timer otherwise the next thing you know its 3 am in the morning!infact i goin do that right now otherwise the washing,wobble board and the things to do list, will never get done.

IMHO this is merely hyperfocus, Andrea. I have never been the type to be obsessive, but when I want to know something? I want to know all about and can spend days on the comp researching every last relevant link :D and I then become a storehouse for a great deal of that information. I know its the ADHD because it interests me and I remember it afterwards.

I wouldn't sweat it very much if I were you ;) I think many if not most of us do this from time to time.

Yes I do this too...I have the research thing on the internet...for hours days sometimes even weeks. Depending on what I am looking for.

Like KZ says, I remember the things I am researching/looking for because it interests me.

Amen to all that. When I want to know something, I feel that I have to know it right now -- I don't tend to use computer but books.

I have OCPD and do that in mental health

I do it! If I don't know the answer I have to look it up right a way. It drives me crazy not to know.

If it is something that perks my interst I can reseach for hours on the internet. If I am really interested I will go to the library and get books too.

So needless to say I have a bunch of useless info in my head. "Know a little about a lot" :)

Or, you could just call it determination and persistence, tenacity! All very good qualities.

I do this an awful lot myself. And, I do have some OCD tendencies. So, call it hyperfocus, obsessive, or the above, we have to see our projects come to full fruition before we can rest physically or mentally, or move on to something else. (Calls for a lot of late nights??) I sometimes call it my internal cue, as I do feel very "uncomfortable" leaving a project undone. Or bills unpaid, housework, appointments made, or whatever. If it needs done, it MUST BE DONE! :-) So, in that sense, maybe it isn't the ADHD, as it's common for ADHD to procrastinate and leave projects unfinished. Either way, if you are like me in that, I'd see it as a gift!

Thanks for everyones input, it is appreciated!
For the most part it doesn't bother me that much, as long as it is something of importance. But sometimes there will be something I start searching for online, today for instance, it's a sweater. Mind you, I'd really like a new sweater, I only have one, but do I need it? No, not really need, I have clothes, but I am obsessed with finding just the right sweater. But the frustrating part is that I probably won't buy this perfect sweater once I find it, for various reasons. The biggest being that it's just before Christmas and we can't afford it right now. But that doesn't stop me from searching and searching for that perfect sweater!!! AAAAAAAHHH.
The thing I was searching yesterday was something important to me, very important, so even though I neglected my kids for most of the day:eek: , it was only one day and it's not like they were playing in traffic or anything while I hyperfocused on the computer! LOL
Ok, well I gotta go make sure my kids aren't running through the house with scissors in their hands or beating eachother up. I think this helped me to kind of rationalize the whole sweater thing, I am going to stop now....I think....yes, going to stop...going to close the window right now....ok, right after I look at this one last website, the kids can't reach the scissors and I don't hear any screaming or crying!!:D

i know exactly what you mean! wikipedia is the bane of my existence! i get obsessive with researching every little thing that i don't 100% about, but that i feel like i can't go to sleep unless i know. and its always stupid things, ridiculous things, like what kind of insect has the worst sting, or what county in new york is the least populated.. really RANDOM, useless facts like that that just pop into my mind but i know i can find out on wikipedia. it doesn't help that wikipedia has hyperlinked words all throughout the articles so i can really go off on a tangent. i don't think people with ADHD like myself should be able to use a computer unattended. (jk.. but really.. i am ridiculous).

Andrea, yeah, sometimes I just obsess over something like that, as a means of distraction from some other issue. You don't need another sweater, and I don't need another dog. 1Kid3Dogs?????? But, that is my "mission" right now, as I may have found a sibling of one of my rescue dogs. But in this case, it's just adding a sense of impulsive *DRAMA* to my life, which sounds similar to why you do what you do? Or maybe you just need some mental stimulation, to shake things up a bit? Have fun!

LOL. New here but thought I would chime in. I often do the same but the biggest problem is the torrential tornado effect, where you start on one topic and as you dig and read you see other words that spark an interest, so ctr T (new tab in firefox) and google the word. Hours later, after starting with something like the history of spam you end up reading about the collecting of teddy bears in romania and there are a gazillion tabs open on your browser. Or even worse, in the middle of a google tornado all of a sudden something random pops into your mind and you just have to look it up as you are sure it was something you wanted to look up at some earlier time.

I'd call it hyperfocus too, possibly a bit of impulsivity (also an ADD trait.)

One of the revelations about hyperfocus for me was that it doesn't have to be limited to single sessions... it can be the current subject of interest or enthusiasm that beckons whenever your attention isn't demanded elsewhere, and consistently pulls you into its own world. It's the place where my brain comes alive and feels stimulated and won't let go, even if after spending hours on it I feel yucky. It's my brain's security blanket. It's what it can do when other things seem overwhelming--like 1kid2dogs say, for distraction.

For me it's not a big deal as a single thing, in fact it's extremely useful and a real gift. It's also, predictably, one of my single largest life-wrecking ADD traits, and a primary reason I sought treatment for ADD. All my single incidents added up to much of my life spent absorbed in things that kept the synapses happy but didn't do much for the rest of my life or the people in it. Other than that (Mrs. Lincoln,:) ) it's great.

I'm a Wiki entry myself.

Constantly checking for editorial accuracies, and I must say, people who don't know me do a pretty good job of 'contributing' info.

Weird, and slightly creepy, but cool overall.

(No, I'm not outing myself..yet.)

I obsess about looking up meanings of words, when I don't know what they mean. I think it is good for me though, my vocab is a little lacking

From everything I've read and hear, I agree that it sounds like hyperfocus.

In my world there is so little that I'm interested in, when I stumble across something that DOES interest me, I go at it non stop. In these scenarios my research capabilities are like none other. Hours, and hours, and hours. Even after 4 hours of misses (not finding what I'm looking for), I persist on moving forward....engulfed in my interest on the subject.

So little gets so much of my attention. So much gets so little of my attention. :D

I am quite the opposite, everything is intersting!

Even after 4 hours of misses (not finding what I'm looking for), I persist on moving forward....engulfed in my interest on the subject.
:DGlad to hear someone else suffers from this as well. I have also had a tendency to give up or get distracted in other directions after several hours and at a later day, month I will all of a sudden decide to try again.

Fun! :p