A few blurbs I found regarding Hyperfocus

[Melunie324]

Incredible! How do you hyperfocus though on one thing? I seem to do it in multiples. I also do it with foods. I ate oranges, like 5 or 6 a day for months, now I'm onto Tim's Potato chips and blueberries. There for awhile it was cranberries and almonds. I'll be working out a website in my head for weeks, sometimes months, then wham I'm on it until it's done. But at the same time, I'm watching tv or cooking or baking. Then at times I forget I'm cooking or baking and I've found my dinner in the microwave the next morning when I go to make something for lunch. Yep, morning comes around noon for me, at least that's when my stomach wakes up. My brain? it never seems to shut off... Oops the sun is coming up, bed time or nap time. I have to finish loading a computer for a client and well, I procrastinate procrastination. She's good though, she makes me call her everyday to check in with her... I think she knows me too well... or she's ADHD too and is hyperfocused on getting her latop back and ditching Vi$ta! Linux Rocks! Cheers, and good day! Glad I found you guys... it's nice not to be the only one like this anymore, it was kinda getting lonely at the top... as my brother says.

[Steve UK]

Originally Posted by Jillipepper

When I was going thru testing to confirm diag. I was asked sooooooo many questions!! One was how I managed in school and tests. If I could focus to pay attention I had a photographic memory and have been accused of cheating on exams as I could picture the text or the teacher in my mind and recall word for word the exact info given for a question. I ended having to prove to them I could do it before they'd give me the mark I deserved.
Fortunately it was on a subject I really liked so proved it in no time.
Their responce was to ask why , if I could do that, why wasn't I getting better marks in everything. I told them it was a pretty clear indication of which teachers made subjects interesting and so kept me interested and focused.
Too bad it ran out or was medicated away as it doesn't work that way anymore, I have crappy memory now but I guess it could be age related too.

oh my god I had exactly the same thing happen
I found that that the stress / adrenaline of exams made me hyperfocus so much I'd be done in half the time of anyone else and generally get 95% in anything I liked.

[IwishIwasslow]

when i was a kid i hyper focus on homework i was the only kid I knew who never had homework in HS. Becouse they had done it already most of my class mates thought I was failing. But I had straight A's.

[IrishFan]

I had heard of hyper-focusing, but I heard differing opinions on whether a person with ADD could also hyper-focus. I do it all the time, but like Melunie324, I often focus on several things.

I am in college (at 38-years old), and I cannot do my homework without the television on. I will read while listening to music or watching television. The list goes on and on.

One thing I found interesting about the initial post on this subject was what it said about interruptions. I can sit down with a book and not move from that spot for hours. I will be so engrossed in the book I'm reading that I don't even realize my husband is speaking to me. When he does finally break through my focus barrier, I get really angry with him. I don't mean to get angry, but I can't control it.

My tendency to hyper-focus is very apparent when I'm doing homework. I had to write a 20-page advertising plan for one of my classes. It was due Sunday at midnight (I take most of my classes online). I started working on it when I got home from work on Friday evening, and didn't stop until 9pm on Sunday. I only got up to use the bathroom and get something to drink. My husband brought me my meals, and I didn't sleep for 37 hours.

Obviously, this is an extreme example. It scared my husband so bad that he no longer enables me by bringing me meals. He makes me stop working and eat at the dining room table with him.

[dude102]

I hyper focus in business. I'm 18 and i've made more bank than anyone I know.

[LisaJW]

hyperfocus to me is almost like tunnel vision.

[cgts18]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AD2tKJBHBM

Hm, I wonder if "zoning out" while watching this stuff almost anytime I see it is Hyperfocusing. I've never even done ecstacy... But I love this stuff. It gives me a real good feeling inside. Makes me happy!
Bright lights especially when they move fast like that usually make me zone out.

[atrain]

I hyperfocus on reading, running, and my job. I tried studying and my head started to hurt so I stopped. I always worked harder than anyone else in hs and college too.

[mrtbonesteak]

I just zone out and daydream ALL the time. It's not very productive. Allthough I've pretty much written a book in my head, there is nothing on paper

[mrtbonesteak]

Originally Posted by Steve UK

oh my god I had exactly the same thing happen
I found that that the stress / adrenaline of exams made me hyperfocus so much I'd be done in half the time of anyone else and generally get 95% in anything I liked.

I once had an exam where i could only remember the page number and location of some answers, the teacher was so amused he kept asking more

[AliKatski]

I hyperfocus at the computer... Quite often I start doing something, sun streaming in the window, and by the time I've finished, it's dark and I have a sweat patch on my leg (now completely numb) caused by my laptop overheating....

Let's hear it for hyperfocus *yeyyyyyyy*

[leapofaith]

Very cool thread!!!

Before I was diagnosed, I used to call or explain my hyper-focus as just "putting my head down and barreling through it" LOL Oh how the casualties fell.... I can be a um.. less than pleasant person when someone breaks my hyper-focus.

I have really had to get ahold of my reaction since I have kids now. They shouldn't get their head bitten off because they need some lunch and mommy is sending a e-mail. I can say, that interrupting me, while in the zone, is in the top three "ways to **** me off"

On the flip side... I LOVE it when no one is home and I get to just hyper-focus away. I can get stuff done faster than any one I know (personally). I Love it!!

Unfortunately, I have a husband who refuses to acknowledge that I have been diagnosed with ADD, he is in denial about himself having ADD, I have a 9 y/o with profound ADD,oh and a toddler who has a 97% chance of having it too. Needless to say I get crabby easily . Mommy needs her lala-land time. LOL

[Lost Focus]

I've experienced it in several different manifestations. Computer games (even going back to the original NES days and Legend of Zelda), 4x4 fabrication projects where I am either working with someone, or someone is helping me, and the two jobs in my life where that kind of focus got me ahead far more than behind.

Procrastination is not only my enemy, but the enemy of a good friend named Eric. We both have a love of wheelin' in our full-size vehicles. We've both worked on projects for one another at the last possible minute, before a major trail ride event. It's the deadline and necessity of use where I perform the best, from swapping out suspension until 3am to get that extra inch of lift before heading to the hills for a day, or doing dual axle swaps in the middle of the night and working until 90 minutes before departure. But starting something on my own seems to have me so overwhelmed by the scope, that I often pass up initiating the process.

I am a former Motorolan, who worked in a 200mm fab in an area known as Diffusion. Each day I went to work, I walked into rooms filled with $1 billion in equipment. Every batch of product I touched was worth no less than $250k. The brightness of the environment, and processing turned me into a driven individual. Over time, I learned how to estimate when product from other areas would arrive in mine, and I extremely accurate in those estimations. It wasn't uncommon that I planned out 48 hours of processing in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes, all in my head. I became person in charge of making sure all specs were signed off for process changes, and would sometimes stay at work for another 6-10 hours after my 12-hour shift, working in a bay back room, organizing the spec sign-offs, not even taking the time to get a drink of water or something to eat. On the first day off after the regular work week, I didn't want to waste a day sleeping, so my day lasted for anywhere from 40-48 straight hours, where I wouldn't allow myself to stop, or I would crash. Promoting into IT was my downfall, because as a group we became so good at our jobs that we effectively eliminated ourselves.

Following that, I became a Dispatcher for a state law enforcement agency. In that job, there was nothing I couldn't do. The chaos was so intense, that I could be going in two dozen directions at once, and know what was happening in each situation, all at the drop of a hat. I became known for my 'sixth sense' and instinct in feeling a problem before my officers did. They had backup on the way before the problem came to pass, and I quickly became known as one of the two best in the department...while still in training. It helped immensely that structure was an integral part of either job, because I knew what was expected of me and how quickly I had to get it done.

Without structure, I struggle. With it, there is no stopping what I am capable of, and it seems so short-lived.. But there are situations where it hurts me too. I can focus on something at home with such an intensity, that I lash out when interrupted, and neglect family time because of that "I want to finish just this one thing", and three hours later I'm still there doing what I swore would take 15 minutes.

Fear cripples me and eliminates any possibility of hyperfocus being used advantageously. I fear failing at something new, and put off a great many projects if someone else isn't there to help me and establish that confidence. Being on the internet as well is something that I tend to hyperfocus on, because I'll just go from thing to thing to thing, with no real rhyme or reason for what I read and where, except for those times I am researching something of great interest to me.

I think that is also part of why I don't start on some projects, because I don't want to get too wrapped up in something and zone out of everyone's lives. And now that I mention zoning out, I do that a lot as well, especially at work. I'll be working on something, then all of a sudden I shake my head and I'm back to reality. What I was thinking in that time, I couldn't tell you, but fair amounts of time have passed in those moments.

I wonder how much hypervigilance and hyperfocus are related.

[formychildren]

While I am in in Hyperfocus mode, I feel very happy. Once the Hyperfocus period ends, or I am interrupted for a few minutes, I feel guilty that I haven't done anything all day (8 hours basically) except whatever it was that engaged me, like the computer or deep cleaning.

[Asinda]

Does anyone else find that they have a tendency to hyperfocus on people?

When I first meet someone I find interesting, I want to know EVERYTHING about them. How they grew up, what their favorite color is, family history of pets, what their favorite places to shop are, favorite forms of media, etc. You get the idea. I am filled with an unending curiousity. I find people to be one of the most fascinating things to study, and when I meet somone of particular interest, wether as friend or romantic interest, I have a really hard time holding myself back and trying not to be overbearing. I love to ask millions of questions and pick apart their body language, phrasing, habits and behaviours. Getting to know and forming profiles of people is incredibly exciting and stimulating to me.

I do want to note that I DO NOT feel any sort of stalker-type tendencies within this curiousity. I don't want to follow people, call just to hear them talk, sit outside their house, or any sort of emotionally untethered nonsense. I'm just simply fascinated with them. When my hyperfocus on a particular person winds down, I find that's the point at which I figure wether or not we have formed a mutually beneficial relationship, and either let them go gently or proceed at a more "normal" pace with the relationship. I still find myself analyzing and studying them, I just don't feel that unbound need to know. I can actually find myself switch into hyperfocus mode with existing friends and family members... kind of fall into "knowledge tune-ups" for a period of time with them.

I've obviously had to learn to appear less eager and forthright, as this can be very... I guess intense for a lot of people. LOL. Scaring people away is kind of the opposite of what I am trying to do here. It can be very frustrating though, making the small talk I could care less about when I really just want to know about your best friends from fourth grade. Thus why I am so in love with the elderly... they are more than delighted to tell you their entire life story, chapter by chapter.