Left unchecked, it can lead to failure in school, lost productivity on the job, and strained relationships with friends and at home. “Many scientists, writers, and artists with ADHD have had very successful careers, in large part because of their ability to focus on what they’re doing for hours on end,” says Nadeau.īut unrestrained intense focus is most often a liability. Others allow themselves to hyperfocus on something as a reward for completing a dull but important task. Some people with ADD or ADHD, for example, are able to channel their focus on something productive, such as a school- or work-related activity. There’s nothing inherently harmful about hyperfocus. Often they aren’t even aware that they’re focusing so intensely.” Is ADHD Hyperfocus Bad?
#Hyper focused movie
Younger kids do the same thing unconsciously when they’re doing something pleasurable, like watching a movie or playing a computer game. “College kids with ADHD tell me they intentionally go into a state of intense focus to get work done. “It’s a way of dealing with distraction,” Silver says. In the view of Larry Silver, M.D., a psychiatrist at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington D.C., such intense concentration is actually a coping mechanism. The brains of people with ADHD are drawn to activities that give instant feedback.”
“If they’re doing something they enjoy or find psychologically rewarding, they’ll tend to persist in this behavior after others would normally move on to other things.
“Children and adults with ADHD have difficulty shifting attention from one thing to another,” says ADHD expert Russell Barkley, Ph.D. This dopamine deficiency makes it hard to “shift gears” to take up boring-but-necessary tasks. Like distractibility, hyperfocus is thought to result from abnormally low levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is particularly active in the brain’s frontal lobes. “A better way to look at it is that people with ADHD have a disregulated attention system.” What Causes the ADHD Brain to Hyperfocus? “People who think ADHD means having a short attention span misunderstand what ADHD is,” says Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D., a psychologist in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the author of ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life (#CommissionsEarned). But whatever holds the attention, the result is the same: Unless something or someone interrupts, hours drift by as important tasks and relationships fall by the wayside. Adults might hyperfocus on social media or shopping. Hyperfocus: How Does It Affect Children and Adults with ADHD?įor children, the object of hyperfocus might be playing a video game or watching TV. Children and adults with ADHD often exhibit hyperfocus when working intently on things that interest them. People who experience hyperfocus often become so engrossed they block out the world around them. Hyperfocus refers to an intense fixation on an interest or activity for an extended period of time.
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