Adults can find that kind of focus in a new job - working intensely for a year, say, to fix major problems in their department. When parents tell me how their daughter breezed through a challenging science fair project only to settle into a spotty classroom performance, I know that she was hyperfocusing. Unfortunately, hyperfocus can’t be reliably sustained or controlled. A musician may write a symphony in only a few weeks. Someone with an interest in computer programming may happily hunt for a bug in thousands of lines of code, regardless of the fact that he usually can’t sit still. You don’t need to spend thousands to get help.Įmail me at if you want to suggest a topic for me to research or a person for me to interview.Attention deficit disorder is all about distraction… until it’s not! One of the most surprising aspects of ADHD is hyperfocus - a person’s ability to hone in on a specific task, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else. I am proud of it and the work we are doing. I’ve created a community that is supportive, private, and cost effective.
If you enjoy these types of conversations with women, I encourage you to Join me in the Enclave. It doesn’t have to ruin your life and relationships.Īs always I think this is more fun to listen to, so use the link about to do that. Neither of us feel that we are experts on the topic but we do drop some information that will be useful if you are currently nursing, pregnant, or perimenopausal.Įmotional hyperfocus is a real thing, but you can work on it. I wrote an article ages ago about journaling.Īt the end we delve into the murky waters of women’s hormones and ADHD. We also agree that writing and/or journaling is the best way to begin processing emotions.
Creating some objectivity is very important for us, otherwise we spiral very quickly or we simply give up. Looking at your home and your routines the same way is very helpful, because it separates the emotional charge, from the actual task of repairing it. You aren’t ashamed about this, it’s a machine that needs a repair. If something on your car is not working properly, you take it to be repaired. It means you have to practice your mental flexibility and keep going. And that if your habits need tweaking that doesn’t mean you have failed. We also discuss how small, sustainable habits are the key to actually getting things done. We are stuck in the now and totally unable to conceptualize that this too shall pass. When some little thing triggers us we cannot SEE that this is happening right now, and tomorrow is a new day. We with ADHD are simply not able to think outside of right now. Jaclyn’s explanation of, “all roads lead to time blindness” is a good way to capture the negative thought spiral of emotional hyperfocus. I’ve never written much on time blindness, because I felt like I could not accurately describe it in a way people would understand. It’s just not, and you will hear us discuss why we feel this way in pretty graphic detail and with animated examples. Jaclyn points out that in fiction writing sometimes the smallest things mean everything, and this is very much in line with real life. This is due to negative thinking and cognitive distortions which many of us suffer with. We have a tendency to generalize, and look at things in very black and white ways. You forget to bake cookies for school, and it means you are a terrible mother, a burden, and you should just go away because your children and partner will be better off without you. Little things are big things to the ADHD brainĪs you may have noticed in your own life, little things often become big thing to us.
Jaclyn and I had intended to discuss how we often take little missteps and build them up in our mind until they are a measure of our entire lives…but we went a teensy bit off our notes.Īs always, the conversation is jam-packed with usable and relatable info, even if we didn’t stick to our agenda. We just made the episode live on the HealthyADHD feed this morning. One of my favorite people, and former guests, Jaclyn Paul stops by to discuss emotional Hyperfocus and ADHD moms.
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