What is Hyperfocus?

Hyperfocus is a common ADHD trait that causes a person to get "stuck" in a mode of intense focus in which they seem to ignore all else but the task at hand. Hyperfocus is not limited to ADHD and can appear in autism and schizophrenia as well. While normal people have likely experienced hyperfocus from time to time, a person with ADHD will experience the phenomena often, to a point that it interferes with daily life.

It might seem strange that "Attention-Deficit" Disorder would include periods of intense focus, but, that's because "Attention-Deficit" is a poor description of the condition. People with ADHD do not have a deficit of attention so much as they have an inability to control their attention like a typical person. A better description of the disorder, might be something like, "Inconsistent Attention Disorder" or, "Attention Management Disorder".

This means that a person with ADHD needs conditions unrelated to willpower to focus.

This also means that a person with ADHD may experience both scattered and focused bouts of attention during the day without the ability to directly control them.

Bouts of focus throughout the day for a person with ADHD are not the same as hyperfocus. Hyperfocus is an intense absorption in a task that can feel and look almost compulsive. It can be attached to a new interest, a task, or an objective. It can be rational or ridiculous, productive, or meaningless. It can last a few hours or an entire day. Being interrupted or otherwise kept from the object of the hyperfocus can cause marked distress for the person.

What Does Hyperfocus Feel Like?

Generally, people with ADHD find hyperfocus mode pleasant and may seek it out. Completely engrossing themselves in a task can temporarily stop the exhausting, rapid, scattered, chaotic thoughts and sensory information that people with ADHD usually encounter. In hyperfocus, hours can pass without a person realizing it.

Hyperfocus often coincides with strong feelings of positivity or determination. It can feel like a surge of motivation or optimism and can sometimes allow a person to complete Herculean tasks that the average person could not manage without tiring out. For example, a person may clean the entire house, complete a 10 page research paper in one sitting, learn the alphabet in sign language, or shop until everyone else drops.

Hyperfocus, though, does not have to be productive or feel productive, though, for the person experiencing it, it usually feels urgently important, for one illogical reason or another. For example, people can find themselves completely engrossed in a video game or low priority tasks like meticulously wiping down the window sills or ironing underwear. They may also fall into a rabbit hole of research on a new interest, even if the new interest is not applicable to their present life (i.e. a New Yorker googling how to shear sheep from his high rise apartment, a single allergy-sufferer researching which dog breed is the most family friendly, a broke college student trying to find the perfect mansion to move into on Zillow).

The pull of hyperfocus can be so strong, that the person experiencing it may find it near impossible to pause or pull him/herself away. He or she may feel irritated or uneasy if interrupted and may even go without or rush food, sleep, or the bathroom to maintain focus. He or she may feel it painfully inconvenient do anything besides the task he/she is hyperfocused on until that task is complete.

What Does Hyperfocus Look Like?

Hyperfocus looks like a person so engrossed in what they are doing, they may not hear someone call his or her name. He or she may ignore all other tasks or rush through them to be able to return to the task as quickly as possible. He or she may seem irritated when you talk to him/her or frantic to finish.

In ADHD, the contrast between the individual's usual attention behaviors and their hyperfocus behaviors may seem startling. This causes others confusion. Parents might wonder how their child can play video games for hours but can't do math homework for 5 minutes. Employers might wonder how their media manager can create a complex campaign overnight but can't manage to print out her monthly reports. Teachers might wonder how a student can complete an elaborate diorama but fail to write a report.

Unfortunately, this attention inconsistency can sometimes delay an ADHD diagnosis as people think these bouts of focused attention invalidate an ADHD diagnosis, when they actually confirm it.

What Causes Hyperfocus?

Hyperfocus is a manifestation of attention management problems. A hyperfocus cannot be "summoned" just as scattered focus cannot be willfully gathered. That may be part of the reason why people in a hyperfocus feel frantic to stay there. They don't know when they will feel that kind of motivation or undivided attention again.

Even so, it is possible to predict conditions in which a hyperfocus may take over. It's usually the same conditions that contribute to healthy, normal bouts of attention for people with ADHD:

Interest

Competition

Novelty

Urgency

Here are some examples:

Cameron wants to own a rabbit. He spends the entire day researching rabbit breeds and rabbit habitats. He loses hours to online research spurred on by his interest.

Tina's teacher encouraged her to enter a poetry contest. She spent 6 hours working on the poem instead of doing her homework because the competition inspired a hyperfocus.

Gabe decided to draw a teenage-mutant ninja turtle and label its body parts in Spanish for his Spanish assignment. He spent hours getting the drawing and penmanship just right on the 20 point assignment because the novelty caused a hyperfocus.

Lily hates paperwork. She lays it all in a pile on her desk. The pile gets so large that it topples over, demanding urgent attention. This kicks Lily into a hyperfocus as she resolves to attend to the entire pile in one sitting though it will take hours.

Is Hyperfocus a Superpower?

Some people see no downsides to hyperfocus. After all, Hyperfocus can allow an individual otherwise compromised by scattered attention to complete high quality work with fabulous attention to detail that could not be attained by the average person within the same timeframe.

Hyperfocus can cause serious issues, however, in every realm of life. Often overlooked is the way hyperfocus can warp self-esteem. Many people with ADHD who experience hyperfocus base their own expectations for themselves on the extraordinary way they behave during a hyperfocus. These expectations are unrealistic, but seem realistic to them because they periodically succeed in meeting those expectations.

The enormous gap between their spurts of hyperfocused, high-achieving behavior and their usual behavior can create great emotional distress and frustration as they struggle to understand why they can't manage to consistently maintain high-achieving behavior. They don't realize that their high-achieving behavior is abnormally high and totally unreasonable to maintain long-term.

Hyperfocus can also be detrimental to physical and financial health. It can lead to irregular eating and sleeping habits, which exacerbate ADHD symptoms. It can lead to potty training issues in children as they ignore the signal to go. It can contribute to impulse buys and hobby supply splurges or cause a person to ignore or give little attention to daily responsibilities like preparing dinner, completing homework, or finishing the laundry.

Relationships can also suffer when hyperfocus takes over. Spouses may get left to complete the tasks the person in hyperfocus failed to complete, friends may get ignored, kids' may feel slighted by their parent's lack of attention. When this happens, open communication, understanding, and love is vital on both sides to work through it.

When a hyperfocus is over, the absurd endurance involved in maintaining intense focus for an extended amount of time takes its toll. The person may feel exhausted and unable to attend to their usual responsibilities. They may feel down or as if they've lost their feeling of purpose. They may feel incapable as their motivation and focus sharply drop off or ashamed for spending so much time on something, whether or not it was productive.

Can Hyperfocus Be Helped?

Medicine can significantly help with attention problems including hyperfocus. Additionally, the mere knowledge of hyperfocus and its characteristics can help a person realize what is happening and what caused it, which gives the individual insight into how to moderate their behavior, though it may still prove challenging. Understanding and support from loved ones can go far in helping a person deal with the negative aspects of this common ADHD symptom.