Not always true of even healthy hyperfocus. You never regret your time spent in flow. Compare this to the burning house example of ADHD hyperfocus above! Or to a hyperfocusing session that lasted way longer than you intended. Flow provides a sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity.Too often we get into a hyperfocusing session without even realizing it.
Mainly, as I mentioned earlier, flow doesn’t have an unhealthy version! But also… How Flow Differs from Even Healthy ADHD Hyperfocusįirst of all, flow is a choice it’s intentional and typically involves a planned activity. While flow shares some characteristics with hyperfocus, it’s a different animal. (This is what I get when I’m on a racetrack with my motorcycle at high speeds.) You’re engaged in a sporting activity where the challenge and enjoyment merge to create bliss.You’re walking or hiking in a place of such inspiring beauty you forget all your worries for a spell.You’re immersed in an aspect of your job in which you’re super-competent, such that it doesn’t feel at all like work – and you work straight through your lunch hour.This is me in flow! (Though it’s about 45 seconds before I crashed.) Are ADHD Hyperfocus and Flow the Same Thing?įirst, let’s set out some examples of the flow state to provide context for comparison. That said, it is of course possible to hyperfocus on a worthy, productive activity, and such healthy hyperfocus should be encouraged.Īll the more, because healthy hyperfocus is a close cousin to flow.
#Adhd and hyperfocus tv
Indeed, we too often engage in unhealthy hyperfocus – going down “research” rabbit holes, burning hours upon hours on video games, TV or social media, or just doing low-value work that’s not really moving us forward at all. It is in fact a symptom of this disorder.” – Dr. There were other, more important goals to have been accomplished. You should have stopped what you were doing, and you didn’t.
You are unable to interrupt what you’re doing when you should have shifted to something else. “Hyperfocusing is actually perseveration. Russell Barkley, a top authority on the ADHD brain, holds a similar view, and has gone so far as to describe the ADHD hyperfocus ‘superpower’ as, “a myth.” Or even when we’re doing actual work, but it’s low-value stuff I call pseudoproductivity.ĭr. It was only when firemen came through the house, searching for anyone left inside, that she looked up and realized what was going on!”Īdditionally, in my view, ADHD hyperfocus is much too often an escape into BS activities disguised as focused work: We’ll focus on something that’s not the thing we should be focusing on, but because we’re “focused”, we just go with it, thinking, “Hey, I’m focused! That’s a good thing!”īut it’s not, when we’re focused down a rabbit hole on YouTube or scrolling Instagram or TikTok for long stretches of time. Kathleen Nadeau, described a client who “was so focused on a project that she failed to notice that her house had caught fire. Hyperfocus is a superpower when used for good, not evil!īecause when we “lose track of everything around us,” it’s not just time we lose track of (missing appointments and deadlines): we lose track of priorities, goals, and potentially our own safety…Ī respected ADHD authority, Dr. Hence, it can be a “superpower,” but one with built-in kryptonite. In hyperfocusing, our attention is so focused and can last such a long time, such that we lose track of everything else going on around us. flow in a moment.) So, Is ADHD Hyperfocus a “Superpower”? Mainly in that there’s no unhealthy version of flow, but there’s definitely unhealthy hyperfocus, as you’ve probably experienced.
#Adhd and hyperfocus full
And that’s a good thing, right?Īlso, some feel hyperfocus is the same as ‘flow’ – that mental state in which, when performing an activity, we’re immersed in energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the very process of it - resulting in an altered sense of time.īut they’re different. That’s because we generally define it as “the ability to focus intensely on an interesting project or activity for hours at a time.” In other words, the opposite of distraction. Many of us ADHD adults believe that hyperfocus is an ADHD superpower.
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