People with ADHD can really struggle with attention. The official name is ‘attention deficit’ but it should be ‘attention dysregulation’ and that’s what I’m calling it. Sometimes we struggle to pay attention – the thing might be boring, mundane, old hat or irrelevant – so there is a deficit there. But we can also have an over abundance of attention for things we find interesting, challenging, novel or urgent (ICNU).
Hobbies can last for days, months or even years. My longest running interest was for 20 years, and I was completely engrossed. Everything revolved around my interest including reading, movies, holidays, trips, and collections. I made friends with people who had the same interest and even found work in the field for a few years. Some might have called it an obsession.
At the moment I love running and weight lifting. This has been the case for over 5 years, which is quite healthy and a useful obsession to have. But short term hobbies over the years have included: patchwork, sketching, writing short fiction, singing, yoga, baking and pottery – lasting only a few weeks at best. I am currently hyperfocused on writing blog posts as you can see.
One of the problems with an abundance of attention for one hobby or a current obsession is that other tasks and duties can fall by the wayside. Friends, family and colleagues might lose patience and feel sidelined if we are distracted away from them and not paying attention to everyday life. We might find ourselves losing track of time, being late for important events and appointments, or forgetting daily tasks.
It’s helpful to be self aware when we are hyperfocusing and to take into account the feelings of the people close to us. It’s easy to say and hard to do, but we must remember to switch off, pay attention, notice what is going on around us, and reconnect with reality as often as possible.
