Many NeuroDivergent folk hyperfocus. This can be a focus on healthy hobbies and showcase productive, creative acts of wonder and success. It can be a career.
Hyperfocus can also tip over into unhealthy stuff (as defined by self and/or others) whereby we either cause harm accidentally to self by forgetting to eat, not sleeping, not noticing the need to pee, being exhausted or missing deadlines or forgetting people/things. It can mean we overdo something and do not notice a negative consequence until afterwards.
A hyperfocus can be soothing and calm us after burnout. See the photography blog post.
Hyperfoccused doesn't just mean a skill, hobby or interesting act.
So, my focus today was fighting with a shredder. I am not gadget-friendly, but the damn (cheap) thing did not work. It guzzled up paper, scrunching it so it got stuck. Over and over. I hyperfocus, unable to give up. I should have backed off and stopped the task. I was hooked and could not think of anything except winning and beating the gadget. I had to admit defeat eventually when I suddenly realised I had pulled my neck, my back was hurting, and I was holding my breath for long periods as I violently concentrated (that makes sense to me) on unclogging the beast of a machine.
Once I start a task I find it very hard to detach from it (see other Tendrils post I shared). This is why I cannot dip into and out of a task. This is why I have to know I have a big enough chunk of time to finish the task. This is why I avoid tasks because I know how overwhelmed I am in the middle of it.
Switching between hyperfocused tasks makes my head hurt. I just can't do this easily. I zone out, unable to hear other things around me. Of course, if I'm not hyperfocused, I'm the complete opposite, focused on all the other things around me. My attention jumping around from imaginary trampoline to imaginary trampoline. Or I'm like a slug.
I am now in the bath recovering. With an impulsive random nose pore unclogger strip (because I saw it on the side and it seemed a good idea) stuck, like cement, on my nose.
I tend not to read instructions.
Let's hope the nose thing is a more successful event than the battery-operated face hair chin defuzzer (the one that looks like lipstick) I previously used. I didn't read those instructions either. I thought I would 'have a go' at the eyebrow edges, but apparently, the eye area is too sensitive; thus, I gained a black eye.
Demon shredder as evidence. It won. I hate it.
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