A Wee Bit Hyperfocus-y

I’m back! Did you miss me?

Yeah, you really should get used to this kind of thing. Dozens of posts all in a couple of weeks…and then complete silence for three months. It’s just how I do.

Why?

Welcome to Jennifer’s neurospicy brain!

But first, some background info. I am 54 years old and I’m about 99.7% sure I’ve been living with undiagnosed ADHD since at least college, if not longer. I’m not sure that the process of getting an actual, official diagnosis would serve any purpose at this point. I am who I am and my brain is my brain and nothing is going to change that for this old lady. (harrumph, you kids get off my lawn!)

Anyway, one of the special perks of ADHD is this amazing thing called HYPERFOCUS.

“Now wait,” you may say. “Aren’t people with ADHD completely UN-focused all the time? Isn’t that the “AD” (attention deficit) in ADHD?”

Well, you raise a good point, but…no.

People with ADHD tend to be sort of selectively focused. If something interests us, fascinates us, we are not just focused, we are ALL IN. ALL THE TIME. IN ALL THE WAYS. Many times to the exclusion of things we really should be doing.

Dani Donovan at adhddd.com has made some of the best graphics to summarize the little quirks of the ADHD brain. This first one is probably the most accurate description I’ve seen of the difference between the hyperfocused and not hyperfocused states. I am a world-class tinkerer, especially with things like designing websites – I will fiddle with it until I’m completely sick of it and then will start all over again. But when I’m not hyperfocused I am an Olympic-level putter-offer. I am the absolute Queen of Avoidance.

A graphic of two pie charts; the first is labeled "Not Hyperfocused" and the pie sections are labeled "putting it off for no good reason," feeling guilty," and "doing out." The second is labeled "Hyperfocused" and its sections are labeled "obsessive tinkering justified as 'perfectionism'," "losing track of time," and " doing it."

This next graphic has nothing to do with hyperfocus but I saw it on Dani’s site and laughed my ever-loving ass off. Please just ask my husband how I tell him stories. I hit every single one of these boxes every single time. I always provide background info and context before even getting to my story, and there are so many tangents I go off on that I usually completely forget the entire purpose of me even opening my mouth. He’s very patient with me, usually. Give the man a sainthood for putting up with me.

A graphic comparing the storytelling styles of non-ADHD storytelling and ADHD storytelling. The non-ADHD style shows "start of story" and "end of story" with a straight line between the two. The ADHD storytelling shows a number of different ways in which an ADHD story becomes long and convoluted.

So there you have it. Just a tiny peek into what makes Jennifer tick. I’m hoping I can be a little more consistent with posting here, but I make no guarantees. I do have a bunch of stuff from the past few months that I can catch you up on, though, so that’s probably enough to keep me interested for at least a week or two. 😂