Are you ever so engrossed in an activity you love that you completely lose track of time? Does it seem like you lose sense of where you are and what’s happening around you? And when you snap back into the reality of what’s going on around you, are you disoriented? People with ADHD and neurodivergence are more likely to experience this heightened state known as “hyperfixation” than neurotypical children and adults. Hyperfixation is defined as full immersion in something of interest to a point where a person appears to ‘tune out’ everything else. It can be prolonged, recurring, and sometimes even obsessive. Hyperfocus is more of a flow state that is shorter in duration and more spontaneous. While both may aid productivity, both can hinder it as well. In particular, hyperfixation often draws people into unproductive, procrastinating activities, which is what makes it both exhilarating and frustrating.

Hyperfixation, it seems, is a double-edged sword: a great capacity for effective performance on interesting, high-value tasks on the one hand and a great capacity for avoiding things by disappearing into pleasurable distractions on the other. Hyperfixation, with its intense focus, can lead to working tirelessly on something so that you are fully engaged by it. Your experience is pleasurable, firing up those dopamine pathways so that there’s a reward inherent in what you are doing.

But, you may be so engrossed that you’ll lose........

© Psychology Today