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Registration Policies, Cancellations & Refunds.Surround yourself with people who appreciate that you sometimes take the road less traveled.Įdward Hallowell, M.D., is a member of ADDitude’s ADHD Medical Review Panel.The experience, however disappointing, can open up new horizons. Once you’ve found something you like, dig deeper. Don’t be afraid to try lots of off-the-wall things - star-gazing, ice-climbing, training for a triathlon. Hyperfocus is more likely to occur when you are engaged in a task that is challenging, that matters to you, and in which you make progress. Finally, if words don’t break the spell of hyperfocus, a gesture-placing a hand on his shoulder or standing between him and the computer screen-will do the trick.Can you take a break with us today and get back to painting the car tomorrow?” For an adult who obsesses about restoring an old car, you can say, “I see you have been completely focused on repainting your car for the past two weeks, but your family misses you. In the case of the teen with the flash cards, a parent could start quizzing her on vocabulary words. Agree on a cue to help you to snap out of hyperfocus.Assure your wife that your focus on things other than her isn’t a reflection of your interest in, or love for, her. Explain that it is part of your ADHD and that you can’t turn it on and off at will. Talk with your spouse or significant other about hyperfocus.Having a trustworthy assistant at work and setting up automatic bill payments are good ideas.
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Adults can find that kind of focus in a new job - working intensely for a year, say, to fix major problems in their department. When parents tell me how their daughter breezed through a challenging science fair project only to settle into a spotty classroom performance, I know that she was hyperfocusing. Unfortunately, hyperfocus can’t be reliably sustained or controlled. A musician may write a symphony in only a few weeks. Someone with an interest in computer programming may happily hunt for a bug in thousands of lines of code, regardless of the fact that he usually can’t sit still. Attention deficit disorder is all about distraction… until it’s not! One of the most surprising aspects of ADHD is hyperfocus - a person’s ability to hone in on a specific task, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else.
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