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Comment by phainopepla2

20 hours ago

Can you explain what about is it a gift? What are the benefits you get from it?

When you can align hyperfocus with your most beneficial vector of productivity, it's like you can accomplish anything, in half the time thought possible.

Problem is, there is no good way to direct the hyperfocus demon. It likes what it likes, it wants what it wants, and that's that.

Medication helps to save a pile of willpower/spoons/executive function safely from the demon so that we can get things that need doing done.

I have found both hyperfocus and the ability to quickly "drop" (i.e. distract from) a train of thought incredibly useful.

  • Hyperfocus is great until it's not.

    People with ADHD have "time blindness"; we don't process time the same way most people do.

    We often don't realize 3 or 4 hours have passed and there were other things we needed to get done.

    • Sure. These are the other sides of the coin. I've been medicated for years and unmedicated for years. Currently I'm in a ~10yr unmedicated stretch. Do I have frustrating moments, embarrassing easily avoidable failures, and so on? Yes. Do I sometimes lose many hours to a task and forget to eat? Yes. But I'm also kinder, more playful, and more present with my loved ones when I am unmedicated.

      If the downsides get too bad and things start to fall apart then I will medicate again. Until then, no way I'm making that tradeoff.

I would sum it up as an ability to think out of the box, naturally having creative solutions. Which itself is a double-edged sword...

  • I know a lot of people with ADHD and even more without it. I haven't noticed any correlation between ADHD and creativity or out-of-the-box thinking.