Coelacanth

This is where I’m at too. There are some methods and principles I can try to enact, like if I’m hyperfocused on a subject I feel is actually worthwhile I can limit my exposure to other new stimuli in the hopes of maintaining the focus for longer. But ultimately my brain is out of my control and it’s really only a case of coping and damage limitation.

And yeah I wish people would stop referring to an inhibiting disorder as a superpower. It’s really not.

I don’t think anything has actually stuck with me. That’s the whole problem really. I’ve maintained interest for various lengths of time but once I drop something it’s so hard to pick the interest up again. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a single example of being able to return to a previous hyperfocus and achieve the same level of obsession as when I was initially hyperfocused on it.

The one thing I’ve learned in terms of maintaining focus though is to never “look away”. Don’t tempt your attention with other things, and keep doing the thing every single day. If I go two days or more without engaging in it I risk dropping it, that’s the extent of my attention span I guess. If I’m not keeping it constantly in my forebrain I lose interest so quickly. So I guess that’s some advice? Not that I’ve managed to follow it myself, mind.

I don’t have an answer for you, but I do have some sympathy. I know the struggle of never being able to stick with a hyperfocus exactly and it fucking sucks. If I was able to maintain interest in something for more than a month or whatever I’d be so much happier, and maybe also actually decent at something.

I also deeply dislike the phrase for much of the same reason as the other replies. It’s a phrase that evokes high-functioning TikTokers looking to quirkily stand out from the crowd and in general downplays the reality of many neurodivergent people and their very real, very tangible struggles.

I guess like the Onion this sub might be too depressing to be subscribed to as well going forward huh.

Yeah that sounds about right.

Sync. But it’s working now, confusingly.

Your link isn’t working for me but I see now that you already linked this community. Totally my bad, I apologise!

It’s a super useful place for finding new communities to subscribe to! I also heartily recommend !communities@ponder.cat

I’m in this picture and I hate it here.

The article itself brings up viewer retention, which would be a fair comparison if there were actually more than one Penguin episode available. Otherwise while context will be important I do think comparing viewership-to-budget is fair.

Mood.

I need this book.

Yeah, anything competitive is too stressful for me to be able to just play for hours on end. I’m playing Deadlock at the moment and I’m typically taking a break after every one or two games just to control my mood.

Football Manager was the worst for me I’d say. Consumed months at a time. Civilization can eat a day easily if you’re not careful. Really, anything I can control the pace of that I get interested in and that doesn’t have a story. I enjoy narrative games, but they require a different type of focus and concentration that takes a lot more energy. I can’t play those for days on end, even hours on end. I can get obsessed by them, and I can play tons of hours over the course of a week, but I don’t hyperfocus on them the same way.

Anything management or strategy however, where you’re working for incremental progress and “just one more turn”? That’s dangerous. Last little obsession I had was Esports Godfather, a MOBA themed deckbuilder/autobattler/management game that has probably been my surprise hit of the year and which was gloriously addicting.

Furthermore, I don’t often feel like I’m ‘enjoying’ it. I’m just consumed by it.

Recognise this feeling very well, from a lot of things when I hyperfocus on it. It’s almost a sensation like nausea, that palpable feeling of not being in control, for me at least. Especially bad when I briefly snap into self-awareness - but not enough to break out of the hyperfocus.

There is a separate timeline out there where Bernie beat Trump in 2016 and we didn’t have to go through any of this shit. I hope the me in that timeline realizes how lucky he is.

I’ve done loads of Wasgij jigsaw puzzles with family over holidays, they’re great. If anyone here thinks this sounds like a fun idea I encourage you to check them out!

This is great advice, it’s pretty much the same approach I’ve had to do.

Anything involving leaving the house is basically impossible for me due to required activation energy and associated anxiety. Investing in a good treadmill was one of the best decisions I ever made. Got one with a shelf built in for a phone/tablet so I can watch videos while I run. I know that type of exercise is not what was asked for, but the same principle applies to body weight exercises or free-weight training you can do if you buy a set of weights:

• Make it something you can do from home to minimise startup friction
• Set up a way to stimulate yourself while working out
• Make the exercise program varied and bite-sized so you just have to focus on finishing the current exercise instead of starting to think about how long time is remaining on the program (which is why I run intervals on the treadmill).

For me personally I prefer taking smaller doses of the instant release as needed instead of the slow release capsules, gives me more control of the effect.

I don’t know what dosage you’re on but I’ve tried a wide gamut and one of the things I disliked about being on a higher dose slow release was the heart palpitations it gave me, combined with the very common loss of appetite. Nothing medically serious apparently but it felt uncomfortable.

If you’re prone to hyperfocus uncontrollably (as I am) then be warned that for me at least Methylphenidate can often exaggerate this problem which can be troublesome, so keep an eye on that.

Yes all the time! Books and TV series are the worst culprits, but games too, especially long ones.

I don’t know if it’s poor object permanence or just a lacking working memory, but it’s not just that I burn out on things/move to another interest but how quickly it can happen.

If I don’t actively engage with something almost daily my interest in it starts slipping almost immediately, and if I go four days without watching an episode of a show for example I typically find my motivation or drive for finishing it almost gone already. It’s as if only the current moment exists and anything I’m not doing right now might as well not exist, or at least feels very intangible and unimportant.

Same goes for other hobbies and projects, and games of course.