Severe Hyperfocusing Issues

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Alright, so I've only been officially diagnosed and treated for ADD (which I definitely have), but after doing some research I suspect that I might have some form of Autism as well, so I'm asking this here!

Okay, so I ALWAYS have major problems with hyperfocusing whenever I'm doing my homework, or anything really! I almost dread getting homework that involves writing on the computer, because either (when I'm off my meds) I'm flipping between 20 different internet webpages with nothing done 2 hours later, or (when I'm on my meds) I hyperfocus and end up with 2 paragraphs out of 10, that I had hyperfocused on and re-editted and re-editted for the entire time, totally forgetting about the bigger picture. (And typically, after spending 10 hours re-editting those 2 paragraphs and 2 hours left before due-date, I get the other 7 finished in a panicked rush.)

Thats usually what happens for /every/ big project I ever get. Its almost like its really tough for me to pull away from something I'd worked on, so badly that its easier for me to re-do the entire thing, then actually pull away from it. Or for me to think "Okay, thats done! Whats next?"
Some examples of me hyperfocusing are:
I skipped a day of school for, and spent 3 evenings working on a 3 page speech for a History class. On the day that I skipped school, I got only half a page done, as I had constantly re-edited the same stuff. In the end, I got 50% of the speech done in the final half of the last evening, and only added the important, essential stuff then.
I pulled an all nighter attempting to get my handwriting for a class booklet neat enough, and at 6:00 am was when I panicked and actually got most of the booklet done.
Also, I like drawing and art class. However, I tend to obsessively detail small sections, or repaint sections of paintings over and over and over again, ignoring the big important sections and mistakes that actually need to get finished, until the due date approaches and I panic. Also, a flaw that horribly bugged me one day, I can be totally oblivious to the next day.

Basically, does anybody else do this as well?

The constant reediting? Sounds like you're a perfectionist.

From what you tell us I agree with the above poster. You have a strong perfectionist streak that can be called an OCD.

My sister is like that


It's not as bad a thing to have as you may think, its a great tool in life to be into that much detail of every single element of whatever you're working on.

You would need to train yourself to work along with your OCD rather than fight it. If you fight it you'll lose..so rather than fighting it, why not make it work in your favor?

In drawing class in college I learned a technique that helped me and my sister a lot with some of our issues: avoid using your 'logical' side of your brain.

Sounds silly but it works. Here's the thing:

Place an object in front of you. Lets say, a panda stuffed animal. Try to draw it.

Most people grab the pen and paper and carefully begin to copy the image they see in their eyes onto paper.. you draw the outline shape, the nose, the eyes, the arms...

but... its not a really good drawing because all through the process you are thinking with your logical side and using size/reference points to 'compose' the image on the paper. You do it slowly and carefully.

On the other hand, if you take the piece of paper and 'let go' your mind and just draw the panda AS FAST as you can, not caring about 'overshooting' or 'dirtying' the picture, the resulting drawing will look like a rough sketch of what you want but the shape and size will be much more accurate than the one you did 'logically'. And you can just erase the 'dirty' parts and voila! a good drawing. Without using your logical side.

Here's a small article about this: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Frost18.html

For your situation, I'd suggest you try this exercise. It helps you train your mind to not use your logical side so much. For essays or other writing projects you will find that 'letting go' of the logical side will allow you to simply write down the entire document .. full of errors or bad grammar ... and once you are done you can go back and edit it to your logical/OCD side's content. The result would be you get your work done and very well 'edited' by the time your logical/OCD side is done with it.

Yeah, me too. I can never finish anything, which often causes it to be overdone, and thus worse than what it would have been, or else just extremely long and rambling, in the case of a research project I did last year.

I do that, too. I learned over time to practice hyperfocusing on a specific level of the work. This lets me zero in on the overview, then go one level down and zero in, etc. It requires setting a stopping point in advance: "What will the completed work look like?" and sticking to it. It's hard, but worth it.

Also, don't spend too much consecutive time on a task. Break it up by setting an egg timer to go off after 20-25 minutes. Get up, stretch, walk - no mental work - and watch the clock until 5 minutes have gone by before you go back to it. You won't be as tired and the work will be better. And don't think you'll get up "in a minute", do it come what may. I've never had work get up and run off on me (darn it).