how aware of your surroundings are you when fixating?

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I think that what I call "hyperfocus" (I may use the word to describe something different than what other people are trying to describe with it) is just one manifestation of my problems with attention regulation.

Sometimes I just start daydreaming while I'm doing something so I don't really look around very much to see what's going on around me.

I get focused on writing code or thinking about a hard problem, and can really lose touch with the world for hours. I'll jump out of my seat if someone tries to break me out of it, and get really pissed off if a chat comes in or anything messes with the zone.

In a way it's awesome - get stuff done, go deep, satisfying levels of complexity and structure in my head... but it's hard to come out of it. I am pretty cranky and very awkward when I have to interact with other people later. If I'm on a huge focus binge for days, then I may lay down thousands of lines of code, but it's super hard to get out and cope with light or anything. I'll make mistakes socially or with my partner, and start really regretting it and getting into some bad self-talk.

I just run with whatever the passion is at the moment, and take the costs, but I don't know how or whether to mediate it. I don't actually feel like mediating it. Normal human NT behavior doesn't go into terrain that deep, or get stuff done at that level. I like to think that anyway.