Overfocused ADHD...well I'll be damned.

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_ Primary ADD symptoms (attentional problems, distractibility, disorganization, and impulsivity).
_ Obsessive, repetitive negative thoughts.
_ Might display compulsive behaviors.
_ Oppositional behavior.
_ Emotional rigidity.
_ Has trouble shifting from one activity to another.
_ Frequently get stuck in loops of negative thoughts or behaviors.
_ Excessive worrying, even over “little” things.
_ Inflexible and uncompromising.
_ Argumentative behavior.
_ Always wants his way.
_ Engages in ritualistic behavior.
_ Addictive Personality.


I posted about this awhile ago because I thought it sounded like me and apparently, it is! I haven't been paying attention, because I'm PAYING TOO MUCH ATTENTION!

lol. I've been DXd with ADHD-hyperactive type as well but I found some of my paperwork from the resedential program I lived in as a teenager and this is written up in my records, as well as ODD, but I think most of us that were in the program got that diagnosis.

Hehe. I am less like what this description now behavior wise, as far as being emotionally rigid goes, I now have a generally pleasant demeanor and sometimes even flexible but this was very much me in my childhood and some of my adolescence. I certainly have the same obsessive behaviors and thinking patterns but I've learned to deal(kind of).

Anyone else have this diagnosis?

I have diagnosed ADHD and can go into hyperfocus. I never really had oppositional behavior, though, or problems with disorganization....oh wait, and I don't have an addictive personality either.

Same. I did up until about 20...idk what changed, just the psychological aspect, I guess. I got my head straightened out.

I don't have it, but that sounds similar...

I'd heard about on more than one occasion, something associated with both AS and ADHD, is "Hyperfocus", where basically... you're paying too much attention on one thing, blocking out everyone and everything else.

Another gripe I sort of have with one of my doctors, that I was paying too much attention to an "Attention test", so he figured I didn't have ADHD... grr. Where I seemed to have every other symptom...

What do you mean, "you got your head straightened out"? I'm not trying to pry, I just don't understand what you mean and how it applies to the symptoms. Like by using CBT or having some realizations?

Hyperfocus is really useful when doing design work.

I've been thinking since I posted here - I don't have problems with disorganization because I had therapy for it and because I over-compensate by keeping surfaces obsessively cleared so at work I have no papers on my desk or anything. I guess I wasn't thinking that one through fully. I use a planner and an expanding file folder. I also throw out all manner of things on a regular basis because I start getting anxious when there's too much stuff in my space - mostly because I don't know what to do with it all and get overwhelmed.

Nah. I mean I did go to some basic therapy for many years but it never worked because I wasn't into it. I did a lot of drugs as a teenager and around 20 things got REALLY bad, mostly with alcohol but wit some hard drugs too. I guess it was just self-actualization? I don't really know if that's what you'd csll it, deep introspection, I guess. I took a deeeeeep look inside of myself and really thought about WHY I was doing all of the things I was doing. I decided that I wasn't really addicted to the things/drugs I was doing and that I was basically doing it because I hated myself and was trying to kill myself slowly. It's sad but true lol.

Once I got past all of that I never went back, I've been much more grounded since. I still have other problems but I'm very glad that I got the drug problems out of the way early on. I don't even have an addictive personality anymore. I still have the obsessive behaviors but most of the time I can end them if I see that what I'm doing is really unhealthy and I'm pretty self-aware now.