Hyperfocus

Post Reply New Topic

I TOTALLY identify with that -- the delay while switching gear from "stuff/systems" mode to "people conversation" mode. I have to do it all the time, and I think even my brother thinks there's something wrong with me because of it. The annoying thing is that we Aspies KNOW it's happening while its happening. People need to realize there's a difference between "hyperfocused" and "a little slow [mentally]". Ferraris are fast, but they still have to switch gears.

In my last post I said I didn't get that, but I have to take it back now. Just today I was walking doen the hall at school in a hurry (I was running late), when suddenly a hand popped out from a group of people I was passing and waved in my face. I couldn't react until I was a few feet ahead, when I turned around and said hi quickly to the waver, but I couldn't react any more elaborately than that, or stop completely. I'm not sure if it was "hyperfocused" or "a little slow [mentally]", because I was startled and confused when it happened. Being in a hurry probably didn't help either.

Yep, been there, done that Amy! One of the worst parts is when something malfunctions, and you are trying to troubleshoot it, and someone is there hounding you with questions as to what has gone wrong, what you are doing to fix it, and how fast you can get it done. Also, while on the job, I'll get the frequent questions that are totally un-related to the job I'm doing. For example, the other day, I was working on a video matrix switcher trying to get it configured up, when the user started asking me questions about a his system. I then replied with erratic, broken, unintellidgable answers that he couldn't understand. It appears that NT's cannot stand silence, and for some reason think that you are not working if you are not audibly making any sounds, so they try to break the silence.

For me, I will become hyerfocused and can actually multi-task related things, or things I am expecting and I've sort of planned out in my head. For instance If I'm thinking I need to set up the drum mic's, hook up the speakers, and plug in the lights, I will go up on the stage on one side, connect up a speaker, and plug in a few lights, then hop to the other side and do the similar, then run back to the booth and test the stuff out. Now, if someone stops me and asks " Hey, can you check my guitar?" Then I get "thrown off" a bit. I've still got my previous lists of tasks in my head that I'm working on, and the challenge is to deviate out of that to perform something I've never given any thought or planning to.

The issue is that we as aspies sort of "plan our attack" when we have a series of specific tasks to do and take care of in a specified time, be it setting up a PA system, changing classes at school, or whatever. I do this in my mind constantly, especially because my short-term memory is pretty bad. For example, this afternoon when I got off work, I started organizing a series of jobs I needed to do: go to the bank and deposit my paychedk, buy groceries, clean out my work van, take some alumnium to the recycling center, take the company truck to the office and get my own car back, and go to the bank. The order these tasks took place obviously were important. The alumnium was in my work van, and the money I got for the alumnium also needed to be deposited in the bank, and I obviously couldn't buy groceries without the money deposited, and you want the grocery store to be a last stop. Obviously too, I couldn't clean out the work truck if it was taken back to the shop first. In my mind, I studied, and I oranized the events to a precise pattern...drive the work van to the recycling center, go back home, clean it out, drive it to the office, pick up my my personal car, go to the bank, then to the grocery store. Within this big scheme, there's smaller things I'm reviewing in my head too as I complete things, like which route to drive, what foods I need to buy at the store, etc. In With the sequence of events "burned" into my mind, I received a phone call from a friend that wanted to go to meet me at the hardware store to buy some things. I had a hard time breaking my concentration on my original plans, and "inserting" the trip to the hardware store.


Something like this seems to come second nature to NT's I guess, because an interruption or a change doesn't seem to affect them, and they seem to do stuff "on the fly" without giving them muc thought.

Meloncolybunny also mentioned the issue with distractions from radio and TV. I am very much the same way. I cannot have the radio or TV on when I am performing another task, and likewise, I can't concentrate on the TV or music if I'm doing something else. People think it's odd that when I listen to music, I don't do anything else but just sit there!

Superfantastic,

When I was a little kid, my brain felt like a supercomputer you might see in star track, etc... everything was interlinked, there at once, etc.... It was great! Today, and observation and statements from others make it clear I am not alone here, My brain feels like a bad network with a little dinky PC with limited space! OH, that supercomputer is still there! I just have to access it through that little dinky PC. That means things are slower, learning may not permutate like it did, and switching is slower! I swear! I have had a lot of cases where people will ask me a question about something that happened 2 weeks ago, and I have NO idea what they are talking about. They get distracted for a few seconds, and I can tell them with great detail what happened, etc.... My only saving grace is that many probably couldn't tell them anyway, and they usually ask because they are far worse.

BTW I AM trying to upgrade! Maybe my little old seahorses need some exercise, or to be fed. Hey, do you know what they might like? BTW the english translitteration of the greek sea horse is "hippocampus".

Steve

Wow, great description of the way I think. That's why I find it hard to explain my thoughts sometimes, because talking/writing is very linear. If I were a pictorical thinker I would maybe be able to express stuff really well in pictures; unfortunately, I'm a verbal thinker (it's just that all the words are "there at once" instead of in structured sentences), or conceptual sometimes too because it's faster (although it takes longer to translate it into an expressable something).
But I think that doesn't have much to do with being able to refocus on stuff.
Anyway thanks for the description.

hahaha! I'm always telling people to shut up. I can't stand small talk and have no idea why it exists. I don't care to talk about crap that neither of us cares about, anyway. Let's talk about something important if we have to talk. A lot of times I hate being around people because their need to fill the silence with lame conversation just kills me. Especially if I'm driving someone somewhere. The windows are down, the AC is on, it's a nice day, sunny. Just shut up.

I also wanted to say that I can't watch TV. I don't have a TV, but I go over to my friends' apartment on Thursdays for Grey's Anatomy and during the commercials I have to have them explain what happened. The show is interesting, I like the surgeries, but the social-goings-on go completely over my head. And I think that's true for most TV shows.

I guess really, it all comes down to executive function issues...

On the subject of hyper focusing and traits which could be the aspieness speaking, do you ever go into what I like to think of as autopilot?

When I'm doing multiple things at once, like cooking, or maybe when I'm just putting stuff away, I tend to think about what I need to do, then send my body off to do it while my mind gets back to thinking about my current thought. I'll have the butter in one hand and a pan that needs to go in the oven in the other and I'll tell my autopilot to put the butter in the fridge and the pan in the oven. Instead, I'll be so focussed on the other thought that I have to stop myself as I'm just about to stick the butter in the oven.

Other times I lose things like my keys for the simple reason that I was on autopilot and thinking or doing something else and the keys will be digging in my pocket, so I'll get rid of them onto the nearest shelf or whatever, then when I need them I'll have no recollection of where they went for the because I wasn't really conscious of putting the keys down, I was busy with some other thought.


Would you consider this to be a form of hyper focus?

Hahaha! No, I think everyone does that, TechnoMonk.

I really relate to that.. I worked in noisy workshop environments and open offices.. I was either struggling to be productive or able to switch noises of now it's also the opposite my brain pauses if I hear any kind of noise - Doesn't even have to be talking. My thoughts completely stop most of the time and my thought pattern / productivity is gone when someone keeps making conversation.