What is an ADHD hyperfixation (and why is it awesome)?

I recently came across a Reddit thread asking a simple question: What is your current hyperfixation?

Reading through the responses made me feel a little giddy. Folks were nerdbombing about gardening, books, crochet, video games, birds, UFO’s, reverse osmosis filters, and just about everything else under the sun that made their dopamine demon happy.

With all the struggles of living with ADHD, getting into a new hyperfixation is one of the most enjoyable, most rewarding, and, yes, occasionally most self-destructive things that can happen to a person.

This blog celebrates that.

It revels in the “I-must-learn-everything-there-is-to-know-about-this-thing-where-have-you-been-all-my-life” thrill, the feeling of being absolutely absorbed in the pursuit of knowledge, a new skill, a fresh experience, the discovery of a new world, and even, the feeling of loss that often accompanies these pursuits once the urge has been sated.

Join me as I divulge the minutiae of my own hyperfixations in candid, and often graphic detail.

What is a hyperfixation?

As the list above shows, a hyperfixation can take just about any form. 

If you’ve ever been so engrossed in what you’re doing that everything around you disappears, and when you get jolted back to reality you realize that it’s 2am and you’ve spent the last 4 hours researching serial killers, you know what I’m talking about.

As to what actually happens when we hyperfixate, for those living with ADHD, whose brains are naturally lower in dopamine, the objects of your obsession give you a spike in the chemical.

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter responsible for motivation. It’s your built in reward system, giving you a chemical cookie.

In other words it’s addictive. Especially if you have lower levels to begin with. 

Research on ADHD and hyperfixation is limited, but according to this article, people with ADHD experience it more frequently… and more intensely.

ADHD Hyperfocus vs ADHD Hyperfixation

You’ve probably heard the word ‘hyperfocus’ being thrown around as the ADHD superpower, the transcendence of the psyche, the birth of the ubermensch, or the embodiment of the ever elusive flow.

Hyperfixation is kind of like that, with neck tattoos and a bad attitude.

If hyperfocus is the all-American, good clean fun loving quarterback Steve Rodgers, then hyperfixation is Deadpool killing the marvel universe in crocs.

It’s your older cousin, inviting you for a walk on thanksgiving and handing you a joint. It’s Dr. Frankenstein graverobbing, Mozart composing an ode to farts, Van Gogh cutting off his ear. It is beautiful and it is terrible. 

But (severed limbs aside) it is above all fun. 

And harmless in most cases. I promise.

And who can honestly say they couldn’t use a little more fun? Adulting, as they say, is hard.*

* “Adulting is hard” is a registered trademark of Millenials™ 

Celebrating your hyperfixations

Okay so by now it should be clear that while hyperfixations are intensely fun, they can also take over your life. If not managed, they can play out like a guide on how to lose friends and alienate people.

And yet, there is something wonderful about them. Something good.

Because, though they may be fleeting, they are often so intense that they fundamentally change who you are. Your new knowledge and experiences become a part of your psychological make up.

I’ve often wondered why ADHD is associated with creativity. Surely we were not born with a knack to think differently?

Here’s my theory: 

Because we’re more likely to hyperfixate (or hyperfocus if you’re Clark Kent) on many different things over the course of our lives, we build up a lot more (often seemingly useless) stores of knowledge and skills from across many different fields. 

And because we have so many random tidbits floating around, we get to see and make connections between ideas that most people don’t.

We’ve basically got a built in SCAMPER machine that helps us jumble all our disparate ideas, skills, and factoids into a beautiful, grotesque Frankenthought.

No wonder so many of the most successful and groundbreaking entrepreneurs have ADHD.

So I say, let the monkey take the wheel every now and again. The pursuit will likely invigorate you and, if nothing else, you’ll have something fun to bring up at your next dinner party. 

Assuming you haven’t lost all your friends in the process.