How do you deal with hyperfocus?

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For example, I'm trying to pick my first car and for the past 24 hours or so, I'm hyper focused on cars. Reading specs sheet, looking up reviews, that sort of thing. And I'm by no means passionate or enthusiastic about cars in any way. They're just a tool for me as I actually prefer motorcycles.

But right now, I just want to learn everything about them, soak up all the information. And that's just one example. Once I sink my teeth into something, it's hard for me to let go. And it actually starts to affect my life.

Whenever I'm hyperfocused, I start tuning people out (more than usual). I just keep thinking about what I'm focused on everywhere. Reading, pooping, walking, commuting... even sleeping, actually!

My question is, how do you deal with it? How do you let go? For example, I stayed awake till 3AM last night, even though I tend to sleep at around 11PM. I only stopped when my phone's battery died.

P.S I'm a 'certified' Aspie with ADHD tendencies.

That's life.
All we can do is live with it.

Wait... that's it?

Come-on, there's got to be a way! Right?

Not in my experience, even with ADHD meds.

Best advice I can give is stop doing it.

While it is your initial reaction (as it is often mine), at some point it is no longer involuntary and becomes voluntary.

I have experienced these negative effects of hyperfocus also, so I hear you.

It's not a quick fix, unfortunately, but some autistic people (myself included) have found learning mindfulness meditation to be helpful with this.

Separating from thoughts and letting them go is a skill that can be learned. Mindfulness meditation teaches that skill.

You can learn from audio and video programs in the privacy of your own dwelling. I personally have found audios taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and the Healthy Minds app to be helpful, science-based, and free of the quasi-religious stuff that bothers some people.

That sounds like replacing hyperfocus with hyperfocus.

I can't do meditation or mindfulness.

I'd rather learn mindlessness, if there was a course online.

Nor can I.

I am taking an online 12 week seminar with parents/spouse/children of people with borderline personality disorder. "Mindfulness" is skill they are really trying to push through for us. I have never been able to be mindful, for myself or for anyone else. Maybe it is an empathy issue. Asking a person with really poor theory of mind to be mindful is kind of ridiculous.

I've read that CBT / visualisation / mindfulness and all that mumbo-jumbo are useless for autistics.
We are too hyper-vigilant, self-aware and conscious of our environment.
My sleep study even said I don't let down my guard when asleep.
I don't go to the deepest sleep stage after REM because my brain stays alert.
I went to a skilled hypnotist who said my subconscious was protected like Fort Knox.

I'd love to just shut my brain up for a moment.
I have no idea how that feels.

I don't really get to deal with hyperfocus, that implies there is a choice...there isn't, not for me. It has its positives when I am hyper focused on something work-related. I can often work until I collapse from a lack of sleep/food/water (going 2 days without anything but focusing on whatever I am focused on is not unusual for me)

When I come out of a rabbit hole I can't walk in a straight line.
I get vertigo trying to reintegrate to the world around me.
I end up dehydrated and haven't eaten, sometimes for 24 hours.

When I'm in the rabbit hole I think everything's fine but nope ...
It's all a delusion so I'll stay there.

Mindfullness meditation and Mindfulness therapies are difficult if not impossible for many people on the spectrum. Especially if you have poor interoception. MindLESSness meditation sounds great

Yes, I have serious problems with interoception.
I did nearly 200 hours of Occupational Therapy for it in 2020.
I didn't know how to distinguish flavours, and couldn't tell if I was hungry, tired, etc.

I can't say it helped but I guess maybe a little bit.

There's no way I could do the "picture yourself on a boat in the river" nonsense.
I have Aphantasia and can't picture anything.

If I could outsmart my ASD / ADHD / PTSD / anxiety with thinking techniques I would have done it long ago.

I can relate to that too. I can picture things I have seen before, but I have extreme difficulty visualizing or imagining abstract things or things I have not seen before. I also have difficulties with knowing what thing like hunger, thirst, etc. feel like. I have found that if I feel angry for no apparent reason, that it usually means "hungry"

Last edited by DanielW on 09 Nov 2022, 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I thought headaches were the hunger / fatigue cue.

Headaches certainly can be - Headaches don't really register for me unless/until they are bad.