Autistic "Hyperfocus". How does it work?

[FoxLovinPat]

So I've been wondering about this recently about the so called "hyer" they aspies/autists are supposed to have and how exactly it works.

Like is it as I've always suspected, where it only really applies to special interests or can those on the spectrum hyper focus on anything if they put their minds to it?
Or does it depend on the individual, what with it being a spectrum and no two ASDers being the same?

The reason I'm wondering this is to do with my schooling experience, which I've been meaning to post a thread on here about but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
But that aside for now, essentially my father seemed to think that I could just employ my "Aspie hyperfocus" on anything, specifically school related things like studying and homework and what not. He's be like "C'mon son you've got the gift of that Asperger's hyper focus! Use it to help you study!" but alas I never could use it in that way, only really seemed to be my special interests I'd hyperfocus on.
I guess that should tell me that it isn't something that can be used for anything but I know I've always wondered if I could've used it for that but just didn't know how to.

But since I've been thinking on that period of my past lately I've gone back to wondering anyhow the hyperfocus actually works, if it is just a special interests only thing or not.

Perhaps an explanation would help, though I imagine most of you probably got a picture already.
But I mean where you get so focused on something you tune everything else out and it's hard to reach you in that state, hard to pull you out of it, almost like you're in some sorta trance. If any of that makes sense to any of you.
That's what my father seemed to think I could apply to studying, but it just never triggered for me no matter what. I don't even know if it would've done me much good even if I could've because there probably would still be the deficiencies, such as the ones I had with math. At least I know now, thanks to my therapist, that my problems with math (no pun intended) were to do with being autistic not laziness.

 

[Judge]

I've always thought of it as a kind of "tunnel vision". Something can be good or bad, in being able to shut out everything going around you to a very narrow focus. Yet I could also see how those with ADHD might not fare so well over such a thing.

I too can't say that generic "studying" was something I could harness my abilities to hyperfocus. To do that had to involve something I was proficient at, if that makes any sense. Math was also not my best subject as well.

For me "studying" was inevitably part of a learning process. Not a "doing" process. I often struggle attempting to learn new things, while I have no issues being hyper-focused over something I know well. That's about all I can comment on in my own case.

 

[Misty Avich]

Ugh, I hate when people assume I have that gift, because I don't. I don't really have special interests, and I find it hard to hyperfocus on anything for long, and I often get easily distracted while trying to focus on anything.
And studying? Forget it!

 

[FoxLovinPat]

I've always thought of it as a kind of "tunnel vision". Something can be good or bad, in being able to shut out everything going around you to a very narrow focus. Yet I could also see how those with ADHD might not fare so well over such a thing.

I too can't say that generic "studying" was something I could harness my abilities to hyperfocus. To do that had to involve something I was proficient at, if that makes any sense. Math was also not my best subject as well.

For me "studying" was inevitably part of a learning process. Not a "doing" process. I often struggle attempting to learn new things, while I have no issues being hyper-focused over something I know well. That's about all I can comment on in my own case.

Hmm that's certainly an interesting way of looking at it, I just tried to explain it the best I could but ya "tunnel vision" works too.

I did think of a better way to word what I was trying to get at there in the OP.
So let's look at one of my special interests that I'd often achieve this "hyperfocus" on.. reading. I'd often get really invested in whatever book I was reading that I'd tune out the world, which I guess one could say isn't unique to people on the spectrum but I'm fairly certain that reading is indeed a special interest and I know it's said those with ASD often tend to hyperfocus on their special interests but I digress.
I'm now thinking that since I would "hyperfocus" while reading my books my father assumed I could do that with text books as well but well seems I couldn't.

Used to wonder what I was doing wrong that I couldn't achieve hyperfocus on my textbooks like I could with the books I read for fun, like what was I missing?
and I ultimately led to believe by my father that I was being lazy and not studying hard enough and I needed to just engage that hyperfocus of mine and I'd be alls good, I'd excel at school, etc.

 

[Levitator]

So I've been wondering about this recently about the so called "hyer" they aspies/autists are supposed to have and how exactly it works.

Like is it as I've always suspected, where it only really applies to special interests or can those on the spectrum hyper focus on anything if they put their minds to it?
Or does it depend on the individual, what with it being a spectrum and no two ASDers being the same?

The reason I'm wondering this is to do with my schooling experience, which I've been meaning to post a thread on here about but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
But that aside for now, essentially my father seemed to think that I could just employ my "Aspie hyperfocus" on anything, specifically school related things like studying and homework and what not. He's be like "C'mon son you've got the gift of that Asperger's hyper focus! Use it to help you study!" but alas I never could use it in that way, only really seemed to be my special interests I'd hyperfocus on.
I guess that should tell me that it isn't something that can be used for anything but I know I've always wondered if I could've used it for that but just didn't know how to.

But since I've been thinking on that period of my past lately I've gone back to wondering anyhow the hyperfocus actually works, if it is just a special interests only thing or not.

Perhaps an explanation would help, though I imagine most of you probably got a picture already.
But I mean where you get so focused on something you tune everything else out and it's hard to reach you in that state, hard to pull you out of it, almost like you're in some sorta trance. If any of that makes sense to any of you.
That's what my father seemed to think I could apply to studying, but it just never triggered for me no matter what. I don't even know if it would've done me much good even if I could've because there probably would still be the deficiencies, such as the ones I had with math. At least I know now, thanks to my therapist, that my problems with math (no pun intended) were to do with being autistic not laziness.

I've noticed the phenomenon you're talking about quite a lot, on more than one level, and I've noted that I feel like we are a mentally near-sighted group. It's not just the interests that become very intense, but the focus within the interest can be extremely esoteric and detailed. We tend to want to dig as far down into the nuts and bolts as we can. When I was into computers, I learned them all the way down below C, down to assembly, then down to the machine code, because why not? You want to know what it is you're really doing when you type a line of code.

I agree that it takes a certain spontaneous inspiration to achieve that hyperfocus, and you can't necessarily pick some arbitrary topic to become passionate about. My music interests are extremely focused, and I find most music kind of incidental as if it were ambient. However, there are somewhere around 300 songs which I find absolutely fascinating, and I listen to them over and over again. Why? Over time, I wound up finding them rather prescient, and I feel like they were telling a story I hadn't even lived out yet. It's part of what, in turn, helped drive my fascination with Socrates, since he said that music is divinely inspired, plus it was one of the few spots where he touched on spirituality despite being mostly logical and rationalistic.

It bothers me that people have told me I'm a space cadet, because I fail to see the problem. I succeed at things that require attention because I'm able to put my attention where it's needed. It just puts people off that your home is basically inside your brain, and they perceive you like some sort of snail that only comes out when something is interesting.

It's the pursuit of faith that's taught me more about the value of reaching in the opposite direction, which is where you find the really big ideas like love and intuition and so forth. In that context, this kind of reductionism and analysis becomes unappealing, because who wants to break down what love itself is, for example? It becomes equivalent to dissecting humor.

 

[Outdated]

I still remember teachers saying to the class "Now everyone, I want your full attention." and I'd think to myself "No lady, you really do not.". Very few people have ever seen me fully focused on them, they don't like it.

Normally my attention is focused across all of my senses and I'm very aware of everything that's going on around me to a radius of about 200 metres. The sounds of cars, trucks and bikes, the sounds of people talking. Slight shifts in strength and quality of light make part of my weather sense, along with sensitivity to air pressure and humidity. I listen to the sounds of birds and animals and their reactions also form part of my awareness.

When I hyperfocus then only my immediate task is focused on and everything else shuts down. It's part of what made me good at my job, the more pressure I was under the more efficient I became and people that worked with me learned to not get in my way because if I was focused on what I was doing I wouldn't hear or see them, and I would walk straight through them.

I do the same when I drive, I lose awareness of any passengers in the car, the roads and my vehicle absorb my entire attention. I know what's going on 500 metres behind me and up to a kilometre ahead as well as to both sides. I never bother to turn the radio on in the car because I'm not going to hear it anyway. After 40 years of driving I've never had an accident and it's very unlikely that I ever will, although on many occasions I've had to leave the road to avoid one.

When I'm hyperfocused I'm more like a machine than a human.

I don't know that hyperfocus is an ability you could call on to help you study though, but then I never had to study anything in my life. I only ever lent half an ear to my classes while I sat there reading novels and I always got straight As. I'm one of those weirdos that learns by osmosis, my brain sucks up everything going on around me regardless of wether or not I'm paying attention and I only have to read something once to know it.

 

[Levitator]

200 meters, really? Maybe you're not reading it right...

 

[Meowmeister]

As an Aspie with ADHD, I did learn how to redirect my hyperfocus. But it wasn't easy. I use stimming to remain focused. Interest greatly helps in easing hyperfocus. But the other factor for me is rigid determination. If I get interrupted, I freeze and it feels like my world is ending. It can bring me close to meltdown. Like I realized today, if spoken to spontaneously, and it happens once or more than once, it literally throws me off and I don't handle it well at all internally. If having to do another activity that interrupts, I feel anxious and hyperfixated on what I had been doing until I can go back to it. In college, I had to learn to force myself to focus on the less interesting, so I had to learn to sprint in focus so that I could get the gist of something, rather than forcing myself to dissect things. (E.G., forcing myself to stay focused the first time reading something rather than pausing every five seconds to rewrite notes verbatim). My processing is naturally slower, so these sprints would be exhausting.

 

[Levitator]

As an Aspie with ADHD, I did learn how to redirect my hyperfocus. But it wasn't easy. I use stimming to remain focused. Interest greatly helps in easing hyperfocus. But the other factor for me is rigid determination. If I get interrupted, I freeze and it feels like my world is ending. It can bring me close to meltdown. Like I realized today, if spoken to spontaneously, and it happens once or more than once, it literally throws me off and I don't handle it well at all internally. If having to do another activity that interrupts, I feel anxious and hyperfixated on what I had been doing until I can go back to it. In college, I had to learn to force myself to focus on the less interesting, so I had to learn to sprint in focus so that I could get the gist of something, rather than forcing myself to dissect things. (E.G., forcing myself to stay focused the first time reading something rather than pausing every five seconds to rewrite notes verbatim). My processing is naturally slower, so these sprints would be exhausting.

Task-switching was a lot harder as a kid, but I think I grew out of that. I always had some project I was working on at home, and it felt like every step I took during the day was another hurdle surpassed so that I could get back home to do what I really wanted. It was usually software development studies, or a video game. I didn't enjoy school at all, and aside from some basic things I learned, I felt like it was a tremendous drag and burden on my actual learning, most of which I did at home.

One of my first jobs, I brought a friend along, and she saw how badly I optimized a sequence of tasks. Not remembering to combine trips, not coalescing tasks, not combining all of the needed supplies. She said "Dude, you suck", and it hurt, but she was right. I took a lot of analogies from computer software optimization and multithreading and applied it back into my life because, Jesus, what a dork. Specifcally, I learned to try to value putting stuff on the backburner. I started to feel like some sort of juggler, having the washing machine, the dryer, and the dishwasher, and a pot on the stove all at once. Welcome to adulting.

 

[Meowmeister]

Also I think degree of hyperfocus can depend on one's executive functioning and intellectual abilities. These vary in autistic and ADHD folks so like, not everyone has the same level of ability to hyperfocus in different contexts.

 

[Levitator]

Also I think degree of hyperfocus can depend on one's executive functioning and intellectual abilities. These vary in autistic and ADHD folks so like, not everyone has the same level of ability to hyperfocus in different contexts.

It's never been something I gave any thought to, and I only gradually noticed that other people don't do it. They go and pay an exorbitant fee to let their college "hyperfocus" them for two to four years, and then they act like that's enough learning for a lifetime.

I don't consciously do it. In terms of intense interests, those are usually inspired by life circumstances. I got into computers because I had nobody to talk to. So, to me, a computer is where I could talk to something, and if I got something meaningful back, then it represented the affirmation that I put something meaningful in. In other words, a conversation, ultimately with myself, through a machine, which sometimes resulted in the craftsmanship of software.

 

[330]

Only way I can explain from my perspective is ,Like Tunnel Vision

Has to be my special interest to go into hyper drive , But just normally I am way more focused on details compared to most people , at least the ones I know.

When I am in hyper drive . I am in a zone where nothing exists around me except what I am doing. The more I stay in this intense focus the more ideas flow right to my brain( specifically with music) . It’s as if I am in 2 places , then images and sounds I can see in my mind being displayed while at the same time being focused on what instrument or composition I am working physically

Everything not related to my tunnel seems a bit blurry and I don’t notice much about things around me when this is happening.

While in this mode seems my verbal skills are greatly diminished most social things become noise and annoying . If someone is around me they ask me are you ok ?? Is something wrong ??

 

[Hypnalis]

I don't believe in "Aspie hyperfocus" as such. But I'd expect it with "ASD special interests"

"Hyperfocus" is probably just a human-normal ability: concentrating only on one thing, excluding all others,
Very useful if you've been suddenly attacked by a saber-toothed tiger.
But not so good if you're using it while making an arrowhead, and the tiger is able to sneak up on you.

Kids playing online games like "real time shooters" do this all the time.
Anyone who's very interesting in something specific does it naturally.

IMO you'd expect to see it in ASDs with their "special interests".

But what about turning it on an off at will for anything?
I'm sure it's possible.

I doubt it's an ASD characteristic. For special interests - of course. For something uninteresting - almost certainly not.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Ugh, it would annoy me if people said something like that to me. Getting hyperfocused on something isn't anything I could induce voluntarily, and certainly not on command. Also, at least for me, it comes at the cost of finding it hard to concentrate if I'm not hyperfocusing. I'm usually either completely focused, or I am super distractable, especially with things I don't find particularly interesting.
I don't think I have any real special interests, at least not at the moment. I have things that interest me a lot, like space, animals, mental health, autism, Harry Potter, ... but I wouldn't call them special interests because my behavior about them doesn't fit the descriptions I see about special interests. I'm just interested in them and read stuff about them if I stumble on it, but I don't spend hours just researching about them, unless there's been a trigger for it (like reading a science fiction novel I love and, while I'm reading it, also researching about the technical stuff involved), and I don't usually infodump about them unless the other person reveals that they're interested in that as well, then I get really excited.
I think I can get into hyperfocus mode. I've regularly done it while studying for my final exams at school, but that was more to tune out negative stuff in my life and studying was sort of my "safe zone". It happened during my finals, where I had a hard time personally but somehow managed to hyperfocus on my exams as soon as I had them in front of me (thank god, since that probably saved my grades). It usually happened when I had a written language exam at school where we wrote essays. It also happened a lot when I was writing fanfiction. It happened when I was drawing, and on some days when playing the piano. Now, it happens for example when I work on something I enjoy, like writing and researching for a paper I'm working on. I can spend hours in tunnelvision mode, being extremely productive. I don't know if it qualifies as autistic hyperfocus, because I usually don't mind a lot when I'm interrupted, although it distracts me and I work better without distractions. I feel elated during these phases, like my mind's floating almost effortlessly.
But I need to be fairly interested in the topic/activity, I can't just switch hyperfocus on. Sometimes it happens when I turn on some focus music, and I feel like it happens more often either in the morning or in the later evening, rarely just in the middle of the day. It also happens a bit more if I haven't eaten and had some coffee. It usually happens when I'm feeling overall good and calm, or when I need to mentally escape from something, or when there's a tight deadline. There might be some factors which make it more probable, but I'm not sure.

I'm sorry I can't tell you how it works. That would interest me, too.

 

[marc_101]

I've always wondered about hyperfocus. There seem to be different issues that are hard to define (as always): focus (as in lack of distraction), interest (as in motivation to do something), and the ability to *control* focus and/or interest (executive function?).

My experience in short is: I don't have good focus. I've never been able to concentrate with sounds or visual distractions. I need complete silence and no people can be close. However, I have super intense interests. I can get obsessed about a particular problem or issue and can dedicate every single waking hour to it. I can't tune out things, though. A sound would distracted me. But I would go back. Switching tasks would be very, very difficult.

I don't have much control over it. So going back to your dad, no, I can't magically direct my attention. If I don't care about something, it's very hard to get motivated to do it.

Having said that, though, many times the difficult part is getting started. In school, I wasn't interested in several classes, but once I got started with a task the motivation to do well would keep me going. Many times I would get suck into it because I have a lot of curiosity. It's like with a book that you are dreading to read but once you start reading you realize that you want to continue. And then, you are in hyper-interest mode.

I have read about autistic people who are so focused that you can't even talk to them. Like in a trance. Kind of what @330 is describing. That's not me for sure. BUT, I can be like that when I daydream. People think I'm gone, which is correct

 

[FoxLovinPat]

Thanks everyone for your responses.
So what I'm gathering is that it does depend on the individual and that also "Autistic Hyperfocus" might not even be a thing.. except for maybe special interests.
Tho that latter one seems a bit iffy so I probably should tread with caution on that one.

I'm also ofc gathering that you guys agree that my father was incorrect and it wasn't something I could just apply to my studying and that I wasn't being lazy for "not activating that hyperfocus".
And ya that always annoyed me, like if he struggling with my schoolwork, getting poor grades and I'd be told that if I just use my "gift" of hyperfocus I'd be acing my classes in no time. That I just had to use that smart Aspie brain of mine and everything would just come to me.

As one might imagine none of that talk helped, if anything it made me feel stupid and incapable because according to my father I should be able to just use my "gift" to get good grades, easy peezy but yet no matter how much he said that and no matter how much I tried to focus on my schoolwork it just never clicked, there wasn't some switch flipped in my head all of a sudden where I was just suddenly able to hyperfocus on my studies and just get it all.

Though I do wonder if I did learn through osmosis as someone put it on here since there was times where I didn't really study much at all yet I somehow still got a good enough grade on a test. That was very inconsistent though and not exactly something I could rely on 100% so I dunno what was going on there.

I just know that no matter how much my father told me I was smart and had a special brain I never really felt smart, I'd feel special tho but not in the savant kinda way, more in the "I struggle with things that others seemingly do not" kinda way.
Like let's look at math as the biggest example.. I'd note that my classmates around me seemed to be doing their math in their head, no need for writing formulas on paper (they only did so in cases where they had to show their work) and no need for a calculator, and yet here I was unable to do calculations in my head.. I'd even struggle with the most basic ones, I needed to use a calculator and paper and even then I somehow still wouldn't get the right answer x.x

 

[AuAL]

I’m quite familiar with hyperfocus on special interests - the rest of the world ”goes away”. But I found I could enter this state sometimes for work -
particularly coding or academic writing. It would take me quite some time to get into the “right frame of mind”, sometimes days or weeks for major tasks, with practice runs in my mind on different parts of the project, but then something would happen and I would be “in the zone.” I would then work many hours at a stretch until the task was completed, at least to some acceptable point - like a draft finished. I would not be aware of the passage of time, would forget to eat or drink. I have to be interested in what it is I’m to do to achieve this degree of focus. A recent example was my wife was given a large, challenging jigsaw puzzle at Christmas. I came down one morning and she had started putting it together on the dining room table, so I started to help her with it. A little over 9 hours later I had finished it. Then stopped and had dinner.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Thanks everyone for your responses.
So what I'm gathering is that it does depend on the individual and that also "Autistic Hyperfocus" might not even be a thing.. except for maybe special interests.
Tho that latter one seems a bit iffy so I probably should tread with caution on that one.

I'm also ofc gathering that you guys agree that my father was incorrect and it wasn't something I could just apply to my studying and that I wasn't being lazy for "not activating that hyperfocus".
And ya that always annoyed me, like if he struggling with my schoolwork, getting poor grades and I'd be told that if I just use my "gift" of hyperfocus I'd be acing my classes in no time. That I just had to use that smart Aspie brain of mine and everything would just come to me.

As one might imagine none of that talk helped, if anything it made me feel stupid and incapable because according to my father I should be able to just use my "gift" to get good grades, easy peezy but yet no matter how much he said that and no matter how much I tried to focus on my schoolwork it just never clicked, there wasn't some switch flipped in my head all of a sudden where I was just suddenly able to hyperfocus on my studies and just get it all.

Though I do wonder if I did learn through osmosis as someone put it on here since there was times where I didn't really study much at all yet I somehow still got a good enough grade on a test. That was very inconsistent though and not exactly something I could rely on 100% so I dunno what was going on there.

I just know that no matter how much my father told me I was smart and had a special brain I never really felt smart, I'd feel special tho but not in the savant kinda way, more in the "I struggle with things that others seemingly do not" kinda way.
Like let's look at math as the biggest example.. I'd note that my classmates around me seemed to be doing their math in their head, no need for writing formulas on paper (they only did so in cases where they had to show their work) and no need for a calculator, and yet here I was unable to do calculations in my head.. I'd even struggle with the most basic ones, I needed to use a calculator and paper and even then I somehow still wouldn't get the right answer x.x

Yes, absolutely. Even if you have that capability to hyperfocus, it isn't something you can just switch on (unless there is someone out there who can?).
Also, maybe your dad doesn't realize that hyperfocus doesn't mean "suddenly understanding and remembering everything you couldn't understand or remember earlier". I sure feel like my brain works better during hyperfocus, but also it feels like my memory is kind of limited to the time I am hyperfocusing. During the time, it feels like my brain is on fast-mode, processing everything faster. But a few hours later, when I snapped out of hyperfocus, it's not like I remember everything. Often I'll look at the stuff I wrote/drew/read during hyperfocus and don't know how it got there (I mean, obviously I know I did that, but my brain wouldn't reproduce this now).
So it wouldn't be like you could hyperfocus on your (uninteresting) school work and within a short time just understand and memorize everything. At least for me. Maybe I could write a really good essay during hyperfocus. But that's because writing is something I'm already good in and passionate about and which I also do in my free time. I couldn't hyperfocus on, say, economics or statistics (oh, the dread...) and suddenly get everything. Even if I managed to hyperfocus on it, it would take long, hard work to understand it, probably more than for a lot of NT people. You're just more gifted in some areas than in others.

By the way: Have you considered having dyscalculia? It's like dyslexia, but with numbers. These things are very common among autists.

 

[marc_101]

@FoxLovinPat I would only add that is not black and white. We do have agency. It may take effort, but you can force yourself to do a task that is not interesting. My fear is always giving up. Saying "I can't" without even trying.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

Yes, absolutely. Even if you have that capability to hyperfocus, it isn't something you can just switch on (unless there is someone out there who can?).

That is actually part of my reason for making this thread, as I was curious if there were other autists who actually could turn their Hyperfocus on anything they set their minds to or if it was complete total bunk and it's only for things that interest us.

Also, maybe your dad doesn't realize that hyperfocus doesn't mean "suddenly understanding and remembering everything you couldn't understand or remember earlier".

So it wouldn't be like you could hyperfocus on your (uninteresting) school work and within a short time just understand and memorize everything.

Well something I didn't mention yet is that my father would essentially cite his own experience as a source for that being possible. He claimed that when he was my age that studying came super easy to him and he was able to just absorb the information and retain it really easy by focusing really hard on his studies, and he'd call what he could do a sort of super/hyper focus too. However he claims he lost that ability after suffering a traumatic brain injury because he was being an idiot (his words not mine) and that since then he couldn't enter that Hyperfocus mode anymore and the rest of his schooling was much harder for him as a result and he didn't do as well in school from that point onwards.

And no I don't think he's autistic himself, but I could be wrong. I just haven't noted anything out of the ordinary with him other than his claim to having Hyperfocus when he was in his teens, which I've always chalked up as some sorta NT equivalent to an ND's Hyperfocus.

By the way: Have you considered having dyscalculia? It's like dyslexia, but with numbers. These things are very common among autists.

Not until more recently when I learned it was a thing, but I dunno how I'd even know if that's a thing that actually affects me or not. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that could point to that is when at work I'll have to transcribe a number from either memory or a piece of paper and when typing it out I'll find that I somehow managed to put numbers in the wrong order. Like for example this sequence here.. 5293, I'll instead type it in as 5923. Thing is tho it's not like it's super common that'll happen, as more oftentimes than not I manage to transcribe numbers just fine so it could just be the occasional fluke is all.
Tho what is more common is forgetting numbers sequences if I'm not actively repeating them in my head, or out loud. There's even been times where one second I'll have the number and then for whatever reason the very next second I can't recall it at all anymore. But that could just be a memory thing, as I know my memory is ****. I wish it weren't.