6 ms·

> unmedicated, I cannot usually even read more than a few pages of a book before either losing focus or feeling drained Tangent: ADHD is strange. I have it too

> unmedicated, I cannot usually even read more than a few pages of a book before either losing focus or feeling drained Tangent: ADHD is strange. I have it too, and yet when it comes to reading my symptoms appear to be the exact opposite (when I was younger I could not stop reading books until I finished them, even if I ended up skipping an entire night of sleep for it). I wouldn't be surprised if in the next decades, as we learn more about it, this diagnosis will split into multiple different comorbid disorders with overlapping symptoms.

patmorgan23 3y ago
Recently I've heard ADHD described as "the inability (or weak ability) to direct attention" rather than a lack of it. So hyper fixation could be a symptom.
flir 3y ago
Already has to a degree - hyperactive type and inattentive type. But you've also got to consider personal taste - hyperfixation happens when it's something you're interested in. Someone else might hyperfocus on video games, or trawling ebay, or researching a topic.
- dkh 3y ago
  I am famous for "ratholing" for hours on some specific thing that caught my interest, usually with little sense of the time that has passed, and almost exclusively on problems that aren't at all what I'm supposed to be focused on at the time
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- eyelidlessness 3y ago
  Not a disagreement, more of a yes, and: “interested” may not necessarily be personal interest, and the subject of hyperfocus might not be a personal interest. It can also happen manifest, for example, as obsession with solving some work problem or chore which isn’t appealing at all until begun. Or even some unrelated yak shaving tangent that fits none of these categories.
  - flir 3y ago
    Yeah, from personal experience I'll happily sit there and hand-lint a file. It's... calming? So I wonder what the right word to use in place of "interest" is. Attention?
- ck425 3y ago
  I read recently that they're starting to view hyperactive and inattentive as different presentations of the same symptoms/root causes rather than different types ie the same things that make hyperactive ADHD not sit still make inattentive constantly go off on mental tangents.
dkh 3y ago
What you describe is how I was when I was younger, too. I read everything, I read pretty fast, and I could read for hours on end. That is no longer the case at all, and I'm uncertain when or why it changed so drastically. (The "when" is tough to pinpoint because for much of my early 20s I wasn't doing much reading, and it's possible that the "why" is related to some change my brain underwent during/because of that.)
- s_trumpet 3y ago
  I managed to slowly claw it back by completely changing my reading method. I download ebooks on my phone and read in 5-10 min chunks throughout the day (where I’d normally be using social media or checking the news) followed by 1 hour at the end.
- flir 3y ago
  When did you start using the internet regularly? (It's possible that you didn't change, it's just that your brain found an easier dopamine delivery system).
  - dkh 3y ago
    Way, way earlier. I definitely had different dopamine delivery systems during those years when I wasn't reading a lot. I was doing a lot of things differently n general during that time. But it was surprising and disappointing that I never seemed to regain quite the same reading "abilities" (for lack of a better word) even after years of regular reading again. Don't get me wrong, I read all the time now, but I can't burn through books like I did back then, I don't read faster than I can subvocalize, and it can be challenging to stay focused or retain what I read. A few years ago, I spent about nine months reading a single book about Napoleon. It was pretty long, detailed, and complex, so it wasn't intended to be an easy/quick read, but it still took me a pretty long time to get through it while giving it the proper focus. But the annoying part is that a couple years later, I struggle to remember details about Napoleon. I know, memory needs to be practiced and reinforced and such, but I had hoped the length of my immersion in the subject would've done a bit more in this area on its own.
- 3y ago
ddorian43 3y ago
You get hyper-focus when you're interested in something. So both can't read a paragraph and can read non-stop happen in ADHD depending on your interest in reading.
ck425 3y ago
Could that be a learned adaption to ADHD rather than a directly caused trait? Or just hyper focus? I do have a pet theory that many of us ADHDers develop habits to overcompensate but do so early enough that we don't realise they're learned. For example my room growing up was always super tidy, I literally never had to be asked to clean it and I'd know straight away if someone had been in while I was out. That really confused me when I got diagnosed but in hindsight it's because without everything having a consistent place I'd constantly lose things and never find anything.
- vanderZwan 3y ago
  It was definitely not an adaption - I was intrinsically motivated to keep going and read where the story was going, or what exciting new thing I could learn (my parents gave me a children's encyclopedia for my tenth birthday that I would carry around and read everywhere). So hyper focus on the dopamine hit of learning something new, I guess.
smolder 3y ago
I have both things going on, you might say. When I first settle down with a book or long form reading after not having done it a while, it's a considerable effort to focus. Typically at some point after forcing myself back to the text and rereading paragraphs many times I will get immersed in the text. Focus improves and reading speeds up, and for a book I might binge-read it in a couple days, with it occupying my thoughts even when I put it down.
kendalf89 3y ago
I have the same experience with books. For me I believe it's due to a complicated synergy between my autism and my ADHD.

patmorgan23 3y ago

Recently I've heard ADHD described as "the inability (or weak ability) to direct attention" rather than a lack of it. So hyper fixation could be a symptom.

flir 3y ago

Already has to a degree - hyperactive type and inattentive type. But you've also got to consider personal taste - hyperfixation happens when it's something you're interested in. Someone else might hyperfocus on video games, or trawling ebay, or researching a topic.

dkh 3y ago
I am famous for "ratholing" for hours on some specific thing that caught my interest, usually with little sense of the time that has passed, and almost exclusively on problems that aren't at all what I'm supposed to be focused on at the time
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
eyelidlessness 3y ago
Not a disagreement, more of a yes, and: “interested” may not necessarily be personal interest, and the subject of hyperfocus might not be a personal interest. It can also happen manifest, for example, as obsession with solving some work problem or chore which isn’t appealing at all until begun. Or even some unrelated yak shaving tangent that fits none of these categories.
- flir 3y ago
  Yeah, from personal experience I'll happily sit there and hand-lint a file. It's... calming? So I wonder what the right word to use in place of "interest" is. Attention?
ck425 3y ago
I read recently that they're starting to view hyperactive and inattentive as different presentations of the same symptoms/root causes rather than different types ie the same things that make hyperactive ADHD not sit still make inattentive constantly go off on mental tangents.

dkh 3y ago

What you describe is how I was when I was younger, too. I read everything, I read pretty fast, and I could read for hours on end. That is no longer the case at all, and I'm uncertain when or why it changed so drastically. (The "when" is tough to pinpoint because for much of my early 20s I wasn't doing much reading, and it's possible that the "why" is related to some change my brain underwent during/because of that.)

s_trumpet 3y ago
I managed to slowly claw it back by completely changing my reading method. I download ebooks on my phone and read in 5-10 min chunks throughout the day (where I’d normally be using social media or checking the news) followed by 1 hour at the end.
flir 3y ago
When did you start using the internet regularly? (It's possible that you didn't change, it's just that your brain found an easier dopamine delivery system).
- dkh 3y ago
  Way, way earlier. I definitely had different dopamine delivery systems during those years when I wasn't reading a lot. I was doing a lot of things differently n general during that time. But it was surprising and disappointing that I never seemed to regain quite the same reading "abilities" (for lack of a better word) even after years of regular reading again. Don't get me wrong, I read all the time now, but I can't burn through books like I did back then, I don't read faster than I can subvocalize, and it can be challenging to stay focused or retain what I read. A few years ago, I spent about nine months reading a single book about Napoleon. It was pretty long, detailed, and complex, so it wasn't intended to be an easy/quick read, but it still took me a pretty long time to get through it while giving it the proper focus. But the annoying part is that a couple years later, I struggle to remember details about Napoleon. I know, memory needs to be practiced and reinforced and such, but I had hoped the length of my immersion in the subject would've done a bit more in this area on its own.
3y ago

ddorian43 3y ago

You get hyper-focus when you're interested in something. So both can't read a paragraph and can read non-stop happen in ADHD depending on your interest in reading.

ck425 3y ago

Could that be a learned adaption to ADHD rather than a directly caused trait? Or just hyper focus? I do have a pet theory that many of us ADHDers develop habits to overcompensate but do so early enough that we don't realise they're learned. For example my room growing up was always super tidy, I literally never had to be asked to clean it and I'd know straight away if someone had been in while I was out. That really confused me when I got diagnosed but in hindsight it's because without everything having a consistent place I'd constantly lose things and never find anything.

vanderZwan 3y ago
It was definitely not an adaption - I was intrinsically motivated to keep going and read where the story was going, or what exciting new thing I could learn (my parents gave me a children's encyclopedia for my tenth birthday that I would carry around and read everywhere). So hyper focus on the dopamine hit of learning something new, I guess.

smolder 3y ago

I have both things going on, you might say. When I first settle down with a book or long form reading after not having done it a while, it's a considerable effort to focus. Typically at some point after forcing myself back to the text and rereading paragraphs many times I will get immersed in the text. Focus improves and reading speeds up, and for a book I might binge-read it in a couple days, with it occupying my thoughts even when I put it down.

kendalf89 3y ago

I have the same experience with books. For me I believe it's due to a complicated synergy between my autism and my ADHD.