That sounds more like depression to me. Because, when you really enjoy something, your hyper focus is kicking in and you can’t let go of it.
Or, you really enjoy a hobby but your hyperfocus makes you research the hobby instead of doing it. E.g. you like photography and your hyperfocus kicks in researching places to go take photos, or gear to buy… Or you spend hours choosing the best cycling route until it’s too dark or the weather changes and you go “What happened to my beautiful afternoon??”.
My hyperfocus tends to kick in whenever the ADHD gremlin inside my brain chooses, not always when I’m doing whatever I enjoy. I wish that was always the case.
The hyper focus only kicks in when i’m doing something, the problem is to start to do something
Precisely. When trying to talk to others about this, I usually use the term activation energy
Understanding it doesn’t help in alleviating it, though.
Send help!
Not necessarily. I definitely go through waves like this, and it doesn’t feel like depression to me.
I’ll have a couple of days (or weeks) where I want to do things, but not enough to actually motivate myself to start any of it. Then I’ll bounce back for a while and be so focused on something that I’ll forget about taking care of basic needs like eating and sleeping.
I’ve kinda learned to embrace those extremes. What I hate is the middle ground where I want to focus and get something done, but I realize about every 5 minutes that my brain is off topic again.
