Hey I’m someone who can answer this.
ADHD, by itself, does not have manic episodes. There’s a lot of supporting documentation to that effect.
Mania is often caused by having too much dopamine. ADHDers don’t have enough dopamine ever, unless with medication, or with hyperfocus.
So the similarity you’re seeing is only in that people with ADHD will negotiate, move things around, eat only ramen for a month in order to buy things related to the new hyperfocus. Pursuing the hyperfocus gives us dopamine, so we will do lots to justify getting that, since we don’t have any. People with bipolar can have manic episodes which can be caused by an abundance of dopamine, which leads them to doing things they shouldn’t, because they can’t control themselves.
I can’t speak for others, but all of the blockhead decisions I’ve ever made while hyperfocusing and buying too many supplies, I’ve absolutely known I shouldn’t, and why I shouldn’t, but I’m trying to get my fix so I’m going to buy that lockpicking kit, thankyouverymuch, and if I have to eat ramen for a week to do it, I will!
(Pro tip I got from someone else online. If the hyperfocus gets you bad, spend lots and lots of extra time shopping for, researching, and making damn sure the thing you want to buy is the perfect one for your hyperfocus. I’ve been able to buy myself a couple of weeks this way, which allowed me to save up. I treat hyperfocus like unexpected car maintenance problems nowadays.)
What about if I have like 6 projects running all the time that I actually improve on? Even finishing them sometimes.
I’m trying to figure myself out, and your post hit kinda hard 😅
Well the hyperfocus does as it wills… but sometimes you can get a hyperfocus in something you can improve on! Most of us do that, actually. In all my life, and I’m almost 40, I’ve only had one hyperfocus that I absolutely can’t do. I still try every so often.
And having a lot of projects going at once is about the only way we can focus. I only ever did well in school in classes where my teachers let me either read a book or play with aying cards while they taught. Many of us can only multitask.
Wow thank you. I always thought ADHD was about people having problems focusing by not being able to do so, and other problems like sitting still, that I don’t really feel I have.
Now, I can focus, incredibly well, I guess it’s called hyperfocus :-) Now it has a name, thanks!
Also being called out because I doodle during meetings (among other things) and the idea that some people just can’t not do several things at the same time, well that hit home 100%.
I think I need to think about this a bit, it feels like I finally found out what’s up with me, any advice greatly appreciated.
Thank you, this comment helped me understand something, because during hypomania I legitimately do not notice except in hindsight that my priorities may have been off; everything makes total sense in a way that it doesn’t when I’m not in that state. Similarly, until I bought a smart watch that could track sleep and started wearing it to bed, I actually didn’t notice how little sleep I would get during these phases–sometimes less than four hours a night for a straight week, and I would barely feel any difference. It sounds like there is more of a kind of self-awareness during ADHD hyperfocus, and sometimes I have that as well–I’m learning to discern which is which, just like I learned to use indicators like sleep to recognize when I am at risk of a hypomanic episode.
Delayed sleep phase is often comorbid with ADHD. I have to take sleeping medication because my body wants to be up until about 4am and sleep until about 1pm. Which isn’t sustainable with our modern way of life.
If you can, I 100% recommend seeing a professional. It took until I was 36 to figure out what all my deal is, but it was so worth it.
Good luck on your path either way! There are answers. Sometimes it’s a huge, horrible slog to get them, but they’re there.
