CHATHAM, NH—During a long-planned excursion with his family through the White Mountain National Forest, 12-year-old Austin Tanden is said to have spent an entire hiking trip Tuesday fantasizing about exactly which video games he would play when he got home. “First, I’m going to boot up Fortnite and see if any of my…
To be honest, I’ve done that while enjoying the activity I was doing, or at least not resenting it. I have ADHD so I know I can hyperfocus on something for too long, but I also k ow I can burn out. So I specifically stop doing things I want to keep doing because I know I’ll enjoy it more later if I do so.
Stopping the hyperfocus activity before burning it out?
Is this a power you can learn?
Right?
My ADHD is shaped like this: Hyperfocus on a new interest. Read everything about it. It’s the best thing ever. Think about it while doing other things. Then about a week or two later, I have 6% less fun when I do that thing and it’s time for a new interest.
I’m honestly very good at many things you can learn in a week or two for this reason. I also have at least a laymen’s understanding of many, many topics. But I am an expert in nothing.
When I’m very lucky, my interests overlap later and I can look like a pro when I “just started” this new hobby.
Plenty of non-gaming examples but one that comes to mind is Besiege / Trailmakers. I loved Besiege deeply for about two weeks. Built everything you could build in that time. When I played Trailmakers, I was outbuilding my much smarter friend because I already had a pretty good understanding of how the gyros and logic blocks would or wouldn’t work in that type of game.
ADHD really is the perfect example of a blessing and a curse. A superpower with an equal and opposite cost.
Lost in the Android store looking for a game to play, not noticing my PC game has now loaded, and I no longer need a mobile game to make it through the PC game load time.