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Passions and Hyperfocus
Posted Date : on Jan 7, 2025
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A characteristic of autism is ‘monotropism’, that is, to have deep interests or passions, involving the accumulation of facts and information about a specific topic that can dominate their free time and conversation. An assumption about ADHD is that there is limited attention capacity for all activities. However, it is more of a difficulty with regulating attention rather than simply attention capacity. There can be hyperfocus and almost limitless attention for novel or intrinsically enjoyable activities.
Passions and the ability to hyperfocus play a key role in shaping identity, boosting well-being, and supporting personal growth for neurodivergent individuals. While these characteristics are sometimes viewed as challenges, it is crucial to recognise their positive contributions and explore ways to balance them with everyday responsibilities.
Monotropism in young children often starts with a fascination with collecting specific items such as sea shells, key rings or yellow pencils and a strong sense of attachment to a particular object, which serves a soothing function with great distress if it is lost. The next stage is often a passion for information and facts about age-appropriate or unusual interests. Stephen Shore explained that in childhood:
Catalogues and manuals were always of great interest and comfort as they were predictable. Often I compared different sizes and versions of products offered in the catalogues. Air conditioner capacities as expressed in British thermal units caught my fancy one day, so in every catalogue I would seek the highest capacity air conditioner that ran on 115 volts alternating current. (Shore 2003, p.58)
Each passion has a duration. In ADHDers, the duration may be only a matter of hours, to be replaced with a new and novel interest or several decades or a lifetime for autistic individuals. The child or adolescent chooses the topic or theme, which is often associated with intense pleasure and intellectual fascination.
The passions or hyperfocus play a key role in shaping identity, boosting well-being, and supporting personal growth for neurodivergent individuals. As an autistic adult said, “I am what I know”. While parents and teachers sometimes view these characteristics as challenges, it is crucial to recognise their positive contributions and explore ways to balance them with everyday responsibilities.
The intense interests often serve as a safe space, providing emotional comfort, especially during times of stress or uncertainty. They help regulate emotions, sometimes as a thought blocker for negative emotions, such as feeling anxious, agitated or depressed. They also provide joy and fulfilment, a highlight of the day.
Having a passion or extensive knowledge is valuable for building self-identity and self-esteem. The interest provides a sense of purpose and the chance to feel competent and skilled. This aspect of well-being is especially important in a world that frequently misunderstands or undervalues neurodivergent abilities.
Hyperfocus and gaining expertise can facilitate productivity and insight beyond the expectations of parents, peers and teachers. Hyperfocus allows individuals to fully dive into projects, often leading to significant creativity and innovative ideas, characteristics of autism and ADHD. This recognition of ability and validation can be a powerful source of confidence and self-esteem. It can also be an opportunity to make friends with those who share the same interests and enjoy prolonged conversations on an interest that would be boring to others. Schools can establish interest clubs at lunchtime, for example, a robotics club to facilitate friendships (Grove et al. 2015; Jones et al. 2023).
Challenges of Passions and Hyperfocus
While passions and hyperfocus bring many positive aspects, they also present challenges, particularly for individuals who are both autistic and have ADHD (often referred to as AuDHD). The dual nature of these traits can sometimes lead to difficulties in managing daily routines and responsibilities.
- Difficulty Shifting Focus: Individuals who experience hyperfocus may struggle significantly with transitioning to other tasks, especially those less interesting or requiring a different type of focus. This challenge is further amplified for autistic individuals, for whom change and transition can be distressing.
- Overwhelming Engagement: The interest can become all-consuming, making it difficult to balance other responsibilities. This can lead to neglect of important tasks, such as homework, which in turn can cause stress and anxiety. The need to engage in the interest may feel overwhelming and irresistible, particularly when used as a coping mechanism during stressful times.
- Impact on Family Relationships: Passions and hyperfocus can sometimes create friction within the family, with parents and siblings feeling neglected if the individual is too absorbed in their interests, and communication about needs and boundaries is often essential but challenging to manage.
Parents and teachers will need to be aware of the powerful motivation to engage in an interest and determine when and how to interrupt the intense engagement, mutually agreed guidelines for initiating and completing chores and responsibilities that compete for the person’s time and ensuring there are interest-free times in the day to engage with family members.
Constructive use of the interest
The interest can be used to enhance motivation and attention by incorporating the interest at home and in the classroom, for example, access being a reward for completing tasks or a class project that includes the interest, for example, an interest in pirates used in a geography project on the Caribbean (Wood 2023). The interest could become the starting point for a career, such as an interest in airlines of the world evolving into becoming a pilot, or an intense interest in reading the Harry Potter books many times to a career as a fiction author. A characteristic of autism and ADHD can be a fascination with patterns and systems, and the interest can be mathematics, the study of patterns, or psychology, the study of people and social patterns.
Shared interests can serve as common ground for social interactions and mutual enjoyment between neurodiverse and non-neurodiverse individuals (Chen et al. 2021), with peers being in awe of specific abilities that can positively affect peer acceptance (Chen et al. 2021).
Parents and a psychologist or psychiatrist may monitor the intensity of the interest, especially if there seems to be an irresistible compulsion to engage in the interest, which could be a sign of increasing levels of anxiety or depression.
The interest can be used as a metaphor in psychotherapy; for example, an interest in weather systems can be used to enhance conceptualisation and motivation with confusion described as being in a fog, a barometer to measure stress and agitation and putting up an umbrella as protection from the torrential rain, a mental metaphor for protection from unkind words from peers.
Conclusion
Passions and hyperfocus are powerful tools for well-being, personal growth, and identity formation among autistic individuals and those with ADHD. By embracing these traits and implementing strategies to balance them with everyday life, individuals can use their passions to enhance their quality of life. It is important to move away from seeing these characteristics as pure obstacles and instead recognise their vital role in fostering resilience, creativity, and fulfilment.
Where to From Here?
We have created a brand new event to assist clinicians who see adolescents, increasing their knowledge and skill in recognising autism and distinguishing autism from other conditions, such as ADHD and depression, and in the provision of support and therapy for autistic teenagers who are often suffering from mental health issues. Our event is comprised of two days: Masterclass Day 1: Diagnosis for Autistic Teenagers and Masterclass Day 2: Support and Therapy for Autistic Teenagers. The events will be held live in London and can be attended live via webcast and watched later for 60 days after the event.
We also have a subsequent day in London on the combination of Autism and ADHD. See Live Webcasts for further information.
References
Chen et al. 2021 Autism 26 1255-1266
Grove et al. (2015) Autism Research 9 766-775
Jones et al. 2023 Autism 28 2053-2065
Shore, S. (2003) Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Kansas: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.
Wood (2023) Mapping the Field Routledge