Does your interest effect you add | ADHD Information

If you need to learn something does your interest in something or whether you want to be there effect how well you can focus on it.

For example. If you have a job where you don't like the work or have no interest in it is it harder for you to focus. But if you had a job that is simmilar but you hae interest in it and enjoy beign there does it make a difference.
Like most ADD'ers and non ADDers alike I think we focus better on things we like. When I was in the Navy, I could focus well on doing things like reading intel reports, cos those were interesting, but the menial things like keeping logs and what not drove me nuts. . . HeidiMarie38646.2228009259adhders can hyperfocus amazingly.. they are at their finest at times when they are interested and motivated.. unstoppable!! ppl envy their committment...

the problem is when they are not interested and thus no focus...

i would classify adhders as having bipolar focus issues, bfi

I think this makes a difference for everyone whether they have ADD or not.

Usually I can focus better on something I'm interested in. The problem that I think we tend to have as ADDers is that we may be able to focus initially on the interesting item but then lose steam as we go along. So, even though we may like our job or the activity, eventually our "hyper"focusing peters out and we can't finish or sustain the level of focus that we so desperately want to keep.

Or conversely, as an adult, we understand that we can't be "entertained" all the time by everything we are required to do. So, even the though the job or activity is boring or we don't like it, that makes it 10 times more difficult for us to 'act like an adult' and just do what is required. Most other people would probably complain how they hate what they are doing but at least continue to do it until they reach the point where they know they have to make a change. An adder might not even get that far, but wind up changing jobs more quickly - thus having 10 jobs in 3 years or something like that.

As was mentioned we CAN hyperfocus when it's something interesting for us. That's a plus and can keep our job for us when nothing else will.

Eventually though even the best job usually gets boring or repetitive then the old habits come back.

Some of us seem here to have the job thing down - and others not so much. Just like the tests say - you have to be totally screwed up in 3 major areas of life - it just doesn't say which ones!

Bipolar Focus Attention --Wow we just discovered a new one.

I usually can focus much better on things I like, but some things are hard no matter what. Anything that requires me to memorize without physically doing something is still very hard for me.

I learn by reading and then doing. One or the other alone isn't enough.

those people are typically the ones who believe that canadians are all in igloos, black people actually sing mammy and say Lawdy lawdy! and that bigfoot is real. They don't matter to me anymore. I got a boss at my job at Frito Lay while I tried box piling that was convinced I was lazy and unmotivated. He is so disgusted with what he thinks of me he won't even talk to me or look me in the eye when required to actually ask me something as the job needs him to sometimes. I had to ask his coworker who I recently befriended (translated: gave a fellow smoker my last smoke hee hee) that he felt me that lazy and bad.

I was SO worried about the attitude - what did I do? How did I fail? Once I heard that it was all gone! All who know me know I am a dedicated worker (some say too much) who will work the job of 2 men to help my friends at work. He couldnt' see that? - fudge him!! fudge him good!!!!

We CAN do anything a non ADHD person can - but we have to believe in it a lot - and fight hard to stay in control of us. Not easy - but what really is?

[QUOTE=barb]

I learn by reading and then doing. One or the other alone isn't enough.

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Agh, I am the same. I learn best by doing something myself with instruction...(but at my pace! If it's too fast or slow, my mind wanders...
But put an instructional book in front of me, and it's impossible for it to interest me or stick.
Or if I'm struggling without any clue and nothings working out, I get frustrated and quit.

But I hyperfocus on things. I just have to find a new motivator or interest, and my brain is in super mode. But the downside is that I can't keep up that pace all the time.
Some people don't think ADDers cam focus at all, which is wrong. And if we tend to overfocus when we do, which makes those same people think we're making up the ADD...grr!
what don't canadians live in igloos?? i going to become a troll...

i think i'm on fire today.. i better run before i get out of control...

i might just go and annoy the ppl in the fruit shop..

i have started all my sentences with 'i'..

i am off the planet today...

i will be leaving the forum before i get out of control...

i shall return when i have calmed a bit..

When I hyperfocus, it's like magic-- everything comes to place, and I can do amazing things in little time--it's truly magical. But I can never get the same effect from meds-- I just focus better, but things don't have that special something to them.... anyone else relate, or is my dosage wrong?

Hyperfocus..Yeah! That is one of the reasons "The Plodders" Detest Us.

And Trolls Spam Bomb Us...Ah..

[QUOTE=barb]

My opinion, and that is all it is, is that hyperfocus is something exclusive to ADHD and that you cannot bring it on with meds, and plodder thinkers ( I like that phrase) can't do it and never will be able to. Maybe when they do meds to help with their focus they get a taste of it, but I think it is ours and ours alone.

It could be all wishfull thinking but I think it is exclusive to us. I think that is why they just cannot understand the difference between when we have focus problems and hyperfocus. They see the hyperfocus and think it is that way for us all the time.

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The best part about meds is that I still hyperfocus, however now all my thoughts are more "in line" and I am able to control them better. I love it.