This is a GREAT Autistic trait! Do you have it? Hyperfocus and Autism 

I agree! I'm busy with one thing and forgets everything else. So I burn food, leave taps open and so on. Another problem is that it sometimes prevents me from sleeping well.

I am with you. I love my ability to hyperfocus, but I have also seen the pain it causes family and friends at times. It is nice to finally have an explanation for it. My family all thought one of my brothers was a great painter. After spending 3 days in the basement painting one painting, not to mention the time spent making reference photographs, he decided to quit painting. He said it interfered with other things he wanted to do in his life. I suspect he also felt guilty about ignoring his wife for that length of time. It is probably not the decision I would have made, but I understand it. I self-diagnosed at age 70 and there is no longer any family to discuss this with, but I see a strongly undiagnosed autistic family.

Yes, learning and being productive are most rewarding for me. I have tended to avoid hyper focusing because I have got in trouble so much for it even growing up it being thought I just purposely ignored people. I would get yelled at

Hey Jenny, I was hyper focusing on my art, when this video came out. I was in a loop for days, drawing. Your video made me stop for a while.and do something different. I had coffee with a friend to break out of it for a while.I also went to Goodwill and did some thrift store shopping, which I enjoy. I also had an appointment with my Psychiatrist. I am glad that your video, helped me to stop hyper focusing on my art for a while. A few days anyway.😊❤

This is an important topic for us, Jenny! My autistic ability to hyperfocus has been with me from my earliest memories, and has led to many interesting "passions" that I became expert at and have enriched my life, brought out the best in me...and even saved my life. The most intense one ever was my near-obsession with the music and life of L.v.Beethoven, which began in late '97, shortly before I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, and lasted more than a decade. It's impossible for me to explain much about it here, but I can say this: if I hadn't been 100% immersed in all-things-Beethoven during that period I would not be alive today.

That's my favourite trait too ! I would certainly never take Elon Musk as a reference, I'm not convinced he is really autistic, even if I don't doubt he is a genius of sciences, he's too manipulative (spreading russian propaganda, and other evil things he did). But it has allowed me to learn so many things, and I think it helps to remain curious during our whole lives. The problem is that I'm so used to learn using hyperfocus, when I'm not super interested in something, and not using hyperfocus, I find difficult to learn new things (and remember them). The good part is I can be really interested in a lot of things (sewing, of course, geology, different periods of History, languages, environment, animals, and many other topics...), but I can be quite irritable if someone bothers me during hyperfocus, and I end up exhausted... My mother always said, since I was a child, I would be able to learn and be an expert at anything, when I want to. She was wrong, it's not a choice (that's the worst part, in my opinion), it can only happen if I'm really interested in something. Have a nice week !

I also have hyperfocus, and a sharp memory for facts, details and arcane minutiae. Which are assets in my chosen profession (lawyer). Of course I also have had deficits that I had to overcome and compensate for as well

hey Mrs. Jenny, good video choice. for me, I would have to say my autistic traits have been a positive, even if I didn't know it at the time. Living the sub-culture live, and perceived as weird and lacking empathy, can be an advantage. I guess the trait that stands out for me, is the appearance of emotional indifference. To my understanding, when people are involved in a high-profile incident, they become emotional and show signs of erratic behavior to the fact. But with me, I'm very frank, and come across as lacking empathy or emotionally indifferent. Which upon assessment raised red flags, so in turn my file was kickup to the head physiologist, whose job it was to determine if I was psychopathic. As it turns out, her niece was going through an autistic assessment at that time, and she connected the dots. So, to me that was a negative turned into a positive because of my autistic traits. Even after I was sociologically re-instated the midwives, sought after me to head up security, the nature of their business has a high protentional for violence to them and their clients, I guess when it comes to personal security, having someone who is hyper focused can make a big difference, which I like to say has been a major incident free for 15yrs.

I like the way that my brain thinks of ideas intellectually and creatively. Hyperfocus is fun for me for a couple of hours but can become like torture if it goes on too long.

Thank you for sharing. As someone who's undiagnosed and not likely to get one anytime soon (or even an assessment, I mean), I'm curious - for those who are diagnosed - does hyperfocus always mean you block everything out? I know it definitely means that for plenty/most autistic people, but I'm curious about anyone who relates to hyperfocus any differently - for example, those who might purposefully remind themselves to get water, go to the bathroom, take a break, or if anyone actually does get distracted (but maybe irritated too?) by external stimuli... I'm curious. Again, thanks for sharing Jenny!

Hyper-focus, animal love and training due to that understanding, being able to regurgitate information. Bluntness is not great but at least being honest is cool lol 😂

Hyperfocus is hard for me because it has to coexist with my hypervigilance.

Great video! I just wish I could control hyperfocus. To choose the topic\task. I can hyperfocus on data analysis, which is a big part of my job. But documenting results and conclusions is really hard for me, it even hurts, physically. I feel like I'm climbing a mountain or swimming in the open sea. Don't know how to explain it. When I was a teenager I hyperfocused in modding videogames. I created a short campaign for StarCraft 😊 with missions, dialogue and history

You have an Etsy shop?! TO ETSY!

Hyperfocus is definitely my favorite autistic ability, Jenny. If it's okay, could I share an example of a positive & creative result of this ability on my RU-vid channel? It's the only thing I ever posted there, and it's from May 2013, after my beloved cat died that April. I was TOTALLY absorbed in that project, and it was how I worked my way through my sorrow. It got one like ( husband 😄) and one comment, by me, explaining why I made it. It was put together by gleaning thru literally 1000's of nature photos I took close to home since about 2007....all from May, and chronological. Here is the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tzDdq86gcBY.html