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Hyper-fixation/monotropism - pros and cons. To be or not to be, how to do it best and how to not do it best.

Phased

Hi all

Hyper-fixation as maybe a form of "monotropic flow" - that thing where something takes over and completely absorbs thinking, doing and being is something that I personally find part of my own autistic profile and from what i gather on the topic and from observing and learning from others is also something other autistic people experience too.

With the utmost of irony and realising just how daft it may be to do so i thought a possibly hyper-fixated/monotropic thread on it might be useful for me and others!

So for me it seems to be the thing my mind and my doing is at it's best when I'm deeeply hyper-fixated and into something but...

Then I can't get anything else done and I forget to do other things that are the basics of survival - things like eating and putting a jumper on when I'm cold.

And it gets in the way of doing the socially essential too... like working and keeping up friendships and stuff.

And I can get so far into something that like Alice in Wonderland I'm so far "down a rabbit hole" that reality has somehow been left behind until I "wake up and realise it was all a dream...

So at the risk of creating a similar self fulfilling adventure for myself and others on the topic I wonder what other good people have to say about this - validation from others that I'm not the only daft so and so who get like this? And tips for how best to balance the abilities and disabilities that seem to come with this maybe?

Thanks

Parents

  • When I'm on the flow, I fail to notice things people and events around me. It's described by my family as me being in my world and considered funny. But it's not always funny. For example me being so deep into stacking shelves, that I fail to notice a customer next to me or react accordingly to their question. It results in a complaint about me being impolite. Also when I do jigsaw with my daughter,  I fail to notice that she got bored and started climbing on me or doing other naughty things until my husbandcomes and intervene. It's same, when I talk to someone or read something interesting and I'm so deep in it (it's like a movie in my head) that I also don't notice my daughter climbing on me as if I was a tree. She is turning 5 in December. I get very upset snd angry if someone interrupts my activity and asks me to do something else. It annoys me in my daughter- unfortunately she gets bored very quickly and asks me to do something else. I hate it but I remind myself, that  I'm the parent and I'm here for her. But I must always remember about ballance and taking time for myself. Another negative is me forgetting hunger and thirst at work, when busy. To the point of getting weak. My manager used to remind me, but now he is gone. I must manage it on my own. Another negative is jumping and heart palpitations when a car honks in a street or plays loud music. And people at work gossipping that im high on drugs. No, I don't use them.

    The positive side is a deep joy of my favourite activities.

    I made some monotropism test and the result showed that im more monotropic than 95% of autistic people snd 100% of allistic people. 

  • in reply to Alien0n3arth

    Another negative is me overeating sometimes because I forget how much I ate and that im already full. Usually my brain goes into some "different state" when I'm eating, it's actually pleasant sometimes,  but also embarrassing. Echolalia,  writing with fork in tge air, not registering that im eating. As a result I forget that I already had a meal and wonder, why the plate is empty. My husband helps me a bit with these things- reminds me about a meal, or reminds me that I already had a meal. It was much worse when I was single.

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  • in reply to Alien0n3arth

    Another negative is me overeating sometimes because I forget how much I ate and that im already full. Usually my brain goes into some "different state" when I'm eating, it's actually pleasant sometimes,  but also embarrassing. Echolalia,  writing with fork in tge air, not registering that im eating. As a result I forget that I already had a meal and wonder, why the plate is empty. My husband helps me a bit with these things- reminds me about a meal, or reminds me that I already had a meal. It was much worse when I was single.

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