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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

  • a link on the topic from NAS https://www.autism.org.uk/learn/knowledge-hub/professional-practice/what-is-monotropism  it also includes links to papers on the topic and a "quiz" to see if you might be monotropic based on a study of it.

  • in reply to Phased

    I just followed your links and did the monotropism quiz and scored quite highly, which surprised me, although I do have life long interests and can go on a bit about my pet subjects. I also get terribly distracted by other people to the point where I really need to be alone with my pet topics. Maybe it's being an only child too, I just never got used to other people disturbing me. I often stop doing something if there are others around as I find their pressence to disruptive. What I really hate is when I'm reading and someone starts talking to me, not wanting a conversation but random comments and I end up reading the same paragraph 6 times, I get really annoyed and then get accused of being anti-social, I feel like they're attention seeking, I think I'm just not fit to live with.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    I think my score was about 73% on the quiz, so quite high, I think it might look worse than it feels as I avoid situations like socialising where I often end up sat on my own watching everyone else have "fun", or what to me is being deafened by the babble of competing conversations and music.

    Oddly enough reading about all this reminded me of being at a drinks reception at a uni dept, everyone stood looking uncomfortable, with warm white wine and crisps and desperately hoping no one would notice if they went home. I think If someone had stood up and delivered a lecture it would of been a huge relief even if nobody was really interested in the subject, at least we'd have known what to do, that included the other lecturers present too! 

    Maybe academics are monotropic?

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    maybe you're right  - to be interested in something so much to make an academic career out of it takes a lot of special dedication!

    I never know how people find parties such fun myself and much prefer lectures too!  (just a shame that wine and crisps and part of the lecture scene too...)

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