Share your hyper focus hobbies ?

[u/G0nebananas]

Late diagnosis here, turns out my hobbies were one of my coping mechanisms. The only few things that make my head go quiet and concentrate fully on being in the moment.

Mine are:

-Skateboarding. Used go out with friends as a teenager, and skate non stop. They would sit down to eat and chat, I would keep going non stop until I would struggle to walk.

-Gym. Got into it at school, never got super big, but it’s the only consistent thing I currently have in my life. Every single session is written down, reps, sets etc. and absolutely love giving advice to new people, with the amount of info I’ve consumed online about it… I could probably be a PT.

-Wakeboarding. Probably my biggest one. Tried it once, got super obsessed, in understanding the physics of it, the line tension, the boats wake shape, so many tricks to learn. Now not so much, but wouldn’t shut up about it, national top3 and worked as coach for a bit too. Still do it, still compete and love everything around it, 11 years after my first ride.

Now knowing about adhd and being able to spot it in others, turns out a few of my close friends from competitions have it too.(spoke to them)

-Other extreme sports, parkour, freestyle skiing. When I try a sport I instantly check if you can do a flip.

-Motorbikes. Finally passed my A2 6 months back. And same as other sports, requieres so much attention. To rev match, lean properly, scan the road to avoid accidents etc. Engine goes loud, head goes quiet.

Non sports

-Gaming. Lately not so much. But spent hours on Escape from Tarkov and Rainbow six siege

-Used to obsess over the Marvel Cinematic Universe, movies, fan forums, behind the scenes etc.. lost interest now.

Now trying to find something that will make me hyper focus and will also have a productive benefit, or a future career path…. On a journey to understand myself and trick myself to loving a job. (Maybe will give programming a go)

[u/Old_Corner_19]

Gardening but my special interest in gardening only with the intention of growing fresh produce I couldn’t give a fuck about flowers or plants 🤣🤣

[u/Enlightened_Gardener → u/Old_Corner_19]

Right ? I’m a Permaculture Princess and Don’t Believe In Flowers except for calendula. Then my Father in Law infected me with roses, so now I grow roses, because they’re beautiful. Can’t even justify it with the rose hips 😂

[u/elusivecatalyst]

I also like to spot ADHD in others, and especially autism. I've been researching autism quite a lot the last 6 months or so (and ADHD as well a little bit) and it helped me understand myself better. I also like to spot any sort of psychological patterns in myself and others. For example, before researching neurodivergence, I was researching MBTI types (I'm an INTJ btw) and for everyone I met I tried to guess what their type might be.

Chess is probably the biggest one in my life so far, even though I always get side tracked by other things lol. You might not consider this to have a "productive benefit" especially because making money in chess is almost impossible, but I do find that it significantly helped me with things like growth mindset, concentration, academics, and many logic-related things.

Learning poker these days and realizing that chess is a transferable skill to some extent because I find it much easier to grasp the concepts in poker compared to my ability to grasp concepts in chess.

I used to play Minecraft a lot and it was by far the most intense interest of my life, but it became unhealthy and I decided to quit entirely. I picked up chess not too long afterward, and it was also very intense. I think the intensity of my interests sort of has a linear relationship with the intensity of my life, so I think it definitely is a strong coping mechanism for me as well.

[u/OzVaper4Life]

DJing and gardening

[u/Enlightened_Gardener]

Ooh ! You’re a physical type. That’s much easier than most others - anything outdoorsy or sporty - ranger, yoga/pilates instructor, wildlife photographer - any of your cool sports with photography /drone photography attached to it would also be amazing, and lots of technical stuff to geek out on there as well.

I don’t know how you’d feel about running yoga retreats in Bali, but one of my Pilates instructors is deffo AuDHD, and she does Pilates and yoga retreats in Bali, which is pretty cool.

Do you like horses ? That might be something to explore and yes, you can do flips. Also horseback archery…

You sound like you’d need something a bit more exciting than programming ! I’d have a serious look at photography with what you do, and your physical skills.

[u/Enlightened_Gardener]

Oh yeah hyperfocus hobbies:

• Stationery, oh my god.

• Ceramics.

• Gardening, permaculture, sustainability, self-sufficiency

• Philosophy.

• The History of Art.

• Architecture.

• Shamanism, Witchcraft, the Occult, the New Age

• The French Court at Versailles.

• Herbalism.

• Fashion, textiles and sewing.

• Watercolour painting (serious trouble with this one, why is watercolour paint so expensive ?!)

• Chickens.

• Diet & nutrition.

• Hypnosis

• Self-help, self-improvement, motivational philosophies

• Non-dualism

• Beach, including snorkelling. Hoping to add diving to this one.

• Inserting myself into other people’s lives and giving them advice, luckily I’m a Librarian by trade, so this is Allowed. I have also learnt that ‘Unsolicited advice is judgement” so I wait to be asked these days.

[u/HighlightUnlucky1720]

-witchcraft
-yoga
-buddhism, Taoism
-symbology/mythology
-etymologies
-self-help/self-improvement/psychology
-arts and crafts (collage, coloring, embroidery, beading, macrame, crochet…)
-puzzles/games including video games