Are obsessive preoccupations also part of ADHD?

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SherBear
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21 Dec 2010, 1:33 pm

I have inattentive ADHD and totally have obsessive preoccupations. It's rare for ADHD, but it does exist. I got so obsessed during the 2008 presidential elections that I thought I had a panic attack and thought I was going to have a heart attack. I will be obsessed with one thing for an average of about a year or a year and a half and then I'll move on to something else. You're not alone.



pgd
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21 Dec 2010, 1:54 pm

Are obsessive preoccupations also part of ADHD? No. ADHD today (2010) includes symptoms of: Inattention (paying attention / attention span challenges / memory challenges / listening/hearing challenges / involuntary distractibility), Hyperactivity (gross and fine motor control movements), and Impulsivity (subtle executive function glitches). That's my understanding.



Ravenclawgurl
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21 Dec 2010, 2:57 pm

what year was this written in? before asperger's syndrome was known about by many (like in the 90's) many including myself aspies were diagnosed as adhd

when i look in some of the books i have like "Understanding girls with AD/HD" which was published in 1999 many of the isues discussed in the book are more aspie than adhd including they mention sensory issues in the book

then again there are some that say ADHD may be part of the autistic spectrum past asperger's so the theories vary



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21 Dec 2010, 3:48 pm

pgd wrote:
Are obsessive preoccupations also part of ADHD? No. ADHD today (2010) includes symptoms of: Inattention (paying attention / attention span challenges / memory challenges / listening/hearing challenges / involuntary distractibility), Hyperactivity (gross and fine motor control movements), and Impulsivity (subtle executive function glitches). That's my understanding.


ADHDers experience things that aren't listed in the diagnostic criteria, and the criteria don't really list the consequences of these symptoms. One thing that isn't in the literature is a tendency to focus on one thing to the point of tuning everything else out for hours on end, whatever the activity (although typically only activities that the ADHDer finds interesting). I find my focus can shift from nearly complete distractability and an inability to complete thoughts to nearly complete focus on one thing for hours on end, and neither is something I can easily regulate without external assistance.

Another symptom you don't mention is that ADHDers don't really have a good sense of the passage of time - that it's distorted at just about any scale from seconds to years. I always find I leave things until the last minute at which point I go into overdrive to complete them on time (and still fail). Apparently ADHDers have difficulty with future consequences and are much more responsive to immediate consequences. I mean, I'm aware of the consequences of missing a deadline, but it only really becomes important in my mind when the deadline looms - and yeah, I don't love this in the least.

As for interests - I think ADHDers tend more toward short obsessive interests and then move onto the next thing. It's sort of impulsiveness, like "Oh this seems really cool right now and then just don't follow through." I do this and the special interests, and I think sometimes one can become the other. I know I've picked something up and ignored it after a brief flirtation only for it to become a major thing (as in eat, sleep, breathe, talk, do as much as I can every day) long term a few months later.