Never know when to take breaks ?

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I seem to have a problem with knowing when to take breaks when I am having fun doing something. I think it will be easier to gives some examples than try to explain:

1) I was body surfing in hurricane waves this summer and because of the hurricane the water had more sand in it so my eyes would get very red. The only problem is that I didn't leave the water until I couldn't keep my eyes open for more than 3 seconds at a time. That was 5 hours after i started and I was purple from being in the cold water , my eyes hurt for 2 days. Everyone else in the water would just stay in 30 minutes and go back to the beach (and most of them didn't even come back in for a second round). Ive had this happen when i was surfing also. I would always stay in the water for hours and most people seemed to go back to the beach after an hour or two.

2) I just got some new drums for my xbox and so I played for 4+hours straight on hard difficulty. All my body was tired and the next day I was sore everywhere + my index finger was hurting like crazy and my main leg for the pedal and back were also hurting.


3) Whenever I go skiing alone or my friends want to sleep half a day I always go to the mountain when right when it opens take one break for lunch for like 30 minutes and then just ski the rest of the day till it closes without any breaks. (most people seem to take a few breaks during the day or stay only a few hours)

Not once during any those did the thought of taking a break even cross my mind. I didn't even feel the pain , exhaustion or cold (for skiing and swimming). Is this caused by hyper focusing ? And does anyone else have similar "problems"? (the only person with AS I have ever chatted with said she did this also)

yeah, i have that problem with sleep
and being awake. i sleep either way too long. or on the hand, stay up late like an insomniac.

also have that with being on the computer, reading, anything i like to do really.

Yes. When I'm focussed on a task I rarely know when I'm tiring myself out until I step back from the work. When I'm practising a song that contains a lot of high notes, I can't resist the temptation to sing it to the end, even when it's obvious that I need to warm my voice up gradually instead of just barging in.

Like now I'm really tired and my neck aches from being on WP for so long and it is past midnight and I'm really tired.


When I'm in the zone painting and I'm aching and really tired I keep pushing myself. when I should have a break.


Some months ago I decided to rearrange studio and office space. Did it mostly alone as I knew it wouldn't happen if I waited for someone to help me, really overdid it......was sweating, aching and really stuffed, and despite knowing that I should have a really long break...like stop for the rest of the day...I kept going......and that KNOWING that I have ME/CFS also and that I'd be in for a relapse.

That was about 4 months ago and haven't recovered from the relapse yet!

So I guess I should say G'D Night !

I usually take breaks at 9:00am and 2:00pm if I am working full-time. I always make sure to relax between studying.

I do that. I am oblivious to time and consequences when I am into something.

When I was younger, I used to describe myself as having an addictive personality. Usually because I'd get glued to whatever my interest may be at the time.

This is why I haven't painted in so long, because whenever I do I know I'll have a real war with myself over when is a good time to take a break, or stop altogether. Also, when I paint, if anyone interrupts me (my son is a great example) I find it so hard to get back into the mode I was in to begin with, which for me, becomes very frustrating. So basically, I LOVE to paint, but I have to keep it all tucked away until I've got a huge chunk of time to myself, which is almost never.

Even right now, I have a whole 3 bedroom apartment that needs to be cleaned, unpacked and organized, if I reply or read too many more posts, I will never get it done. This site far outweighs cleaning as far as my interests go, so the clean up would suffer.

Yes I've been known to work out for 3 or 4 hours straight and not notice until the sun goes down. When I was working the I used to tire out my workmates as they felt bad doing nothing while I was always doing stuff, just non stop stuff no matter if it was important or not. I'd take a 15 minute lunch break and go outside for a few cigarettes but the rest of the 9 or 12 hours would be just working constantly. A lot of it was just not being able to talk to them or even look at most of them so I would do things to avoid having to. I was very productive but not very popular.

Other things might include spending whole days sorting my mp3s and playlists out or days tidying the house painting the walls or anything that occupies my mind. And there's the rub, the whole reason I do all this non stop nothing is to stop my mind from taking me to the dark places. If I'm enjoying the proscess of something I'll not be thinking about the bad stuff but will be feeling good. I'll just keep on doing stuff til i fall down I think.

I have this problem, too, but it isn't too bad with activities that I do alone, because I usually notice it's time to stop before I get really worn down. However, it is a problem in activities I do with others or things like chores that need to get done, because when I notice I need to take a break, I am usually unable to communicate this.

I have the opposite problem, I take too many breaks. At least at home. If I'm doing a job for someone, I don't do that.