Can’t Start, Can’t Stop - Hyperfixation At ANU

ANONYMOUS

Most people prefer to do things that they enjoy, and they find these things easier. Unpleasant activities are harder. Studying a subject that they don’t like is a drag, time passes slowly, they feel tired afterwards.

While I cannot, as an individual, speak for all neurodiverse people, I know that for many of us the experience is heightened. I can spend all day doing something that I enjoy, sometimes without eating or moving. I look up and suddenly it’s nighttime and I’m freezing cold and really hungry. This ‘hyperfixation’ blots out everything else. I don’t hear people speaking to me or notice basic things like hunger. Once it’s broken, though, it takes time to regain focus.

This can be very useful if I have an assignment due in a short period of time which falls into one of my obsessions. I just set aside a large block of time one day, and voilà, one complete assignment. Alternatively, if I take a subject that I don’t have an interest in, it’s almost impossible to study for it. I have to trick my brain by finding a link, however tenuous, to something that I enjoy. Programming is one of my passions, and this is a convenient loophole for other courses like physics and maths. Not enjoying kinematics? Work out how to write a program to solve the problem—I’ll have to learn how the problem works to do that and connecting it to coding will trick my brain enough to engage it.

However, because a large unbroken block of time is necessary for this to work, I can’t study in short bursts. If I have an hour between classes, it’s nearly impossible to use productively. Assignments and homework end up being done whenever I have a large block of time, and because this is rare, they often end up being done at the last minute with the help of pure adrenaline. Personal projects with no fixed ‘due date’ fall by the wayside. This article was started on the day that drafts were due for this exact reason. night I was exhausted. I had homework to do, emails to send, and needed to sleep, so naturally, I spent three hours making a colour-coded timetable.

The university system is not ideally set up for anything other than steady, consistent study. Steady, consistent study is great, and it works very well for many people. But for many neurodiverse people (and some neurotypical people too) it’s simply impossible to study like this. The constraints of hyperfixation and obsession make keeping on top of a little bit of something from each of four different subjects tricky, whereas managing lots of one subject (as happens in holiday intensive courses) is much more doable.

With courses moving to make themselves more accessible for online students in the wake of COVID-19, it is possible to binge-watch lectures and tutes in breaks and go through the work in one go. However, the time during the teaching break and the pre-finals study break is not sufficient to properly cover four courses, and This ‘hyperfixation’ the greatest benefit to grades is showing up in-person throughout the whole semester. blots out It’s impossible to create an education everything else. system that works for everyone. However, I suggest a few improvements. A wider range of intensive summer/winter courses. At the moment, there are only a few courses offered as intensives, most of which are extremely specific.

Despite the advantages of finishing assignments rapidly and doing really well in some courses as a sideeffect of obsession, there are hidden costs. Ignoring my body for hours, getting incredibly hungry or cold without realising is common. And the constant stress of not having a sufficiently long chunk of time in which to work on something means I often worry about it for weeks before finishing it in a whirl of coffee and anxiety as 11:59 pm rolls around. Sometimes I hyperfixate on something interesting, but not at all related to uni or it’s at a terrible time. One A proper ‘break’ over the teaching break, with assignments due either at the end of the first session or just after the break has started.

Lengthening the pre-finals study break, to let students study the ungraded coursework that may have been glossed over in favour of marked work.

The second point is one that would benefit all students, not just neurodiverse ones.

Hyperfixation is a blessing and a curse, and it affects people in vastly different ways. It comes with unexpected advantages and drawbacks when studying at a tertiary institution, and the problems that come with it are not likely to be easily solved.