| > The concept of "hyperfocus" as a symptom of ADHD is relatively recent idea Hyperfocus is a symptom of ADHD, ASD, and schizophrenia [1]. So a person who experiences hyperfocus may be experiencing one or more of those conditions. (Although, when I say "symptom", not necessarily a diagnostic one – conditions can have both diagnostic symptoms, which form part of the diagnostic criteria, and non-diagnostic symptoms, which don't, but nonetheless have been commonly observed clinically and/or in research in those formally diagnosed.) Since it is possible to have subclinical manifestations of psychiatric diagnoses, a person who experiences hyperfocus without meeting the diagnostic criteria for any of these diagnoses may have such a subclinical manifestation of one or more of them. The formal name for subclinical ASD is "Broad Autism Phenotype" (BAP) [2]; I don't think subclinical ADHD [3] or subclinical schizophrenia [4] have distinctive names, but both have been researched. (A lot of people who incorrectly self-diagnose themselves as having X despite not actually meeting the diagnostic criteria, may in fact be correctly identifying the existence of subclinical traits of X in themselves.) [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31541305/ [2] e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5949081/ [3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01918... [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2547346/ |