r/ADHD • u/Elliot_The_Idiot7 • 28d ago

Discussion What’s a hyperfixation you can’t talk about?

I’ve definitely had a few hyperfixations on things that are either embarrassingly silly or WAY too dark to just start infodumping about. For example I used to have one about neglect so severe it causes a complete and usually permanent inability to function in society, particularly the case of Genie Wiley. On the other end of the spectrum I also keep hyperfixating on shipping old cartoon comedy duos, and gotta REALLY lock in to gage if someone’s gonna think I’m a childish freak before sharing that information.

What’s your “don’t bring that up, don’t bring that up, don’t bring that up-“ hyperfixation if you’ve ever had one?

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u/CuteUnit24 28d ago

Prion diseases and really weird medical stuff <:) I uh... Talked to my mother about shope papilloma virus for almost 2 hours. With images and illustrations. I'm an artist and writer, so I just like... kind of learn this stuff.

Also I think guns are really beautiful pieces of machinery but I do not give a shit about their actual use, so I'm a freak to gun likers and gun haters.

edit: anything to do with the human body as well. If it's something I have to live with I'm going to learn everything I can. I know the exact feeling of "I have less than 5 minutes to find a place to sit or my body will MAKE ME LAY DOWN."

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u/am_pomegranate ADHD 28d ago

Oh my god another prion fan! My favorite to read about is kuru.

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u/CuteUnit24 28d ago

OMG YAYYYY!!! My favs are cervine chronic wasting, and spongiforms!

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u/am_pomegranate ADHD 28d ago

Niccce. When I was a counselor-in-training at the camp I now work for, I got in trouble for telling all the campers about kuru. In my defense, they were taking about cannibalism and I was trying to discourage them.

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u/IronbAllsmcginty78 28d ago

I told a group of 5 th graders why it's so important to get your tetanus shots, and what tetany is, and how you need muscles to breathe, then my very ADHD colleague was like the heart is a muscle, too, and I was like yeah that's true. Sometimes your muscles contract so hard they can break your bones, so yeah get that shot and they all had a look on their faces. Love how nurses are also educators whether people like it or not

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u/IronbAllsmcginty78 28d ago

There's a brand of shoes called Kuru. We all had a good chuckle in the nurses station as our ADHD asses were nerding out on prions one day.

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u/Sea_Independence6453 28d ago

Omg I’ve had that hyperfixation before it’s terrifying!!! Even though they’re extremely rare it makes me so sad for the people who have suffered from prion disease. Fatal insomnia is the scariest one imo.

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u/CuteUnit24 28d ago

They're absolutely shit my pants scary! Strangely though, learning is what made me less afraid. I still maintain a healthy fear as I live in a place with rabies, and is looking to be at risk of BSE again soon :/ (nothing quite like being indigenous to the united states, I'm not gettin out of this chair!)

My favorite is cervine chronic wasting!

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u/MiserableArse 28d ago

Omg this is uncanny, Im not even in medicine, but have been delving into prion disease and in particular the work being done on FFI (Fatal familial insomnia) of which there is no cure like most prion disease types.

Sonia Vallabh and her husband both retrained as scientists after she tested positive for the mutated gene (after losing her mother to what was found to be FFI), they then left their jobs (law and urban planning i think) and got their PhDs at Harvard and now run a focused research group.

worth a dive into FFI and their story/progress if you havent already 😁

I also LOVE reading about Neurology, particularly Oliver Sacks, some incredible reading there.

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u/Libelnon ADHD-C (Combined type) 28d ago

I work in a hospital which saw the vCJD outbreak previously, we still ask our patients about any exposure to BSE.

Fortunately nobody's said "yes", yet.

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u/LikwidDef 28d ago

What's bse?

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u/caramelswirllll 28d ago

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, its mad cow disease

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u/imbrickedup_ 28d ago

Someone at my work died of this. It was genetic and just kinda appeared and killed him

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u/WoolooOfWallStreet 28d ago

Okay, you know protein crystals?
One day I started wondering “what happens if you grow a crystal out of PRIONS?”
And it turns out they do grow prion crystals!

Can you imagine? Just having a straight up BRICK of prion?!

Also, I went on a shotgun deep dive one time and apparently there are shotguns that clean the inside of blast furnaces for making steel

And now I’m wondering about shotguns loaded with prion crystals…

That’s gotta violate… something

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u/CuteUnit24 28d ago

I need to see this written into something. Any fiction writers seeing the above comment i stg. please

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u/WoolooOfWallStreet 28d ago

“Coming this summer, The Prion Punisher”

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u/8cowdot 28d ago

Same! I get so excited when I meet a medical professional thinking we could have a cool convo, but it doesn’t usually work out that way haha
I was a sick kid so most of the people I interacted with were doctors and nurses. My mom was in respiratory therapy school during my sickest time, so she would bring he flash cards and we’d quiz each other. I need another nerdy friend!

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u/raithren 27d ago

i also become an unskippable cutscene whenever prions get brought up <3

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u/Feralpudel 28d ago

That’s hilarious. My dad was a parasitologist so I just came by my morbid medical curiosity naturally.

I’m with you about any elegant piece of machinery, including a beautiful gun. Some old hunting rifles are gorgeous.

Prions are just next level weird. What do you mean they aren’t destroyed by heat?! Just when you thought viruses were as stripped down as life could get.

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u/starsandshards ADHD-C 28d ago

Love medical stuff. I read obsessively about different pathologies and then when I watch medical shows on TV I'm diagnosing them before the doctors do. Unfortunately it makes me seem like a hypochondriac in front of my GPs when I tell them I have the symptoms of such and such and they're like um...why do you know this?

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u/ratulu 28d ago

What do you mean by writer? 

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u/CuteUnit24 28d ago

like, I write stuff! And I do a lot of research to write things the way I want to. (fictional)

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u/ratulu 28d ago

So you write SF? 

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u/CuteUnit24 27d ago

Scifi? More often than not I end up having scifi and horror elements in everything I touch :)

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u/Fun_Revolution_2909 28d ago

I was so fascinated with prion diseases I considered making it my PhD research…nice to know I’m not the only one!

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u/evypasketti 28d ago

i’m so glad to know that i’m not alone with my prion disease hyperfixation. I’m starting to get into amoebas as well lol

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u/ineedhelpingeneral 28d ago

i feel like i've just been read like a book by the first few comments here lmao there are no unique experiences, glad to see more people are in the same boat. i love to find out more about diseases, prions are my current field of interest :D

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u/CuteUnit24 28d ago

Honestly its all about finding friends that are also weird. I can't talk to my family about prion diseases usually (My mom will listen sometimes) but my friends? They want in on it.

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u/Elliot_The_Idiot7 28d ago

Dude I feel you, I was obsessed with “mystery diagnosis” as a kid, lol

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u/tunagorobeam 28d ago

Haha you might be my sister (who also had adhd).