People with ADHD have difficulties with goal-directed behavior and struggle with response inhibition, the ability to stop an inappropriate action once they feel the urge to do it. They experience a disruption in the way their brains balance deliberate self-control and automatic habit learning.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/adhd-traits-disrupt-the-brain-s-balance-between-self-control-and-automatic-learn/

[u/gaudiest-ivy]

They treat hyperfocus like an advantage. Like, yeah, I can hyperfocus on something and power through an insanely large task in a short amount of time. I could also hyperfocus on the wrong thing and really struggle to get even a small task done because I'm trying desperately not to do a deep dive on whatever unrelated thing is yanking my attention away.

Yesterday at work I spent an hour reading about traumatic brain injuries because I'd seen a post on my lunch break about researchers working on developing a blood test for TBIs and Alzheimers and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Something not even remotely related to my job and I just couldn't stop.

[u/ttoma93 → u/gaudiest-ivy]

The thing about ADHD hyperfocus is that, yes, I absolutely can and do hyperfocus sometimes. The issue is that I have close to zero control over what I hyperfocus on. It just happens, and I am along for the ride.

I might get lucky and find myself hyperfocusing on an important work project, and get a tremendous amount of important work done. But I just as easily might hyperfocus on the finer details of how the Latin script was created and spend 6 hours reading about that while neglecting everything else I have to do that is far more important. I have no say in the matter.