University of Brighton fine Art (Painting) submission

The One-Thing-At-A-Time universal theory

This article is the first in a 3-part series on monotropism, which refers to the tendency of AuDHD people to hyperfocus on one thing at a time. There is emerging thinking that monotropism could underlie much of our way of being (if you want to know how ‘monotropic’ you are, try this Monotropism Questionnaire. Click on the docx file. It’s a bit faffy, but the questions are very insightful)

The most well known example is special interests or hyperfixations. This is what it looks like:

• Special interests tend to be long term and hyperfixations, shorter-term. My special interest of Star Trek TNG I’ve had since I was a child and I will probably be buried in my Star Trek dress. My current hyperfixation is ovens, as we’re looking to buy one and my ‘monotropist’ abilities means I won’t be able to stop researching ovens until we buy one. Then I’ll never look at it again.

• We get into the Flow, or ‘zone’, where time disappears, we forget to eat or go to the bathroom. We can’t see or hear you, even when you’re right in front of us. However, having the opportunity to engage in our special interests and hyperfixations is calming and essential to our wellbeing and, in the right settings, such as work, they can make us extremely productive.

• Routines are essential to enabling our Flow states. Like a dog that walks in circles to flatten the invisible grass before it lies down, we tend to have routines and rituals to get us into the right frame of mind to engage in our activities. Like the special interests and hyperfixations themselves, routines and rituals make our world predictable and, therefore, calming.

• We take longer to learn things that require attention to be in multiple places. Because we focus hard on one thing, it can take a while to pay attention to and learn other things at the same time. It took me a year and three times to pass my driver’s test for this very reason.

• We struggle when interrupted or something changes. We can’t switch tasks as fast as neurotypical people. When interrupted, or we have to work on something else, it can take a while to ramp down and then back up again. This makes things like blocked focus time and noise-cancelling headphones very important to us.

As you can see, monotropism in relation to our special interests and hyperfixations are not deficiencies, but neither are they ‘superpowers’ (🤮 ). Rather, they are just part of our lives and can be helpful or harmful. The extent to their helpfulness depends on range of factors, as outlined above – and the more we can manage those factors, the better quality of life we can lead.

Now you’ve got your head around monotropism as a concept, look out for the next two articles, which will explore how monotropism links to our senses and sensitivities, and the way we interact with others.