My ADHD Mental Stability Strategy: Identifying Triggers for Hyperfocus on Bad Habits

🔸1. My struggles
・I waste hours mindlessly on my phone, playing games or watching YouTube, once I get hooked.
・I can't stop even though I know I should.
・"Just 5 minutes, just 15 minutes, just another 15 minutes, until I reach a good stopping point." Before I know it, hours have passed...
・When it happens with work, it feels like I'm making progress, which makes it even harder to stop.

🔸2. My personal coping strategies
1) Accept that once I enter a state of hyperfocus, I won't be able to stop, and stop blaming myself or feeling regret.
2) However, I do try to recall the trigger that led to the hyperfocus and the physical state of excitement (the feeling of dopamine release) at that time.

・Beyond that, I try not to get close to my "hyperfocus triggers" as much as possible (e.g., locking my PC).
・When I feel the sensation that hyperfocus is about to start, I take a moment to reconsider if it's a danger signal.
・Before I start doing something, I set a 30-minute timer on my smartwatch.

Failures due to hyperfocus haven't dropped to zero, but I think they have clearly decreased compared to before I discovered I had ADHD, when hyperfocus was my default state every day.