ADHD Hyperfixation or OCD Reassurance Seeking? How Can You Tell?

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Hi, and welcome to Dopamine in Doubt.
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I'm your host, Rachel, a licensed clinical social worker specializing in ADHD and OCD.
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On this show, I will be speaking from both my clinical and lived experience as we explore the surprisingly common crossover of ADHD and OCD.
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Because when we understand which is in the driver's seat, we are better able to know what we need in that moment.
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Whether you're living right at the intersection of both or navigate life with one of these neurotypes, you're welcome here.
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As always, please take what is helpful and leave what isn't.
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Neurodivergence shows up differently for everyone, and there is no one size fits all approach.
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Okay, let's dive in.
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Sometimes that was because I was genuinely fascinated.
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I was learning, making connections, and honestly having fun.
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But other times, I noticed a shift.
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Suddenly, I was not researching because I was curious.
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I was researching because I wanted certainty.
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I wanted to get to a place where I felt certain enough to move forward.
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The behaviors themselves look identical.
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I was still reading articles, but the reason had completely changed.
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In this episode, we're gonna explore ADHD hyperfixation and OCD reassurance seeking, where they overlap and what we can do to stop the loop.
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When thinking about these two behaviors, you might hear people use hyperfocus and hyperfixation interchangeably.
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And that is okay.
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In this episode, I am using hyperfixation to describe the ADHD experience of getting pulled deeply into a topic of interest, while hyperfocus refers more broadly to the state of intense concentration itself.
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So when thinking about the differences between hyperfixation and reassurance seeking, hyperfixation asks, tell me more.
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Reassurance seeking, on the other hand, is asking, tell me I am okay.
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Sometimes a conversation starts at the first and quietly turns into the second.
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And that's what we're going to explore more of today.
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So, first, let's talk about what hyperfixation actually is.
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So this is not an official diagnostic criteria, but it is a common ADHD experience.
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This is when we can get intensely focused on something we find interesting, novel, stimulating, or rewarding.
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We can, I think, as my client says, lock on, when we are in this zone, it can feel enjoyable and energizing.
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And it's often something that we can engage with for hours.
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And that's because we might lose track of time because we're so interested in whatever it is that we're doing or learning in that moment.
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We can also forget to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom in these states.
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And if you're like me, you might also freeze your body in awkward positions and forget to move for hours.
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It can also be difficult to exit this state because we're so intrigued and like into what we're doing that if someone tries to interrupt, you might not even respond or you might engage but be really distracted because we're tuning out our surroundings and really focused in on what we're currently interested in in that moment.
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Reassurance seeking.
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This is a common OCD compulsion, and it can feel really urgent.
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I would describe it as a frantic feeling that you really just want to go away.
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And so that's where we think the answer is to seek more information or answers or validation because we're seeking that certainty and trying to reduce our fear and anxiety.
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But the problem is the relief is only ever temporary because there's always another possibility or question or what if that we could look up.
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And no one can provide the certainty we're seeking.
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Our brain is chasing safety and it wants more information.
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And again, that's because we're uncomfortable.
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And this is the way we've learned to make that discomfort go away.
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The really tricky part is that reassurance seeking often feels like problem solving.
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I don't typically have someone come in my office and say, oh, I'm doing a compulsion.
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Instead, I hear, well, I'm just being responsible and I'm trying to understand.
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And I really understand this poll.
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I get stuck in these loops still myself.
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It's hard to not go with the urge to be told that it's going to be okay.
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So, what this can actually look in real life, just to give some of the more common examples, and hopefully you can start to see it for what it is.
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This can be okay, noticing a health concern and then Googling that concern.
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But the thing about reassurance seeking is you're going to Google that concern, read article after article, and be on your fifth page of Google searches and still not feel better.
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You might then repeat the concern in different phrasing in an attempt to gain certainty, go into the depths of Reddit and find really obscure data and get even more concerned and confused.
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We can also ask for reassurance from others.
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I talked about this actually on my first episode, where I wanted my friends to promise it would be okay.
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We can do this with partners, say we made a mistake and we want someone to tell us that there's no way anything bad could happen or family members.
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We can even do this with medical professionals where we want them to tell us that we're fine and they can't always do that either.
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This can also be rereading text to make sure that you didn't sound rude.
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So the act is the rereading itself and reassuring yourself that, okay, that came across fine.
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There's no way it could be misunderstood.
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These examples of reassurance seeking often develop because in the moment it feels like it works.
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It's because our anxiety is temporarily lowered and our brains remember that relief, which can make us want to seek reassurance again the next time uncertainty appears.
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But the problem is the next time the OCD wants more.
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It wants you to do the compulsion, but it says, okay, that worked.
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So this time let's do even more of it.
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And that's where we lose hours of our life, potentially.
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So I'm going to give you a few gentle check-ins.
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These truly are just ways to pause and get curious about what your brain is asking you to do.
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I want to be really clear because we do not need these to become another checking ritual.
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And they are absolutely not a rule, which is what our OCD brain might want to make them into.
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So question one am I moving toward pleasure or away from discomfort?
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ADHD might say, this is interesting.
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OCD, I have to know for sure.
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Some nuanced questions within that.
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Am I learning or trying to feel safe?
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Do I feel more settled or activated?
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Would stopping feel uncomfortable or unbearable?
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The second question.
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With OCD, there might be relief for a few minutes and then a new question appears.
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So this could look like, okay, they aren't mad at me.
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But what if they were just being polite?
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And then the reassurance seeking starts all over again.
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So the question is really not how did it start, but what is keeping it going right now?
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When OCD and ADHD team up, this is where people can feel really confused because ADHD hyperfocus can sometimes create the perfect conditions for reassurance seeking to take over.
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Research spirals that might have started curious.
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Oh, this is interesting, can end compulsory.
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I must solve this and know for sure.
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We want to know what the purpose of the behavior continues to be.
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The goal is learning to notice when curiosity quietly becomes a demand for certainty.
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So this shift can look like researching your interest, but then six hours later, you've opened 42 tabs because your concern is not resolved.
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I will absolutely have to do as I'm saying that, I need to do an episode on the difference between having tabs open on our computer because I'm sure folks with ADHD, folks with OCD, this is a common behavior we do.
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Not always.
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I've definitely had the opposite, but it'll be fun to explore.
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Okay, so what do we do about this?
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In a future episode, we will talk more about what you can do when you find yourself stuck, starting at the hyperfixation and how we can do gentle check-ins to not end up in it costing more than it's giving.
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And then how to notice when OCD has taken over, and how to work with when we're in the spiral.
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But for now, first we're gonna practice the pause and then naming what is happening in that moment.
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Think about the last time you couldn't stop researching.
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Were you satisfying curiosity or trying to make your anxiety go away?
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On my own check-in, after writing this episode, I'm desperately thirsty, up way past my bedtime, and deeply satisfied.
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Thanks for being here.
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This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not replace professional mental health care.
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If you are struggling, please reach out to a qualified mental health provider who can work with you directly.
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What I share here comes from my clinical experience and my own journey, but your situation is unique to you.
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If you are in crisis, please contact nine eighty eight or go to your nearest emergency room.
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Thanks for being here.