Brain overload and scarce attention

Monotropic Splitting

My friend says she is glad to read about monotropism in my poetry collection because now she has a word to explain to her boyfriend why she hasn’t just heard a particular song on the radio because she was watching a leaf move in a cobweb on the window and everything else has disappeared (she is a poet too). The idea that some of us function better with a single focus is revolutionary to people who may not connect with the still-prevalent stereotypes of autistic and ADHD brains. It can be the switch that flicks to help the realisation of “This IS me”. I am still unfurling what it means for me to notice this in my everyday life. For example, in a really noisy, crowded gallery, I found myself getting into very intense conversation about soil. Partly, that’s just the type of thing I do. But it was interesting to recognise that by getting into that conversation I was trying to get my brain into a flow state so as to help me regulate my system in the face of sensory overload.

Some neurodivergent thinkers are taking these thoughts about monotropic brains further. Their ideas are connecting with people but there is a paradox. Their own ability to hyper-focus on the details of their own and other people’s lives experience of a monotropic brain, and to think innovatively about the implications of this, means their work is valuable. But their life circumstances and challenges make it difficult to thrive in an academic arena -which is where alternative ideas to the current psychological models can be taken up and tested further by researchers and scholars.

I feel really lucky to have spent time chatting with autism advocates and independent thinkers Tanya Adkin and David Gray-Hammond recently for mine and Nic King’s “Neurotypicals Don’t Juggle Chainsaws” podcast. We explored their ideas of Monotropic Split, Monotropic Spirals and Meerkatting. (Episode forthcoming in a few weeks). I’m going to link to brief explanations here and then say a bit more about Monotropic Splitting in this post -but it is clear to me that these ideas need to be taken up far more widely and, as Tanya and David said, what they need is a pet academic to work alongside them:

https://stimpunks.org/2023/08/09/meerkat-mode-monotropic-split-and-monotropic-spiral/

My brain was never happier than when I did a PhD and could go down rabbit holes of thought, making associations between things in different fields, coming up with new concepts, spotting gaps and describing and discussing my findings. Although I recognised this was the best ever use of my mind (which used to get bored being told that it had to think specifically about Napoleonic Wars or Trigonometry at school and just wanted to follow its own pings), I didn’t have the concept of Monotropism to help me explain that now, my brain was constantly able to be in flow states -so my whole nervous system was much more regulated than usual.

I also didn’t have the concept of Monotropic Splitting to explain why it had been previously so stressful having to juggle my thoughts between multiple different things. For other people this could be between say, “My next task at work, my child’s poorly foot and thwarted life ambitions, big thoughts about Donald Trump, the neighbourhood bin collection, a new idea about ecology, my partner’s relationship with chocolate” (I don’t know why I’ve used these hypothetical examples instead of my own -as if mine are too weird. I mean, the things that people have in their heads on a daily basis can be vast and varied for everyone). The thing is, many people can sort of skim over them, or juggle them lightly in their heads.

But, as Tanya points out, using the insight from Dinah Murray et al that I’ve quoted before: “Attention is a finite resource”. Someone with a monotropic brain (so, a lot of us Autistic and ADHD folk) will TRY (unconsciously) to give each different thing they’re focussing on the level of detailed attention and cognition they give everything. From their work task to their child’s future to the bin collection and the state of the world. But they’ve only got so much attention to give so “Overload, overload! Computer is crashing, too many programmes open, brain is a whirling swirl of everything and stops or fogs up or tries to keep going and going” -hence; burnout. Over time. After repeated overloadings. (With probably many joyous associative leaps along the way on the positive side-I know poetry can mop up some of my surplus attentive leaps. Splurging it out in talking or writing can work for many of us).

“My brain has just been trying to mentally give too many things my deep attention for ages” is still not often recognised as a massive cause of low energy, struggles, confusion, overwhelm and -the thing we call burnout. It will instead look like various ways we describe mental illness. So it feels so vital to me that these ideas are more known. This is me doing something of my bit.

And I know for myself, I am more able to accept and understand my brain’s need to get into a flow state and hyperfocus or-rest. Things that help me are: meditation, swimming, reading, watching a gentle TV programme (not many work for me to bring my brain fully on board), Big Conversations with lots of flow and focus in them (can be about anything -but certain types of chatting will just be more draining), playing games (I do not get to do this enough) and learning about things I’m really, really interested in/going down knowledge rabbit holes. Plus -I am lucky to have a job that doesn’t require much monotropic splitting. Well-it does when I have to do admin but I now have help with that.

And I just wrote this on a train which simultaneously focused my attention for a while and helped me not be as bothered by the fuggy air, noisy conversations and hairy legs of the man in shorts sat next to me.

*Link to David Gray-Hammond’s work on autism, addiction, CAMHs and many other things:

https://emergentdivergence.com