Perseveration Puns

Any advice or resources for helping stop obsessions/ compulsions/ perseveration?

Today is my first full day as a "solo parent", because Spouse has gone in to the office (baby is a month old). It is SO hard to just drop what I'm doing and respond to baby's needs every 2-ish hours

Need to do a load of laundry. Right, get up, start spot-cleaning a poop stain so I can put the whole load on quick wash, baby is crying. Stop, put down clothes, rinse fingers to get the soap off, feed baby. Later, lying down for a quick rest. Baby's hungry, get up NOW. Not in a minute, right now. You can put off your lunch but never the baby's. And you're doing this whenever your partner doesn't work from home until the new year...

There’s something called Perseveration that I find very interesting because this is my entire life. Not just ruminating, it never felt like ruminating was the right way to describe it. It’s almost like I am stuck, held hostage, imprisoned by my thoughts. I can be stuck on a problem going on in my life, look back on the past event, or fear something repeating every day of my life.

A couple examples are: I’ve been stuck on something my mother-in-law is doing that is wrong and I haven’t even seen her in so long. I can think about it every single day and worry about it every single day. Although she’s been nasty at times, the things that I am stuck on don’t actually affect me in this instance. I cannot let go. I cannot get this out of my head. But also, it’s always somebody like that. If it wasn’t her it would be someone else that I’m stuck thinking about.

Same thing with an interaction with my neighbor, they were in the wrong about feeling entitled to using a part of my property and had a disagreement with me and basically acted like a child who didn’t get his way. But I am absolutely stuck, trapped, I’m thinking about it, going over it, unable to let go. It’s like it just happened but it didn’t just happen. I can’t let go. It’s like my mind is not my own. This happened a week ago, and yet it is like a part of every single thought I have. And so again, I cannot let go. I cannot get this out of my head.

I wanted to know if anybody else on this site feels that way. Like I wake up and I just start thinking about certain troubles immediately. Things that are not even affecting my life directly, or even like the neighbor, I’m getting a fence and it will be dealt with, but I just can’t let go of it. Same thing with my mother-in-law, I don’t think she’s ever going to do anything to us but it’s like I go over and over and over in my head nasty things that she has said to me, and the things that she is doing that she should not be doing. Just things that bother me or things that I feel like I need to manage.

My mind has always felt like I am a prisoner to these thoughts and they never go away. And when one does actually go away it’s only because it’s being replaced with another annoyance or concern or problem. I can never just have nothing on my mind in particular.

I have been to therapy for these things and I’ve never figured out how to make it stop. If you experience this have you figured out how to manage it? -edit- I’ve also taken antidepressants (not curr

UPDATE: We just figured out that this behavior only happens when she is with Dad or when Dad is home.

8yo girl is completely obsessed with spaghetti. She asks for it over and over hundreds of times every day, all day from wake until sleep. Every meal is expected to be spaghetti and she has to be coaxed to eat anything else. Immediately after breakfast, she starts asking for spaghetti over and over. She will stop only when she's doing one of her 3 preferred activities. As soon as you stop the preferred activity she starts asking for spaghetti again over and over. We can't just keep rotating her through all her favorite activities all day trying to redirect the behavior, it's wearing the family out.

We are trapped in this loop all day, every day. Teachers do not report this behavior. It seems to be a routine she has gotten into at home that cannot be broken. It is affecting my mental health. I take breaks, but my significant other is annoyed with me that I am unable to just ignore it. It's like being tortured, after 20 or so repetitions of the same word every couple seconds I feel like I am losing my mind. When she starts saying the word I have a visceral reaction and want to just run, run far far away.

Would eliminating the food entirely stop the obsession, eventually? I'm sure it would get worse before it gets better but we are desperately looking for a solution or at least a way to mitigate the obsession.

I hope no one thinks I'm a horrible person. I'm at the end of my rope and desperate for help. I'm hoping someone here has had success with this kind of issue and can share some wisdom with me.

Every day and night there must be several hundred thousand of us checking our SBA portals, multiple times per day. Easily a million website hits per day for the SBA.

From various posts here it looks like some portals are updated during the approval process, and others are not updated at all until the very end when the loan increase is funded. I know that last summer during the first round my portal showed no changes until after the $$ was in my bank account.

I can only assume that portal updates are done manually by each LO, or another post-funding minion.

What's the point of this post? You can't count on the status of your loan increase request to show up on your portal before funding. It might and it might not. Don't rely on the portal for your breaking news.

Perseverate: the act of perseveration is the persistent, often obsessive, repetition of a word, gesture, or act.

Hmm.... If I could discover a way to be paid one penny for every EIDL portal hit, I could retire.

Coming out of perseveration...help!

Hello everyone – I was diagnosed about 20 years ago as a college student, during the last semester of my senior year. I was always a very good student, but hit a real wall during college; in typical ADHD style, I was a double major graduating early, but could not focus on coursework that didn’t hold my interest. But could spend HOURS researching something that caught my attention- at the expense of all other projects (and meals!). My grades suffered as a consequence. But since college was winding down, I decided not to go on stimulants. I was already on an SSRI. And I thought that, with other coping strategies, would be enough, and I didn’t think about it much after that.

During the pandemic, and also probably bc I’m now in my 40s, my symptoms seem to be on the rise again. I asked my doctor to give me a prescription for Ritalin. It is not an exaggeration to say that it’s been life-changing. Like living my whole life needing glasses, and finally getting them after all these years.

I’m very interested in learning specific strategies for things like improving object permanence and breaking out of perseveration. I’m especially curious how people break out of - or come down from - long periods of perseveration. I always have trouble transitioning from the tunnel vision of that state...what types of strategies would help?

Thanks everyone, happy to be a part of this community.

 The more I looked into the Science behind the disorder I tended to lean towards perseveration, but my 

diagnosis didn't sit right until my psychiatrist mentioned hyperfocus. The intrapersonal experience surely should have some weight on what we call this. Then again, maybe it's just wishful thinking. I'm pretty torn on this to be honest.

 One idea is to name it something else entirely, hopefully with the diagnostic utility of 'hyperfocus' and 

the impairment establishing nature of 'perseveration'. What do you all think? Am I onto something or am I viewing this in entirely the wrong light?

I am not condoning piracy, but what was wondering if there was preservation of What.CD? I don't know from personal experience, but I have heard of people finding obscure/lost songs on there.

It’s something I’ve always done, not just with negative thoughts but recently that’s been what it is. I’m 34 and in the last month found out in order that 1. I came out agnostic to my highly religious and conservative wife whose parents are the same. 2. Found out her mom might die soon days after telling her. 3. Realized I was autistic. While 1 and 3 are going to create some problems I was mostly excited and relieved to get those off my chest. But with her mother dying I also just feel so guilty even though she’s been supportive.

For the last several days though I have been in the worst anxious state of my life. It’s so physically painful and I am running out of coping mechanisms. I also finally quit drinking 3 months ago which used to be my go too but I am never going back to that again. I just can’t shake this feeling that I am going to lose everyone and everything I care about eventually and that the way I am is going to drive them all away.

How do you stop hyper focusing on things?

Absolutely nothing is certain about this topic, but we might be able to qualify for a mortgage. We're waiting on some answers from a couple of people.

The problem is that now I'm obsessed with HOUSE.

Research is good, and I've learned quite a lot, but I can't seem to tear myself away from the topic.

I've obsessed over the financial end and paperwork and numbers.

I'm obsessed with looking up properties (the good part is that we've found a couple at areas with real possibilities).

Next I started looking at appliance coats because they aren't always included.

Spent a brief moment wondering if building is an option.

It's all good information, and I really enjoy learning about it. It's an exciting prospect to own our own home!

BUT! I can't stop. It's getting in the way of everything else I have to do. My mind keeps returning to the topic, and it's so hard to pry it away!

TLDR: I'm obsessing over this topic to the point that it interferes with my life. I'm already on a good dose of meds. How do you make yourself slow down on obsessions? I want to continue to research, but at a much more moderate level.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the difference between these concepts. Anyone have a good explanation?! Thanks in advance!

I’m a 42 year old mom in the middle (hopefully almost end) of a divorce from my emotionally abusive, financially exploitative, personality disordered husband of 20 years. I also was diagnosed with adhd in December after about a year of suspecting it. Now that I know what it is, I can see symptoms and dysfunction going back to my childhood. I started talking adderall in December too.

I am finding myself persevering on a crush and while it’s sort of fun, it’s also beginning to bother me. This has been a pattern for me when I was young and single and even a couple of times during my marriage.... where I just can’t stop thinking about someone and inventing fantasy scenarios in which we get together, etc. When I was a teenager I would sometimes do impulsive embarrassing stuff like write a letter confessing my feelings and at least I think I have enough self control not to do shit like that now. All of that now seems to me like an ADHD perfect storm — perseveration, social rejection and not getting how relationships work, plus impulsiveness.

Crushing on unavailable guys and starting long distance relationships have also been patterns for me... even my marriage started as a long distance relationship that formed via the earlyish days of online dating, and that was a fucking disaster because I thought I knew him well but didn’t see how he lived his real life until it was too late.

There is almost zero chance that anything could happen with this guy I’m crushing on, because he lives on the other side of the planet. I met him a couple of years ago at a graduate school program and we spent time together for about a month as fellow students / colleagues. I felt a really strong attraction physically and to his personality, which is rare for me to feel both. I am pretty sure he was attracted to me too, although I feel like I’m very bad at reading that due to years of social awkwardness and insecurity. I’m not 100% sure he’s not still married. He seems like a really good guy and we have a lot in common. We keep in touch on social media and he likes my posts and we chat occasionally. He texted me on my birthday.

So my mind is fixated on him, checking his social media (he doesn’t post frequently), checking to see if he’s engaged with mine, inventing scenarios in which we could get together or fantasizing about what if I had made a move back in the graduate program days. I rationalize that there is a tiny chance that I could see him again since we work in the sam

Perseveration: "Repetition of out of context of words, phrases, or ideas" is the definition I am coming across. I have always thought of perseveration as someone being hyper-focused on a topic or delusion or an anxious thought that they won't stop thinking or talking about it. But this definition makes it seem like perseveration is almost senseless or totally unrelated to the topic repetition of words or sentences. Could it be both - or is what I am referring to more of a preoccupation?

Though blocking: This is usually associated with schizophrenia. How about in the case of a man with dementia who is forgetful in speech, if not aphasic, and appears to be word-finding - does this count? Or is thought blocking moreso the total absence of thought mid-sentence where they don't try to continue on the sentence?

Thank you!

I hate this. It’s the biggest flaw of my adhd. When something makes me incredibly anxious, for example right now there is a mix up with my school and program and because of it I missed an orientation that I needed to attend. I’ve convinced myself that my participation grade is going to get docked for an unexcused absence. I’ve emailed my professor asking how this will effect my grade, but I haven’t heard back. I’ve even concocted a whole argument as to why I deserve not to have my grade docked. I keep telling the story over and over and over again because of how worked up my body gets and I seek out validation of my feelings. It doesn’t stop until the issue resolves. I get stuck in such a loop and it ruins my focus for the rest of the day.

So perseveration can be a very good thing for me. I regularly perseverate on topics that are helpful for work etc. However! At times, I perseverate on awkward things. Now is one of those times and I'd like to know how you calm your perseveration down or at least make it less obvious?

What am I perseverating on, you ask? Well! It's my lovely new supervisor.... Lol!

That actually sounds worse than it is. I'm a psychologist and my supervisor is someone I go to in order to ensure I'm not doing terrible things to my clients and I'm helping them as much as I can. It's only an hour a week.

I'm not stalking him personally but you could say I am stalking him professionally. Reading his publications etc. I'm now significantly more knowledgeable on social learning theory and how it pertains to the development of criminal behaviours than I was three days ago.

This is all helpful and good knowledge to have in my job, but I have no doubts my brain will word vomit it all out when I see him next and he'll realise I overthink absolutely everything and it will be awkward I'd say. I don't think he'll really care tbh and I think he'll just see it as it is, perseveration, because he knows I'm ADHD and has a good understanding of it (very much think he has it based on the mess of his office and the way he organises (or doesn't) appointments). But either way, it's weird and awkward "hey, I met you a week ago and I've read all of your 5000+ word publications and understand the basic concepts of each of them. How's your week been??" Ya know? It's weird...

How do I make this less awkward??

So maybe others who are working from home or similar are experiencing this.

Do you have too much freedom in your day? No or little management or accountability over you? No structure to help (force) activities and priorities?

Now throw in hyperfocus, the unhelpful type (perseveration) where you're drawn to keep on doing something to the point where it's unhelpful and the reason why other stuff doesn't get done.

Bad combination. Especially when, as in my experience, some examples of hyperfocus last for many months and even years. It's a really big rut to climb out of.

Who relates? Any suggestions for how to help with this would be greatly appreciated please!!

I have relatively long hair, and I twist it into itself so it's like a curling-wave "mohawk" on top of my head

This behavior of repeatedly doing and redoing it happens to me with various activities. I've noticed that these loops generally occur at the end of a routine, and when it is time to switch tasks/set shift. It's like I get stuck on the last activity of a routine, before I begin something else.

I feel like I'm on autopilot during these loops..There's like 5% self awareness and 95% it's just happening. There are brief moments of "I should stop and go..." But that thought of self control gets cut short before action

I don't really feel anxious, as in, I don't think I'm "soothing" myself. It doesn't seem to be a compulsion as related to OCD. If anything, I just enjoy it, and sometimes can't regain "awareness" enough to break free once I'm stuck

I've always described it as "getting stuck." To combat/avoid the trap, alarms help shock me back to life. But I'm not organized enough to have alarms for every thing I do 😅

From Wikipedia: " Perseveration may also refer to the obsessive and highly selective interests of individuals on the autism spectrum. In attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), perseveration or "hyperfocus" commonly occurs as an impairment of set shifting and task switching. "

Basically it means our brains have a hard time moving away from a task when it is appropriate to do so (like a predisposition for "tetris effect" type effects) . I think this is an aspect that is not talked about enough when describing the "special interest" phenomenon. We do not need one singular overriding specific interest that we perseverate on to meet the rain man straw man many have in their heads for autism. We can have many interests and they can change over time.

I think the perseveration aspect is separate from the narrow, restricted interest aspect of how our brains are wired, but many broad strokes schema's of the autistic brain I encounter in the day to day (i.e. not looking at what experts say) seem to conflate the two to such that both symptoms end up under the restricted interest umbrella and perseveration is not understood.

For context, I have a new therapist and he taught me this word several weeks ago. I have been noticing this pattern in myself quite a lot now that I know what to look for (pastern: continuation of fixation on an interest after circumstances dictate moving on). One might even say I am perseverating on the concept of perseveration. Your thoughts?

I’ve had this really bad habit of fixating on something that’s stressful that’s out of my control to the point that it prevents me from doing anything else. For instance, I’m currently moving out of my apartment, and the carpet is horribly stained. There’s no way to get the stain out, so the carpet will have to be replaced. I know there’s nothing else I can do, but I can’t stop focusing on it to the point that I’m having panic attacks instead of focusing on the things I can do, like packing the rest of my belongings.

Does anyone else deal with this kind of obsessing? How do you handle it?

Hi all! I’m experiencing a student saying a phrase (with unclear words) to her mother in order to have mother repeat a phrase in return. (Not the same phrase)

The function here is either attention from mother or access to hearing the repeated phrase from mother. If mother doesn’t repeat, she will continuously state the phrase - if mother and I are talking, she will speak over us in order to have mother hear her and repeat the following phrase.

Mom wants to end this behavior but she’s afraid of the child not talking to her anymore as this is the only way they can bond. What is the appropriate replacement behavior here?

If perseveration is when a person is unable to stop his current (more interesting) action to do more important things, how is it different from a person who does the action just because he is addicted?

For discussion purposes, let's say it's video games. So that person plays video games a lot, like he has an addiction to games. Because that person played so much that night, the paper supposed to be done 2 hours ago is now delayed and now that person is cramming to get that paper done causing in less time to sleep as well as a lower quality of the paper. So how does the person know if it's due to the addiction to games or if it's due to more attention being given to "more interesting" things?

Background info: I'm from a country that SLP service is in its infancy state. We have SLPs from one of the Common Wealth countries (purposefully being vague) coming over for clinical mentoring.

The SLP mentor told us that Perseveration is one of the hallmark features of Dyspraxia. However, I can't seem to find mentions of this on signs and symptoms of AOS on ASHA website.

From my searches, it seems to me like it's more commonly accepted that perseveration is a problem associated with aphasia than AOS.

So what are the viewpoints on this matter? Are there contrasting viewpoints on whether perseveration is a AOS or Aphasic problem? I understand that these conditions often go together and the lines are blurry at time, just trying to understand it more from a theoretical perspective.

Is there a clear distinction between perseveration and flow ?... it’s only recently that I learned these words and how hyperfocus is not necessarily accurate

Hello everyone – I was diagnosed about 20 years ago as a college student, during the last semester of my senior year. I was always a very good student, but hit a real wall during college; in typical ADHD style, I was a double major graduating early, but could not focus on coursework that didn’t hold my interest. But could spend HOURS researching something that caught my attention- at the expense of all other projects (and meals!). My grades suffered as a consequence. But since college was winding down, I decided not to go on stimulants. I was already on an SSRI. And I thought that, with other coping strategies, would be enough, and I didn’t think about it much after that.

During the pandemic, and also probably bc I’m now in my 40s, my symptoms seem to be on the rise again. I asked my doctor to give me a prescription for Ritalin. It is not an exaggeration to say that it’s been life-changing. Like living my whole life needing glasses, and finally getting them after all these years.

I’m very interested in learning specific strategies for things like improving object permanence and breaking out of perseveration. I’m especially curious how people break out of - or come down from - long periods of perseveration. I always have trouble transitioning from the tunnel vision of that state...what types of strategies would help?

Thanks everyone, happy to be a part of this community.

Coming out of perseveration...help!

Hello everyone – I was diagnosed about 20 years ago as a college student, during the last semester of my senior year. I was always a very good student, but hit a real wall during college; in typical ADHD style, I was a double major graduating early, but could not focus on coursework that didn’t hold my interest. But could spend HOURS researching something that caught my attention- at the expense of all other projects (and meals!). My grades suffered as a consequence. But since college was winding down, I decided not to go on stimulants. I was already on an SSRI. And I thought that, with other coping strategies, would be enough, and I didn’t think about it much after that.

During the pandemic, and also probably bc I’m now in my 40s, my symptoms seem to be on the rise again. I asked my doctor to give me a prescription for Ritalin. It is not an exaggeration to say that it’s been life-changing. Like living my whole life needing glasses, and finally getting them after all these years.

I’m very interested in learning specific strategies for things like improving object permanence and breaking out of perseveration. I’m especially curious how people break out of - or come down from - long periods of perseveration. I always have trouble transitioning from the tunnel vision of that state...what types of strategies would help?

Thanks everyone, happy to be a part of this community.