Thsi comment by TexanFeller on Hacker News explaining monotropism with a metaphor.
I find monotropism an apt way of understanding it. A normal person’s attention is like a flashlight they control that illuminates much of a room at once. Autistic brains are a tight beam flashlight, almost a laser for some, with its aim difficult to change. ADHD brains are more like a tight beam flashlight on a motorized mount that swivels in all directions, but you’re not always in control of where it swivels to…it’s like an AI constantly overrides your direction inputs and points the light at what it deems most exciting or urgent at the moment.
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