Hyperprosexia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment

Learning to focus on goals is necessary to carry out the daily activities that are presented to us on a day-to-day basis. However, both the lack and excess of attention can be harmful and have unfavorable consequences. Specifically, people who suffer from hyperprosexia have difficulties to stop paying attention to a specific stimulus, that is, they put an excessive attentional focus.

Perhaps you know someone with this type of difficulty or you may have experienced it yourself. Therefore, it is important to find out what you can do to deal with this problem. If you want to know more about this condition, in this Psychology-Online article we will talk about the hyperprosexia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment.

Index

1. What is hyperprosexia
2. Causes of hyperprosexia
3. Symptoms of hyperprosexia
4. Treatment of hyperprosexia
5. Examples of hyperprosexia

Hyperprosexia is an attention disorder characterized by a

Although it is a disorder that is not fully defined, according to the DSM-V classification^[1], hyperprosexia is part of the group of attention disorders. Next, we will show you the diagnostic criteria of these types of disorders:

• Difficulty paying attention to details in school or work settings.
• Inability to sustain attention on other tasks or recreational activities.
• Complexity in the organization.
• Frequent forgetfulness.
• Duration of six months or more.
• The alterations cannot be explained from the intake of medications or the presence of another mental disorder.

When diagnosing any problem, it is important to understand why it has arisen. Therefore, next, we will solve the doubt about what causes hyperprosexia:

• Environmental factors: in the course of life a person may experience situations related to physical or verbal violence. As a consequence, it adopts various involuntary mechanisms to escape unpleasant situations in the present. For this reason, one of the aspects to take into account for people diagnosed with a hyperprosexia consists of having experienced traumatic situations during childhood related to the lack of attention.
• Genetic factors: the genetic inheritance of each individual also influences the appearance of attentional disorders, that is, parents can transmit genetic alterations to their offspring. For this reason, if any of them has been diagnosed with this pathology, there is a good chance that the person also suffers from hyperprosexia.

To detect whether it is hyperprosexia or another attention disorder, it is necessary to know the symptoms of this condition and see how it affects the emotions and behaviors of people around it. suffer. For this reason, in the following items we will present the most relevant symptoms that occur in hyperprosexia:

• Recurring ideas about the same stimulus.
• Inability to vary the attentional focus with speed.
• Frequent distractions.
• Low self-esteem.
• Distress.
• Feeling of strangeness.
• Variable mood.

It should be clarified that, despite the description just made, the diagnosis must be carried out by a mental health professional who must evaluate the clinical characteristics of each patient in a personalized.

Today, there are different ways to improve the quality of life of people with hyperprosexia. Discover the most effective methodologies to treat this attention disorder below:

• psychological therapy: a space that allows you to find the best strategies to deal with situations of stress and/or anxiety in a more pleasant way. Faced with cases of hyperprosexia, one of the alternatives is to develop guidelines that make it possible to shift the focus of attention. In addition, it also allows identifying the causes of the pathology and determining the best approach in each case.
• pharmacological medication: There are medications that allow the person to defocus their attention in certain situations. psychoactive drugs they alter brain chemistry, so they must be administered under the clinical indication of a health professional.

If you want to better understand the difficulties of suffering from hyperprosexia, do not miss these examples:

• Example 1: A girl attends school weekly. Although he does well academically in most subjects, he struggles with math. If you are presented with a math problem to be solved in a series of four steps, your attention is fully focused on solving steps one and two, and that prevents you from continuing with the problem. In turn, he does not pay attention to other details of the class.
• Example 2: A young adult works in the computer sector of a technology company. When he is given the report of tasks that he must carry out, his attention focus is focused on some detail that distracts him from the work objectives. For example, it focuses on the organization of time and the schedules to be fulfilled without taking into account the importance of the tasks.

It should be noted that this exemplification does not seek to emphasize any particular situation in reality, but rather we only expose it for illustrative purposes.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Hyperprosexia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Arlington: Pan American Medical Publisher.

• Mantilla, S.P. (2006). Neurological diseases and attention problems. Colombian Neurological Act Journal, 22 (1), 190-194.
• Meneses, S. (2004). Attention disorders. Synectic Electronic Magazine, 25 (1), 67-74.