I have a child that ever since she was little had difficulties focusing on any one thing, UNLESS it was something she liked to do, and when that happened, it was all she could think of - 24/7.

When she was very little, while the other children in class were working on something, she would get up from the group and wander over to the toys or coloring books, or whatever. The teachers were constantly having to bring her back, only for her to do it again 5 minutes latter. If I attended a play or recital they were giving and she saw me in the audience, she would just walk off stage right in the middle of the play or song, and come sit in my lap. Eventually, the school said she was dealing with EBD, and for the rest of her time in school she had to attend special classes.

However, if she liked something or something simply snapped into her head, that would be all she could think about for weeks or months on end. As an example, when she was about 13 years old, on a whim, she decided she wanted to be a writer. For the next 4 or 5 months, other than sleep and school, she would write - over 900 pages from beginning to end.

When she was 18, she saw a show on TV about making fur suits. The next day, and for the next 4 months, she designed and hand sewed three suits depicting 3 different characters. Once again, other than work and sleep, she never left her room and worked on these constantly.

She's 23 now, and her whole life has been one obsession after another. She doesn't have a single friend, other than this one boy who himself has a series of obsessions, and of course she is totally obsessed with him, because she based one of her characters on him and she refuses to let him go because of that.

Beside all this, you can't tell from one moment to the next what she is going to do. The moment she gets paid, if she happens to go to the store with me, she will spend her entire paycheck in one visit on pure junk. Junk she takes home and never bothers to look at again. And she's broke for the next two weeks.

I have no idea what this is called and have no idea how to help her, but I am certain unless something is done she will never be able to survive on her own.