Dynamically update Highcharts chart in react

In highcharts-react-official v2.0.0 has been added allowChartUpdate option, which should work great in your case. By using this option you can block updating the chart with updating the component:

categoryClicked() {
  this.allowChartUpdate = false;
  this.setState({
    ...
  });
}

...

  <HighchartsReact
    ref={"chartComponent"}
    allowChartUpdate={this.allowChartUpdate}
    highcharts={Highcharts}
    options={...}
  />

Moreover, to get the chart instance use refs:

componentDidMount(){
  const chart = this.refs.chartComponent.chart;
}

Live demo: https://codesandbox.io/s/98nl4pp5r4