If you’re one of those people who thinks executive dysfunction only happens for things we don’t like (school, cleaning,) then please consider the fact that I’ve been meaning to plug my phone in for 20 minutes and I’m now at 2% and still putting it off to write this post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My anime/video game list consists of over 100 titles, easily, and yet I almost never get around to watching/playing any of them.
Executive dysfunction is not just for boring or unenjoyable things. It’s for everything. Even eating.
What is executive dysfunction? O.o
Put simply, it’s difficulty/inability with initiating tasks. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions, like decision-making and impulse control. People with ADHD and other neurological disorders that affect the prefrontal cortex often experience difficulty making decisions and performing tasks, as well as exercising self restraint. Part of why people with ADHD tend to procrastinate so badly is out of genuine inability to begin tasks, even if they’re very important.
It feels, for me at least, like I’m constantly waiting for something and I can’t start X task because I’m waiting. I never know what exactly I’m waiting for, but that doesn’t stop me from wasting hours and days not doing the things I need to do, even if I have a desire to do them.
It feels, for me at least, like I’m constantly waiting for something and I can’t start X task because I’m waiting. I never know what exactly I’m waiting for, but that doesn’t stop me from wasting hours and days not doing the things I need to do, even if I have a desire to do them.
Oh thank god, someone put it into words.
For me it’s also waiting for the “right” time to come to complete the task because for some reason my brain thinks doing the task at any other time is horribly, horribly wrong, weird, and out of order. The “right” time might come eventually, might not. It’s a lottery.
Yeah. This.
Y’all make it sound so deep but tbh to me it feels like tapping on the ‘Do the dishes’ button but a screen pops up saying ‘you must be lvl 27 to do this activity’ and I’m like ‘well shit I’m only lvl 26 so I guess I’ll just dick around until my exp goes up
And then next time I tap ‘do the dishes’ it demands I’m lvl 28 and by that time it’s getting a bit moldy and I’m just staring furiously at this pile of dishes, slapping the ‘Do the Dishes’ button to no avail. The stars aren’t in position.
The stars are never in position.
sometimes there’s a Just Fucking Do It special move available but it depletes your entire power bar and the recharge speed is completely unpredictable
I click Do Thing and it loads to 78% and then stays that way for 3 days
For me it’s like a notification pops up saying “The dishes need doing. You have 4 seconds to comply. If you do not comply within the allotted time, “Do Dishes” feature will become unavailable for 3 weeks.” And if I don’t get up literally that instant and force myself to do the task, and wait even like 3-5 minutes, it becomes like when u open an un-dismissible window and accidentally click outside the box and your computer makes that chime noise to let you know that the option to click outside the box (do the dishes) doesn’t exist. And then I’m just laying there like “ding…ding……ding….” until 3 weeks has passed and I’m given another 4 seconds to seize the opportunity to do the dishes.
That last one is 100% yes.
All of these.
And there are methods for working around it, but my brain keeps patching the loopholes I use to exploit it and get stuff done so I have to keep finding new ones
My body lags.
Yes. I know this feeling. I know I have a lesson to prepare but I can’t drag myself to do it and I wait and wait and now it’s five minutes after we’re supposed to start and I have to start the video call even though I have no lesson plan at all.
I feel like a manual-transmission car with the clutch pedal depressed. I can shift into gear, I can press the accelerator down, I can turn the wheel, but nothing’s happening because the clutch is disconnecting the engine from the wheels and until/unless I figure out how to make that clutch pedal stop doing its thing, I’m not going anywhere.
for me it feels like my body is no longer accepting input from my conscious mind. i’ll type in ‘get out of the car and go inside’ but it turns out the keyboard was disconnected and i’m not the one who can plug it back in, but nobody else can see the problem
the ghost can’t move the meat
I just sit, trapped inside my unmoving body, screaming “YOU HAVE!!! 11 ASSIGNMENTS DUE!! TAKE OUT THE TRASH!!! CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES???” and absolutely nothing happens in response to this, I just keep scrolling, or if I do move it’s to open a game or look at the nothing I want to watch on netflix… it’s like when you KNOW something bad is gonna happen in a movie and you yell at the characters but they can’t hear you and your yelling changes none of the plot points
All of these, in different combinations or different times.
It’s not just stuff we aren’t interested in. I have been dying on the inside to make resin things for MONTHS and I literally cannot make myself. I hype myself up by watching other people make things, I look at fun supplies, I buy the fun supplies… and I just don’t make the thing.
I do this with almost literally everything, unless it’s shifted into HYPERFOCUS MODE and that becomes the only thing I can do because it’s the only thing I can think about and it’s like being held hostage by your brain but from the other side of the equation. You spent so long trying to get shit done and your brain just refused to cooperate and now your brain will only do this ONE SPECIFIC THING and you’re like okay cool… for how long?
anywhere from 1 hour to 5 years, and no you cannot have any more specific information than that. Have a nice day.
