Verified Dumbass

You click to open a new browser window, but it's so slow nothing happens. So you click it again. Nothing. Click. Click click click. Click click click click click click click.

One of two things then happen:

The whole computer crashes from trying too hard and not only have you not opened a new window, all the other ones have shut down as well

All of a sudden many many new windows fill the screen and you didn't mean to do that, you were just being impatient. That's too many windows! Please stop! How do I close them all?

The above poster has given a really wonderful supportive message to people who are struggling - but what they are talking about is not executive dysfunction, it is procrastination.

Perfectionism anxiety and being overwhelmed by a large tasks are common causes of procrastination

They are legitimate problems that can be a huge struggle for people who haven’t learned the skills to work through them yet, and can be very demoralizing have have a negative impact on your self worth, and learning to work through those issues is good advice!

However, executive dysfunction is a different thing. 

Exec.Dysfunction can have many different aspects in it that affect you and your life in many different ways that are hard to identify. 

And trust me when I say that every single person who has struggled with executive dysfunction for any length of time has heard the advice of “don’t be a perfectionist and break down the task” before - and it doesn’t help.

Thus this advice is kinda counterproductive - people who are struggling with that self worth may recieve the message of “well you know the solution but you still can’t do it, so you just might be a lazy SOB after all like everyone says”

Being overwhelmed by tasks can be an aspect of executive dysfunction - and learning to break down the tasks into less overwhelming chunks is good advice that helps.

but the power of using the term executive dysfunciton is to give people that “oh” moment realising that their struggle isn’t just procrastination or bad time management or laziness - it’s a whole different problem, and identifying it gives power to solve it. Because as far as the world is concerned, struggling to complete a task for any reason just looks like laziness and procrastination - trying to solve those problems when they aren’t the problem is not going to work.

But other types of executive dysfuntion include

- not being able to “activate” even when you know what needs to be done

- not being able to process how to break a task down into steps

- not being able to identify what task or step is the most important priority or which needs to be done first (thus staying stuck paralysed or end up doing nonsense instead of something useful)

- brain inability/resistance to multi-step tasks at all. It all just goes in the “too hard” section. This is why ADHD cleaning advice often includes “take the lid off the laundry basket and the doors off the kitchen cupboard” - because without that simple barrier of having the extra step of having to open the cupboard, suddenly the task of putting the dishes away and the clothes in the hamper suddenly feel doable.

- object impermanance - (again, v ADHD) - stuff you can’t see no longer exists. I’ve seen posts from someone with ADHD saying they always left all the kitchen cabinets open and realised it was because they got anxious if they didn’t know where stuff was. became able to shut the doors when they put labels on them. brains are weird, dude.

- time blindness (especially common in ADHD) - you don’t get anything done because you literaly didn’t notice the day passing by so you don’t realise you need t start on the Task yet

- inability to activate without stress urgency of a deadline (related to time blindess - tasks aren’t “real” to your brain until there is immediate consequences  so you end up doing your entire term paper in like 2 days before the deadline if you’re lucky)

- attention fatigue (again esp. common with ADHD) you can get yourself to focus, but it’s super tiring and draining so you can only do it for a short period

- trash blindness (there’s another word for this I forget) (common in depression, ADHD, autism) - your environment blurs together. The food packet on your bedroom floor just lives there, you don’t “see” it well enough to go “oh right that needs something done about it”. You just adapt. Not laziness - literal inability to just “see” that housework needs doing - but if prompted by others may be perfectly able to deal with it depending on energy levels.

- trash blindness part 2 - with task completion this means that sticky note reminders and similar blur away and thus don’t help you remember things because you don’t notice them. This contributes to why all the “just get organised” advice in the world often doesn’t help - the tools of organisation don’t fit in the exec.dysfunction brain.

- emotional regulation - stress over minor things feels just as big as a major disaster. mood swings, anger outbursts (which, also makes sense given all these other invisible stressors people are dealing with!)

- emotional blindness - thing with ADHD and autism where the brain is literally wired in a way that means you can’t identify your own emotions. Your stomach feels weird - is that something you ate? oh wait not maybe that happiness and excitement. Makes it hard to problem solve, you can imagine. Especially if you can’t identify things like when you are hungry or tired - which means you can’t identify why you are procrastinating or cranky when you just need energy. (super common for people with auitism to experience hunger only as a weird nausea)

- choice paralysis - being able to chose between 2 or more things feels an impossible task and can be super stressful.

Also,

not executive dysfunction:

- sleep phase disorder / having an atypical or absent circadian rhythm (daily sleep-wake pattern)

super common in ADHD and autism and probably other conditions. Are your procrastination issues just because your body’s natural waking hours are between 6pm and 3 am? No wonder your brain doesn’t want to go! - your optimal focus hours may be 10pm or later and you’re trying to work in the morning, after having bad quality sleep!

Ok I’ll end this here because this is super long

I just felt I had to add it because posts that are affirming and encouraging and accepting of people and their struggles obviously work better if they don’t confuse the issue.

anyway.