#adhd executive dysfunction

[laestoicatrastornada]

[laestoica]

[sillycourtjester]

I am so mad that the only way i could fight the ADHD to finish my essay was to 1. write in comic sans and 2. playing my boss fight music i made for this specific essay

[doyourdrafts]

Things I meant to do today after work:

pick up groceries

fold laundry

Read

Things I did today after work:

Pick up groceries

Helped change lightbulbs in kitchen & bathroom

Ran to hardware store for special lightbulbs and a battery for the garage door opening system

Fixed garage door system

Ran back to hardware store when it was discovered the box of bulbs was short one. The hardware store people were amazing & went above & beyond to help fix it

Came back to find the dishwasher was not draining due to an inadvisable item being included in the most recent batch

Removed entire dishwasher filter, cleaned it, reassembled it, and used the "in case of emergency" super duper dishwasher cleaner and started the cycle to clean it

Replaced special bulb in annoying living room ceiling fan light

Cleaned annoying living room ceiling fan light, which was embarrassingly dusty despite being on constantly

Spent money I know I'm getting reimbursed for through a work program on fitness/sporting items that could be very fun if I get off my ass in the late spring & teach my kid how to kayak, so we can learn how to magnet fish together

Cleaned the dishwasher filter again

Started a load of dishes as it's working fine now

Guess what I hate doing above all else?

Folding laundry

Guess what I didn't do in the midst of all that activity?

Fold laundry

[sailing-ever-west]

graph of what being hungry is like with adhd

[bookwyrminspiration]

god I would be UNSTOPPABLE if I was capable of consistently initiating tasks. just you wait. you'll be waiting a while but just you wait

[reasonsforhope]

By the way, you can improve your executive function. You can literally build it like a muscle.

Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. I don't have ADHD, but it is allegedly a thing with ADHD as well. And I am autistic, and after a bunch of nerve damage (severe enough that I was basically housebound for 6 months), I had to completely rebuild my ability to get my brain to Do Things from what felt like nearly scratch.

This is specifically from ADDitude magazine, so written specifically for ADHD (and while focused in large part on kids, also definitely includes adults and adult activities):

Here's a link on this for autism (though as an editor wow did that title need an editor lol):

Resources on this aren't great because they're mainly aimed at neurotypical therapists or parents of neurdivergent children. There's worksheets you can do that help a lot too or thought work you can do to sort of build the neuro-infrastructure for tasks.

But a lot of the stuff is just like. fun. Pulling from both the first article and my own experience:

Play games or video games where you have to make a lot of decisions. Literally go make a ton of picrews or do online dress-up dolls if you like. It helped me.

Art, especially forms of art that require patience, planning ahead, or in contrast improvisation

Listening to longform storytelling without visuals, e.g. just listening regularly to audiobooks or narrative podcasts, etc.

Meditation

Martial arts

Sports in general

Board games like chess or Catan (I actually found a big list of what board games are good for building what executive functioning skills here)

Woodworking

Cooking

If you're bad at time management play games or video games with a bunch of timers

Things can be easier. You might always have a disability around this (I certainly always will), but it can be easier. You do not have to be this stuck forever.

[crystaltoa]

And now for something completely different.

This is the ADHD Teapot. I made it in a ceramics class a few years ago. I use it to explain executive dysfunction to people who haven’t come across the term before (and those who think of ADHD mostly as Hyperactive Eight Year Old Boy Syndrome).

So, most people’s brains are like a regular shaped teapot with a single spout. Let’s say that your time, energy, focus etc is the liquid you have in the teapot. Your executive function is the spout, that directs the tea into the specific cup you want to fill-aka the task that you’re meant to be doing. Spills happen occasionally, but generally most of the tea goes in the right cup.

If you have executive dysfunction, (a symptom of ADHD, trauma, autism, schizophrenia etc.) you have multiple spouts going in different directions. You can try pointing one of them at your chosen cup and you will probably get some liquid in there, perhaps you will even fill it right up (finish the task). But meanwhile, tea is also pouring out of several other places and not going where you want it. If you have another container nearby, perhaps some of it will end up in there. But quite a lot of it is going to end up on the floor and accomplish nothing.

And at the end of the day you’ll have filled one or two cups ( or sometimes not even one) compared to the five or six that somebody with the same sized teapot (but only one spout) has filled, and everyone wonders why you’re so bad at getting tea poured, and why you make such a mess in the process.

One day I’d like to spend more time learning pottery and create a really technically good fucked up little adhd teapot. But that’s a long way off since i currently live in the outback and the nearest pottery workshop is some 400km away. But I figure that for now, it might be a useful or interesting metaphor to somebody even in its rough draft form.

This post is the cup I filled instead of cleaning my house btw.

[bisexualseraphim]

ADHD at night: I could write a book. I could get my Master’s Degree. I could go to the club and come home with 12 new friends. I could get a job at that club and meet the mother of my children. I could cure every disease and use my wealth to bring world peace.

ADHD during the day: Fold laundry too hard :( Come back next week

[mysidaesm]

I'm so fucking productive. I got so much shit done today.

ⓘ Fact check: This user did the bare minimum for the first time in 3 months.

[aroacedavestrider]

people will hear you talk about struggling with mental illness and say “you can do anything if you just put your mind to it”. brother what part of the body does the mental illness happen in. what do you think is the problem

[laestoicatrastornada]

[laestoica]

[sillycourtjester]

New executive dysfunction hack:

Set a scheduled post and try to finish the task before it posts

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

yay water

time to drink water woo hoo yay

[leilaniac]

I have 20 days to get ready for a 4-day business trip, which means doing one or two loads of laundry and packing a carry-on.

My brain, wailing: Nooooooo!!! How can we do it all?!?!?!