When we say “executive dysfunction”, I think it’s important to acknowledge to ourselves (and make clear to those who don’t struggle with it) that we’re talking about a basket of different struggles that we’re labeling with one name for convenience. One person’s executive dysfunction may not look like another person’s, even though the outcome (not being able to complete a task) may look similar from the outside.
Some people with executive dysfunction struggle to break down tasks into their component steps. Others struggle to connect cause and effect (’if I do this, this other thing will likely happen’), which makes daily life a confusing and sometimes terrifying black box. Still others can break down steps and parse out cause and effect, but they can’t start the first task (hello anxiety my old friend), or they get partway through and get distracted by a tangent or forget what the next step was because there were more than three (ah add i never miss you because you never leave), or they run out of energy before they can finish (tons of situations can cause this, both physical and mental). Sometimes people have a poor sense of how long it will take to do tasks, never seeming to budget enough because they don’t track time internally well. Others can only complete a task when they have sufficient adrenaline to spike their brain into focus, which usually means working in panic mode, which associates those tasks with Bad Feelings and further reinforces any anxiety the person may have.
And this isn’t just a few people. This is large-scale, across many groups struggling with different issues, from heavy metal poisoning to autism to add to chronic illness to anxiety to schizophrenia to mood disorders to traumatic brain injury, and more.
What we need, as a society, is to build better structures for supporting those with executive dysfunction, structures that acknowledge the multiple different types and causes. Because we cannot keep throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. We throw away incredible human potential that could help all of us because our society is set up to require a single skill which a large percentage of our teen and adult society doesn’t have and can’t easily develop (or they would have, trust me), or previously had by has temporarily lost due to injury or illness.
Instead of treating executive function as something that some people have developed and others haven’t, like artistic skills or a talent in maths or the ability to visualize systems or managing people, we treat it as a default that some people haven’t mastered because they’re [insert wrongheaded judgment here].
What if we treated the visual arts that way? If you can’t draw skillfully, you must be deficient in some way. How can you not draw? Anyone can draw. You start as a young child with crayons, what do you mean you can’t do this basic task?
Never mind that it’s a really complex skill by the time you’re expected to do the adult version, rather than the crayon version. Never mind that not everyone has been able to devote energy to developing that skill, and never mind that not everyone can visualize what they want to produce or has the hand-eye coordination necessary to accomplish it.
Now, I have friends who say that anyone can draw, and maybe they’re right on some level. But it’s hard to deny that it helps that drawing is optional. That you can opt out and no one thinks any less of you as a person. Executive function is treated as non-optional, and to some extent, since it’s involved in feeding and clothing and cleaning and educating oneself, it’s not entirely optional. But we make all of those tasks much harder by assuming by default that everyone can do them to an equal degree, and that no one needs or should need help.
If we built a society where it was expected that I might need timed reminders to eat, I would probably remember to do it more often. I certainly did as a child, when the adults around me were responsible for that task. Now that I’m an adult, the assumption is that I somehow magically developed a better internal barometer for hunger. Many people do. But I and many others did not. Recognizing that there are many of us who need help and treating that need as normal would go a long way toward building support into the basic fabric of our society.
But then, I guess that’s been the cry of disability advocates for decades; just assume this is a thing people need help with and build the entire structure with that assumption in mind.
Tag: autism
What are some of the major differences between autism and ADD/ADHD? Stuff like impulse control, executive function issues, stimming etc are pretty common to both of them, and i know a good handful of autistic people (myself included) who got misdiagnosed as ADD/ADHD as a kid. And the fact that the two can be comorbid just makes it more confusing
eokay so first of all: i have both. so of course i cannot distinguish between both, because both are “me”. so i’m making the distinction by what i read more often in ADHD or autism contexts.
the things i’m listing are not diagnostic criteria, just things that i have seen talked about often. you might not relate to all of them even if you have ADHD / autism. additionally, having one or a few traits of something does not mean you definitely have it, but if you go “yes! that’s me!” at most or all of them, you might check the thing out more thoroughly.
there’s a summary at the end
things that are more ADHD and less autism:
impulsivity. i get an idea and then i immediately drop whatever i am doing (often quite literally) and do the other thing. for example: i am preparing a sandwidch. i am in the process of putting butter on the bread. then i think: i want tea. in that same second i drop the knife, on the floor, turn around to the water boiler and switch it on. then i realize that dropping the knife was probably not such a good idea because it’s dirty now.
getting distracted. not by anything specifically, just.. anything. for example, i opened this ask and wanted to answer. then i got distracted for 15 minutes and forgot all about it until i accidentally opened this tab again. i described this in this slightly funny post: my general idea of functioning is getting distracted often enough so that i eventually come back to the thing i was originally doing.
constantly forgetting what you were just doing or thinking. this is pretty much what leads to both being easily distracted and impulsivity. it’s more than just forgetting. it is completely forgetting about the idea of a thing possibly occurring. you’re having an intense, captivating tumblr chat with someone and then you go to the bathroom and it is gone from your brain. you go bake some cookies, read a book, cut your hair, and when you come back to the computer it’s ohhhhh shit i was having a conversation until i suddenly disappeared… 3 hours ago.
being unable to sit still ever. it is more than just stimming. it is stimming 120% of the time. it is doing multiple stims at the same time always. i CAN not sit still. it does not happen. i am unable to not stim.
hyperfocusing randomly. like what i am doing with this post right now. i started typing and then i got completely caught up on it and now i cannot stop and i forget the time and anything else i was going to do because this post is my world now and i. must. finish.
hyperactivity. i cannot describe this better than ALALAL ALALALA KLHADFUILSDHFJKUIEF!!!!!!!!!! LKSKSHALALALAL!!!!!!!!! it’s jumping around the room. running up the walls. sitting upside-down on your chair while screaming from laughter. spamming your twitter with 200 tweets that just say “CACTUS!!!!!!!!!! MOLAR TOOTH!!! CACTUS!!!!!!!” while laughing your ass off.
losing every object. always. misplacing objects that you were actually using just now. pencils, headphones, jewellery, coffee cup, everything. where is my phone that i was using 20 seconds ago? i have no idea. 3 hours later i find it in the laundry basket. or on some door handle. losing ridiculously large objects that you cannot possibly lose and being unable to locate them for hours. objects that i have misplaced inside a 40 square meters apartment: laundry basket, mattress, chairs, tables, small oven, computer, and many others. you get the idea.
forgetting plans and appointments and everything really. i recently learned that some people can actually keep complex plans in their heads. a fellow autistic explained me that he can remember everything he needs to do and lie it down neatly in his mind. i don’t think every autistic is as good with that as he is, but most people have some sort of idea what their next big tasks are. i don’t. i don’t even know where i wrote them down. i also forget appointments because even if i remember that i have plans for wednesday, that does not automatically mean that i realize when wednesday is happening.
addiction to distraction and entertainment. boredom is torture, and i don’t mean that as an exaggeration. sitting in a waiting room drives you up the wall, sometimes quite literally. forgetting your phone is not just irritating and means you have to read the cereal box. no. you build a tower out of the cereal boxes and jump on the table. when the party is going slow you collect all the paper flyers and fold 100 airplanes and shred the rest of the flyers to pieces. not being able to concentrate without loud music in the background.
things that are more autism and less ADHD:
sensory hypersensitivities. not just getting distracted or annoyed by bad sensory input, but actually getting hurt and deeply uncomfortable. not being able to even sit near someone with deodorant on. starting to cry whenever you get cold. ripping your shirt off because the tag was too scratchy.
sensory hyposensitivities. not being able to feel the pain from scratches. not being able to enjoy music unless it is ridiculously loud drumming against your ears, while not being hard of hearing. only being able to calm down when something is pressing against your ribcage so hard you can hardly breathe. enjoying bright flickering lights right against your eyeballs.
the bliss that stimming is. it is not just “something that feels pleasant”. it is something that makes you feel whole. it is something that puts you in a place where everything is good and right and the right stim fills you up with pure bliss. you soak it up like a sponge and you feel like you’re flying and it’s the best thing. it clears your mind and soothes your soul.
the overwhelm of sensory overload. you literally cannot function in a loud, crowded area. sensory overload makes you forget how to think. you immediately shut down or meltdown. you become helpless. you can not get yourself out of this situation safely. you get lost. you are unable to figure out a way to get out of the situation. you can get in real danger because of sensory overload if you do not have help or luck.
auditory and visual processing difficulties. needing subtitles for every movie you watch, even though you are neither Deaf nor hard of hearing. constantly going “what? say that again? HUH?? i can’t hear you over that noise!” while everyone around you is conversing easily. being unable to decipher an image quickly. being unable to read maps or flowcharts.
trouble with verbal communication. you might be nonverbal sometimes or always. you might have problems saying the right words. you might rely on scripting heavily, that means you have fixed rules of what to say in which situations. you might be unable to react if your script stops working because someone says something unexpected. you might be unable to say what you mean because you cannot find words fast enough. you might say things that you do NOT mean because you have heard them somewhere so the words are more easily found.
trouble with nonverbal communication. not being able to read tone of voice, facial impressions and allistic body language. constantly being misinterpreted because you make the “wrong” body language or facial impressions or tone. not being able to recognize irony and jokes because you can’t take the subtle hints that people give about them. not being able to interpret emojis and emoticons. not being able to recognize the difference between “hello”, “hello!” and “hello…”. coming off across as “rude”, “weird”, “scary” or something else that you are not.
being unable to figure out social rules and conventions. why do you always have to answer “fine” to the question “how are you?”? why does a person think that i hate them just because i do not like talking to them? why do people think i like them just because i was talking to them? which people do you call by their first name and which by their last name? why do people laugh about me just because i hugged my teacher? nobody laughs when i hug my friend.
relying on sameness, rules, schedules and rituals. no, i cannot drink tea out of the coffee cup. it Does Not Work. i cannot sleep without my squishy pillow. i cannot wear my Outside clothes inside. when i make a plan, things have to go EXACTLY as planned or i melt down. i cry when i lose my favourite stim toy. it can also mean: having to do the same things every day at the same time. getting overwhelmed by changes. not being able to function in an unfamiliar schedule. not being able to do things out of order. not being able to sleep with the Wrong sheets. not being able to eat from red dishes. and many others.
things that are both autism and ADHD:
needing to fidget or stim. being unable to concentrate or calm down without moving or specific sensory input. not being able to function properly when not allowed to stim. shutting or melting down when not being able to stim.
special interests or hyperfixations. “special interest” is the autism term and “hyperfixation” is the ADHD term. it means fixating on a certain subject so intensely that you can hardly think about anything else. some people learn subjects very deeply in a very short time. it means getting caught up in it. it’s what you think about in every second. like being in love, only with a subject instead of a person.
living in a fantasy world. retreating into a safe space to escape from a world that is not very kind to us. hyperfixating on a story or a fantasy world or dreamworld as an interest, either as a refuge or as a special interest or both.
trouble with socializing. being ridiculed for being “weird”. being unable to function well in social situations because of your specific disabilities. having a hard time maintaining friendships and other social relationships.
appearing eccentric. dressing and behaving in unusual ways. having unconventional interests and hobbies. being unable to connect with most other people, being the “different” person in most groups. having social positions such as the “class clown” or “the outcast” – entertaining everyone else or distancing yourself from everyone else.
appearing childlike or younger than you are. never getting rid off childlike behaviours. stimming and fidgeting because you like it or because it helps. not caring about how you look. having hobbies and interests that are seen as “childish”. impulsive actions that appear childlike. behaviour that is seen as childlike.
executive dysfunction. being unable to do things even though you really want to do them. being unable to start tasks or switch tasks. being unable to recall what you know in an unfamiliar situation. being unable to figure out the steps necessary for completing a task.
reactions to over- and understimulations. you might start to fidget or stim. you might try to get away or get angry or cry because things are too much or because there’s not enough stimulation. you might fall asleep in class because it’s too little stimulation. you might cry in class because it’s too much stimulation.
meltdowns / shutdowns. having reactions that are stronger than is deemed appropriate to negative things like adverse sensory input, emotional stress, etc. that means breaking down crying from small things, having rage fits over small things going wrong, or on the other side completely shutting down, flopping on the floor, freezing in place etc. in case of under- or overstimulation or emotional stress.
developing anxiety or depression. social or generalized anxiety as well as depression are common in people with ADHD and autistics because we often get bullied, our disabilities are often exploited to hurt us, and we may get excluded, ridiculed and hurt on a regular basis. we might despair because we never seem to fit in. we might overcompensate and overtax ourselves in order to appear “normal”. we might burn out as a result.
creativity and unconventional thinking. getting ideas that nobody else has. making connections nobody else would even think of. being good at finding similarities, patterns, and differences.
daydreaming and spacing out. shutting down or simply daydreaming your way through situations that you cannot function in because of your specific disabilities. forgetting what you were doing and just dreaming away. getting lost in thoughts. dissociating from adverse sensory input. escaping from the reality that is hard to bear or just getting distracted.
getting caught up in a task. hyperfocusing on a thing that you are doing or being unable to initiate the end of an action. being unable to interrupt your train of thought or action. being unable to switch tasks.
summary
i don’t claim completeness for this list. so.
more ADHD than autism:
- impulsivity
- getting distracted
- constantly forgetting what you were just doing or thinking
- being unable to sit still ever
- hyperfocusing randomly
- hyperactivity
- losing every object. always
- forgetting plans and appointments and everything really
- addiction to distraction and entertainment
more autism than ADHD:
- sensory hypersensitivities
- sensory hyposensitivities
- the bliss that stimming is
- the overwhelm of sensory overload
- auditory and visual processing difficulties
- trouble with verbal communication
- trouble with nonverbal communication
- being unable to figure out social rules and conventions
- relying on sameness, rules, schedules and rituals
both autism and ADHD:
- needing to fidget or stim
- special interests or hyperfixations
- living in a fantasy world
- trouble with socializing
- appearing eccentric
- appearing childlike or younger than you are
- executive dysfunction
- reactions to over- and understimulations
- meltdowns / shutdowns
- developing anxiety or depression
- creativity and unconventional thinking
- daydreaming and spacing out
- getting caught up in a task
so that got a lot more elaborate than i was planning… anyway. i hope it answers your question, anon
-lhmod
This is so interesting, because I can relate to most things on both sides, but I’ve only been diagnosed with autism.
Some issues might also come from or be affected by my PTSD though.
Just having words to describe what is happening to me is already helpful though, regardless of what the cause for it is. I don’t think getting diagnosed with ADHD/ADD would benefit me, because all the support I need I think I have access to through my autism diagnosis (unless there are things I’m not aware of that I might need and can’t have). But knowing the terminology to express the issues I’m having is so, SO very helpful.
I have a self-dx of ADHD because the professional who dxed my autism ‘wasn’t interested’ in giving me a dual diagnosis. She gave me an OCD dx which we hadn’t discussed beforehand and which I am convinced DOESN’T fit my neurotype, but everything I read about ADHD?
The forgetting everything, the distractability, the hyper/hypofocus, the inability to abide boredom, the losing everything… I don’t have so much of the hyperactivity, but I’d narrowed the thing down to inattentive type anyway, and my nephew? He is hyperactive and autistic. My brother, his father, was hyperactive.
That thing with the tabs? That is me, just about every minute of every day. My memory is so poor I have to make lists and set reminders and I still forget ninety percent of what I’m meant to be doing. When I was still working, it lost me at least two jobs.
How to Live Better With Executive Dysfunction
How to Live Better With Executive Dysfunction
Yesterday we talked about what executive dysfunction is and today we’re going to talk about some ways to live a better life with executive dysfunction. If you’ve ever tried to look for resources on how to cope with executive dysfunction, I’m sure you’ve had the same desire I did to bang your head against a wall in frustration as basically all of the resources out there are for how parents can…
because i’ve ordered one and gotten it today, cheap tangle link!! $2.99 USD, aka cheap for australians! free shipping!
tangle – it’s an ebay link. link takes you to an ebay.com link with the tangle, hopefully free shipping to MOST locations.
you can specify colours, if you don’t they send you a random colour.
That listing is now out of stock (I got the last couple) but this one is the same price, free shipping!
I GOT MY TANGLES TODAY! I blogged about them HERE. tl;dr, I am 100% happy! If you have a few dollars to spare and need stim toys, you should think about buying cheap tangles too!
Hey you know that post that went around about ebay listings for super cheap tangle toys?
My tangles arrived today. They arrived in two padded envelopes. (I ordered two from the original listing, and two from the second when the first listing expired.) Despite the listings saying the tangles were generic, they are ALL genuine tangles, or very good knock offs with the official Tangle logo. They got my colour choices bang on correct. It got to me in exactly two weeks, which is SUPER QUICK for Australia.
So, I spent approximately $16AUD to get four tangles. For comparison, to buy ONE I’d be lucky to get it for that price once shipping is factored in.
So, go get ‘em, peeps. They’re legit, they’re cheap, they’re quick, and they actually send you the right product.
Leave off the guilt, please
You’ve seen the posts. Not genuine PSAs about current events or fundraisers or missing persons or the latest government fuckery. I’m talking about the ones that are the digital equivalent of chain letters. The ones that threaten you or your loved ones or your pets or something if you don’t reblog. The ones that imply that if you DON’T reblog some trite generalised wish of goodwill to other people then you’re somehow a bad person and you’re actively willing the opposite.
This is magical thinking BULLSHIT.
It’s gross and it’s bullying and it’s wrong.
I have anxiety. I have self-esteem issues, I have self-worth issues, I already feel like I am letting people down every day, for no reason.
So when, out of habit, you reblog that thing, the thing that says ‘reblog this to help xyz’ as though it magically has the power to do anything, usually with a bunch of reblogs below judging anyone who doesn’t, know that you are making people like me feel that little bit worse.
My reblog won’t magically protect your pet from harm this year or protect your laptop or protect all the millions of people out there on this planet from flood, fire, famine or stubbed toe. Your judgement of those who don’t reblog these banalities CAN do harm.
The ones I like? ‘Have you taken your meds?’ ‘Get up and stretch.’ ‘Have you drunk enough water?’ ‘You’re a good person, I know you’re trying.’ The ones that actively help people keep themselves safe and healthy, and have NO EXPECTATION OR REQUIREMENT of those seeing them to reblog. And those who do? The comments aren’t a guilt trip, they’re often thanks. ‘Oh thank you, I had forgotten.’ ‘That feels so much better, thank you.’ and ‘I really needed to see this right now.’
If you’re reblogging something because of ingrained superstition or guilt, please just take a moment and think WHY. And then if you actually want to reblog, do it, but remember – you are spreading this out in the world, and your actions aren’t benign.
Work on the alpha/beta blanket proceeds apace! #homestuck
I think I should knit this pattern. But it’s hard to get back into knitting when it’s 40C+ and I’m pacing about 20K steps a day.
autism punk is
caring for your own well-being more than for the expectations of neurotypicals
You’re badass and you fucking deserve your own respect.
Autistic Valentines
My dear lgbt+ kids,
This letter is for all of you who stim.
You’re not “crazy” or “weird”. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you.
Stimming is completely natural and normal – not only the kinds of stimming other people may consider aesthetic, such as glitter slime or paint mixing, but also hand-flapping, pacing, rocking, chewing etc.
You’re lgbt+, on the autism spectrum and stim? You’re lovely.
You’re lgbt+, have sensory processing disorder and stim? You’re lovely.
You’re lgbt+, have anxiety and stim? You’re lovely.
You’re lgbt+ and stim? You’re lovely!
With all my love,
Your Tumblr Mom
PS: “Wait, what is stimming?” Stimming is self-stimulatory behavior –
repetitive behaviors with which people stimulate and calm themselves. By repeating one stimuli, they block out other stimuli and avoid over-stimulation. It’s most prevalent in people with the above mentioned conditions.
knitting in the dark 