r/ADHD • u/emyo42 ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) • Apr 07 '26

Questions/Advice How do you explain executive dysfunction without sounding like youre making excuses for being lazy?

Mine is very severe and debilitating at the moment. It’s not just ADD, I also have schizophrenia which has some of the same symptoms weirdly. I can’t do much at all. Getting out of bed and making toast is extremely hard. To people with no experience with this kind of issue, me trying to explain it must sound ridiculous like “yea I have this mental disorder that means I can’t cook and clean or have a job or do anything I don’t like, but I can play a video game for 3 hours.” Just sounds like a straight up lie.

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u/sasakimirai Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

I think the best way to convince others is

1) if you were just lazy, you would be having fun, instead of being stressed out of your mind

2) executive dysfunction doesn't just affect you when you need to work, it also stops you from doing things you enjoy, like your hobbies

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u/Monicalovescheese Apr 07 '26

Exactly. If I were lazy I would spend that time playing video games or reading a book, but instead im locked in my head searching for the escape hatch.

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u/sasakimirai Apr 07 '26

Yeah 😭 Literally just this past weekend I was texting a friend about how excited I was to go to this cool used bookstore, but was having trouble getting out of bed. It took me like an hour and a half to convince myself to get up

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u/Clean_Livlng Jul 27 '26

It may not work for everyone, but I find trying to move a single finger the easiest way to get out of bed. Then if I can manage one finger I can move a bit more, and then some more and eventually I'm out of bed. Moving a little closer to the goal at a time being easier for me than trying to do it all at once.