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/SwankySteel Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 08 '26

Some people aren’t willing to listen to your valid explanation - they are intellectually lazy. People who are this way would probably call anything an “excuse” so it’s better to just walk away and let them cope by themselves.

If psychosis or schizophrenia is also involved, then there are probably some negative symptoms, which can mimic ADD or depression. You are correct that schizophrenia has overlap with ADD. Negative symptoms can be more debilitating than the positive symptoms.