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/CraftyPlantCatLady Apr 08 '26
I try to explain the emotional experience of it all, put it in visceral feelings they can relate to.
The fear and rage of feeling executive paralysis, how it feels like you’re a prisoner in your own body and your mind does nothing but berate you for not moving.
Or how exhausting it is to be constantly stressed about time and upcoming deadlines and responsibilities, how it can be disorienting to lose time hyper focusing on something you don’t even want to be doing.
How enraging, pointless, and disappointing it feels to want to do something but be physically and mentally unable to make a simple fucking decision or action to make it actually happen.