What is it and why does the body do it? It seems like the mind is telling the person to do something but one cannot get themselves to actually do it.
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If you mean immediate paralysis is probably because a person with ADHD is dumbfounded by a sea of options that the mind can’t analyze.
is a mixture of ocd and the signature of adhd that is the mind is too overactive for the owner good.
Hello Executive Dysfunction! For me it presents in a few different ways.
1. I need to do the thing. I *know* I need to do the thing. Why the hell can’t I make my body *go do the damn thing??* It’s like the motivation to begin and complete a task is simply absent, despite understanding the need to complete it.
2. Oh man, the thing I need to do looks big and super complicated, and I don’t even know where to begin. Even though I know it mostly doesn’t matter where or how I begin because the momentum to push through to completion will build up on its own, I still feel powerless to begin because I feel as though I need some sort of plan or system to attack this from, but that feels like too much work so….I never start.
3. It’s currently 8AM. I have an appointment in 6 hours at 2PM. I must do absolutely nothing else for the entire 5.5 hours before I get ready for that 2PM appointment or I will miss it.
Now, to my understanding, the *physiological* explanation for this is a mal-development of the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for processing executive functions, such as planning and consideration of the consequences of ones actions. If I remember right (and someone may correct me on this if I’m wrong), I believe this mal-formation of the prefrontal cortex is something that can actually be seen in a scan. Which, by the way, if that’s true then it makes no sense to me why psychiatrists and doctors don’t take ADHD seriously enough during diagnosis to run said scan and squash the back-and-forth a lot of people experience when trying to seek help for it. But I digress…
Again, my understanding is that it’s common among many people with ADHD that by the time they get to their 30’s and 40’s, they outgrow certain aspects of the condition as that portion of their brain develops over their lifetime. Dr. Barkley talks often about how the average age equivalence of many with ADHD is roughly 30% less than their actual age. So someone at the age of 30 may think and behave more like someone in their very early 20’s. And anytime I bring this up with people during in-person discussions it’s like a lightbulb turning on as they think of someone they know who has it.
Reading these comments is so reassuring. I advocated for getting my granddaughter tested when she was 6 years old. Concerta makes such a difference for her but I felt guilty on some level that it was more for us than her. She is 12 now and I asked her if she wanted to take a day off from the medication and she responded with a resounding nope.
Even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, our brains still rely on primitive patterns that kept us safe and alive. This is the *Fight/Flight/Freeze Response*. In neuro-divergent individuals, emotional triggers kind of hijack those responses, even when there is no danger. Paralysis effects in those with ASD and ADHD often stem from being overwhelmed, or over-stimulated. For example: you walk into your kitchen and see the sink is full of dirty dishes, the counter is a mess from all the baking done recently, and the range is covered with mixing bowls. For most people, they get annoyed and grumble, but will do something about it. To those who are neuro-divergent, the mere sight of that mess from the doorway can be enough to stop them dead in their tracks because the unpleasantness of cleaning up, sheer volume of work to do, and shame of letting the room get to such a state is enough to trigger the Freeze Response.
Folks who get counseling/coaching learn things like Pomodoro and *Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” learn strategies to overcome that. Sometimes it just takes another person being there to be a reassurance. But none of them remove them emotional sensation: they can only serve as a means to work despite it. And it takes practice, like a skill.
Hello Executive Dysfunction! For me it presents in a few different ways.
1. I need to do the thing. I *know* I need to do the thing. Why the hell can’t I make my body *go do the damn thing??* It’s like the motivation to begin and complete a task is simply absent, despite understanding the need to complete it.
2. Oh man, the thing I need to do looks big and super complicated, and I don’t even know where to begin. Even though I know it mostly doesn’t matter where or how I begin because the momentum to push through to completion will build up on its own, I still feel powerless to begin because I feel as though I need some sort of plan or system to attack this from, but that feels like too much work so….I never start.
3. It’s currently 8AM. I have an appointment in 6 hours at 2PM. I must do absolutely nothing else for the entire 5.5 hours before I get ready for that 2PM appointment or I will miss it.
Now, to my understanding, the *physiological* explanation for this is a mal-development of the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for processing executive functions, such as planning and consideration of the consequences of ones actions. If I remember right (and someone may correct me on this if I’m wrong), I believe this mal-formation of the prefrontal cortex is something that can actually be seen in a scan. Which, by the way, if that’s true then it makes no sense to me why psychiatrists and doctors don’t take ADHD seriously enough during diagnosis to run said scan and squash the back-and-forth a lot of people experience when trying to seek help for it. But I digress…
Again, my understanding is that it’s common among many people with ADHD that by the time they get to their 30’s and 40’s, they outgrow certain aspects of the condition as that portion of their brain develops over their lifetime. Dr. Barkley talks often about how the average age equivalence of many with ADHD is roughly 30% less than their actual age. So someone at the age of 30 may think and behave more like someone in their very early 20’s. And anytime I bring this up with people during in-person discussions it’s like a lightbulb turning on as they think of someone they know who has it.
Reading these comments is so reassuring. I advocated for getting my granddaughter tested when she was 6 years old. Concerta makes such a difference for her but I felt guilty on some level that it was more for us than her. She is 12 now and I asked her if she wanted to take a day off from the medication and she responded with a resounding nope.
Hello Executive Dysfunction! For me it presents in a few different ways.
1. I need to do the thing. I *know* I need to do the thing. Why the hell can’t I make my body *go do the damn thing??* It’s like the motivation to begin and complete a task is simply absent, despite understanding the need to complete it.
2. Oh man, the thing I need to do looks big and super complicated, and I don’t even know where to begin. Even though I know it mostly doesn’t matter where or how I begin because the momentum to push through to completion will build up on its own, I still feel powerless to begin because I feel as though I need some sort of plan or system to attack this from, but that feels like too much work so….I never start.
3. It’s currently 8AM. I have an appointment in 6 hours at 2PM. I must do absolutely nothing else for the entire 5.5 hours before I get ready for that 2PM appointment or I will miss it.
Now, to my understanding, the *physiological* explanation for this is a mal-development of the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for processing executive functions, such as planning and consideration of the consequences of ones actions. If I remember right (and someone may correct me on this if I’m wrong), I believe this mal-formation of the prefrontal cortex is something that can actually be seen in a scan. Which, by the way, if that’s true then it makes no sense to me why psychiatrists and doctors don’t take ADHD seriously enough during diagnosis to run said scan and squash the back-and-forth a lot of people experience when trying to seek help for it. But I digress…
Again, my understanding is that it’s common among many people with ADHD that by the time they get to their 30’s and 40’s, they outgrow certain aspects of the condition as that portion of their brain develops over their lifetime. Dr. Barkley talks often about how the average age equivalence of many with ADHD is roughly 30% less than their actual age. So someone at the age of 30 may think and behave more like someone in their very early 20’s. And anytime I bring this up with people during in-person discussions it’s like a lightbulb turning on as they think of someone they know who has it.
Reading these comments is so reassuring. I advocated for getting my granddaughter tested when she was 6 years old. Concerta makes such a difference for her but I felt guilty on some level that it was more for us than her. She is 12 now and I asked her if she wanted to take a day off from the medication and she responded with a resounding nope.
Even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, our brains still rely on primitive patterns that kept us safe and alive. This is the *Fight/Flight/Freeze Response*. In neuro-divergent individuals, emotional triggers kind of hijack those responses, even when there is no danger. Paralysis effects in those with ASD and ADHD often stem from being overwhelmed, or over-stimulated. For example: you walk into your kitchen and see the sink is full of dirty dishes, the counter is a mess from all the baking done recently, and the range is covered with mixing bowls. For most people, they get annoyed and grumble, but will do something about it. To those who are neuro-divergent, the mere sight of that mess from the doorway can be enough to stop them dead in their tracks because the unpleasantness of cleaning up, sheer volume of work to do, and shame of letting the room get to such a state is enough to trigger the Freeze Response.
Folks who get counseling/coaching learn things like Pomodoro and *Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” learn strategies to overcome that. Sometimes it just takes another person being there to be a reassurance. But none of them remove them emotional sensation: they can only serve as a means to work despite it. And it takes practice, like a skill.
Even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, our brains still rely on primitive patterns that kept us safe and alive. This is the *Fight/Flight/Freeze Response*. In neuro-divergent individuals, emotional triggers kind of hijack those responses, even when there is no danger. Paralysis effects in those with ASD and ADHD often stem from being overwhelmed, or over-stimulated. For example: you walk into your kitchen and see the sink is full of dirty dishes, the counter is a mess from all the baking done recently, and the range is covered with mixing bowls. For most people, they get annoyed and grumble, but will do something about it. To those who are neuro-divergent, the mere sight of that mess from the doorway can be enough to stop them dead in their tracks because the unpleasantness of cleaning up, sheer volume of work to do, and shame of letting the room get to such a state is enough to trigger the Freeze Response.
Folks who get counseling/coaching learn things like Pomodoro and *Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” learn strategies to overcome that. Sometimes it just takes another person being there to be a reassurance. But none of them remove them emotional sensation: they can only serve as a means to work despite it. And it takes practice, like a skill.
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