eli5 – Can someone explain ADHD? Specifically the procrastination and inability to do “boring” tasks?
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You know how when you’re really tired–like haven’t slept for 36 hours–how you have a tougher time focusing on mentally demanding tasks? And not in a squishy, subjective, just-try-harder way, but I mean it is *physically, chemically* harder to focus? Because your brain is operating differently at that moment?
That’s what having ADHD is like. It’s chemical imbalances in the brain that impair executive functioning, so things like focus, task-switching, and time awareness are made more challenging than they are for the average, neurotypical person. Often to a degree that significantly impairs daily functioning in a thousand little ways.
As for the “boring tasks” thing — most people with ADHD have areas of selective hyperfocus in their lives. Things they find richly rewarding, and their brain doesn’t offer as much friction with (whether that’s a chicken or egg thing is anybody’s guess).
Like for me, as a writer with ADHD inattentive subtype, I can sit down in front of a script and go tunnel vision for 6 hours straight, forgetting to eat, drink, use the bathroom, etc.
Ask me to fold laundry?
Sits in a corner until the Clean Clothes That Need Folding pile becomes a Dirty Clothes That Need Washing pile.
I’ve read a few answers here. Many people I’ve seen have already talked about the difficulties of having ADHD, and I think that is the general answer to your question: people with ADHD typically have difficulty starting and finishing tasks, regardless of whether it is considered boring or not.
But I think there is some misunderstanding about procrastination. People typically do not habitually procrastinate because the task is perceived to be unfulfilling or unrewarding. If a task is perceived to be “boring,” most people are expected to complete it anyway.
Procrastination is an unhealthy coping mechanism (some might call it irrational, but I wonder if we in the field should move away from that terminology). It is a means by which an individual may “put-off” something stressful or uncomfortable. If the individual has developed a PATTERN of procrastinating, it likely means they have difficulties with regulating their thoughts/feelings/emotions–and yes, I do mean even if it is a “boring” task like unloading a dishwasher or taking out the trash.
I think it’s important we differentiate occasional procrastination from chronic procrastination. We all have procrastinated in our lives. I’m doing it right now (I’m supposed to be taking out the recycling but I’m on Reddit). This issue is this: how much of an impact does the procrastination have on the individual’s life (and how much does it affect those around them)? If we are talking chronic procrastination, as I believe we are based on your link to those with ADHD in the question, then I believe it is a matter of having developed some poor coping strategies to help deal with the overall stress/anxiety that accompanies trying to do something that probably does not feel like it comes naturally (planning and organizing)–whether that is a 25-page research paper or vacuuming the stairs.
It cannot be overstated how difficult (and random) initiating and finishing tasks is for the general population of those that suffer with ADHD. ADHD exists separate of how “boring” or “exciting” a task is to the individual, so I think you kind of get two answers to this one.
The following paragraph’s formatting is intentional.
I have ADD. I am learning web development. I sit down to study, pull up some relevant documentation, fire up the ol editor and a terminal. Skim over the docs while simultanously thinking of dinner, what an ex-something might have said once, oh wait let’s search for some music to play in the background, oh look so-and-so uploaded a new video, no wait, I have to study. Skim over the documentation again because obviously I didn’t retain one bit of info, while thinking that my dog should somehow socialise more cause he’s kinda aggressive. Feel like shit because I’m wasting time going nowhere, when will I ever learn. Force myself to focus, get increasingly agitated and impatient for an hour trying to understand abstractions. Screw it, I gotta do the dishes that have been festering forgotten in the sink. Might get a snack beforehand though, so while I’m snackin let’s watch that new upload. Watch that shit with religious focus for half an hour. Remember that I’m supposed to finish writing some code, but I haven’t really started yet, it’s already late afternoon, might as well jump in a game with my mates and start fresh tomorrow. Repeat the entire thing the next day, ad infinitum.
Something that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is decision fatigue. This is something everyone has, but for people with an executive function disorder like ADHD it’s even stronger.
Decision fatigue is pretty self-explanatory. The idea is that decisions are taxing to the brain. The bigger the decision, the more taxing it is. The more decisions you make in a day, especially important ones, the more difficult it gets to make good decisions subsequently. This has been studied multiple times in interesting ways. For instance, studies of judges and the sentences they hand out have shown that judges are more likely to give less thought to sentences for crimes later in the day, and more often choose to simply impose the maximum penalty.
It’s also taken advantage of by stores. You’ve gone through the store doing your shopping, making decisions about brand name vs generic, what to make for dinner next Thursday, will your kids eat that or not, and then you get to the register where they have low cost but relatively high markup items. You’re more likely to give in to impulses at that point and buy something you might not otherwise to treat yourself.
People with ADHD get fatigued from decisions much faster. it doesn’t help that ADHD can make it hard to grasp thoughts, and the more stressed you get the harder that gets. A really good example of this is when my wife would ask me to help clean the house or something. Multiple times she would just say “Hey we need to do some cleaning” and then move on about doing it. I would freeze and literally be unable to make a decision about where to start. It sounds incredibly dumb to be honest, but making that decision about where to start was REALLY hard. My wife has learned that specific instructions are better for both of us. “Hey, can you vacuum?”
To people who don’t struggle as much with these things it can all seem like excuses, but ADHD can really be like having someone lead you around by the nose and dragging your attention away from what you really should or want to do.
My earliest experience with ADHD was when I was in first or second grade, sitting at the kitchen table with math homework and being unable to do it. Not like, I don’t understand this at all, but more like my brain refused to stick with it.
I sat there and tried and eventually, I felt heat rising from my chest and my brain felt like static until I looked to my right and noticed the stapler could have its magazine popped out and it looked like a robot with fangs. I sat there for a while and just played with the stapler. I’m pretty sure I never finished that homework.
I was smart, I could learn things easily, but if someone in the class didn’t understand and the teacher had to go over things they had just said, I’d zone out and miss when the teacher would resume where we were. Then I’d have to struggle to catch up, depending on the subject, never actually doing so. I could ace tests but never finished projects. I graduated high school with a D average.
When I was young, sometime in the early ’80s, I remember a doctor diagnosing me with ADD, and my mother and I decided to not medicate me because it seemed like they were saying EVERY kid had ADD and we didn’t know what the long-term effects would be.
It wasn’t until my divorce this year did I really sit down and tried to figure myself out. I could never pay attention to things she would say, eventually realizing I had to shut my eyes and completely focus on her words otherwise they were going to float out of my mind. I would constantly ignore my chores, thinking I could do them later and then either completely forget them or just shrug because I could do that tomorrow.
I would get up from watching television shows with her because they were so boring, I had to have something I was more interactive with,
Walking through rooms, ignoring obvious little messes I could easily clean up because my brain simply didn’t register them. Sitting down to do projects she wanted me to do drove me crazy, heck I could barely accomplish the ones that I WANTED to do. As soon as I hit a little hiccup whether, from difficulty or needing a small break, it was game over.
And god love her, she put up with this for 10 years. And she is the complete opposite. She loved plans and schedules, depression like qualities if she didn’t have a goal to strive for.
It wasn’t until I was standing alone in my own apartment and realizing how much of my life had been easy and uncomplicated because she took care of everything that I realized something was really wrong with me and I had to get this under control.
I spoke to my doctor and then a psychiatrist, and now I’m taking medication for it. It helps, but I still have to really focus on making tasks easier and just deal with what’s in front of me and not the bigger picture to avoid getting overwhelmed by whatever task I’m doing.
Spot on description! Wanted to highlight the “passenger in your own brain” thing and differentiate between neurological interest and willful interest.
When people talk about ADHD having interest-based attention, most people hear that as being about willful interest. “You can’t focus on boring math homework, but you can focus on video games.” But I’ve lost out on things I really wanted (date night, video games I love, playing with our dog) for things my brain just decided to focus on (our budget spreadsheet, random research rabbit holes, video games I wasn’t enjoying).
Interest-based doesn’t have anything to do with your interests; it has to do with neurological interest, basically dopamine. My brain focuses on whatever it expects will give a dopamine hit, even if that’s not happening, rather than focusing on what i willfully want to focus on that I know will be rewarding in the short and long term.
Throwing mine into the ring:
Having ADHD is like forever being few versions behind the current computer model. There’s nothing that can change about this. We can improve it, but it’s never going to reliably perform as well and it’s never gonna have as much memory.
Sometimes, I can do something immediately. Other times, a simple task can take a bit for for my brain to load. I can tell myself to do the dishes and my brain goes through this process of trying to figure out how to get my body to move.
This is usually where people mistake ADHD ppl for “being lazy” but they’re having that circling thing you see on computers happen.
Sometimes, it eventually succeeds and I will go through with getting the mail/wash dishes
Other times, the brain freezes up and you gotta reboot the entire computer-brain and try again – but you might forget what you were doing entirely by the time it finishes rebooting.
That’s ADHD, but you got no control over what your brain freezes up (or not) over.
I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 34 and so much of my behavior and likes/dislikes made a million times more sense.
The way that mine showed up the worst was filling out forms. I absolutely COULD NOT STAND filling out forms of any kind, like job applications or lease agreements and would frequently get friends or SO’s to do them for me. I hated it so much I would seek jobs and housing that DIDN’T require forms.
Taxes are an absolute nightmare too.
Most of these answers wouldn’t make sense to a 5 yo. Let me try.
ADHD makes it very hard to control urges. You have the same urges everyone else does, but you have less control over your reaction to them. You know what you should do, but your brain doesn’t let you. People with adhd are controlled by their surroundings and their feelings in the moment. You basically live day to day with very little planning for the future.
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