Eli5 What is executive disfunction?
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Executive functioning refers to the part of your brain responsible for decision making, memory, and emotional regulation.
A little more specifically, this involves skills like planning and prioritizing, organization, emotional control, adapting to changes, etc.
When someone has executive dysfunction, this part of the brain isn’t working properly – in those with ADHD, the frontal lobe, where most of the executive tasks take place, is actually smaller and underdeveloped. This can cause issues with memory, the ability to prioritize tasks, the ability to start focusing on a task (and likewise the ability to stop focusing on a task – many people with ADHD will tell you that they have times where they are so focused that they neglect eating or using the bathroom for long periods of time), the ability to control your emotional response (emotions often feel more intense than to someone with regular brain function), etc
Another way to look at it is that basically the part of your brain that tells you, “hey, you need to do these things because they are good for your survival, and you might get a reward out of it” is off taking a nap, while the emotional part of your brain that is realizing just how important this thing you need to be doing is is sitting their screaming at your frontal lobe to “for the love of God wake up and do something with your life”
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