Eli5 What is executive disfunction?
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Part of our brain controls things for us (like pumping our blood, changing hormone levels, etc.)
Other parts we have control over (like moving our arms or feet).
Other parts both systems have control over (like breathing).
Executive function is your ability to put something into action.
The best metaphor I’ve been able to think of to explain ADHD (executive dysfunction) is pooping.
For the most part we only have a very little executive control over our bowels, but it is a little. We can hold it – *a little*. And we can force it – *a little*. But for the most part, it’s just on automatic.
Say you have to leave for work in an hour and know how much better it would be to poop at home. So you go to your usual toilet with all the privacy and the right soaps and on a seat that knows your butt well. And you try to force it out. And you try. And you try. In about 10 minutes you get maybe a single turd. Maybe even you’re sweating from the effort.
So then you go to work. And in two hours your intestines are like *surprise!* and you get the urge to poop the rest. But you’re in a meeting, and you have to hold it. And you force yourself the best you can and try to let out a fart but instantly you know it wasn’t a fart. And you have to excuse yourself and go right then and there to that company bathroom on the strange toilet and odd stains and weird smells, and have to use that single ply toilet paper that you hate.
Humans only have the bare minimum executive function on when we poop. We can’t just will it the way we can will a raising of an arm. The best we can do is try to affect the habits and external circumstances to get ourselves to poop when it’s more convenient, like diet, or going the same time every day. Barring that we can medicate, for diarrhea and constipation.
For people who have executive dysfunction, like ADHD, it’s like pooping — but with everything. Everything.
My own executive control to write a paper, work on job applications, do the dishes, whatever – is like trying to take a poop. I only have the bare minimum control. Likewise when something is really interesting, I only have the bare minimum control to not do it. For some of us that could be a video game or learning something about neutron stars or spacetime or the political structures of ancient Phoenicia or going for a walk.
Just like with pooping, the best we can do is structure things with habits, doing certain things at certain times of the day, and medicate. Otherwise we get stuck with (e.g.,) dishes constipation, and no matter how hard we try we can’t get a single dish washed.
When you think of executive function, think of your ability to will your body to do something, like going poop, or holding in a poop.
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