Eli5 What is executive disfunction?
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Executive Function is the part of your brain that clicks on when you think “I should do this” and you then do it.
“I should do the dishes” •click, green light, does the dishes•
“I should pick that up and throw it in the bin” •click, green light, goes over, picks it up, throws it in the bin•
“I should take a shower” •click, green light, takes a shower”
When you are suffering from executive dysfunction, that switch doesn’t work the same as it does for “normal” people.
“I should do the dishes” •click…. click….. click, click, clickclickclickclickclick…. red light, doesn’t walk over and start the tap to do the dishes•
“I should pick that up and throw it in the bin” •click, yellow light, task saved until later, memory purge•
“I really, REALLY have to take a shower!” •click-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck… red light, anxiety• “I HAVE to! I can’t be outside if I don’t shower!” •click…. red light•
Sometimes, you have to force yourself to overcome it, you have to go in there and manually wrench the entire system into green light.
And people can do this, from outside, it doesn’t look like anything.
But you know that time you forced yourself to do something that was so far beyond anything you wanted to do that you were completely mentally drained? (Broke up with someone, confessed to something bad, swallowed pride and asked for help etc)
That can be exactly what a person with executive dysfunction experiences when they force themselves to do the dishes. It isn’t always that hard, but it can be.
Like trying to purposefully slam your hand in a door or jump off a legit scary height into water that you can’t bring yourself to do.
It’s a mental illness that can be just as crippling as a physical disability.
And when people say “get over it”, it’s not like we’ve tried.
It’s just that, you know.
“Get over it”
•click…. click….. click…. click-ck-ck… …. …. red light.•
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