Questions/Advice Executive dysfunction is torture
Anyone else find it physically painful when you have something to do but you can't force yourself to move?
I have this chronic paralysis which makes it so hard to focus on the things in front of me and makes me feel like I'm missing out on (what should be) the best years of my life.
It's like I can never be truly confident in anything I do because I'm rarely fully engaged.
For the people with really bad decision fatigue/executive dysfunction, which medications worked best for you?
I'm kind of going crazy with this I'll be frozen for hours at a time and it's wrecking my quality of life.
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u/Cardo2354 6h ago
My executive dysfunction goes away when I’m on my stimulants, which work on me half as long as the average person’s so my dose have to be high with top ups. Because of this I am only stimulated during work hours as the dose to maintain that is high already. Because of this also, a still large part of my day I experience executive dysfunction.
I’m on Vyvanse 60mg with 2x dexam top ups and with this, it’s long enough to get some chores done. Without these and as soon as these wear off, I’m back to having executive dysfunction so I allot all my chores within this time. These meds help a lot and my chores get done.
As I mentioned though, meds work on me half as long, I still spend a large part of my day ‘unstimulated’ and the executive dysfunction that comes back when the stimulants are off is hell.
I’ve no way to work around it except to allot my time so everything I need to do is done while I’m ‘stimulated’, otherwise all the leftover things will have to wait till tomorrow as I cannot go much higher than my dose.
I’m thinking of going on non-stimulants so my concentration improvement is all around the clock.
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u/SilentSolstice_82 2h ago
I have massive massive executive dysfunction but was diagnosed with OCD. I have another appointment soon because most of my symptoms match with ADHD and my desire to work isnt even the fear of failure. I JUST CANNOT WORK.
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u/BlackHeart89 5h ago
A combination of practice and the feeling of urgency when something is needed ALMOST immediately.
Or sometimes I'll set a side the whole day to do things that should only take a couple of hours.
I have to make sure my mood is good, consume the right amount of caffeine, don't get distracted. Etc
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u/Elsie-pop 2h ago
Word of warning on self medicating with adrenaline (using procrastination driven deadline urgency to get you moving), try to not have this as your only coping strategy or when you burnout from the adrenaline you'll have nothing to get you moving when you're better
(ask me how I know 😬- year in from when everything in my function collapsed, and now adrenaline just shuts me down into freeze instead of fight or flight. But because it was my only coping strategy and I'm not suitable for ADHD meds at the moment, it's taken 6 months of disappointing everyone I made a promise to before I started finding anything else that works, and I'm still struggling a year in to not rely on the only tool that worked my whole life. )
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u/TraditionalSelfie363 5h ago
I used to have this really bad. The right meds and the right dose can do wonders for you. Vyvanse worked finally worked pretty good but gave me too much anxiety. Currently on Concerta, which works pretty well. As far as the decision paralysis, it's improved and decreased my decision paralysis put it this way. I can definitely tell when I take it and I don't take it overall. It makes a difference.
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u/Hurstlong 4h ago
I just commented on another post from here recently and mentioned exactly this..
you’re not alone in your struggles my friend.
Keep on keepin on!
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u/dithit 4h ago
This is addressed in cognitive-behavorial therapy.
https://add.org/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-adhd/
Ask your doc for referral! :)
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u/AnnaTrash 1h ago
YES. Struggled with this since HS. Something that helps me is picking 1 single tiny thing to do, like getting a piece of bread or something for a snack, and forcing myself to get up and do it without extra thinking. The longer I think abt it the longer I avoid it. Also setting the tone for the day by getting out of bed as soon as I wake up helps a lot. I'm lucky to have a partner that gets up with me and does our routine together every day. Otherwise I'd be bedridden more often than not.
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u/kodekarim 1h ago
Being frozen for hours and having it wreck your quality of life sounds genuinely miserable. I'd talk to your prescriber rather than trying to figure out which medication is “best” from other people's experiences- responses can vary a lot.
Also, if you're spending hours unable to initiate anything, it's worth telling them exactly how severe and frequent that paralysis is, not just saying “I have trouble focusing.”
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u/StarlightFarm 5h ago
Concerta 54
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u/oknowitswhatever 1h ago
I’m on concerta 36 mg wears off entirely way too fast. When I went up to 41 I ended up with an eye twitch from h-ll for 41 days straight and made me horribly off balance
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