<title>executive dysfunction is telling yourself for two and a half hours that you need to shower bc you…</title>
<description><p><a href="http://sometimesyouhavetobebrave.tumblr.com/post/176652706044/executive-dysfunction-is-telling-yourself-for-two" class="tumblr_blog">sometimesyouhavetobebrave</a>:</p><blockquote>
<p><a href="https://mememic-bry.tumblr.com/post/174758972137" class="tumblr_blog">mememic-bry</a>:</p>
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<p><a href="https://mememic-bry.tumblr.com/post/174710491882" class="tumblr_blog">mememic-bry</a>:</p>
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<p><a href="https://mememic-bry.tumblr.com/post/174707792082" class="tumblr_blog">mememic-bry</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>executive dysfunction is telling yourself for two and a half hours that you need to shower bc you smell like your workplace and you absolutely Cannot do Anything Else until you shower, doing Any Other Thing <i>before</i> showering is <i>illegal!!!</i> but you still haven’t for some reason??? you’ve just been sitting on your bed in a towel scrolling tumblr for 2+ hours thinking “I need to shower right now immediately” and growing increasingly frustrated that you are still not clean and you haven’t eaten or done your laundry either</p></blockquote>
<p>ok actually no I’m reblogging this because a) I am clean now (and I smell amazing, thank you), and b) I had a heckin <i>Realize </i>and I wanted to share it with y’all in the hopes it’ll help someone else with a brain like mine.</p>
<p>I figured something out about myself a long time ago– it’s only just now occurred to me that I was in fact solving a problem caused by executive dysfunction, and I haven’t been implementing this solution lately because my brain went “that’s a relatively new term to me and therefore a Different problem that requires a Different solution”. thanks a lot, brain.</p>
<p><i>anyway</i>, long long ago, before I knew these fancy schmancy Official words, the problem, as I phrased it to myself, was such: </p>
<p>sometimes I get Stuck. I was doing something, or on my way to doing something, and then… I just. got stuck.</p>
<p>“Stuck” looks like refreshing my feed or dashboard repeatedly. or it looks like staring at a spot on the wall. or chewing my fingernails. or picking at a stubborn sticker. all the while, my brain drifts through various unrelated topics I wouldn’t be able to recall if asked. sometimes I can get Stuck for hours before realizing I am Stuck. sometimes I get <i>so </i>Stuck that I go to bed that way (feeling especially bad for being unproductive) and I have to just reset everything by sleeping.</p>
<p>one day I asked myself, “why is this happening? why am I stuck, right now, at this moment in time?” the answer, as it turns out, was pretty simple: <i>I was trying to make a decision, and I got distracted. I haven’t moved forward because I haven’t answered that one question or made up my mind.</i></p>
<p>let me rephrase this in terms of executive dysfunction: many people have expressed that it feels like knowing you need to do a thing but not feeling “ready” to do it. many with ADHD may also be familiar with the feeling of needing things to be “just so” before you embark on a task- you need your setup to look a certain way, or you need to set a timer, or have the right music playing, etc.<br/></p>
<p>when I get Stuck it’s often because I got lost somewhere in that setting-up process, and my brain took the opportunity to nyoom off into Distraction Town.</p>
<p>getting myself Unstuck is solved, 95% of the time, by tracing my steps back to the original decision I was trying to make- often something small and inane- and then troubleshooting from there. (out loud! verbal processing is totally punk.) </p>
<ul><li>“what was I trying to do?” </li>
<li>“was I trying to decide between two things?” </li>
<li>(the answer’s usually yes.) </li>
<li>“what were they?” </li>
<li>“okay, let’s decide. </li>
<li>“okay, that’s settled. let’s move on.”<br/></li>
<li>and then I am free as a bird to nyoom in the direction of The Thing I Wanted To Do All Along, in the amazingly disorganized, scattered, yet rapid-fire way that I do many things.</li>
</ul><p>so!!! in the case of my first post, where I hadn’t showered for 2 hours? turns out I had been trying to decide what music to listen to in the shower. (another hack: my chances of getting Stuck while showering decrease by 75% if I have music playing to help me keep track of time.) I couldn’t immediately make up my mind, got lost in thought, got distracted, and drifted. once I stopped and asked- “why am I stuck?”- then I remembered- “oh yeah! I wanted to listen to music”- and then decided- “I want to listen to Daft Punk’s <i>Discovery</i> album”- I was <i>finally </i>heckin able to shower. and also eat, and also throw my clothes in the dryer.</p>
<p>and may I add I only zoned out once, during the slow part of “One More Time.” :P</p>
<p>I’m not saying this is a foolproof method. sometimes I <i>don’t</i> have a reason for being stuck, and that’s okay! I’m also not saying this is how every adhd brain works. it’s just how <i>my</i> brain works, and I’m sure there’s at least a few who can relate. for those few, I hope this helps!!</p>
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<p>a lot of people are reblogging the original post without the update and leaving frustrated comments and that makes me sad! if I can find ways to hack my brain than so can you! executive dysfunction is a real and frustrating challenge, but don’t buy the lie that there’s no way to work with it or around it!!!</p>
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<p>!!!!</p>
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<link>https://www.tumblr.com/taydee00/780299472937926656</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Apr 2025 18:32:46 -0400</pubDate>