Your personal experiences with executive dysfunction

[Streetwise]

I’ve looked through past threads and read online articles, but I’m still not completely clear on executive dysfunction.

What are some examples of how it affects your behavior and life?

from what I’ve read in the previous posts I’m like autism plus one I don’t just accidentally get tiny holes in my clothes I managed to put huge holes in my close just by washing them can I ask is it a physical symptom of autism when you have very large big toes ,my mother was the same but hers were even longer .

 

[Apleba]

Someone else mentioned this before, but I’ve always had such difficulty with speaking/expressing myself verbally (verbal acuity, this is called). The details of whatever it is that I want to say get jumbled up in my head, and I can’t sort them or organize them, or there are just too many things that I could potentially say (that on top of also trying to figure out what I’m expected to say), and so I end up making no sense half the time. This is another executive dysfunction thing. And it’s really, really embarrassing.

Having trouble doing more than one thing at once, even things that you normally do on autopilot e.g. walking and talking at the same time - yet another executive function attribute.

That is really helpful that you mention it. I was puzzled how to call it as I have it as well and it severely interferes with my main occupations. It is not only embarrassing, it can ruin many possibilities, especially having in mind that we are capable of thinking and understanding those things, they are just too scrambled to be expressed in a proper manner, especially on the spot.

 

[Judge]

Guess I'd be the "odd man out" over this particular issue. I excel in executive functioning, especially when separated from any social interactions. Another example of why we on the spectrum cannot be lumped into the same group in "cookie-cutter" fashion.

One has to if they are to be successful as an insurance underwriter. A job I held for nearly two decades. Where all day long you make decisions that can involve a great deal of company assets and liabilities. And have the ability to overcome any "black and white" thinking, where you must at times use your discretion. The sort of position where if you can't make fast and financially competent decisions, they throw you out- and usually quite fast. And then every year they send you to the home office for additional training. Where you're tested and you better not fail. Making it a stressful job to say the least.

But when the job evolved into more of a marketing function than an underwriting position, I got out. I was never that "people person" to sell much of anything. Requiring skill sets that didn't require executive functioning so much as being sociable and having the right product for the right price.

 

[Kalinychta]

That is really helpful that you mention it. I was puzzled how to call it as I have it as well and it severely interferes with my main occupations. It is not only embarrassing, it can ruin many possibilities, especially having in mind that we are capable of thinking and understanding those things, they are just too scrambled to be expressed in a proper manner, especially on the spot.

I know exactly what you mean. It’s always made me feel like such an idiot. The other day at a meeting, I was asked to introduce myself, and I said, “Hi, I’m Kalinychta...” And that was it, because I couldn’t sort out all of the potential things I could have said or in what order to say them, also wondering what they were all expecting me to say, AND having all of those eyes trying to stare into my eyes. You’re right; it looks bad and can ruin possibilities and close doors.

This is why autistic people are known to say “I don’t know” in answer to seemingly simple questions.

 

[Kalinychta]

Guess I'd be the "odd man out" over this particular issue. I excel in executive functioning, especially when separated from any social interactions. Another example of why we on the spectrum cannot be lumped into the same group in "cookie-cutter" fashion.

One has to if they are to be successful as an insurance underwriter. A job I held for nearly two decades. Where all day long you make decisions that can involve a great deal of company assets and liabilities. And have the ability to overcome any "black and white" thinking, where you must at times use your discretion. The sort of position where if you can't make fast and financially competent decisions, they throw you out- and usually quite fast. And then every year they send you to the home office for additional training. Where you're tested and you better not fail. Making it a stressful job to say the least.

But when the job evolved into more of a marketing function than an underwriting position, I got out. I was never that "people person" to sell much of anything. Requiring skill sets that didn't require executive functioning so much as being sociable and having the right product for the right price.

Eighty-percent of autistic people struggle with executive dysfunction, so you are indeed the odd man out. But do you stim and have trouble with impulse control and find even small changes harrowing? I bet you do. All signs of executive dysfunction and hallmarks of autism.

 

[Judge]

Eighty-percent of autistic people struggle with executive dysfunction, so you are indeed the odd man out. But do you stim and have trouble with impulse control and find even small changes harrowing? I bet you do. All signs of executive dysfunction and hallmarks of autism.

Nope...my impulse control is pretty good in the overall picture. A number of us here like myself are firearms owners. A bad fit for anyone with real impulse control concerns.

Yes, I find change in general annoying. Yet I can adapt well in appearance, but I just don't like it. And it's something I know to mask in work conditions for my own good.

My only stims are pacing and swaying back and forth while standing. But they have no connection I see to my executive functioning.

But hey, we can't all fit a "cookie-cutter" definition that so many NTs seem to seek. Or as many of us say here, "If you've seen one Aspie, you've seen one Aspie".

 

[Kalinychta]

Nope...my impulse control is pretty good in the overall picture. But yes, I find change in general annoying. I can adapt well in appearance, but I just don't like it. And it's something I know to mask in work conditions.

My only stims are pacing and swaying back and forth while standing. But they have no connection I see to my executive functioning.

But hey, we can't all fit a "cookie-cutter" definition that so many NTs seem to seek. Or as many of us say here, "If you've seen one Aspie, you've seen one Aspie".

True, true. I brought up stimming, though, because it’s caused by executive dysfunction (physical impulse control), so you do have that one.

 

[Judge]

True, true. I brought up stimming, though, because it’s caused by executive dysfunction (physical impulse control), so you do have that one.

Yet for all my executive functioning, I didn't even talk in sentences until after I was four years old. Something I was not aware of until my mother told me when I was around 50! Go figure...

While I have two distinct forms of stimming, I really don't do them all that often. Though it seems more involuntary than not. And almost never in public. I suppose in that context alone you could call that a form of dysfunction. But to me the important thing is that I have no issues in decision-making, being punctual and being neat and well organized. Things important for independent living and complex jobs.

Though in terms of social interactions, none of this changes the reality of being on the spectrum of autism either.

 

[Fino]

Do you use Instacart by any chance? I use it all the time. It’s God’s gift to autistic people. It even says so in the Bible, if I recall correctly. In Genesis. “And then there was Instacart, and God saw that it was good.” See?

No, but maybe I should. I've been using Amazon.

 

[Thinx]

Yes lots of what others described applies to me, I can't multi task , I use strategies I've developed to manage everyday tasks like getting up and going to work or other places, often with muddles and missing items along the way.

I'm so used to it it's hard to realise it's not everyone's experience. I make lists use a diary have systems for tasks, not rigidly but usually I make a system that more or less works for each thing that's challenging, much as @Fino described.

 

[Fino]

I'm so used to it it's hard to realise it's not everyone's experience.

I had this too and it took me a couple days to think of what it is that I do!

 

[GeminiSagittarius]

Does this happen to anyone:

A lot of the time I don’t do things (e.g. cook, clean, shop, etc.) not because I’m lazy but because somehow I just...can’t. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s almost like a low-grade anxiety feeling. I think it’s related to finding change stressful.

But I read that this is a symptom of executive dysfunction.

Exactly how I feel.

It’s hell to me!
There’s so many things I want to do... but I just... can’t.

From the outside it might look like laziness, but it’s definitely not.
I can’t even do the things I would really really enjoy and love doing. I just want this crappy dysfunction to stop. I want to live my life!

 

[Kalinychta]

Exactly how I feel.

It’s hell to me!
There’s so many things I want to do... but I just... can’t.

From the outside it might look like laziness, but it’s definitely not.
I can’t even do the things I would really really enjoy and love doing. I just want this crappy dysfunction to stop. I want to live my life!

It’s a frustration you can’t even talk about with most people either, because they don’t get it and won’t accept it. Ugh.

 

[GeminiSagittarius]

It’s a frustration you can’t even talk about with most people either, because they don’t get it and won’t accept it. Ugh.

Agree!
Did you find some ways how to deal with it?
I’m still trying to find it out and how to manage it all.