Is laziness a trait of autism?

Post Reply New Topic

Maybe for some people...perhaps there are 2 extremes: the lazy ones and the perfectionistic paranoids? I say this as a person who cannot bear to leave a task unfinished or to let a spare moment pass without doing something.

I'm so glad that I'm not lazy!! I thought I was a lazy person, although I can't help but worry that I'm lazy at times, even AFTER learning that this "laziness" is inertia. Because I'm not an outgoing person(I'm sure that's typical of MANY aspies), I have a belief that I am a lazy person, even though I am willing to work(and one of my managers even mentioned that in my performance review), as opposed to not willing to work, and this is despite being told that I am reliable and dependable at one of my jobs(though I can't work at my first one due to financial aid issues, so I can't work there because it would be "overbudget", as my father took out a bunch of loans.) Anyway, I know I'm an introverted person, and like I said, I'm not outgoing, but I still can't help but feel like a lazy person, though I have put that aside to stop worrying about it. Thank God literally that I have found out about this autistic inertia!! And this is after extensive research on Asperger's(which is what of course I have).

The trait is mistaken for laziness when it is in fact not- its the anxiety of provoking stress that resembles laziness.

I felt lazy for a long time and couldn't quite figure out what it is, until I realised that I've a low level of motivation because of depression and ADD.

I'm both. I could be extremely lazy at home, but a workaholic on the job. It's hard to explain thoroughly but that's how it is for me.

It's both a trait of Pathological Demand Avoidance, which is a sub-type of Autism, and of the Schizoid and Avoidant Personality Disorders, which can be co-morbid with Autism. It's probably mostly due lack of socialization, which provides motivation for a lot of people. Isolation promotes laziness, and laziness promotes isolation.

yes aspies can appear to be lazy to other people even if they aren't. Like if you don't pay attention in class or you never do your homework without your mom helping you etc...


I'm pretty lazy myself.

No. Anyone can be lazy. I can list quite a lot of NT people that are lazy and won't get off their backsides.

That would explain why I FELT LAZY!! !! ! Because I suffer from inertia(which caused me to think I'm lazy), made me feel like a loser with no life, especially since I'm not outgoing, though I think EVERY Aspie has a life, regardless of whether he/she is at home all day or whatever. I mean, sure, most Aspies are not employed, but that doesn't mean that they're low lifes, and they're not. Like every Aspie, I have social issues, and them being unemployed is totally understandable. I learned the difference between inertia and laziness, and laziness is just not being bothered to do something, and has no regard for any specific task, while inertia is the result of feeling overwhelmed(which leads to procrastination and anxiety), depressed, and/or while also knowing that you'll do the task later, and actually do it. Trust me, even when I have a few assignments(hardly, and they're not even that long), I still get overwhelmed and I feel that it would take hours to complete, though I don't realize that it will take a lot less time than I thought. But yeah, I wouldn't count inertia as laziness, and it's not, because people like myself who suffer from it actually care about a certain task, such as getting a homework assignment done and doing a good job on it(you know, putting some effort into it). Huh, who knew that you can realize something AS YOU'RE TYPING!! ! It's happened to me so many times. Thank God literally I'm not alone! I also want to post this to assure Aspies who are freaked out by laziness like myself that you are not lazy! You just simply suffer from inertia! Yes, I know we are all lazy to a degree, but those who suffer from inertia are not genuinely lazy. Inertia is one of the many things that I thought I was but actually am not, along with being a cold person, narcissistic(yeah, that freaked me out alright!! ! D: but after learning more about Asperger's, I felt even better. Inertia shouldn't be something to stress out over(though due to my anxiety attacks I can't help but BE stressed out about laziness! It drives me nuts sometimes when it's something trivial). Like some people have said online, we Aspies APPEAR to be lazy, but in fact we're not genuinely lazy. Same could be said for those with ADD(as I also learned on the internet). I'm so glad that Asperger's has a lot of traits that ARE NOT directly linked with our personality, as my doctor had told me that my anxiety attacks are NOT who I am. Too bad that these traits are just not well-known .

Personally I don't think there's a connection to laziness.

What I have noticed is that other people who don't understand our sensory challenges THINK we are lazy when they see us retreating and just doing nothing. They don't get that we sometimes absolutely need our solitude and to just do nothing, so as to reset. Some judgmental and clueless people can be very mean in their ignorance.

Being on the spectrum, it's important to stay busy in productive things. I really think that if we find what we are good at and try to make a career in it (non-interactive stuff mainly), we have a feeling of dignity. When you know what you can do and are good at it, you have found a way to earn acceptance. Who cares if it is a different path than the shallow social acceptance of just being part of a meaningless group.

My opinion anyway.

I think "laziness" is little more than a judgment by people who do not understand.

I mean it is possible to be lazy, but often something identified as laziness is not laziness.

If I were splitting wood for thirty minutes, I would be in so much pain that I would have to stop, and I might not recover from that pain for several days (although I would probably recover within a day or so). People might characterize that as laziness, but to me it is more like self-care and self preservation. I know that something like mopping a floor requires far more recovery time than the time spent actually mopping.

Sensory overload makes everything harder and I'm not going to try to do anything requiring serious effort when my brain is trying to keep me from doing anything more strenuous than lying down.

With depression, sometimes it is virtually impossible to get out of bed, and if I do get out of bed, then the predominant thing is how soon can I get back to it. I just don't have the energy to be up and about. This doesn't happen as often as it used to, due to treatment.

I don't know if my "laziness" issue is the same as the others here.

I think my mind is over-working and it may seem to others that I'm being lazy because physically I'm being inactive. I'm often overwhelmed by the prospect of having to do things perfectly. Make the perfect decision and do it perfectly. That's what I'm often thinking. And thinking like that can make even the small things overwhelming because every little thing feels like a tedious task. So I tend to avoid doing things before I finally do them.

When I was studying I had a study buddy, who always started her assignments casually without a plan before I started. For me starting the assignments felt like a huge task because I wanted to be organized and plan how I would achieve the goal. She always came to ask me this and that about the assignment and that pushed me into actually starting it. Once I got it started, I was usually the one to complete it before she did because I didn't want to stop. I guess this describes my alternate states of "laziness" (not really) and focus.

At work some judgmental colleagues call me "lazy" because I tend to think deeply about little things and hesitate a lot before doing things. I don't act quickly and do things casually, with rubbish results, like others do. For some reason that seems to be making them think I'm lazy (probably because they also don't like me), regardless of the outcome. If you observe me and them, I'm the one who's always doing something useful and they are the ones who are sitting and playing with their mobile phones during work hours. It's ridiculous that those truly lazy people dare to call me "lazy".

I don't think we're lazy, I just think that 1) we get bored easily, so we get very unhappy doing dull tasks, or things we are not interested in 2) we have a lot of issues with depression, which makes it hard to be enthusiastic about things.

But if we are passionate about something we can be very hard workers!

Laziness is a human trait.

So much of this thread rings true!

I used to get called lazy all the time. (It didn't help that I had workaholic parents.) I wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult, and it was a relief to me that it wasn't just that I wasn't working hard enough, or lacked discipline, but that I was fighting against a very real obstacle.

I definitely exhibit what some here have called autistic inertia (not sure if that's a technical term or not.) I have a really hard time starting things, and if I'm not already enthusiastic about a task, it's sometimes just plain impossible. The flip side is that I sometimes can't stop doing things, either.

Then there's the whole low-energy thing. My energy levels are pretty low. When I was younger, I had a very fast metabolism, so I could get on a sugar high and keep things going. My metabolism slowed down as I got older and that doesn't work any more. I need a lot of sleep, and the fact that I'm generally a poor sleeper makes that issue worse.

And then there's the whole obsessive interest thing. This was a huge problem in school. When I was in eighth grade, I skipped my homework assignments in favor of memorizing all the titles of Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. My teachers thought I was just plain lazy and didn't care about anything, but I thought I was putting my mental energies to work on something far more interesting. Nowadays, I mostly get to work on things that interest me, thankfully.

And about that whole efficiency/avoiding multitasking thing that some people have mentioned: That definitely makes sense. I can't multitask to save my life. I'm also a terrible procrastinator (poor executive function?), but people marvel at my ability to just pull things off at the last minute. I seem to take less time to do a lot of things than the NTs around me, but I often seem to need the pressure of a deadline to make it happen.

The OP was not asking "Is laziness strictly a trait that autistics have?" Instead, the question was more "is laziness something autistic people are more prone to than others?"

To which I would say no. If anything I would argue that when autistic people appear lazy, it is probably often due to overload, stress, and other issues making doing things more complicated and difficult than they need to be.

Like, I often hit a saturation threshold where I have to stop doing whatever I am doing because the consequences will be worse the longer I put off stopping. This is something that happens with housework/chores and with entertainment. Last night I had to cut a dungeon run in a video game short (not too short, but still) because if I kept playing my brain was going to hit a breaking point. I was already barely able to play properly. Is it really laziness if it stops me from engaging in entertainment as often as it stops me from engaging in work?

We all have times where we don't want to put forth effort for whatever reason. I think such times are often mischaracterized as laziness, but have to do with other issues. Like, it's not just an autistic thing to get overloaded. It's just much much easier for autistic people, you know?