executive ordering dysfunction and AS

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Is executive ordering dysfunction always associated with AS or is it only when it comes with a diagnosis of co-morbid ADHD?

Good question! Mine is pretty severe...but my ADHD traits seem to be more prevalent than my AS traits...though I do have both...My partner Flakey is still yet even more of an ADDer and his are worse than mine

I'm wondering because some Aspies seem more capable than others, but maybe that just applies to their special interest. I have my strong interests but I am definitely not one who can store and retrieve facts.

Me neither. There are a lot of things that a lot of the Aspies I know can do that I can't do ( I hang out with an Aspie group sometimes)....but there is the visa versa too...sorta...We all really vary so much.

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 14 Jul 2009, 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

I am just realizing the extent of my Executive Disfunction. I was able to live on my own in the past and hold a job, and now I am married and raising kids. But it takes every. last. bit. of everything I have to hold it all together. And even then I still fall apart sometimes. I feel like the rest of the world has the secret that I don't have of managing to shower, keep their house clean and be a functioning human all at the same time. I only found out about my AS in January, and got my diagnosis in March, so it is all so new to me, this realization that there is a reason everything is so hard for me. My whole life I've wondered how I could be so "smart" yet not be able to figure out basic life tasks.

I don't know what I would do if I had kids...I would really have a very hard time keeping it together. Having children was really super hard on my very ASish mom.....She was in a state of constant depression the whole time she was raising us.

I help run a performance and arts venue, but the place is such a mess, and no matter how hard I try, cleaning will never come naturally to me..I simply can not focus on it....My partner's executive functioning is so bad that he really can't be bothered to do very much physical activity at all. Now that he has a laptop, it is like an extension of his body....when he moves around and tries to do stuff, he is sorta helpless....I really don't mind....we are both sorta spectrumy and sort comfortably exist "around" each other...We also have pretty relaxed standards of hygiene around here....We are able to because we are self employed....but there are ways in which we are so pathetically disorganized...it is scary..and it is not for lack of trying....
I am trying to hopefully get back on ADD meds so that I can be more efficient..but with the way we are set up and the number of tedious details there are to attend to...it is a maddening struggle even with meds...which reeely help...although they also make me hyper-aware of how incredibly messed up everything is. I believe in order...but I am only able to go as far as visualizing it...lacking the power to actualize it can really drive me nuts.

I have AS, no ADHD. I am not sure however what is meant by "executive ordering dysfunction". I don't have problems memorizing straight facts, but I do have executive issues in abotu every other area: can't plan schoolwork, am very chaotic in housekeeping, get confused by complex tasks as to what to do in what order, etc. I thought this is what exec dysfunction is, but now I see Aimless talking about remembering facts. Confuses me a bit.

I never really associated my executive dysfunction with memorization...

Executive Functioning problems are associated with AS, though not all with AS have them. Prioritizing is a problem for me, as well as breaking a task into steps sometimes.

ChangelingGirl You are right I was being unclear (i.e. rambling) I don't see memorizing facts as a part of executive ordering dysfunction- I was just going off on a tangent. -but you did sort of clear something up for me. I always assumed my EOD was a consequence of my ADD, co-morbid or not. I have problems memorizing facts and also with the planning and the executing. If I have a task ahead with no real clear starting point and I don't know where to begin, I suddenly become very very sleepy almost as if I'm drugged. Meds help some.

Executive function is one of the more severe symptoms I have. Way worse than my problems socializing. People don't realize how weird I am until they see me freak out over something.

There are certain things in life that I just DETEST and HATE doing. The idea of packing all my belongings and moving horrifies me. Also figuring out who to call and what to do when something breaks. Figuring out where to get something I need but don't have in the house also aggravates me. I'm quite forgetful on top of it all. I think it would be worth paying some kind of personal home assistant to take care of all the crap I don't like to deal with.

I also get really bent out of shape and angry whenever other people move my stuff and I can't find things I'm looking for. I have to keep looking and looking until I find the item I'm looking for. I can't stop and do something else very easily. I'll even cancel appointments and such because of this.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just extremely neurotic. So many little things trigger my nerves and overwhelm me. Then so many NT's are just like "oh well whatever" and expect me not to not react or get overwhelmed/stressed/angry. I'm a nervous wreck even compared to other aspies.

I relate to so much of what people have said on this thread. Last2Know, I could have written just what you said. I never realized the extent of my difficulty until having kids. There are a lot of things that "normal" families do, which we simply do not do, because they involve executive functioning skills that are way beyond me. And Poopylungstuffing, I have a very different kind of life than you do, but while I was reading your post, I kept thinking, "Yep! That's how it is in my house!"


The thing that drives me nuts is when people say things like what my friend says:

"Oh, I WISH I could be as relaxed about housework as you are! I have this terrible curse of actually caring what my house looks like, so I'm always stressing out about keeping things tidy. YOU, on the other hand, obviously don't mind having stuff lying all over the place. You are so lucky that chaos doesn't bother you!"

I have tried to explain that it bothers me a lot, and that somedays I get NOTHING done at all, because my house is such a mess that I can't even begin. It takes everything I've got just to keep the chaos at Level 9, rather than Level 10. It's just like the energy I spend trying to keep myself only mildly fat and out of shape rather than very fat and out of shape. As much as I would love to look like I walked off the pages of "Shape" magazine, that's just not an option. (My friend also likes to tell me that she envies me for not caring what my body looks like. "Oh, you're so lucky you can accept yourself the way you are, and not be obsessed with fitness like I am!" )

I have exactly the same troubles...

Grrr...I hate those sorts of comments. i am not sure, but I think that's a sort "passive aggressive" way of judging....that's the way those kinds of comments make me feel...
I am totally flabbergasted whenever I go to other people's houses...i am perplexed by how they are able to keep everything so totally neat and organized...They posses super powers that are beyond my grasp..and they apologise for "the mess"....My house constantly looks like an explosion at a thrift store.
I am so much more comfortable at houses that are unapologeticly messy...but I am always embarrased by my own mess...if it has to be seen by people who might be prone to "judge" me by it...not that I really CARE what they think...but I would like for them to understand the whole story and not automatically assume I am some lazy slob who just doesn't care..

My very ASish friend...for example...lives in an apartment that is like a burrow with piles of stuff stacked everywhere that certainly no one is allowed to touch...and there is a narrow path from his couch to the bathroom and it is cozy and just his way...charming and perfect the way it is..big pile of empty toilet paper rolls behind the toilet and all...

i also have trouble "keeping fit" because I can't "focus" on an exercise routine.

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 14 Jul 2009, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

@ Aimless: I think exec dysfunction can be a part of both ADHD and AS. In my college neuropsychology book, executive functioning is discussed in the same chapter as attention, and is discussed pretty extensively in the ADHD chapter, but it is also mentioned as a possible underlying neuropsych deficit to ASDs.

Ay my aspie meeting on Sunday, I talked to a girl who is more "purely" Asie-ish than myself...probably not ADD-comorbid..and we talked quite a bit about executive dysfunction...and the mechanisms behind it...and whatnot...and she goes through similar thought processes....getting stumped as I do on simple chores...we often have to "trick" ourselves into doing certain things.

She is able to maintain a minimalistic environment though, while all my obsessions manifest through my huge collections...making it more difficult to organize and maintain when one has executive dysfunctions.
I am envious...

If I had to choose to get rid of either my AS or my ADD traits...even though really they are all swirled together....I would certainly choose to get rid of the ADD part of me.