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08 Dec 2009, 12:39 pm

I'm so conditioned to blame myself for what I can't do even when I know now what I can't do is because of executive dysfunction (ADD diagnosed). Are there any strategy's one can learn to overcome it? I hate feeling like a lazy slob all the time. Once again I have a whole day off to get massive stuff done. I've been to the grocery store and now I'm exhausted. There are things to do but I can't seem to get started. Seriously, are there ways to overcome executive dysfunction or do I accept being able to accomplish maybe one thing a day? This is me on 80 mg of Strattera. I'm much worse without it. I developed tics on Concerta.


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08 Dec 2009, 12:43 pm

I force myself to do things but it takes me a while to start doing them. I'm guilty of this as well but I admit I'm lazy. I don't use the other word. Ugh.



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08 Dec 2009, 1:10 pm

You just described my entire day today.

Try doing one thing a day, then slowly increase.

Another thing I've heard of doing is restricting yourself to a time limit.

Like, "I will clean for the next fifteen minutes, and then I will stop." The room in front of you might look like a nightmare, but at least you know you only have to spend a little bit of time working on it. less pressure.

If you do that twice a day, that's a half hour - some of the smaller tasks zip by in that kind of a time frame.

Even if you want to keep going after 15, maybe you shouldn't. You don't want to feel burnt out. Sometimes I clean all day and it's all undone in three because I'm too burned out to maintain.

It might take a while to get things into great shape this way, but it's better to do a little every day than feel like crap 'cause you aren't doing anything... and then never bother getting started.


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08 Dec 2009, 1:17 pm

RampionRampage wrote:
Like, "I will clean for the next fifteen minutes, and then I will stop." The room in front of you might look like a nightmare, but at least you know you only have to spend a little bit of time working on it. less pressure.



That is what I have to do, and it makes me feel pathetic. Last night I needed to clean off my desk, which basically meant: throw a few things away and wipe it off, but I nearly screamed. I started griping at my boyfriend for not helping me, and he said "But I did the dishes!! !" and I said "Yeah, but you're not helping me mentally"... lol


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08 Dec 2009, 1:21 pm

Spokane_Girl wrote:
I force myself to do things but it takes me a while to start doing them. I'm guilty of this as well but I admit I'm lazy. I don't use the other word. Ugh.


When you say you're lazy-do you mean you feel like you can do something but you don't feel like it or do you feel like the simplest thing is overwhelming?


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08 Dec 2009, 1:27 pm

Aimless wrote:
Spokane_Girl wrote:
I force myself to do things but it takes me a while to start doing them. I'm guilty of this as well but I admit I'm lazy. I don't use the other word. Ugh.


When you say you're lazy-do you mean you feel like you can do something but you don't feel like it or do you feel like the simplest thing is overwhelming?



Both.



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08 Dec 2009, 1:40 pm

Spokane_Girl wrote:
Aimless wrote:
Spokane_Girl wrote:
I force myself to do things but it takes me a while to start doing them. I'm guilty of this as well but I admit I'm lazy. I don't use the other word. Ugh.


When you say you're lazy-do you mean you feel like you can do something but you don't feel like it or do you feel like the simplest thing is overwhelming?



Both.


I have been this way forever but I still tell myself I shouldn't. It feels disabling. Maybe because I come from "super achievement family." I have inattentive ADD and someone posted a link to an article here that said people with IADD showed normal brain wave patterns when relaxed but the brain actually resembled falling asleep when the subject tried to concentrate. That's why I'll never have a career.


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RampionRampage
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08 Dec 2009, 1:44 pm

I think of laziness as being not just an issue of motivation, but how the person feels about the tasks they are avoiding.

If you agonize over these difficulties, which you have through no fault of your own, then you aren't lazy. You're struggling with symptoms that make the day harder for you.
You wouldn't tell a diabetic to will themselves into proper insulin levels.

All of that higher thinking crap aside, I totally feel like a loser. Got to love the disconnect between the logic and emotional elements sometimes. :roll:

I won't call myself lazy but I can't commit to accepting that there are reasonable causes to the thing.


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