Procrastination

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I'm having serious troubles with procrastination. I never noticed this before because I never had to work hard in school to get pretty good grades (8-9/10) but since this year I decided to aim higher (9-10/10) I noticed I find it really difficult to get started with homework, and I find myself distracted very often. I was supposed to get started studying history three hours ago yet I'm still here wandering on the net. And I don't think I should be considered lazy, because I do work harder in school than most other people I know (this year at least).

The main problem is, this really worries me because I'm afraid I won't live up to my full academic potential in university where surely more concentration and organization will be required, but I can't really "complain" about it, since my grades are in the top 1 percentile. For instance, if I tell teachers that I can't concentrate during tests because of other people chatting and other background noise, they laugh at me because I still manage to finish the tests and get good grades, but it is really distressing for me.

Whenever I mention the possibility of having something "wrong" with me the response is always "Oh but you're so smart". This happened with asperger's, when I mentioned it to a psychiatrist he said there was nothing wrong with me except for being "too smart" so I think it would happen if I mentioned ADHD, too, but I really don't feel that smart sitting here in front of the computer getting more and more stressed because I can't get myself to do my homework.

I can see that my post might seem a bit incoherent but that's because I'm rambling
The point is I'm frustrated because since I'm really good in school and quite chatty, it seems more difficult to determine whether I'm just quirky or I actually have some difficulties hidden by my academic success.
Does anybody have a similar experience?

I wouldn't call that "serious problems". How old are you?

.

Again, you don't seem to know what being really distressed means.



You're studying yourself to much. A lot of people do that. Do you have big problems in making friends and socializing, or something other than a "feeling" that would substantiate your belief.

Sorry if I came out a bit to harsh.

Unless you have some serious core issues with socializing like many of us deal with, I wouldn't worry about it.

What is preventing you from getting started? I guess the obvious answer would be the computer.

I'm 18. I understand it might not look serious. It is for me, though, because it causes me not to have real free time (the time I do have I spend worrying that I haven't studied enough), to be anxious and lose sleep and when the stress builds up my grades go down, which is something I do not want since I want to go to university and study for a really long time. My point is that they probably don't look serious because I am quite successful academically but they do make me lose lots of time - today I could have spent four hours studying and three hours relaxing but I spent three anxiously trying to get myself to study and four anxiously studying and now it's 1 a.m. and I can't sleep because I'm still agitated.


I'm not a native English speaker, so I might not have used the term "distress" appropriately, but what I meant was that the situation (difficulty concentrating during tests because of background noise) causes me to experience a significant amount of stress and frustration.



I don't think I'm studying too much, I think the problem is that my studying is not efficient.
I know my original post probably wasn't very clear, I just found myself really frustrated and had nobody to rant about it with.
I do have trouble making friends, but I don't have any "belief": I am stuck because I identify with some issues of asperger's and ADD but I am unsure whether they are "impairing" or not and whether the amount of stress and anxiety I feel is normal or not. So if I talk about it with both normal people and people who have worse issues than mine it seems like I'm a crybaby [irony] which is really good for my self-esteem. [/irony]

Well yes I do have some issues with socializing but that was not exactly what I was talking about.
I generally end up doing other things without the computer, too, but I don't know why, I don't just feel too "weak" which doesn't make sense because I know I'll regret it later.

Well, you do seem to have some serious anxiety and (imho) self esteem issues. Not a lot of people would of taken my remark about the word "distress" as regarding their language skills, yours are fine btw. I've only repeated the point I've made previously about your inexperience causing you to exaggerate in how you perceive your own emotions.

My advice is to seek another therapist. I don't see how a competent one would downplay your obsessive studying. Then again, a lot of therapists do try to downplay the problems of their patients when talking to them as part of their method, although they themselves are very well aware of the gravity of the situation. You could try confronting your therapist with this to see how he/she responds.

CocoNuts

You sound exactly like me at your age. I did well right through school, without any effort, but then when it came to the higher years and I needed to study to get As or Bs, I realised that I couldn't just sit down and study, like my peers were doing. I procrastinated over everything too. In the end, I never studied at all. However, I managed to do just well enough to get to uni, all the while feeling guilty and anxious about my lack of 'knuckling down' and knowing that I could have gotten As (and gotten into my first choice of uni) if I had studied. It's not like I was out socialising or playing computer games, I really was doing nothing fun or of any importance, instead of what I should have been doing.

I did the same at uni and managed to pass, without studying (I just procrastinated and felt unable to concentrate at all). I got my degree, but I left prior to the honours year (due to social anxiety), so I don't know how well I might have done eventually. I might have gotten a 2:1, judging by the grades I was getting before, but we'll never know. Had I studied, a first would not have been out of reach, but I just couldn't/wouldn't do it.

Even as an adult, I do it. I've not worked since my daughter was born 7 years ago, so my main job, when she's at school, is housework. I procrastinate about that and worry that I've not done enough and feel guilty and anxious, because I really had plenty of time to get it all done. I don't have any sort of diagnosis, but I do tick all the boxes for ADHD (the inattentive type), although I have Aspergers traits too and my daughter has a diagnosis of Aspergers.

My advice would be to speak to your doc about it. Don't be like me.

I meant to say, I bought a book called 'Smart but Scattered', to help find answers to my daughter's problems, which are similar to mine. The only issue is that I'm too 'Scattered' to read the book. It probably would help you, if you could find some way of getting through it, or homing in on the helpful pages.