executive_function epitome of incomprehensibility This sounds like something businessy. It's also how psychologists describe people's competence at getting stuff done (very roughly). One overlap of autism spectrum disorders and ADHD is difficulty with "executive functions" - especially planning and carrying out new or unexpected things. HARD RELATE. Of course, the symptoms or manifestations of ADHD & ASD (and I think there's a separate executive function disorder that's neither) vary from person to person. When I was a kid, I took things too literally a lot of the time, a (stereo)typical characteristic of autism, while my cousin L., who's some kind of autistic, is very good at reading implied meanings (but'll be kind of blunt when talking herself). Oh yeah, I'm reading about this because I'm working on my final paper for sociolinguistics. Which I'll probably be late with because I can't executive-function. Also, I ran into a problem: am I writing more about the communication issues autistic people have and how these are perceived, or am I talking more about the discourse used to talk about autism? (And ADHD a bit, but my prof said to focus on autism because there'd be more research about it already.) It doesn't help that "discourse" means something like general-ideology-expressed-in-language to the sociologists (e.g. Michel Foucault) and actual talking to the discourse-analysis sociolinguists. Gaah. It's an undergrad course I'm taking as an independent student; I don't have to be so angsty. Talk about Thing 1 then Thing 2. And, when done, I was planning to write an email to my friend H. talking about our phone call yesterday, mentioning the executive-function thing a little (she might have that without it being strictly connected to ADHD or autism; co-occurring depression, too, makes things tough for her) and saying, hey, ADHD-thinking has its upsides, like the pattern-recognition overdrive and mixing ability. Because I think, or I can delude myself into believing, that those patterns actually help me in my writing. But now I'm not in a mood to celebrate neurodiversity. Right now I'm more "I want to be neuro-getting-my-fucking-projects done, thanks and you're welcome." Also, essays. WHY Is IT ALWAYS ESSAYS? Anyway, I hope other people are executive-functioning as well as they can, despite the Covid19 stuff. 200430 ... leif Oh, how I KNOW THIS LIFE! eXeCuTiVe DySfUnCtIoN is my every day life. Learning more about this lately has me re-evaluating my entire life, especially as it pertains to my high school and university life. How many Fs and Ws are on my transcript simply because I didn't hand in the essays I worked on for WEEKS? I hold the deepest resentment for living 30 years of my life without the ADHD diagnosis I finally was given. I have so much empathy for you just wanting to /get it done/. Sending my best "adderall vibes" your way. 200501 ... leif Also! Yes, the inter-connectedness of all mental illness and their weight on executive functions is so valid. (5 times. I wrote 'life' 5 times in like 4 sentences. I need to calm down.) 200501 ... e_o_i Oh, thanks! Yeah, this mixed with anxiety is frustrating. At least it's not depression. Anxiety seems...more mutable, less all-encompassing. But maybe because it's not too severe with me and I'm lucky. Still: I haven't yet finished the goshdarned essay. Surprise! :) Solidarity! And virtual baked goods of your choosing! 200505 what's it to you? who go blather from