If life is a car race, then having executive dysfunction means your vehicle is not working properly. 

The engine is top-of-the-line, the tires are excellent, and everything sparkles with potential. However, you were given a faulty ignition system. No matter how hard you shift the key and press the clutch pedal, the system refuses to consistently start when needed. 

Delays are very common. Sometimes, it doesn't wish to start at all, or the engine suddenly stops out of nowhere.

You either drive at the speed of a turtle or race near the speed limit with the risk of crashing somewhere. There's no middle ground. The GPS is glitching instead of giving you clarity on the road ahead. The radio is constantly buzzing, and you can't stop the chatter, and the clock is not even working.

As the driver, you struggle to keep it together even if you are naturally gifted and highly intelligent. You try to make it work and get angry, frustrated, and disheartened when it doesn’t. When you grow too tired, you take a backseat and passively observe while worrying about your lack of control over certain decisions. 

This is executive dysfunction, one of the most central parts of the ADHD experience. 

The distractibility, procrastination, forgetfulness, paralysis from taking action, and time blindness caused by executive dysfunction can be so crippling that some neurodivergent people consider it the most severe ADHD symptom.   

This article will go in-depth on what executive dysfunction is, the symptoms connected to it, as well as the consequences it has on your mental health. 

What is Executive Dysfunction?

Executive function is a set of mental skills tied to brain circuits like the prefrontal cortex (1).

They are responsible for a person's ability to do daily tasks like learning, working, and managing commitments. 

These mental attributes are also closely tied to a person's capacity to create, pursue, and complete long-term objectives by helping them start, organize, remain dedicated, and sustain efforts on the task.

Think of a goal you want to achieve, like running a marathon, reaching a certain revenue threshold with your entrepreneurial ventures, or successfully completing your university degree. 

No matter the goal, the mental skills required to succeed are as follows:

1. Attention to detail — Pay close attention and analyze what a task requires by comprehending its details, characteristics, and nuances.

2. Planning — Create a plan by accurately assessing the needed time and effort. Calculate the smaller steps you need to take. Think about how to prioritize them based on the urgency and your current abilities.

3. Adaptability & Flexibility — Be flexible and adaptable while completing the task. You should be able to adjust your plans if necessary. Be prepared to juggle and deal with multiple pieces of information that ought to be organized. Have the ability to switch between different tasks and contexts while making progress toward your goal.

4. Self-regulation — Constantly self-monitor yourself to fix potential mistakes, spot necessary readjustments, and effectively complete the task. 

5. Impulse control — Stay focused on the task by ignoring impulses, temptations, and distractions. Overcome fluctuations in motivation by focusing on the large rewards you will reap over the long term. No matter what, you have to put consistent effort toward finishing the task and not abandon it halfway through.

6. Effective organization — Successfully plan your tasks to reach your goal around other activities and responsibilities. Have clearly defined deadlines or at least an accurate perception of how much time it will take you. Schedule everything so you don't fall behind and reach your goal promptly.

In theory, reaching a goal is a straightforward process. In practice, it's a complex combination of multiple mental skills. 

Unfortunately, skills like concentrating for an extended period, persevering efforts no matter the challenging circumstances, scheduling, planning and prioritizing effectively, accurately perceiving time, and controlling thoughts and emotions to align with long-term goals all get impaired if you have ADHD.

This is the most common suspect list when someone mentions executive dysfunction. But, there are a few other ADHD symptoms that need to be considered as well.  

Action Paralysis 

Every morning, you know you must get up, get dressed, clean yourself, make breakfast, and start working. You are internally screaming at yourself that you should do it, aware of what you have to do and the consequences if you don't. 

Yet, despite all that, your brain refuses to get your feeble sack of flesh and bones to move and take action. It's as if there is a mental wall you can only scream at and occasionally punch in despair, but whether a door will appear so you can pass through is out of your control. 

Action paralysis can feel like the experience of trying to put your hand on a hot stove. No matter how much you will yourself to do it, your brain refuses to act.

Neurotypical people take this mental skill as a given, but executive dysfunction can significantly impair your ability to take action. Severe cases of action paralysis can make you feel like a prisoner in your own body. The brain is supposed to be the mayor who runs everything, but very often, the town folk grow rebellious and just ignore the commands. 

Action paralysis is an even worse version of procrastination because you can't even excuse yourself due to a lack of interest or desire to do the task. Everything you may need is right there, but the ignition system refuses to start. It's why people with ADHD struggle to start with most things, even hobbies and passions that they may genuinely enjoy.  

Forgetfulness & Working Memory Issues

Have you ever received a panic attack due to existential fear that you could somehow be having dementia despite being in your early 20s or 30s? How else can you explain forgetting to lock your apartment's door, losing your phone at home every other day, or forgetting what you were just about to say before you got interrupted two moments ago? 

If this is in some way relatable, then you may have issues with forgetfulness due to ADHD. 

Executive dysfunction can lead to challenges with working memory - the cognitive ability to store short-term memories and to utilize, organize, and convert recent memories into long-term or permanent ones (2) 

According to some theories, lack of proper activation and underdevelopment of the prefrontal cortex mean a weaker working memory. Other theories suggest inattention and distractability, which lead to memory issues since concentration and memory are deeply interconnected. 

According to the latter theory, you need around 20 seconds where you are fully focused, even immersed, in a specific experience to capture all its details, characteristics, and nuances and organize the information in your mind. Only then do you have a realistic chance of actually remembering that event or experience and potentially retaining it as a long-term memory.

Unfortunately, having ADHD often means you are likely to struggle to keep your full attention, especially if it's boring or not personally interesting. 

For example, school and university are notoriously difficult for those with ADHD because the degree or some of the assignments may be highly theoretical and boring. Even if you put in the effort, memorizing is very challenging because every word can trigger some thought, which triggers another thought, which makes you zone out, or the environment is comparatively less boring, so you get easily distracted.

If the ADHD mind is a camera, it never quite gets the chance to capture the picture at the right angle and store it. It also means that sometimes it takes photos in the most random of moments. This is why many people with ADHD are puzzled, because they have random memories that they remember with crystal clear details, but other experiences that feel much more important are already a blur. 

Randomly remembering bizarre moments happens because memories are most effectively formed when you are emotionally or mentally engaged. The brain remembers best when the object is novel, interesting, or unusual enough to capture your attention for long enough. So, random memories may not be useful, but they were stimulating enough to get you to pay attention for a sufficient amount of time. 

Understanding The Different Types of Working Memory

Working memory has different sub-types — verbal and non-verbal working memory.

Verbal memory is associated with remembering words and phrases, talking to yourself, and eventually developing an inner monologue. There are many anecdotal stories of people with ADHD reporting that they don't have an "inner monologue" or struggle to effectively talk with themselves, which could be due to impairments in verbal working memory.

On the other hand, non-verbal working memory allows you to remember pictures, sounds, tastes, touches, and scents in your head, as well as past events and experiences.

Impairments in non-verbal working memory can cause issues when recalling multiple past events. An impaired non-verbal memory can also mean you struggle to do complex sequences of events because of the large requirement for short-term information. For example, you may struggle to follow instructions, number sequences, names, etc. 

Finally, issues with non-verbal memory can hinder vicarious learning, which is the ability to learn and observe from mistakes and successes, leading those with ADHD to need more personal trial-and-error approaches before getting a lesson.

Distorted Perception of Time 

Executive function can be boiled down to your brain’s ability to bind together events over time. So, disruptions in this cognitive function will impair your time perception.

This is why people with ADHD are blind to time or at least myopic - having an impaired ability to see, consider, and care about events in the future. 

It's as if the ADHD brain has achieved the Buddhist version of enlightenment by being eternally in the present but without the cognitive and spiritual benefits you'd expect. 

You are forever stuck in the present. The past and the future are abstract concepts you understand in theory. They make logical sense when you think about them, but you can't really feel or experience them.

Not having an accurate perception of time makes it hard to estimate how much time you will need for tasks and how quickly time flies while doing a task, making it much harder to be on time. 

People with ADHD often miss deadlines because they misinterpret their remaining time. They also struggle to create realistic and effective schedules and plans because they can't properly assess how much time everything will take.

In your everyday life, it could look like taking a look at the clock to see it is 9:45, promising that you will get back to work in 15 minutes, and once you look back, it is 12:45. It can also mean not having any idea what day it is, or how time has passed for the past few days.

Unfortunately, the distorted time perception also tends to magnify the negative aspects of other ADHD symptoms. 

For example, being impulsive makes a lot more sense if future punishments and consequences feel vague and unrealistic. The intrusive chatter of overwhelming thoughts seems more pressing and urgent if you have the misguided belief that all problems ought to be resolved today because only the present exists. 

Time blindness also plays with the lack of object constancy since you lose track of time and don't realize how long it has been since you interacted with someone or were supposed to return to work. If you don't have a sense of the past and the future, you may struggle to care for or remember certain things since you can't imagine how long it has been.

Time Blindness - Delay Aversion

ADHD-related time blindness creates a delay aversion, meaning you grow frustrated, irritated, and impatient when you have to wait. Staying still and waiting can feel like torture. This happens because the impaired sense of time makes you less capable of waiting for the consequences of an event. 

Video games are highly addictive because they create an artificially high-paced environment, offering immediate feedback (reward/punishment) when you do an action. There is no delay aversion, or it is very little, meaning you don’t have to force yourself to wait.  Unfortunately, very few activities in real life replicate this quick and smooth way of acting.

Waiting for your WiFi to load the page, waiting in line in the supermarket, or even having to listen to your friend ranting for minutes can all get you irritated and grumpy. All of this happens because your ADHD brain can’t accurately assess how much it may have to wait or clearly visualize the future, so the interval (waiting period) becomes much more unbearable. 

Challenges With Context Switching

Have you ever fallen into the trap of social media, known as 'scrolling paralysis,' where you brainlessly binge 8 hours' worth of content? It wasn't anything amazing, memorable, or insightful. Yet, you couldn't help but remain glued to the screen until something snapped you out of the trance. 

Executive dysfunction not only makes starting tasks very challenging, but once you settle into one activity, it's very hard to switch context into another. 

People with ADHD can thrive in chaotic environments where they have to multi-task different assignments within a single project or field. However, completely changing the environment and context can lead to serious challenges, like procrastination, anxiety, and intense paralysis. 

Lack of Object Constancy

The ADHD brain adores the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" so much that it has literally decided to act that way.

Object constancy is the ability of a person to remain with things that aren't present right in front of them. It's the power of knowing that you are connected to loved ones and friends or objects, even if they are not present in the room.

Have you left a friend on seen, not replying to their messages for more than two weeks?

How many thoughts did you forget because you didn't write them down in time?

Did you ever get yelled at for not calling your parents for more than a month?

If you have struggled with forgetfulness just because it wasn't right in front of you, then that's an issue with object constancy. It has nothing to do with caring. You obviously love your friends, family, and significant other and care for important events. 

The problem arises because ADHD brains are highly visual and need the cue right before them to remember and retain the connection with the person, object, or concept. 

Sensory Overload

Are you easily overwhelmed by loud sounds, smells, or temperatures? Does the very idea of your skin touching certain fabrics make your skin crawl?

Sensory overload is a common symptom of executive dysfunction since the ADHD brain struggles to filter out and process all the information coming from your five senses. As a result, you may get anxious, overwhelmed, irritated, and uncomfortable from certain sensations since they are felt more intensely (3)

What triggers you in particular and how you cope will vastly differ from person to person.

For some, multiple co-occurring conversations or people getting very close trigger them. For others, it can be something mundane like intolerance to hot water when showering or an unpleasant feeling when brushing their teeth. 

The Trauma of Living with Executive Dysfunction 

"You are a very intelligent person. It's a shame you are not living up to your potential. Why don't you try a bit harder?" is the favorite quote of parents, teachers, or your boss at work while they pat you on the shoulder and look at you with a mix of concern and disappointment. 

No matter what others say, struggling to reach your goals with ADHD is barely a question of intelligence, motivation, and desire to succeed. Rather, the different way your brain works makes it immensely hard to take the right action consistently.

It's heartbreaking to know that, in many cases, there can be a gap between your brain's intellectual capacity and the ability to turn that talent and potential into action. It can leave you feeling bitter, resentful, and ashamed since you and others expect so much of yourself, but you struggle to deliver and fulfill those expectations. 

Key Takeaways

Imagine you are stuck on an island, trying your best to escape by building a raft with every resource you have, but no matter how much you try, you fail to make progress because the material isn't strong enough, the weather tears down your attempts, and something goes wrong halfway through.

The feeling of hopelessness and being out of control is very similar to executive dysfunction. You are full of talent and potential, determined to do as much as possible to improve, but something is always dragging you back no matter what. 

The culprits are the symptoms caused by a deficit in executive function: action paralysis, procrastination, forgetfulness, time blindness, sensory overload, and others.