Can't or won't?

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This describes me to a T.

That sounds exactly like ADHD to me, not that I really know for certain, but especially if you get caught up in the details surrounding the task and have motivational issues, that's ADHD. If you have tea or coffee or something else that perks you up, you may be better equipped in your life.

I have the ability to get overwhelmed by nearly any task. It's dread, but I don't think it's all about how to sort out what I should do when, I get it just thinking about having to do it. And if it's a task (or social event with anyone who I'm not myself with, which is most people) that I've opted into having, (like a job) then the stress is way, way worse because I know that tomorrow I just have to face the same thing again and that this is voluntary and why the f**k am I putting myself through this day after day? But like league girl, often if I just get off my arse and do what I need to, and distract myself such that I don't consider stopping or something until it's done, I can do it no problem. So very frustrating.
This problem is disabling to me because I won't/can't always just do it. I have stopped trying to achieve things in life that require me to follow a specific schedule or something because it just seems downright foolish to think that 'this time will be different, I'll stick to it!'.
For example, if I get a job and the inevitable morning happens when I wake up and I've got this crappy feeling about working and I get worked up about it, I feel downright stupid calling in sick because I know very well that if I just go I will be fine. So I won't call in sick. But then I might not go in anyways and...and it sucks because even doing something wrong like this once can get you fired. I'm unreliable, and because of that all of my other skills and abilities are wasted.

Is lack of willpower a known, clinical symptom of ASD? I haven't heard it as such, but all these threads about motivation and structure and getting things done sounds like many of you think it is?

I never had ADHD but it was suspected when I was ten and executive dysfunction is also part of ADHD. I was diagnosed with ADD when I was a kid but I am not even sure if I ever had it since treatment for it never worked I got and the pills I was on for it and when other therapy improved for my sensory issues and other things, the ADD symptoms seem to have faded. I don't feel the same as I did as a kid but I still have listening problems. I can't sit in class and listen for long period of time if there is too much talking from the teacher. It makes me sleepy and I zone out and don't even know it. But someone can come in the room and it won't distract me like it would for everyone else so it's like they have ADD and I don't. What gives?

About willpower, I have no idea. It always seems like to me symptoms keep getting added to the ASD label as years go by. Even NTs lack willpower too.

ADHD isn't just about being able to pay attention to what's going on around you, it's also about being able to organize yourself too I thought. Like your own thoughts distract yourself.

If you're interested in something then even people with ADHD won't have a problem focussing on it, or so I'm given to believe. (If ADHD I is all that's wrong with them.) ADHD drugs are supposed to make everything more interesting in a sense. Like coffee or tea help me achieve things so much. But alas caffeine and I don't agree anymore (my poor bowels), and coffee, as much as I love it, either is cross-contaminated with a glutinous grain too much too often for it to be safe for me in terms of my celiac disease, or the coffee itself is making my immune system act of.

I was told that was OCD because they are intrusive and that is what OCD is, intrusive thoughts.

As a kid I did have problems in class paying attention because one side of my mind go too fast and the other side would go too slow so it gave me problems with processing the information and my school said I had a short attention span. Now i am not sure anyone if I actually have attention problems or a short attention span after my mom told me this about me.

I was also hyper and impulsive, did stuff I was not aware of and my school said I had ADD but treatment I was getting for it wasn't working so my mom knew I had something else. I was even on pills for it too and why my parents kept me on them even though they were not working is beyond me or did it take them two years to figure that out. I even had a doctor that said I had ADD after she did tests with me and also mentioned me being disorganized even though I kept my room clean and kept my toys together and didn't lose pieces to them like most kids do.

That is why I say labels are so complicated and why people shouldn't self diagnose because there is a overlap in symptoms.

Don't....

LOL!

I'm like this too.

Actually, I believe that irrelevant and (usually) emotionally neutral random thoughts interfering with your ability to pursue a coherent line of thought or action constitute thought interference, which is a totally separate phenomenon from OCD.

The key difference with intrusive thoughts is that intrusive thoughts are never emotionally neutral: They are always anxiety- and fear-provoking. As well, the emphasis is different: In OCD, you have a certain set of thoughts that keep coming up against your will that have an upsetting content; the problem is the content of the thoughts themselves and your constant reference to them. In thought interference, on the other hand, what doesn't matter so much is the content of the thoughts; rather, what is emphasized is the fact that you have reduced concentration resulting from these interfering thoughts.

Thought interference is often associated with psychosis, particularly schizophrenia, as one of the basic symptoms, but based on self-reports it seems to occur as well in ADHD and ASD.

There may be another important difference, though, as in ASD you often have restricted interests. You may have a tendency to think about the restricted interests and the thought distracts you. Here, there is no loss of capacity to pursue a coherent line of thought, only that your restricted interests need to be better managed.

I think an issue comes where multiple tasks are required. When you clean your house, you engage in all sorts of different activities. Generally, when I do a cleaning activity I only rev myself up for one activity; when that is done, it is at least hard for me to go on to anything else.

"Usually won't for me. I am fully capable of doing dishes or running errands but I don't because I get overwhelmed or caught up in my special interest. I get overwhelmed by the thought of something like errands or cleaning or cooking because I start thinking of all the steps that goes into them and then I'm like "wow, I'm overwhelmed by just the thought of the steps required, maybe I'll do it later when I'm less overwhelmed". And then I usually don't get to it. This is why I'm told I'm lazy. And maybe I am... I don't know."

One reason I'm not sure of my diagnosis is because there's not much info out there (other than on WP) about the disorganized/low-systemizing form of AS or High-functioning Autism....which would be me. Yet, the more I learn about it the more I feel my organizational and memory issues are not all due to Extreme Mental Laziness and Procrastination, as I once thought they were, but may be due to hardwired disinterest in most topics....topping MY list of which, would be the mundane practice of Cleaning House. Of course, the lazy person wants an excuse for everything, right? :/ NO! Maybe. Can't or Won't? Even I don't know.

Not doing something because you are overwhelmed by it is not laziness, it's executive dysfunction. If people don't feel overwhelmed by something and choose not to do it that is laziness.

I have no idea what that feels like.

Thank you Penseive. Your post helps me understand more about how executive dysfunction works. This makes sense to me. Sometimes I feel like I can't do something because I just feel a frustrating and overwhelming blank about how to go about it. My husband has sometimes asked me to plan stuff or organize things in a certain way and I just feel a big blank and it's a very overwhelming kind of feeling. Sometimes it takes me months or even years to start on a project that I want to do because my mind just can't wrap itself around the concept of how to get it done even if it is explained to me. Sometimes it seems like the project is miles away and insurmountable even though it could be a relatively simple task. But once my mind is ready I tend to get it done extremely well and often much better and much more thoroughly than others. Does this sound like executive function to you? I have heard that term a lot here on WP, I had never heard it before. I looked it up but the definition did not say much to me other than the obvious. But I wonder if these feelings or "blocks" I get are that.

I really need to clean my room, it's gross by my standards, and the biohazards are barely under control, but I did take out the trash today.

I usually think of it as "won't", not "can't" for me. The truth is that I can, but I just want to procrastinate moar moar moar on my computer, ipad, or iphone.

What if you had a load in the washer, a load in the dryer and you got done folding clothes and now you have to wait for the others to dry, do you wait for those two loads to get done before moving onto the next chore or do you do the next chore while the other load is drying and the other one is washing?

Cleaning the kitchen counters and cutting board makes logical good sense to me because otherwise those areas can harbor food-born bacteria. So congratulations on focusing on what is likely the most important cleaning chore, health-wise.

I once enjoyed collecting old books, and had a self-improvement book from around the 1900's with a title something like "A Better Life Through Will Training". Investigating further I found what seemed to be a Victorian Anglo/German pre-occupation with this topic of willpower.

To me it is thought provoking that a "can't vs. won't" discussion seems to center on the matter of willpower, and may thus be in danger of discounting over a century of advances in neurosciences and mental health.