Are these examples of Executive Dysfunction?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm not so clear with what is normal and what's not in terms of executive functioning. I have noticed across the years that I have struggled with many things possibly linked to it, though for the sake of reducing clutter I'm only going to list a few. Here we go:

1. When I play games that require planning and multitasking (such as RTS games) I will often be in a situation where I feel I know exactly what I need to do, however when it comes to making a decision I sort of lock-up and become stressed and keep doing nothing, and then start losing the game. It isn't a matter of game knowledge or skill (afterwards I can easily recognize what went wrong). This is incredibly hard to explain properly.

2. When playing games like chess, if I attempt to make plans for future moves I often end up making a somewhat impulsive decision that neglects what I had previously planned to avoid. It's as if I had completely forgotten having noticed that a piece could take mine if I moved to a certain square for example.

3. I seem to have some type of auditory processing problem, and I have no idea if it's related to attention or not. I have trouble following verbal instruction (not severely), and I'm always asking people to repeat themselves, and it really annoys some of them. I will hear the sound, but not the speech. Again, hard to explain.

There are definitely more examples I could give for each, and I could list more problems. I just don't know how normal they are.

_________________
Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk

I think 1 is analysis paralysis.
2 seems to me like distraction. If you watch tv, when you watch tv, do you change to the wrong channel, when you want to change channel? If yes, then I think it's possibly attention.
I think 3 may be poor working memory.
I think these problems are normal

I also relate to those three.
In chess specifically I am not a good player, not because I am not good at reasoning but because I forget things. Like, I start thinking of a strategy and then I forget what I was thinking about. The same goes with logic problems! I am good at logic but I forget stuff before reaching a conclusion. It is like: "if I do A she will do B, but then if I answer with C she will do D; however if I start with A and she does E, will it be better? wait, better than what? what was the other strategy she could do instead? damn it, I forgot. Let's start again, If I do A she will do E, or C, no, wait... was it D? no, no, wait, what is it I want to know?"
and then my time to play is almost over and I get anxious and play anything and lose.
Not like that, more like sensations than words but you get the idea. I have trouble finishing logic problems because of that despite having good reasoning. I can't hold things in my memory enough time to get a solution. I think this is poor working memory, not executive dysfunction

1 sounds like executive dysfunction. we are required to do a task and can't plan and decide stuff and end up doing nothing. this in school children can be labelled as "laziness", "irresponsability" etc. but it's executive dysfunction

3 is very common in aspies that have trouble with verbal instructions and prefer things written down step by step. I don't think this is executive dysfunction though. because I have trouble with it even if they are not instructions, like lectures. If you want me to learn something give me a book, not a class. visual stimuli work much better

I can relate to three mostly. I am inconsistent with it but that happens to me a lot.

I don't play chess but I have had similar things like 2 and even 1 happen to me as well but not as often as with 3.

For a meaningful diagnosis of executive dysfunction, we need real life situations which are routine, socially inappropriate and cause suffering to the individual concerned. Executive dysfunction is an aspect of many significant psychological/psychiatric disorders, from ADHD to addiction problems to psychotic illnesses to Asperger's.

The examples here are from games and trivial pastimes, or from what sounds to be like quite normal lack of attention.

Executive dysfunction wrecks lives - most of us will have stories about how we've turned up late for a meeting, missed a deadline, said something completely inappropriate, etc., because of hyperfocus or distractability. But not being great at chess, computer games or watching TV isn't enough to warrant a diagnosis of this catastrophic dimension of so many mental health problems.

Equally, lots of people require things explained to them lots of times, and just don't listen with much attention or focus, and don't draw meaningful conclusions from what's being said. NTs can be staggeringly inattentive, and often don't hear the data in communication at all, dwelling either on their own emotions (as to so many people with ASDs, but in a different way). If you've ever managed people through a task, you'll realise that it is breathtaking the inattention that people bring to important situations. Often this is a dimension of intelligence or effort, rather than a psychiatric disorder, but no-one wants to hear that.

I always thought it is a statement from the NT perspective.

They perceive functional differences, and those differences are "executive dysfunctions".

Those are all examples of mild executive dysfunction, of the sort often seen in autism and ADHD. At least the first two are problems that just make it harder to play games, so that's not a huge problem; on the other hand, they probably crop up in your everyday life, too.

By the way, with instructions--I think the best way to cope with that would be to actually write down the steps. That's what I do. NTs around me don't seem to mind; in fact, a few times they seem impressed that I care about following their instructions properly. Which, of course, I do; otherwise I wouldn't be writing them down. They just don't realize just how badly I'd mess up if I didn't have my notes to refer to!

guys, the OP is not saying the three situations he gave are his executive function problems, they were just examples to know whether they are part of his executive dysfunction or not. This is how I understood it at least.