Executive Dysfunction

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The bit from that article:

Sounds kind of like me. It's all the trillions of little things I have to remember at work (or wherever) that give me a problem. If I don't explicitly write stuff down on my Palm (ie Palm OS device) and then remember to check it a few times a day, I won't remember it. I forget things even at home-like taking out the garbage or things like that sometimes for days at a time (not that the garbage is overflowing or anything, but...) forget to put stuff in my bag to take to work, etc.

Not quite. If you imagine you have a gap between two nerve cells, neurotransmitters cross the gap. That is how 'messages' are passed on. But they need to be recycled. There is something like a vacuum/pump on the side of the transmitting brain cell to suck them up so they can be reused. What is happening in an ADHD brain is some Neurotransmitters are firing at the wrong speed and are being sucked up by the overactive vacuum before they have passed the message on. Some things like hyper-activeness (for hyperactive types) and stiming may simulate the brain cell to speed up the firing. The ADHD drugs on the other hand tend to work on the vacuum slowing it down. This is a simplification the firing and sucking are relative speeds and there are more complex processes and types of neurotransmitters.

ADHD is to do with the central and frontal lobe. It concerns both attention and executive (frontal lobe as well). But it is rare to get a clinically mild to moderate executive dysfunction with it. Mild cognitive dysfunction sounds ok, but in fact it is based on things like dementia / Alzheimer's and old age. You could say that a retired 65-70 year old could be a little shaky cognitively, but put the same dysfunction in a 25 year old they might not be able to work and look after themselves properly.

Simply controlling the vacuum will not help this. Attentiveness might make you more able to plan and so on, but it won't improve your recall, working memory or emotional blunting, character judgment, etc. Though in most cases of ADHD the improvement in the attentiveness is sufficient because there executive is not problem in itself but merely normal for ADHD ie, planning. Generally there are 3 clinical type of ADHD but scan have shown a possible 6 distinct types.

ASD co-morbid ADHD is a completely different kettle of fish. One part of executive particularly relates to ASD. That is the thing that affects your understanding of certain things. Like not being able to do 'oblivious' things without being shown how (or even after), like housework. I can totally relate. I have a hard time understanding how other people cope with life and jobs sometimes. This is stuff to do with fundamental understanding it is different from Dyslexia and so on. Then again we find some things easy to understand and are flabbergasted when others struggle when it is easily comparable to something else they are able to do, but just can't see it. That is were the term mind blindness comes in. So there is something of a seesaw effect going on there.

This grey area between the two things can be really odd. I've been on two types of stimulants so far. Neither seems to be working. With ADHD they normally either work or they don't. If anything I'm feeling drowys. The one I'm on is supposed to treat narcolepsy. I also feel drowsy after drinking coffee. If this doesn't work I will try a non stimulant SNRI drug.

Yes, this sounds like me! No problems at all with short-term memory etc, just with practical stuff (for some reason I just cannot think in 3 dimensions!)

This is probably a stupid question, but would this Executive Disfunction be at all related to how I can't remember lots of little details/things I'm supposed to do, or sometimes feeling kind of "scatterbrained". I need to know exactly how to do stuff-I want simple step by step instructions for stuff that seems complex to me (which unfortunately isn't always to others-and vice versa).

I’m not sure what treatment you can do for this if any.

When you said you cannot think in three dimensions, do you mean you cannot see three dimensional images in your head?

I can't actual visualise/imagine/see any images whatsoever in my head. It is only possible in dreams, which I have little control over. My consultant is writing to Simon Baron-Cohen about this as well as my long term memory problems. I believe these concern different parts of the brain. But I can't be certain where the problem lies.

Yep probably is.

I feel scatterbrained to the point of 'nullness' sometimes. That is like not really being all there. It is related to sensory too.

Things to rule out. Things like depression will cause periodic cognitive problems.

ADHD and executive dysfunction will be always there for more that six months to get a diagnosis.

I wanted to post this I put in another thread. It is an explanation of 'mind blindness' which involves the executive.

No - it's kind of hard to explain exactly what I mean. A good example is that I can't figure out a Rubik's cube because I don't see any pattern in where the squares move to when I change it round. But I have no problem whatever in seeing patterns in 2D.

So if I was, say, constructing something I wouldn't be able to work out how the bits fit together if it relied on these skills.

Another thing I can't do at all is do up the clasp of a necklace by looking in the mirror. My hands always go the wrong way, it is really odd! I also can't style my own hair for the same reason.

I don't know about working in 3D... it's not impossible for me. But it is a good deal more difficult than in 2D... or if I have to work in two systems at the same time. I can analyze one system perfectly fine, and maybe draw connections between the two... but the process of working both in real time... is very difficult.

And same for working in a mirror... it's down right impossible.

What I actually do is just close my eyes and work exclusively on touch. Touch is a much better than relying on my eyes, since relying on my eyes always tells me to do the opposite.

I thought the mirror thing was common?I cllose my eyes and go by touch as well.

I can't go by touch because my hands are really clumsy & the necklace is too fine for me to feel what I am doing. I need to be able to see it!

And if I have a diagram, I can figure out the 3D thing eventually, it's when I have nothing at all to go on except the objects themselves. Most people just seem to "know" how things fit together (or take them apart), but I don't!

Like I had no idea how to open a new type of sports cap the other day, and I was in a product launch. Everyone else could do it & it was so embarrassing!

I look down at my hands. If it's too short for me to see my hands, then I'm screwed.

I'm terrifically bad at school work, essays and such in particular.
I sit there, I stare at it, I think about it - And I get nowhere.
It feels like I can do it, I SHOULD be able to, but as soon as I actually try: Nothing. It feels like it's sort of slipping away from me.

Recently I've started being more systematic about it, and I manage to jot down a couple of facts at the least, but my teachers all complain that it's too brief and too abrupt.
And I more often than not get stuck as soon as there's any "bump in the road".

About the mirror-thing: I just fling my hand in a random direction - if it goes in the right direction, good; if it goes in the wrong direction, I put it in reverse. From there it's like one of those crane-games at the arcades.

Sounds like spatial awareness. Do you have trouble judging distances?