Is it executive disfunction?
Hey newbie here. Almost every decision I have to make causes me to be anxious. I can wake up know what I have to do today, know what I want to do today and somehow never be able to start. Its like I blink and my day is gone, wasted on useless waffleing. I wont have done any of the goals I set for the day, I want to do a thing, but somehow never can start the thing. Ill sit there knowing, wanting to do say, laundry, gotta have clean clothes for work, it can take hours to get up and actually do it. The entire time ill be anxious/panicking because I know I need to do laundry but I just...can't. Anyone else struggle with this?
@LittleGoblin
Welcome to 7Cups. I hope you have a great time here.
It sounds that you have quite an amount of anxiety about your decision-making. It takes a lot of effort from you to get up and do things on your to-do list. You want to do your tasks, but it is so hard for you to get started. I can see your struggle when it is the time to make a decision and start doing it.
There are 2 parts involved in this situation which are anxiety and procrastination.
- Anxiety is causing by different reasons, such as things you are worried about or things that you are scared of.
- Procrastination happens when you are dealing with something you are not particularly like. The pain centers of your brain light up. So you shift and narrow your focus to something more enjoyable for you.
When you get distracted from your piled-up to-do list, you don't need to face your anxiety, but it does not take away the anxious feeling from you. This way of dealing with a to-do list makes you temporarily feel better, but it also raises the difficulty the next time when you face it. Meanwhile, the postponed tasks are kept haunting you and bring more anxiety to you before it gets done. The whole process is a downward spiral.
Both anxiety and procrastination had different coping skills. Welcome to let me know if you are interested in how to deal with anxiety and procrastination.
Hi, newbie here as well!! Honestly you put something I've been feeling, and certainly suffering from, into words. For me, some days are worse than others. One day, I might face the task head on with only a bit of anxiety, the next, I can't even will myself to make a cup of coffee. The previous comment did a really excellent job at explaining what I also do; I procrastinate so much. However, what I find that helps me, personally, is finding a sense of control: what do you have control over in the situation? I noticed when I was procrastinating, I was doing simple tasks that I had 100% control over. Folding laundry, cleaning my desk off, baking a cake, etc... these tasks gave me a sense of relief, because I felt as though I had gained some control back. However, when I looked at what was bothering me (recently, I have had to overcome my fear of driving in an unfamiliar place and talk to strangers. I put this off for literally months.) And what control I had, I was able to do what was eating me up inside. Even though it's uncomfortable, at times, still: it's doable for me now, and it's not overwhelming. That's my suggestion, based solely upon my experience. I do hope this helps; executive dysfunction and procrastination are terrible, awful things. I wish you the best, and I know you will overcome it :) take care
