Executive (Dsy)function

I’ve found as I’ve gotten older that my anxiety can sometimes impact my executive function skills. For me that can manifest as a lack of motivation or task avoidance because it’s too overwhelming. Earlier this week I was hit by what I call a “bad brain day” where I was struggling to do what I knew needed to get done and the things I knew would make me feel better at the end of the day.

Part of how I got through the day, was reaching out to friends to talk about how I was feeling. Through those conversations I was able to process why I was feeling that way. Labeling and acknowledging the root cause of anxious thoughts often helps me move past them.

I had friends who provided useful suggestions of tasks I might attempt that would give me a sense of accomplishment but not be overly taxing. These friends are also good at respecting when I tell them thanks, but that suggestion just doesn’t work for me right now. Which I know is hard to do for my friends who are neurotypical and have never experienced being too overwhelmed to do something like eat breakfast.

However, I think the most sustaining outcome of my conversations was the follow up the next day. Numerous of my friends reached out the following day to ask how I was doing. Knowing I had a support network invested in me and rooting in me made it much easier for me to get back into my normal groove rather being stuck in an executive dysfunction funk.