a lot more effort
I want to highlight this part. Part of the executive dysfunction is that intrinsic rewards don’t feel rewarding OR reward too much.
Filling out paperwork can be a short 10 minute task, but nuerotypical individuals are rewarded with a small dopamine hit for simply finishing it. I don’t get any. So anything else that is slightly more interesting captures my attention and energy. In my experience, I get a dopamine hit for avoiding the boring mandatory thing, not so much whatever the thing distracting me is. This quickly snowballs out of control and a 10 minute task took all day.
Likewise, things that are very interesting to me (video games, hobby stuff, the Wikipedia hole) can trigger a lot of reward and I end up hyperfocusing.
Adderall helps by reducing the power of those interesting things and increases the reward for doing mundane things.
Yep. Procrastination and then completing whatever the task was gives me the craziest “high.”
I’m not an adrenaline junkie, I will not parachute, or bungee, hanggliding is out, hell I have a rough time on boats and planes.
But Procrastination is the best when it works out.