Why Neurotypicals Think you Just Need to Try Harder
People that don’t struggle with executive dysfunction (specifically, with initiating) assume that we’re not trying hard enough because the space between “trying” to do something and doing it is so small, it’s imperceptible to them.
If you struggle with initiation, starting something looks like this:
“I want to do the thing” ➡️
“launch initiation.exe” ➡️
“I am now doing the thing”
But for those that don’t struggle, the space between “initiation.exe” and “Doing the Thing” is so microscopic, it’s essentially imperceptible. Meanwhile, those of us with executive dysfunction try to launch initiation.exe, and the the program lags… or outright freezes.
So because those that don’t experience executive dysfunction don’t even know that the middle step of the brain initiating exists… well, they only see doing something as a two-step process, not a three-step one.
And if step 2 of 2 is the end goal, and they see you not getting to what is their step 2, well, obviously you must be struggling with step one: “I want to do the thing”.
They think you’re not trying hard enough, don’t want it hard enough because they literally can’t conceive of task initiation any differently.
They have no idea that there are actually 3 steps, and their brain-hardware handles step 2 seamlessly.
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