ADHD Paralysis is Frustratingly Real. Here’s How to Fix it.
A “busy day” can involve doing absolutely nothing at all when you have ADHD, but it’s not hopeless.
Imagine being strapped to a chair, hands tied, while a fly buzzes around your head. You know the fly is there. You can hear it zipping past your ear, but you can’t swat it away. Now imagine a swarm of flies buzzing around your head. It would be an absolutely miserable feeling, but you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
For many adults with ADHD, this is an everyday reality. Well, metaphorically, at least. While we may not have actual bugs cartoonishly hanging about our heads, we do have the consistent nagging of thoughts that swirl tornado-like on the inside, and that can often give the same effect as being strapped to a chair.
ADHD targets, among other things, the brain’s executive functions: the ability to start, organize and sustain effort on a task. The results are analysis paralysis and procrastination. When we use the term “ADHD Paralysis,” what we’re referring to is that feeling of the fly buzzing around your head — you know you are meant to do a task, but you find it impossible to make any forward progress with it.
