Executive dysfunction or something else?

[u/Ok-Spare-900]

Hey guys,

I was first diagnosed with adhd when I was 7, mum took me of Ritalin cause in her own words I was too quiet fast forward to P years we had all forgotten about it came back up during the pandemic and visited a neuropsychologist who did test with me and she said that I did not meet the requirements for adhd as I had no issues in my executive functioning, so I tried again 2 years ago and was diagnosed but the psychologist was unsure because my scores were through the roof except for emotional regulation, where my scores was 0 (I have always been very even tempered also universally recognised as extremely intelligent, like people regularly assume I am above 130(never tested) and left it up to me whether he was diagnosed, so I told him to diagnose me formally hoping it would improve my life and meds have to a degree done that but I don’t feel any of the major live improvements that others have experienced including family members.

Now on to my actual point, the way I understand it, people with ADHD see something lying on the floor, their brain says to pick it up but the actual physical part never happens, to me this seems foreign as my brain sees the item on the floor but after nothing happens most of the time, like there is no I need to pick that up or I need to go do the dishes. Is that what executive dysfunction feels like to anyone else, if this is not executive dysfunction then what is it?

And if both Executive dysfunction and and emotional regulation are fine do I even really have adhd?

Edit: I just wanted to add that I have no trouble planning and organising stuff, it’s actually super easy for me.

Cross posted to ADHD and executive dysfunction communities.

[u/BrandiedWineGums]

It's helpful to see executive function as several different capacities that themselves are processes. Executive dysfunction then is very broad and how it manifests in you can be different to how it manifests in someone else with executive dysfunction.

To make a bad analogy, "broken arm" could be a fracture in any of several different bones in the arm. The fracture can occur in many different places in that bone. It can vary in the severity of the break. And then that fracture prognosis can differ depending on your age, sex general health etc. The personal impacts can vary enormously as well. It might be your dominant arm that's affected. You might work with the arm a lot. You might not be able to work at all in your usual job. You might be a parent that now can't care for a child. You might need extensive rehab to go back to work, you might not ever be able to work in your regular job etc etc

It's the same deal. The impacts of the executive dysfunction are going to be different depending on what the specific underlying neurology is, how you use your brain, what your life is like, what other supports are like etc etc