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.
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.