What is executive dysfunction?
It’s not willpower. It’s executive dysfunction.
Executive dysfunction is a difficulty with the brain’s self-management system, impacting skills like planning, organizing, starting tasks (initiation), focusing, managing time, and regulating emotions, making daily activities feel overwhelming despite awareness of what needs to be done.
It’s not a lack of willpower but a neurological challenge, often seen in ADHD, autism, or depression, where individuals struggle to translate intentions into actions, leading to procrastination, disorganization, and poor follow-through.
Thinking/planning
Limbic system
Arousal/survival
Any amount of stress can hijack us out of Executive Functioning
People often describe executive dysfunction as wanting to do something, and still feeling stuck.
- Task initiation: Starting tasks feels disproportionately hard.
- Task continuation: Maintaining momentum and staying with a task feels harder than it “should.”
- Task switching: Switching tasks feels jarring (and you lose momentum).
- Task disengagement: Pausing, stopping, or stepping away can feel surprisingly difficult (especially with hyperfocus).
Executive functioning includes:
- Self-awareness
- Inhibition / self-restraint
- Non-verbal working memory
- Verbal working memory
- Emotional self-regulation
- Self-motivation
- Planning and problem solving
- Task initiation
- Time management
- Prioritization
- Perseverance
- Creativity
- Perspective-taking
- How to ask for help
- How to self-advocate
- How to stand up for ourselves
- How to enter into play
- Self-analysis
Why emotion skills often change everything
Under stress, emotions become information and energy, but only if you can notice them, name them, and work with them. When feelings are blurry or overwhelming, planning systems can stall.
Emotional awareness
If you can name the feeling, you can choose a fitting response (instead of fighting a vague internal storm).
Regulation scaffolds
A calmer nervous system makes starting and switching tasks more possible, especially when stakes feel high.
Beliefs about emotions
If emotions feel dangerous or shameful, you may avoid the very signals that would help you prioritize and ask for support.
Self-empathy
Self-judgment increases threat. Self-empathy lowers it, which frees up executive bandwidth.
Neurodivergences & Emotion Skills
Emotions show up differently across people and neurotypes. This table highlights a few commonly reported patterns.
| Profile | AlexithymiaEmotional awareness | RegulationEmotion regulation | EmpathyPerspective-taking | ExecutiveFunctioning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADHD | ◐ | ● | ◐ | ● |
| Autism (ASD) | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
| AuDHD | ● | ● | ◐ | ● |
| CEN* | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
| HSP* | ◐ | ◐ | ● | ◐ |
| Trauma / CPTSD | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
| Anxiety / Depression & Perfectionism | ◐ | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
Research references
Selected peer-reviewed sources supporting the main patterns summarized in this table.
- Kinnaird, Stewart, & Tchanturia (2019): Investigating alexithymia in autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis
- McDonald et al. (2024): Emotion dysregulation in autism: A meta-analysis
- Song et al. (2019): Empathy impairment in autism spectrum conditions from a multidimensional perspective: A meta-analysis
- Milton (2012): On the ontological status of autism: The “double empathy problem”
- Crompton et al. (2020): Neurotype-matching (not autistic status) influences ratings of interpersonal rapport
- Beheshti et al. (2020): Emotion dysregulation in adults with ADHD: a meta-analysis
- Edwards (2022): Posttraumatic stress and alexithymia: A meta-analysis of presentation and severity
- Khan & Jaffee (2022): Alexithymia in individuals maltreated as children and adolescents: a meta-analysis
- Somerville et al. (2024): Emotion controllability beliefs and young people’s anxiety and depression: A systematic review
- Acevedo et al. (2018): Sensory processing sensitivity brain circuits review
* CEN (Childhood Emotional Neglect) is an experience; HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) is a temperament trait. They’re included because support needs often overlap with neurodivergent profiles.
Build emotion skills that improve executive functioning
Emotion skills that help you notice, name, and work with emotions can improve executive functioning.