Executive Funcion Anomaly -- ??

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The local medical people think I have poor executive function because they first forgot to send a notice and then set my new appointment time according to what an ambulance with a siren can achieve.

Oof That sounds really annoying.

I can look after myself. I can keep a job if its computer related quite easily.
I wouldnt be good at some timed challenge of having to organise something on the spot.

Yes and it's a big ask to expect somebody with ASD to have much of a handle on how well the people around them are able to perform these feats of EF, so how do we compare our abilities to those of others? Aspies frequently find other people rather like "black boxes" who do all kinds of strange things. We don't often ask people how hard they find it to meet challenges, and even if we did, a lot of people prefer to put on a front of competence rather than honestly admitting their weaknesses. When I travel between the USA and the UK, I probably don't look as if I have any more of a problem with the task than the other travellers do. Who knows how hard those people have struggled to plan and execute their missions? Everybody seems to look competent as if they know what they're doing, self included. They don't wear t-shirts that say "it took me 3 weeks and a ton of anguish to plan this thing and I'm terrified it's going to go horribly wrong."

Some Autistic individuals will be really good at EF, Some may be good at some parts of EF, Some may be really poor at EF... there are many forms and definitions of "functional".

There is no specific requirement one way or the other for diagnosis of autism relating to executive function.

Just like a lot of other traits, it will depend on the neurology of the individual .

Whether we are brilliant at EF or not is kind of a moot point.
Just like asking how many of us can sing, draw, run a mile under 3 minutes.... skills vary, gifts vary, none of us are the same. Best wishes.

I am on the spectrum for sure. As a kid, I had a lot of trouble in school, had obsessions, and typical ASD behaviors (pacing, hand-flapping, etc.). My executive function skills were pretty poor.

However, after reaching college age, I seemed to get a lot of my issues under control. Out of necessity, I learned to function at a high level, but it takes a kind of OCD approach: checking things 2-3 times, strict routines, hyper-focus, etc. --bills are paid the day they are received, the wallet is always put in the same place before bed, etc.

it is over-compensation for sure

My executive functions are neither brilliant nor dismal.

According to my BRIEF assessment, I have slight difficulty regulating behaviours and emotions, and quite a lot of difficulty with flexibility and adjusting to new situations. I also appear to have a bad working memory. My strength lies in problem solving, planning and organisation.

My parents also did a separate BRIEF assessment of me, and the psychiatrist wrote a note in my medical history about them being in self-denial about my difficulties.

I guess I'm about a 50 on that GAF scale. Have some things lower and some higher.

I had to look up circumstantial speech. That's me! Struggling not to try fit in ALL the details and still remember what I was talking about.

I will have to think a bit more about inhibition and self control.

I think my biggest challenge is my tiny functional memory. Keeping enough of a sentence in my head at once to be able to hold onto the meaning and make sense to others. It makes writing quite energy intensive too.

Because of the working memory issue I am forced think in an unusual way. When there is a subject that requires deep contemplation, I have to start out with a very vague impression of it. It is almost as if I don't have the words yet to pin the thing in memory. I am slowly getting used to doing this. It requires not being too eager to get it all sorted out in my head quickly but allowing a "picture" to develop over time. The negative is it can take a long time to understand something (which can sometimes cause me to abandon any hope of understanding). The positive is I do think when I allow the process, I end up with quite a deep understanding.

^^ Even with a presumably average working memory, perhaps stunted by trauma, I find it wise to spend a lot of time in contemplation if a problem is difficult. What I've often found is that one or more of the basic assumptions is wrong. This happens in both engineering and in social relations, and the errors are so well accepted that they are not even stated.

Over the past few years I've begun to much prefer a slow, thoughtful way of tackling problems, and I find it a good way to work. Salient ideas occur to me if I give myself time - such as a better way of doing the job, or the realisation that the result might not be worth the effort I was going to put in, or that it might even make matters worse. Things turn up over the course of a few days that I'd never have noticed if I'd just waded in immediately. Of course it doesn't work if there's a hard deadline for the result, but many deadlines are artificial and can be extended.

An article on superior thinkers noted that they take as much time as possible to make a decision. They wait for more facts that might show up, either from inside or outside. This takes a higher than average tolerance for uncertainty.

^
Right, I don't really see it as a coping strategy for a disabled brain. I see it more as a better way of solving problems, regardless of who the problem-solver is. Diligence takes time but it often delivers superior results. I sometimes think that some of the thinking happens unconsciously, because if I wait a while before thinking about a matter again, I seem to understand it better and new insights about it will occur to me, even if I've been sleeping or engaging in completely unrelated activities between times.

I have been around drawers all my life, but after I bought my first tool chest, I got interested in how it used all the vertical space except for sheet metal drawer bottoms. For over a decade, I knew that there must be a way to conserve volume at the sides as well. I think I must have been slowly churning over possible arrangements for over a decade before I finally had enough of an idea to start sketching. It worked out great. I now have a chest that is all useful volume, thin wood, and just enough air to let the drawers slide. It is made with no fancy joinry, and some parts serve two functions.

^^ all very true.

The first answer to a problem is often based on serious simplification. And I'm beginning to understand that all things are really very complex and simple answers are one of the biggest problems we have as humans, e.g. believing that one side or another in a political argument is correct. Most often both sides have some truth to what they're saying.

I do wonder what the contribution of trauma has been to my EF. Having been locked in a freeze response for practically my entire life is definitely a big part of how I am. Freeze and dissociation are not helpful for being consciously aware.

Connected with the trauma I always feel deeply pressured to do things quickly. Partly just to get something over with so I can get away from the people I'm doing it with and back to what I want to be doing. But also due to an impatient father who was always trying to teach me stuff and expecting me to get it right away. The expectation of "you're bright! You should get this!".
In recent years I have been working on consciously slowing myself down. Less haste and trying to be more present with what I'm doing. Progress with this is very slow (I want it to happen faster! Like now!). I suppose this is what the H is in ADHD. I never used to be able to see that at all in my behavior. I was Dxed as ADD and I agreed with the H being left off. Now I see I just wasn't aware of how I behave.

People might also be interested in this thread:

( A review of executive function deficits in autism )

The one I hate the most is going to the post office to get my mail.

I pay everything on-line and not much comes to my mailbox any more.

The post office called me the other day and asked to please get my mail from my mailbox. I went this morning and got it.

Out of all the mail, there was only one letter that was important. It contained my new bank debit card.

I was wondering if I might have missed a jury summons, but none were there. I did pick up a jury summons once that was three days after the trial date. I sent the judge a text message asking about it and he told me not to worry. I later found out that the defendant had pled guilty a couple of days before the trial and so there was no trial.