Is it “Just Modern-Day Life”…or Something More?

Author: Erika Kawamura, Psy.D

If your day looks something like the following, you’re not alone:

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP…then, you are off to the races of the day, regardless of how much sleep you got or how tired you are…and throughout the day, you feel you’re constantly interrupted while you are trying to focus on getting a task done by all the pings, dings, vibrating noises, and any other notification sounds and tunes that your multiple devices make that are vying for your attention….on top of that, you may have people constantly shouting out your name from another room because they are needing or wanting something. 

 

Many of you may simply chalk it up to accepting that it is just a part of modern-day life, and something you “just have to suck it up and deal with it.” While part of that is true in that we all have to find a way to manage the demands of life that is sustainable, it is also important to ask yourself a few questions to make sure important issues did not get missed, and in turn, have the opportunity to address these issues that may be making your life a lot harder:

 

• Do you feel as though you are constantly being pulled in multiple directions at once with your head spinning, and by the end of the day, you are feeling exhausted yet nothing got accomplished?
• Throughout your life, have you often felt as though you have to work harder or things took a lot longer to complete than other people?
•  Do you often feel paralyzed from multiple demands being bombarded at you or don’t know where or how to start tackling those tasks? As a result, does this often lead to not doing anything at all or not making any decisions?
• Do you frequently find yourself having multiple unfinished tasks or projects that you started, but you have difficulty completing them, tell yourself you’ll do it later (but that “later” never comes), or you simply forgot about them?
• Do you frequently find yourself having dropped the ball on something unintentionally, or forgetting one of the things you were supposed to do or a component of a task?
• Do you often feel frazzled with trying to get to places on time (and you consider yourself “lucky” if you are not late) or trying to find things you misplaced?
•  Throughout your life, do you frequently find yourself stressed from having to “always” scramble at the last minute (e.g. projects, papers, getting to places on time) and tell yourself “never again will I do that to myself”, but that reminder-to-self seems to go out the window each time?

 

If you felt that many of the above questions were descriptive of your struggles, it may be beneficial to further explore potential underlying conditions that may help explain these issues so you do not have to continue feeling as though you are constantly swimming upstream, & reframe the negative self-talk & labels you may have come up with for yourself as a result. Seeking professional help will not eliminate all your stressors & pressures, but by gaining clarity into potential executive function issues, you can better understand yourself and learn helpful strategies for managing your daily life demands and find systems that work best for you. Prioritize yourself, and resist that urge to “do this later”- you can either pick up your phone and call 267-861-3685, or click here to fill out an interest form and a member from our intake team will reach out to you.