I didn’t expect to see me in a comic, but okay. Thanks for calling me out in front of everyone.
But for real, I will neglect the most basic tasks like urinating or eating. However, if someone is with me, I become extraordinarily productive. It’s so weird. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like I suddenly have all the motivation and energy to do everything in the world. Then, when I’m alone, back to the stagnation or obsession.
Good ol’ fashioned body-doubling can do wonders.
What does that mean?
Having another person with you as an external motivator when trying to get things done.
Thank you.
Yes! Imagine a society in which the treatment for AuDHD was to send someone respectful over to your house to sit there doing their own thing while you accomplish your daily tasks 😆
Please do not pet or feed my service human.
This is a problem I have with remote work: in theory it sounds perfect for me, but in practice I don’t get anything (not interesting) done when no-one is around.
I thought that was an ADHD trait… or is this one of those symptoms that can be true for both?
But this explains why my partner will play the same game all day and nothing else, even though she has plans to work on projects and stuff.
That’s me. I will get “stuck” on something for hours and hours and suddenly it’s 12 midnight and I should have been in bed 2 hours ago. I just… Can’t pull myself away from it.
Same. This inertia is the source of all to many 02:something bedtimes and missed mornings. And when I don’t have my idleness structures available, that’s when I go both to and out of bed early.
Sounds a lot like hyper-focus to me too, but like most traits shared by ADHD and Autism, there are probably some subtle differences. Personally I find the inertia terminology to be more representative of my experience.
Sounds a lot like hyper-focus to me too,
No, hyperfocus, for me at least, is more like when you’re reading a good book, or playing a game, and you lose track of time, because, unsurprisingly, you’re focused on the activity.
This is more like knowing that you have to do something but not being able to get the energy to move. Imagine sitting on a comfortable seat in front of the fire in the winter, and you need to walk the dog. You’re already feeling tired and sleepy. Outside is really cold and it’s raining that horrible type of rain that manages to get in everywhere. The dog is lying on a blanket looking very happy, but you know you really should disturb him because he needs a walk, but it won’t hurt to put it off for a little while, maybe just to see if the rain stops.
Now imagine that feeling dialled up to 11, and you’re getting close.
Not so subtle I guess. I’ve experienced both these to varying degrees so I’ve just been lumping them into the same thing.
I do nothing for 3 days a week. Literally nothing. Even forcing myself to play a videogame with my family takes a lot.
If it helps, I know that feeling. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve got a kid and several pets, I’d probably only get up to use the bathroom and get food and drinks. Even the food and drinks are a struggle sometimes though.
It’s the first time i hear about it but that’s the exact word i’ve been using for years, including my recent interview for an ASD diagnosis. They seemed particularly triggered and told me it’s procrastination and thus I’m ADHD. It doesn’t help me not questionning my 1h speed run diagnosis
Yeah I thought so too. Body doubling is similar to what they’re suggesting here and is often recommended for ADHDers.
Today I learned a thing about myself. It’s probably why I get so locked down, waiting for some scheduled event. Like if I have a thing at 3 pm, I can’t start anything else, cuz I might leave it half done.
Or wanting to start things like a Pathfinder campaign with my kids or game dev. I don’t know how to start.
Any task or activity outside my normal routine takes tremendous mental effort to perform. It can be done and usually turns out to be trivial, but taking that first step can take hours to months. If it’s a new activity, it becomes much easier if I have a friend with me.
This is very relatable for me. I often find my internal voice shouting at my body to either do something or stop doing something, and my body just refuses to cooperate. And then of course I start to feel guilty/ashamed when it becomes clear that I should have done the thing.
I start to feel guilty/ashamed
Which makes it even harder to engage. Once the guilt and anxiety get bad enough, I frantically try to complete the task before seriously upsetting others. It’s never ending cycle of anxiety, guilt, despair, and relief.
The cycle is horrid, especially when I know I’m stuck in it and doing… well, the same thing I’ve been doing the past two hours and now it’s 10:44am and I… wait it’s 12:16pm and I’m sti… fuck, where did the day go and why am I still in bed.
Ugh those disappearing days are the absolute worst. I hate when I spend an entire week looking forward to the weekend and then Saturday rolls around and I spend like 7 hours scrolling on my phone
Looking at myself now and it’s two and a half hours since I woke up and I’m still doing the same.
Hey, this is your gentle nudge to maybe go do a thing. It’s okay if you can’t, but give it a try. I believe in you!
I opened the curtains and now sitting up a bit… on my laptop. Well, that’s progress I guess! I can at least study (not that I am yet).
You should try taking a shower if you haven’t yet! I find the sensory experience can ease context switching.
That worked, thanks. :)
That requires getting up… yeah, good idea.
I have never been more seen than this comic.
Inertia. I hate that word. I’ve been hearing it my entire life from my father, who clearly noticed this trait of mine, but instead of helping me he turned it into a means of piling on guilt and shame. “You have too much inertia.” “You need to stop having so much inertia.” “Why aren’t you fighting the inertia? You said you wanted to do this.”
I hate that word.
Oh, hah. Funny you should post this right now of all times.
Yes, I get this, a lot. This is the first time I’ve seen it explained this way and given a name. When I start something I can stick with it for a while, even to the point where I don’t eat or sleep or take breaks. I have a very hard time forcing myself to go to bed, or climb out of bed in the morning, even when I want to. Like, this is legitimately something I struggle with.
The reason I say this was funny is because I was just done posting something elsewhere. For context, I’m struggling with a bit of anxiety and depression at the moment, and one of my unhealthy behaviors is to dwell on things in my head. I was lamenting about how it seems that everyone apart from me seems to have this weird ability to just “not think” about things or do something else to distract them.
I wonder if the thing I feel I’m “lacking” is caused by this autistic inertia thing. I know the imagery is problematic, but it kind of feels like this is the missing piece of the puzzle as to why I’m having such a hard time and people’s advice isn’t working. At the very least, it’s almost certainly why I’m having trouble doing the other things people say help depression, like going to bed on time, eating well, exercising, etc.
Or maybe I’m just overanalyzing things, and all of this is just normal depression symptoms. Blegh.
I have a very hard time forcing myself to go to bed, or climb out of bed in the morning, even when I want to.
Yes!! Me too! It wrecks my sleep schedule or sleep. If I get on a routine of waking up early every morning, I will be constantly sleep deprived. If I sleep at my natural pace, will have ~26 hrs days, meaning I would go to sleep 2 hours later every day, and get out of sync with the rest of Earth.
I knew there was something going on with me!! I knew it! I knew! I knew!! All these people telling me I just need to go to bed early like I just wanted to ruin my sleep for fun and then complain about it…I’m having a moment of validation right now. Please excuse me.
I was lamenting about how it seems that everyone apart from me seems to have this weird ability to just “not think” about things or do something else to distract them.
Right? It’s like people can sit there and be calm in their heads. Meanwhile, I’m playing a song, tapping a beat, wondering about 5 different problems, making sure I don’t accidentally hurt myself, and listen to what someone else is saying at the same time. It makes me wonder that there may be some sort of mindfulness that would be helpful with autistic people. Rather than trying to not think, control what you think about and focus on enjoyable thoughts. I know this is a lot harder than just saying someone could do that, but maybe there’s a guide or program that’s especially helpful for our neurotype.
Or maybe I’m just overanalyzing things
I’m my personal experience, whenever I get like that and people tell me I’m overanalyzing things, it’s actually my intuition telling that there’s something there that I’m not fully aware of yet. It’s like my unconscious is saying, “Hey! Hey! Pay attention to this!! Something is not right here!”
I’m pretty sure this is an adhd thing because that’s almost everyone I know including myself.
There’s a lot of overlap between autism and ADHD. This sounds very similar to executive dysfunction on one end and hyperfocus on the other.
I have both autism and ADHD, and whilst it’s difficult to draw the line between the two, I do have some instances of inertia that feel more ADHD flavour than autism. I’ve also seen many of my ADHD friends struggling with something like this too, but it seems like it works differently than autistic inertia.
I think that there’s a decent chance that understanding autistic inertia will help us to understand ADHD inertia, even if they’re distinct modes
Me. I. This.
I be this do thing.
This is why I’m not getting up and getting coffee right now.
I like to say that mass equals inertia.
So yes, our brains have a lot of inertia, because they have a lot of mass.
Huh the finger trick sounds neat. I’ll try to remember that one.
Where can I read more about it? I think I have severe issues with that, preventing me from doing even some basic things.
Here’s a link to the research study the comic was based on: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631596/full
Thank you very much
There’s so many times I’ve completed a frustrating task off of this inertia and pretty much that alone. On the bright side it’s gotten be a grade of 110% on a few occasions.
Yeah my wife has some problems like this. She has no trouble starting tasks but sometimes I have to seriously put my foot down to make her eat, sleep, or just stop and breathe before she has a meltdown
