If you have an anxiety disorder, your executive function can be impacted. This does not mean you cannot go to board meetings or wear important-looking suits. However, you may have difficulty planning and completing tasks, especially if those tasks involve lots of steps. In short: you have a hard time doing things.

You may find yourself becoming both overwhelmed and avoidant. One of my favorite ways to cope is by making lists. I am constantly making lists because my short-term memory is also affected by anxiety. When your brain thinks you are under attack, it is not going to waste energy on functions like remembering the name of the plumbing service you called yesterday, or whether or not you have milk in the fridge, or what time that conference call is supposed to be. So, I write things down. Writing things down is also a fun activity that doesn’t involve actually doing the things. See: avoidance.

Eventually, you may manage to do something on your list.

This is a big deal, and it serves to alleviate some of the anxiety you feel over being such a slacker. (Note: you are NOT a slacker. But your anxiety will tell you otherwise.)

You would think that having done a Thing (capital T) would feel good, and it does. But sooner or later, my anxiety disorder will start showing me film reels of the task I just completed and present me with a helpful list of all the ways I probably messed up.