I’m an adult who has it really hard to move from an unfinished activity to another.?
I’m actually asking this question for a friend. In her words
‘‘For example if I’m in the middle of making a soup then I get all into it and then I get called by my kids to assist them with something, it is painful for me to stop and move away from my uncompleted soup-making. I’ve always thought it was some slight disorder, because although no one likes to be disturbed in the middle of concentrating on an activity, for me it’s quite painful and I ‘suffer’ to have to move over…’’
We’d like to understand what this could be?
Please advise. Thank you for reading…
It sounds like a version of OCD. I suffer from something similar in that if I have something unfinished it will bug me until I finish it, but it doesn’t usually keep me from doing something else.
Closer to OCPD, than OCD, possibly. OCD means you have compulsions to do things that don’t make rational sense. Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is typified by a chronic preoccupation with pefectionism, an abnormal desire to get things “just right”. Basically, being anal about things.
In any case it doesn’t sound like it rises to a level requiring concern.
I don’t think you can conclude that from the OP’s 3 sentences. Perfectionism is a possible symptom of OCD. OCPD, and indeed all personality disorders, extend far beyond “oh he’s so anal. It’s so quirky!” They are extremely ingrained and often disruptive in their own and others’ lives. One big “tell” is that she seems to recognize that her thoughts are irrational but unavoidable. A PD patient may consider others’ reactions to their strictness unnecessary.
Bingo. I have wasted a lot of breath trying to explain this to people (who are not psychiatrists, neurologists, or psychologists) who want to diagnose some famous, and very successful historical person with “mild autism,” or “Asperger’s Syndrome.”
People with personality disorders tend not to have a lot of insight into their problems, and think that the problem is other people, who abandon them, are unreasonable, won’t do what they want, etc., and until they are willing to admit something is amiss, and them someone spells it out for them, they have a lot of difficulty recognizing they have a problem. Someone with this exact symptom the OP describes, but as part of OCPD, would probably phrase it as “Why do my children always seem to wait until I’m in the middle of something else before asking for something? They are constantly disrupting me.”
Without knowing anything else about the OP’s friend, OCD is the first thing that comes to mind, but if it is genuine OCD in need of treatment, one of two things will be happening: the children will experience actual neglect (even if it’s mild); or the friend will have anxiety that is disruptive-- needing to finish things will cost her a lot of sleep, cause psychosomatic distress, like recurrent, disruptive headaches, or will begin to substitute rituals for the need for actual “finishing.” Eg, if she can’t finish making everyone’s lunch for tomorrow, she’ll rap three times on the table before she stops, and again when she resumes the project (this is the “compulsive” part of "obsessive-compulsive).
FWIW, you can be obsessive without compulsions, or compulsive without obsessions. A sex addict is probably obsessive. Someone overwhelmed by following superstitions because of a general feeling of doom, and not any particular obsession, is compulsive.
As the OP acknowledged, it’s normal to experience this feeling. It’s called the Zeigarnik Effect. So it’s really just a matter of degree. If a person is literally incapable of leaving something unfinished, it’s a disorder. If it simply bothers them, it’s just a case of being human.
The difficulties with multitasking, and handling complex situations , and making the plan ( in this case, the trivial plan, to come back to the soup ) may be Aspergers… or like it.
Maybe its just called 'unable to multitask".
I’m not sure whether the quote from the OP is actually expressing anxiety for leaving a task unfinished? It sounds more they find it difficult to stop concentrating on one task, and start concentrating on another. So it’s the requirement to shift attention from one thing to another that is difficult, not concern for not finishing the original task.