[Teanne]

All my life, I've been the type who has no enthusiasm for life. I know I'm depressed and am on medication. I have tried many medications. However, it takes a HUGE effort for me to do anything. I just sit around all day on the computer or reading and only do something when it is absolutely necessary. For example: If I see the dishes piling up, I finally wash them. I vacuum only when the floors look horrible. I do the laundry when I am running out of clean clothes.

I have two sisters who are absolutely whizzes at doing things. They are constantly doing one thing or another and can accomplish tasks extremely fast. I am a huge procrastinator. Maybe that is the name of this disorder. I just feel that I have no energy or desire to do anything. Anyone else like this?

[Cyllya]

No desire to do things sounds like anhedonia, a common symptom of depressive disorders.

If you have motivation to do things but it's just weirdly hard to make yourself do it, that's more initiation impairment AKA initiation deficit. (Psychiatry doesn't give this much attention; I only found out the name through resources on traumatic brain injury.) I have this problem, it really sucks.

Those are just traits/symptoms, not diagnostic labels. They can each be caused by multiple conditions. Initiation impairment seems common with ADHD and, to a lesser extent, ASD.

[Cyllya]

Oh, while I was poking around Wikipedia, I also found the term avolition. Also, amotivational syndrome (not an official disorder). I think those are both the same thing as initiation impairment, but avolition might be a particularly bad form of it.

[Teanne]

Originally Posted by Cyllya

Oh, while I was poking around Wikipedia, I also found the term avolition. Also, amotivational syndrome (not an official disorder). I think those are both the same thing as initiation impairment, but avolition might be a particularly bad form of it.

Thank you so much for this information, Cylllya! No doctor that I have ever seen seems to have heard of this. I have a new p-doc now, but the last one told me that everyone she knows is this way. I'm glad she left, and I'm on to someone a little more excited about psychiatry. I'm going to take this article in with me to my next appointment. It describes me perfectly!