Procrastination : A Mental Health Disorder?
Does Procrastination induce a Mental Health Disorder or Vice-Versa
Procrastination is the avoidance or postponement of tasks that we find displeasing or stressful. The fundamental association with the habit of procrastinating is the desire to avoid delaying the task yet finding it arduous to do so.
Author : Aqsa Azam
Stalling a pending task for days and blaming your habit of being sluggish on the pandemic. Is this not what most of us have been doing since the coronavirus dealt a crushing blow at us? More than often we find ourselves compelled to perform a task and yet put it off for the next day just because we find it monotonous or are not in the mood. But being a generic procrastinator and suffering from the problem of chronic procrastination is entirely different yet hard to differentiate. Consequently, the piece of work is left unfinished (maybe for eons)!
What Procrastination is?
If we consider run-of-the-mill terms, procrastination is the avoidance or postponement of tasks that we find displeasing or stressful. The fundamental association with the habit of procrastinating is the desire to avoid delaying the task yet finding it arduous to do so. Moreover, it is heard from conventional procrastinators that despite savvying the crux of the task and the benefit it will fetch them on prompt completion, they are still unable to garner the momentum to get the job done and procrastination ensues.
Reasons for Procrastination
Customarily procrastination is closely associated with being lousy at managing your time. Incapability in meeting report submission deadlines or not extracting time for hitting the gym, can entice people to believe that you have icky time management skills. On the flip side, it is chiefly your obscured or overlooked mental health problem that triggers procrastinating cardinal duties. Let us look at some of the rudimentary reasons or delusions about ourselves that make us vulnerable to procrastination.
• The ubiquitous reasons for procrastinating a task include the fear of inability to do it prudently, concern about its significance, tiredness, or waiting for the adrenaline to flow through.
• The illusion that tomorrow we will have the motivation to finish the task, lets us get away from doing it, oblivious that tomorrow we will catch the very same feeling. • Dodging the emotional hassle associated with some duty, lures you to distract yourself, which causes procrastination.
• Lamenting and feeling disappointed with yourself about procrastinating can become part of the loop that leads to more procrastination. (Boada and Brown 2021)
• Self-doubt and Low self-esteem, lacking initiative, not feeling the pressure is also the reason why we prefer taking a rain-check on things than doing them instantaneously.
How Mental Health Issue Generates the Habit of Procrastinating
According to Joseph Ferrari “Everyone procrastinates but not everyone is a procrastinator”. It implies that only a bunch of individuals in the world are true procrastinators. Therefore, casually postponing a task is not a mental health diagnosis. However, in most cases, procrastination has turned out to be a characteristic feature of an underlying mental health disorder and not the reason for the same.
• A private sector LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor) in New York, Nathaniel Cilley believes that an underlying emotional problem can be debunked by seeing the problem of chronic procrastination. This implies that the two are symbiotically connected. (Phillips 2019)
• According to Cilley, the emotional turbulence of a person influences how he feels and behaves, this leads him to procrastinate, however, he may vex as the latter inducing the former changes.
• The emotional disorders regarded to have been associated with procrastination include ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), anxiety, depression, overeating or not eating enough, self-doubt or low self-esteem as mentioned earlier. (Procrastination 2019)
It is exhausting to focus on a particular task at a time for someone suffering from ADHD. The person hustles to keep his mind at one place and thus finds it difficult to concentrate on the task he is presently doing. This makes him want to focus on the next thing that comes along.
We already are aware of the usual symptoms of depression which include the lack of motivation and desire to perform a task. Since there is no desire or appetite to finish the job on time, the person (or we can say patient) keeps on procrastinating.
Believing the task has a harsh menacing demeanor ignites anxiety. Feeling that the task is too important to be done in haste or that it needs too much meticulousness or that they won’t be able to do it no matter how much effort they put in, ramps up the tendency toward procrastination.
What Can You Do To Stop Procrastinating?
Apart from the prescribed medication and regular therapy sessions, knowing the emotional roots that might be adhering you to chronic procrastination, you can plunge into retraining yourself to help change your approach to turn over a new leaf.
• Jump in instantly. The teething trouble of chronic procrastinators is that they believe tomorrow they will want to do the job. They think of their future selves as more impeccable individuals. Do not let this thought hover on you. Get started with your work before you can say knife.
• Be compassionate toward yourself. Recognize that you have a negative aspect and that you will try on overcoming it instead of emotionally grinding yourself or ignoring your mental distress.
• If the endeavor linked to the task is critical, you tend to stall it more. Break your tasks into chunks and take up each one of them one at a time.
• One of the archetypal habits of procrastinators is the intermittent cell phone check. Such distractions cause an unsought delay in the work. Prune the distractions as much as possible.
• Think of the reward that the timely completion of the task will bring you. • Also, bear in mind that the sooner the job is done the more time you get to mellow out.
References:
Boada, Alisen, and Dawn Brown. 18 Symptoms And Causes Of Chronic Procrastination. August 12, 2021. https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/procrastination/18-symptoms-and-causes-of-chronic procrastination/ (accessed August 16, 2021).
Phillips, Lindsey. Procrastination: An emotional struggle. October 24, 2019.
https://ct.counseling.org/2019/10/procrastination-an-emotional-struggle/ (accessed August 16, 2021).
Procrastination. July 02, 2019. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/procrastination (accessed August 19, 2021).
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