ADHD Kryptonite: How Sudden Changes Impact Your Executive Functioning
Imagine this scenario: you’re set up to work from home, your day mapped out with laser focus—and then, out of nowhere, your doggie day care closes due to weather and your dogs join you for the week. Suddenly, the well-ordered structure of your day shatters. This isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a full-on challenge for your brain’s “air traffic control center”: your executive functions.
Sudden Change & Its Impact on the Brain
Whether you’re neurotypical or neurodivergent, sudden changes can trigger a cascade of effects across various executive functioning domains. Everyone will experience these differently (none of our brains are the same), but most people with ADHD, ASD, or anxiety will feel a significant impact in at least three or four of these domains at the same time.
It’s that last part that causes the “short-circuit” effect. For a well-regulated adult, it might feel like a freeze — you can’t actually move forward because your brain and nervous system doesn’t know what to tend to first.
If you’re not in your best head space, your irritability might spike.
Similarly, if you’re a parent, you might have asked yourself more than once: “Why does my child melt down every time plans change?”
For a less well-regulated nervous system, or a young child who hasn’t built up a bank of coping skills, this might feel like a full emotional meltdown (and it can look like a tantrum — even though it’s not actually oppositional.)
But before you can understand how to move through the meltdown or how to help your child get through an ADHD / ASD / anxiety meltdown, it’s important to understand why the sudden change caused the glitch in the first place.
Executive Functioning, Broken Down
Let’s break down how each of the nine key areas of executive functioning are impacted by an unexpected disruption like the announcement that your canine colleagues will be taking over your workspace.
Note: I’m not even getting into the chaos of a full work day, here. We’re JUST talking about what happens in that one moment when you find out that the plans have changed.
Attention
The Challenge: Your attention is the mental spotlight that helps you focus on the task. When new information comes in, it draws your focus away from whatever you were in the middle of.
The Impact: The sudden influx of stimuli — the phone call or text message, questions from your partner about how to handle it, etc. — forces your brain to switch its focus rapidly, leaving you struggling to concentrate. This can lead to decreased productivity (and frustration) as your mind oscillates between your work/play and the immediate demands of the situation.
Cognitive Flexibility
The Challenge: Cognitive flexibility is your brain’s ability to shift gears and adapt to new circumstances. It can also refer to your ability to imagine possibilities other than those right in front of you. For some, it’s a relative strength; for others, especially those with autism, or anxiety, it can be a major hurdle.
The Impact: In the face of unexpected change, such as rearranging your work setup or rethinking your daily schedule to accommodate your dogs, your ability to adapt is put to the test. For individuals who already struggle with this skill, the challenge can feel overwhelming, making it hard to pivot effectively when plans suddenly shift. For kids who feel safe when they know and understand “the plan”, a change can feel incredibly destabilizing.
Task Initiation
The Challenge: Task initiation is the drive to get started on a project or task. When everything is in order, you might jump right into your work, but sudden changes can freeze that momentum.
The Impact: The cancellation of doggie daycare is the perfect example of a non-routine task — it takes a certain amount of novel thinking to pivot and solve the problem. You might find yourself hesitating to start the task or procrastinating. The unexpected change can create a mental block where even the simplest action feels like an insurmountable effort, delaying your ability to find a solution.
Planning
The Challenge: Planning involves mapping out steps to achieve a goal. A well-structured day might suddenly need a complete overhaul when your environment shifts unexpectedly. Reacting to the sudden change requires that you hold two things in your brain simultaneously — your original plan and the variables that need to be accommodated. This taps your working memory skills, which are frequently lower for neurodivergent people.
The Impact: With your routine disrupted, your pre-set plans become obsolete. You’re forced to re-strategize on the fly—deciding when to attend to work versus pet care, rescheduling meetings, and reorganizing your workspace. This re-planning process can be taxing, particularly when you have to manage multiple priorities at once.
Organization
The Challenge: Organization refers to keeping your thoughts, tasks, and physical space in order. An organized plan can quickly descend into chaos with unexpected visitors—four-legged, in this case.
The Impact: In this situation, the collapse of organization, goes along with the planning challenges above. As you’re juggling the planning, you need to keep all the moving parts and pieces straight — cue the avalanche of post-it notes. The disruption can lead to a feeling of being overwhelmed and lost in the chaos.
Time Management
The Challenge: Time management is about allocating your time wisely and sticking to schedules. With unexpected interruptions, managing time effectively becomes a balancing act.
The Impact: Even though this example is about one moment in time and not a long-term project, it still has a ripple effect on your time management. The time it takes to reschedule meetings, get in touch with your backup dog walker, and mentally rethink your day takes away from the time you were planning to spend on another task. This also has a domino effect on your schedule, and it’s easy to find yourself underwater and stressed quickly.
Sustained, Directed Effort
The Challenge: This domain is all about maintaining focus on long-term goals despite distractions and setbacks.
The Impact: While this particular example may not require much in the way of sustained/directed effort, it can certainly take the wind out of your sails for other things you had planned (and we’re not even getting into the impact the dogs themselves will have on your sustained efforts throughout the day.) The effort required to regain focus after each interruption can be mentally exhausting
Stress Tolerance
The Challenge: Stress tolerance is your ability to handle unexpected challenges without becoming overwhelmed. It’s a critical component of resilience.
The Impact: A major change of plans can spike your stress levels, triggering a fight, flight, or freeze response—especially if you’re someone with less developed regulatory skills. The sudden chaos can make you feel as if your environment is unsafe, leading to heightened anxiety, irritability, or even a shutdown. Recognizing that stress is a natural response can help you approach the situation with more self-compassion.
Self-Regulation & Impulse Control
The Challenge: Self-regulation involves managing your emotional responses and impulses, ensuring that you react to challenges in a measured way.
The Impact: When faced with the dual demands of work and unexpected pet care, you might find it hard to control impulses—whether that’s snapping at your spouse/child or deciding to throw in the towel and just play fetch all day. The emotional roller coaster can lead to overreactions or a cycle of impulsive decisions, making it challenging to maintain a calm, productive state.
Bringing Compassion to the Chaos
Major disruptions, like having your dogs unexpectedly commandeer your work week, don’t just shuffle your schedule—they reverberate through every facet of your executive functioning. Whether it’s the struggle to maintain focus, adapt your plans, or control stress responses, every domain is intertwined and can be affected simultaneously. This can overtax your system and lead to a meltdown.
The key takeaway is to approach these moments with compassion. For yourself and for anyone else navigating similar challenges—be it your child or a colleague. Recognize that plans will change, and it’s okay if your executive functions feel overwhelmed by the glitch in your system. By understanding the specific impacts on attention, planning, organization, and the rest, you can better prepare for, and ultimately cope with, life’s unpredictability.
The biggest gift you can give yourself or your child here is time.
Take a moment. Take a breath.
In moments of unexpected chaos, remind yourself: flexibility and self-compassion are just as important as a well-organized schedule. Embrace the glitch as part of life’s unpredictable nature, and allow yourself the grace to adapt and learn from the experience.