Procrastination can be a sign of a serious disorder

Procrastination and Stress

There are people for whom procrastination disrupts a smooth life. Procrastination can negatively affect a person's social status as well as their financial situation. Moreover, so-called procrastinators are unable to change their behavior of putting things off. Thus, the vicious cycle of stress and procrastination keeps turning. How does this happen?

The prospect of a task that one either cannot or does not want to accomplish initially leads to stress. Procrastinating offers some relief, but the thought of the work being postponed lingers in the back of the mind and prevents rest. The consequences of procrastination that you can expect in the future can only make the situation worse.

Constant pressure quickly affects your health – irritability, inattention, headaches, and insomnia are just some of the effects of procrastination. The situation is even more serious when procrastination occurs in connection with ADHD, neuroses, or depression.

Delay and ADHD

Can ADHD be the cause of procrastination? People struggling with ADHD have problems planning their activities and concentrating on and completing complex, lengthy tasks. Therefore, they get irritated quickly, tend to forget various, even everyday things, and find it difficult to meet important deadlines. These aspects of ADHD can contribute to a tendency to procrastinate.

Cognitive behavioral therapy might help. It assists in replacing faulty behavior with correct behavior, enabling better time management.

Neurosis as a Cause of Procrastination

Anxiety neuroses can be another reason for procrastination. People with anxiety neuroses suffer from constant restlessness. Worrying about their own health, safety, and family takes up a lot of time – leaving little capacity to attend to other tasks. This also contributes to procrastination.

How can one determine that a neurosis is the cause? This disorder manifests as fatigue accompanied by insomnia, irritability, tension, heart rhythm disturbances, and excessive sweating.

Medications and psychotherapy can help treat neuroses. It is also worth trying to distract oneself from negativity.

Procrastination in Depression

Depression is a very serious condition in which the brain no longer functions rationally due to chemical changes occurring within it. A depressed person is downcast and overwhelmed by sadness and hopelessness. A characteristic feature of depression is unwillingness and lack of energy and capacity to carry out even the most basic tasks.

For friends and family who have never dealt with depression, such behavior might be completely incomprehensible. It is often perceived as apathy or laziness. Some respond to people with depression with a simple "Pull yourself together!".

However, depression should not be ignored, especially since it can lead to suicide in advanced stages. It is necessary to consult a psychiatrist and begin treatment methods, which usually involve taking medication and sometimes include individual sessions with a psychotherapist or group therapy.

Obsessive-compulsive disorders and procrastination

Obsessive-compulsive disorders are closely related to depression and neuroses. This type of dysfunction does not allow people to be satisfied with their own task completion, even if they have performed well; a feeling somewhat similar to excessive perfectionism. There is always something to improve; nothing is perfect as it is.

A person with obsessive-compulsive disorder accumulates negative feelings and thoughts accompanied by a sense of helplessness, negative thoughts, and repetitive reflex actions (e.g., cleaning, stacking or swapping objects, washing hands or teeth, etc.). All this restricts the affected person and does not allow them to deal with things that should be done.

These disorders are treated similarly to neuroses and depression—through medication, cognitive behavioral therapy, or group work.

Procrastination due to lack of sleep

Lack of sleep, a certain abundance of tasks, responsibilities, and stress quickly result in serious health strain. Symptoms of sleep deprivation include drifting off in the middle of the day and in unexpected circumstances, irritability, insomnia, lack of energy, and attention problems. These conditions also lead to procrastination.

Fatigue seems less serious than the dysfunctions mentioned earlier, but ignoring it as a cause can lead to severe consequences: autoimmune diseases (diabetes mellitus, Hashimoto's, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.), myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, or depression.

Sometimes, to avoid fatigue, it is enough to show assertiveness and delegate tasks to others. Furthermore, it is worth ensuring comfort and recovery opportunities when the body is heavily used—for example, by ensuring a healthy and balanced diet, exercise, and sufficient sleep quality. 

So how do you overcome procrastination?

It is of utmost importance to ask yourself these questions and answer them: Why do I postpone things? What kind of things do I postpone? What scares me away from them? Do I have time for important tasks? Maybe there is another reason why I don't want to complete them?

If procrastination results from a lack of willingness and cannot be attributed to other types of disorders, you can motivate yourself by breaking large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones and learning to plan time effectively while reducing time-consuming activities like watching TV, playing computer games, and similar.

If procrastination results from one of the disorders mentioned above, it is worth seeking help from a doctor or therapist. Neglecting such problems will certainly not help but can worsen negative consequences.