“Just pick something already!” If you’ve ever said this to someone (or to yourself), this post is for you.
While integrating decision-making process with LLM in my article, I realized something that should have been obvious: not everyone’s brain runs the same decision-making process.
Neurotypical path to choosing a restaurant: “I feel like sushi. This place looks good. Let’s go.”
ADHD path to choosing a restaurant (for some): Starts with excitement. 12 tabs open. 4 recommendations from TikTok. 3 DMs asking friends. Time blindness kicks in aaaand… suddenly it’s 9:30PM and places are closing. Paralysis: Pizza? Sushi? Tacos? Internal pressure: “Just pick something already.” Shame spiral: “Why is this so hard for me?” Result? Orders junk food and feels regret. Or asks someone else to pick, then feels detached from the choice.
This isn’t laziness. This isn’t indecisiveness. This is what happens when executive function breaks under load. What others experience as a quick gut choice becomes a storm of logic, emotion, time pressure, and internal noise. (And yes, a neurotypical brain can loop exactly like this when overwhelmed. And an ADHD brain can decide instantly when something clicks. These aren’t rigid categories. They’re tendencies.)
Emotions, logic, and body signals are all still involved, just processed differently. Sometimes slower. Sometimes faster. Sometimes with more depth, more confusion, or more energy drain. Decision-making isn’t universal. It’s personal architecture, shaped by how each brain feels, filters, and values.
And that doesn’t make it less valid. It just means their brain uses different settings.