Inertia

Written by Livia Farkas || First published: 6 March, 2025 | Last edited: 6 March, 2025 || 📚🕒 Reading Time: 4 minutes

Inertia in the neurodivergent context refers to difficulty starting, stopping, and switching between activities – even when you want to do them. While it might look like procrastination or lack of motivation from the outside, research shows it’s a complex phenomenon that can affect both enjoyable and necessary tasks, and even simple actions ¹.

The term comes from physics, where inertia describes an object’s tendency to resist changes in its state of motion or rest.

Similarly, neurodivergent inertia involves a tendency to maintain one state, whether that’s continuing an activity or staying inactive, and the difficulty that comes with wanting to change that state.

As one research participant described it: “I can’t get to the point where I’ll go to do the thing because it’s almost like I got to stop whatever I’m doing, whether I’m doing anything or not. Even stopping not doing anything is stopping doing something”¹.

Is inertia just procrastination?

While inertia might appear as procrastination or lack of motivation from the outside, research shows it’s a complex phenomenon that exists outside conscious control (Buckle et al., 2024)¹. Like a car without fuel, no amount of pressing the gas pedal will help when the resources needed for action aren’t available.

How inertia works

Executive function contains the mental processes that help us plan, start, and manage tasks – and executive dysfunction can be part of both ADHD and Autism.

The extent of inertia can be impacted by everything that can increase cognitive load, like

• exhaustion (mental and physical energy levels, stress)
• overwhelm, understimulation, overstimulation (affected by environmental factors, noise levels, information overload, other stimuli)
• or hormonal changes (e.g. the levels of estrogen and dopamine drop before the period, especially common in PMDD).

This isn’t about laziness or lack of willpower. Research shows that inertia can affect even simple, desired activities and basic needs¹. As Maureen Bennie² notes, understanding inertia as part of neurodivergent experience helps “stop blaming the person, and provide an explanation for what we are seeing.”

How inertia feels

From the outside, inertia looks like a person not doing anything, “being lazy”, or “uncooperative”. As with so many times, neurodivergent traits are judged by outward appearances, but for true support, we need to look at the inner workings and how it feels for the person experiencing inertia.

A common experience of neurodivergent inertia is a sense of disconnection between intention and ability, feeling physically “heavy” or “weighed down”. It is often accompanied by an acute awareness of what needs to be done but an inability to act on it

“It’s like my brain is pushing through treacle to try to get to the point of doing the thing” ¹

“Sometimes it feels like there’s a physical barrier between me and the thing I want to do… I can see what needs doing, I can see how to do it… but I just can’t make myself move to do it”¹.

Getting Stuck – Unable to start an activity despite wanting to do it, feeling “frozen” or “paralyzed” when trying to initiate action, difficulty transitioning between tasks, even enjoyable ones

Staying Stuck – Continuing an activity past the point of wanting to stop, finding it hard to switch tasks even when necessary, feeling “locked in” to the current state

“If I’m doing something, I find it really hard to stop, even if I need the toilet or a drink or whatever… I will just carry on doing whatever I’m doing until I literally can’t anymore” ¹

“Even when I know I should stop, like I’m getting tired or hungry… it’s like I’m compelled to continue. It’s not that I’m particularly enjoying it anymore, I just can’t switch to doing something else”¹

Common misconceptions about inertia

Many people misunderstand inertia, and it is judged with contempt. However, it is important to know that inertia is not caused by “poor character” or “lack of willpower”.

Inertia’s impact on daily life

Inertia can affect many aspects of daily living, from basic needs to complex tasks. Research shows it can impact:

• Basic Needs – difficulty starting or stopping meals, challenges with initiating sleep or waking routines, postponing bathroom breaks or self-care activities
• Work and Productivity – trouble transitioning between tasks, difficulty starting important projects, getting “stuck” in work activities past the point of effectiveness
• Social Life and Relationships – challenges joining or leaving social situations, difficulty switching between solitary and social modes, meeting commitments or responding to communications