Does anyone share the same problem as I do?

Hi. So, I guess a little context is needed here for anyone reading this. I am a 20-year-old male, in my second year of law school. I have been struggling since I started college a year ago, particularly with studying. I tend to avoid studying when I have the time, and I crumble under pressure. I don't know how to explain it, but let's take an example: I have two exams in two days, and they are really long, so I should have started studying, say, four days ago. But I didn’t, because my mind kept telling me, "It's too much, we can’t do it, we will fail," so I didn't.

This morning, I woke up with the intention to study, but guess what? I didn’t. My mind was foggy—it still is. I couldn’t get out of bed, as if my mind was somewhere else, not with me. I couldn’t bring myself to worry about studying, even though I have no time left. My mind kept saying, "Whatever, we still have time." I had to justify my absence from my last exam because the same thing happened. Now, this is my last chance, and to make things worse, right now (it’s 2:48 PM in my country), I still feel that fog in my mind. It feels like a layer separating my thoughts from my emotions. It’s like I’m not doing what I really want to do—my mind thinks one thing, but my body does the opposite.

I feel nothing, absolutely nothing, as if I’ve lost everything that used to drive me. I was fine this morning, motivated to study, but now I can’t. It’s as if I’m not the same person I was earlier today.

To be honest, the point of me doing this point is because I could not find (yet) anyone with the same problem, and I kinda feel lonely because of that, I feel like I am discovering a new world alone.

I've experienced something like this before in my Life, to a degree in school, but also in other are (for example, career/job). For me, what I've learned is that it signifies that my conscious mind is at odds with my subconscious mind, and you can guess who's winning. So I try to figure out what my subconscious wants and why- basically my subconscious needs and beliefs- then then try to appease and leverage them so I can focus on my conscious wants/needs/beliefs. Sometimes it's just like mental "recovery", akin to "recovery" from physical exercise (e.g., resting the legs after running), but sometimes its because my real interests (wants/needs) reside elsewhere and I'm unable to connect what I'm consciously doing to what I subconsciously want to be doing. In the latter, once I consciously (and repeatedly) connect the two in a way where the reinforce each other- and I take appropriate breaks when doing so- I'm able to continue. Anyways, that's one approach I've used (for example, there is changing the unconscious beliefs, but that takes a lot longer and is more difficult, at least for me).

Hope this helped some.

I’m dealing with this now as we speak. I had a deadline to finish my course work by October 15th, well I missed that deadline because of my brain fog and my emotional stress. I kept telling myself get it done and I would get motivated but I’m not sure why I would just give out. I came on here looking for anyone that could relate to how I am feeling and believe it or not your forum was the second one I read and thought wow! Someone kind of in my shoes. I’m not enrolled in college but a training program through a college that gears you up for the more advanced course work that comes with the career I’m working to get into. I’m studying Photovoltaics. Pretty tough stuff but very neat! I use different self-help apps but sometimes they just don’t do it for me. I have found that speaking with people helps get the mind out of that negative funk. I’ve been given extra time basically and to be honest I’m still trying to wrap my head around getting the course work done because I feel like how you do. My mind is like don’t worry we’ll get it done even though there is a time frame for the actual work to be done. I hope it helps to know that there is someone going through a tough time of wanting to get things done, having that inner motivation, but not channeling into that positive energy that will actually put me to get the actual work done.

It sounds like executive dysfunction, which can be caused by a wide range of conditions: autism, ADHD, ADD, depression, burnout, anxiety, trauma, dissociation...

Maybe looking up tools to manage executive dysfunction could help.