[DoreenMichele]

At age 35, I was diagnosed with a genetic disorder. I spent years joking "They finally found a better name for my problem than lazy or crazy."

What gets labeled laziness all too often seems to be exhaustion, invisible disability or other hidden problems.

[TeMPOraL]

> What gets labeled laziness all too often seems to be exhaustion, invisible disability or other hidden problems.

Agreed.

A good, old essay on this and related questions wrt. character and mental diseases, by Scott Alexander back before he had his own blog: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/895quRDaK6gR2rM82/diseased-t....

[Tijdreiziger]

My perceived laziness turned out to be executive dysfunction caused by autism.

[secondcoming]

'all too often' is a bit subjective, and doesn't refute the fact that laziness exists.

[DoreenMichele]

I honestly don't know if that's true. Everyone I have ever known who was supposedly being "lazy" turned out to have some serious personal issues, often issues that were not being identified.

In my experience, if you want to cure "laziness," the best thing to do is identify the underlying cause of the failure to get anything done and address that.

I homeschooled two special-needs sons who had a lot of issues that did not resolve for being lectured or something. They resolved by figuring why X was happening and addressing that.

Sometimes other people find it empowering to get that point of view put out there. It's an epiphany for some people that they aren't actually lazy like everyone has always told them. They just don't have the energy for some reason and addressing that can help make their life finally work after decades of frustration.