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[quote=Anonymous]OP, procrastination is an emotional management strategy. It's a way of avoiding the stress that comes from overwhelm. In a weird way, it's a sign of caring.

There's almost certainly an academic support center on campus. They can help. For example, they'll work with your kid to break big, overwhelming tasks into a series of tasks that are small enough that they begin to feel doable. It's the "atomic habits" approach -- if a task is overwhelming, the trick is to make it smaller, and smaller again, until the only possible feeling is "oh, sure, I can do THAT." Many student support offices will let kids do their work in the office, too -- feels like body doubling (and if not, the library is basically one big place of body doubling).

It can be hard to get appointments with student support at this point in the semester. But it's not too late to get standing appointments next semester, which will come fast.

Remember that if she is learning about herself -- and is in a better position to meet her own needs next time -- it is a win. Sometimes we learn the most by stumbling.

When in doubt, try not to get extensions, because the future doesn't won't go away. So extensions wind up exacerbating the problem, by clustering past work AND future work.

I learned all this the hard way, because I have ADHD but didn't get diagnosed until adulthood. I have a functional life and career, I just had to learn some things about myself before things really fell into place for me. Tell your kid she'll be okay. I've been there, done that. While it's hard, it forces self-knowledge, and self-knowledge is never a bad thing.

Best of luck. [/quote]

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