Difficulty Making Decisions: What It Is and How to Recognize It

Decision-making is more than an everyday skill. When this capacity breaks down, a person becomes trapped: unable to make sense of what is happening to them, unable to navigate even the simplest choices. Dr. Saulitis describes this as one of the core symptoms of a mental disorder — and explains why it is so easy to miss until it has progressed.

What impaired decision-making looks like

The person does not merely hesitate — they freeze. Not metaphorically, but in a very real, visible way: they cannot decide what to do, where to go, what to eat, or where to begin. Dr. Saulitis describes a clinical case in which a patient was unable to decide which side of a piece of bread to place a glass of compote on — and remained in that state of paralysis until staff began feeding him by hand.

That is an extreme example. But the same disorder appears in milder forms: the person endlessly postpones decisions, cycles through options without ever landing on one, and cannot stop the mental loop. Dr. Saulitis calls this "intellectual chewing gum" — thought spinning in place, going nowhere.

How to tell the difference between normal and symptomatic

The key marker Dr. Saulitis provides: if it takes you more than a day to make a decision, that is already a serious warning sign. This is not about thinking speed or personality. It is a sign that the psyche is failing at a fundamental function.

A healthy brain, once it has gathered enough information, "switches on" and makes a choice. When that mechanism stops working, chaos builds: no clarity, no footing, no forward motion. Delaying decisions does not ease the condition — it makes it worse.

Connection to other symptoms

Difficulty making decisions does not occur in isolation. Dr. Saulitis notes that it belongs to the same symptom cluster as memory problems, impaired judgment, and apathy — the state in which nothing matters and nothing provokes a response. If you notice this combination of signs in yourself or someone close to you, that is a reason to seek professional help rather than wait for things to resolve on their own.