like is it a scietific fact that if your a kid with ADD you can become an Adult and not have ADD? i have trouble believing this.. just cause im 17 and will be turning 18 soon the "legal adult age" so was just curious... personly i hope i dont grow out of it for the record

I would say you can develop coping skills which will help to minimize the effect the disorder has on your life. But, I don't think you can grow out of it.

Considering its a brain differentiality, I would think it would be most unusual to outgrow it.

It would depend on how one defines ADHD in the first place.

If one views ADHD merely as a collection of symptoms, then yes, it is possible to outgrow it. That is because ADHD symptoms improve with age. These factors improve with age with everyone, not just those with ADHD, as it's a part of brain development over time (which doesn't stop until like age 25+ now supposedly). So, if one were to be borderline ADD as a child, one could possibly improve to the point of not being ADD anymore.

However, if one looks at it at a somewhat qualitative/quantitative manner at the brain level... there could possibly be some characteristics that would make an ADD brain different from a non-ADD brain, and one may not outgrow the brain condition, even if it really does present less impairment over time.

Coping mechanisms will mask ADD as well, though some might state that one with coping mechanisms enough to mask it really doesn't have ADD anymore (going by the same logic that someone on ADD medication doesn't have ADD when they're on medication).

But to not confuse anyone anymore, my final answer is that it is possible to get "better". :)

But to not confuse anyone anymore, my final answer is that it is possible to get "better". :)Unless of course one happens to be female and subject to fluctuating hormones ;) and suffer an increase in symptoms during hormone fluctuations (read that as "get worse")...just chiming in while we are making things more confusing for everybody :D.

I'm 37 and I haven't grown out of it yet.
I was diagnosed when I was 6yrs old.
I agree with coping.
Personally, I've grown to know what I can and can't do.
I tend to do activities that suit my abilities.
I don't have the patience or the ability to put things together, or do jigsaw puzzles (same thing), so I stay away from those activities.
In time you can learn to cope with your ADD, and learn how to overcome it.
Grow out of it?
My dad is 70 and he still has it, so I'd say no...

About 20-30% of those who were diagnosed with AD/HD as a young child (as early as 7 years old) will appear to be unimpaired as an adult. In these cases it is referred to as "ADHD in remission". In fact, the "remission" is likely due to learned coping skills rather than an actual remission of the adhd and many of these individuals are likely to experience difficulty later in life when the performance demands placed on them increase (in college or at work , etc).

Me :D

Unless of course one happens to be female and subject to fluctuating hormones ;) and suffer an increase in symptoms during hormone fluctuations (read that as "get worse")...just chiming in while we are making things more confusing for everybody :D.

Yes... usually fluctuating means going up and down... which means there must be an improvement side of the fluctuation. :) (But then again, it's normal for ADD symptoms to fluctuate on a daily/hourly basis to a degree).

I would say you can develop coping skills which will help to minimize the effect the disorder has on your life. But, I don't think you can grow out of it.
Agreed! And this should be added onto anyone who claims they can 'cure' ADD too! :rolleyes:

I agree that one cannot grow out of ADD/HD, but I think that it is entirely possible to overcome it. Coping and compensating are exhausting, and leave a person stretched too thin. I think that's why sometimes people who were barely making it in high school crash and burn in college, because they were already compensating to get through high school and the increased demands of college are too much for them.

I'm coming from a HANDLE perspective (www.handle.org (http://www.handle.org)). Usually the person's systems are not fully supporting him, and the solution is to determine which systems need to be strengthened, to get his systems to work together properly, and possibly to change elements in the environment (food allergies or toxicities). By "systems" I mean vision, hearing, tactility, the vestibular system, proprioception, muscle tone, and the like. It is like a sports team, and when one of the players is weak, the other players are having to work too hard and the whole system is stressed and inefficient. If you can gently strengthen weakened systems so they are all strong and can work together well, everything runs more efficiently and you have some reserve left when you need it.

My daughter had some neurodevelopmental problems, and I knew that she was never going to outgrow them. If I hadn't intervened she would have been diagnosed with ADHD by 3rd grade, I'm sure of it. She couldn't sit at a desk and read or do work for very long before she'd have to move and she'd lose her attention. She had some other issues too. We've been doing a HANDLE program for 5 months, and it has made a world of difference for her. She can now sit through an entire meal without getting up, and she voluntarily works at her desk. She's not bumping into things all the time anymore, and last month she learned to ride her bike without training wheels (she's 7 years old) -- major breakthroughs for us! She still has a few visual problems that I am hoping will resolve as we gently and consistenly do her HANDLE program through the summer. It took me 4 years to find HANDLE.

A few things that can help with AD/HD symptoms are exercise, diet, and structure. Exercise has been proven to help develop and grow new brain cells and it can raise energy levels if you're an inattentive type who feels lethargic often, diet has a major impact on the severity of symptoms, and structure in the sense that if you can't change your disorder to match your life, change your life to match your disorder.

A good example on structure would be, if you forget to wash dishes often - buy paper plates and plastic cups so you can easily throw them away and minimize the amount of dishes you have to wash. By reducing the task, it may be easier for you to concentrate and get the task done. Or, if you forget where you put your keys, keep the room that you have your keys in with as few items as possible.

In these ways, while you may not be able to grow out of AD/HD, but perhaps you can alter your life enough to where the effects do not occur as much, or if they do, they do not affect much of your life.

systems to work together properly, and possibly to change elements in the environment (food allergies or toxicities).

I believe in changing the elements of the environment may be on target but my idea is closer to eliminating task we find boring and basically stupid like tax forms, redundant things like laundry and long lines . . .things that re un-natural for the ADD mind. This is from a meadd823 perspective.


One of the things that may make it appear as if ADD "goes away" in adulthood is that adults have more control of their environment. People who are mildly effected by ADD while in school may not have problems in a career they choose for themselves or in a home environment they make for themselves.. So yes I believe ADD symptoms are contextual in nature I believe the difficulty of consciously controlling the attention span may improve but I do not think ADD "goes away"

I think that is what Highfunctioning said but his sounded more sophisticated, I am too simple to sound sophisticated like.

***Warning bunny trail****
Reading on the Handle Institute (http://www.handle.org/disordrs/add.html) they don't really believe in ADD so I do not see where there views are going to be of much benefit to people like me who believe in ADD and medical science. I also have problems with any one who claims to be able to "cure" or treat a multitude of disorders.

It sounds a lot like DORE. . . . .

Have you visited our Misc Treatments and Approaches (http://www.addforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=159)area yet? That would be a more appropriate area for further discussion of this nature. . .from the now un-medicated my spell check program is screwing up meadd823 POV.

Ah Meadd823 do not worry, im the least sophisticated person on this earth! :eek:


All information plain and simple is good enough for me. :cool:


May I ask where you got the 823 number from? :)

Its been on my mind for sometime now. :faint:

I have a question. Would we consider altering our environment as the same as coping skills? I mean, if someone dislikes how something is working and has a condition that pre-disposes them to have certain strengths and weaknesses, would eliminating or changing the environment be a coping skill?

would eliminating or changing the environment be a coping skill?


I quit trying to do jobs that expected me to sit in one place because I smply can't do that then yes I would be altering my career choices as a way of coping with my hyperactivity and dislike of sitting for long periods of time.
So yes it can be a form of coping in my opinion.

May I ask where you got the 823 number from?

Its been on my mind for sometime now


"three rythms with "D" in my dyslexic brain. . . and the system would not let me simply use meadd. I guess some one else already was using it. . . . {shrug} meadd helps me remember what this forum is about. . . . .

Ah Meadd823 do not worry, im the least sophisticated person on this earth! :eek:


All information plain and simple is good enough for me. :cool:


May I ask where you got the 823 number from? :)

Its been on my mind for sometime now. :faint:Fraz, thank you for asking that question! I'm a little disappointed in Meadd's answer. LOL!

Man are you trying to say "D" and three don't rythme? :p


Did I loose my mind again? Man I got to quit laying my brain down just any where, because once the kitten gets a hold of my brain I may not find it for days.

Man are you trying to say "D" and three don't rythme? :p


Did I loose my mind again? Man I got to quit laying my brain down just any where, because once the kitten gets a hold of my brain I may not find it for days.I once placed a lost brain ad in the "Missing" pages of the forum newspaper and nobody helped me find it. They all said that they never saw any lost brains....but I know that I lost it here. They must have all been distracted or wiggled off as my brain went by. :cool:

***Warning bunny trail****
Reading on the Handle Institute (http://www.handle.org/disordrs/add.html) they don't really believe in ADD so I do not see where there views are going to be of much benefit to people like me who believe in ADD and medical science. I also have problems with any one who claims to be able to "cure" or treat a multitude of disorders.
You misunderstand. HANDLE believes that people labeled with ADD or ADHD have a dysfunction that makes life more challenging than it needs to be. They do not question the problems, they question the label. The point is that no one has a DEFICIT of attention. Everyone is always attending to something. People get labeled ADD when they are unable to sustain their focus on something that someone else has deemed to be important. Therefore, Judith Bluestone (Founder of Handle) rejects the term "Attention Deficit Disorder" and thinks a more appropriate term would be "Attention Priority Disorder", if one has to apply a term to people.

The HANDLE Institute doesn't label people. They simply determine what isn't working well for a person and help that person strengthen those systems and functions. They help people to change dysfunction into functionality, which often improves peoples' quality of life. This is a much better approach than is taking drugs to mask one's symptoms, and never actually getting relief from the root problem. The HANDLE approach corrects the root problem.

Whoops. I just noticed the last part of that quote, about HANDLE claiming to "cure" all kinds of disorders.

That is also incorrect. HANDLE never claims to "cure" anything. This comes directly from the founder's background. Judith Bluestone was born autistic, and had profound neurodevelopmental dysfunction as well as structural problems. As someone coming from the autistic spectrum, she has a deep respect for people of all abilities, and would argue that one cannot be "cured" or "fixed" because they are not broken. They can be helped to greater functionality if they have various dysfunctions.

The HANDLE approach can be applied to a wide variety of issues, including sensory integration dysfunctions, autism spectrum disorders, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury, and more. However, it is not a one-size fits all program, and every person gets an individual screening or assessment. There are over 100 HANDLE activities at the disposal of the HANDLE practitioner, and most are customized for the needs of the individual. The HANDLE Institute is very good at helping people to better organize their brains. If you doubt the effectiveness, you might look at some of the resources on the www.handle.org (http://www.handle.org) website, including the study published in the Journal of Neuroimaging that showed how applying HANDLE activities to those with traumatic brain injury actually changed the brain and improved function.

You misunderstand. HANDLE believes that people labeled with ADD or ADHD have a dysfunction that makes life more challenging than it needs to be. They do not question the problems, they question the label.

This is why I should avoid bunny trails in threads, it throws the whole thing out of kilter.



Have you visited our Misc Treatments and Approaches (http://www.addforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=159) area yet? That would be a more appropriate area for further discussion of this nature.

I probably shouldn't try to use re-direction either as it is usually ineffective as well.

Trying this again. . . .

If you wish to peruse this discussion and talk about the label ADD then please begin a new thread, You can do so here in this section if you would like.

If you wish to discuss Handle as a treatment option for ADD then we have a Misc Treatments and Approaches area where we can discuss this until the cows come home.

I know this is my fault as much as it is yours. Me and my darn bunny trials they always get me into trouble.

How ever the topic of this thread is not Handle.

The topic of this thread is supposed to be

like is it a scietific fact that if your a kid with ADD you can become an Adult and not have ADD? i have trouble believing this.. just cause im 17 and will be turning 18 soon the "legal adult age" so was just curious... personly i hope i dont grow out of it for the record


My Apologies to Revz.

PS -Lost moderator brain - reward if found = :o

i dont know if i outgrew my AD/HD but i do know for sure ive outgrown or coped with the obessive and compulsive traits more so than my hyperactivity. But i dont feel any different than when i was a kid so i would just say i cope