Heh, I have one of these memories from high school that have actually made a deep mark. On a physics exam, I interpreted one of 5 questions completely different that everyone else. Everyone else had just assumed that the magnet component in the drawing was held up by a wire which wasn't drawn in. I didn't see a wire and solved by those parameters. When the teacher reduced my score by two grades, I had to ask what I did wrong. She said that my solution was completely right if the wire wasn't there, but it "was meant to" be interpreted as being there and she couldn't change my score. I stopped trusting my brain after that, because it didn't matter if the answer was right. My accomplishments was still at the mercy of "neurotypical interpretation".

I think "outgrow" is a weird word for this? Have all the people living successfully with ADHD outgrown their ADHD? Or just found a lifestyle that fits their body and brain? And "symptoms" are almost always a negative. Or is my tendency to work really effiently with deadlines also a symtom?

Yeah, a fascinating example is how a child with half a brain can grow up normally. But as far as we have figured, ADHD is very heritable and genetically determined. So there must be something in our genome we can't change. Evolutionists think ADHD have been largely beneficial up until recent societies. Why else would an estimated 10% be further towards ADHD than neurotypical?

From all that I've read about it, that last sentence is not true. And your first: Yes, the "ADHD" brain is a multitude of factors, as is very sensible in our most intricate and advanced organ. The most prominent ones being differences in the frontal lobe and a faster reuptake of neural transmitters such as dopamine, which have a big role in motivation, focus and emotional regulation. An "ADHD brain" generally needs a lot more stimulation than a neurotypical brain.

By no age. You can "grow out of your symptoms", the symptoms being "hanging in the curtains". Growing out of having ADHD is a myth from more uneducated times

No, those studies have been debunked. If you search up newer studies you will see that this is largely because of wrong assumptions, studies not being longitudinal and the default hypothesis comparing certain underdeveloped brain regions in children. They found what they wanted to find: That underdeveloped brains were similar to ADHD brains in certain regions. Does an ADHD child grow out of it just because they learn coping mechanisms and stop hanging in the curtains? Ofc not. They often develop anxiety, depression, OCD and addictions. There is a massive upsurge of adult diagnosing these days. Another point, there were frequent misdiagnosing, especially in the late nineties because ADHD was often just based on normal, hyper or inatentive behaviour in a lot of neurotypical, but often troubled children.

No, that is not the consensus among those who specialize in ADHD. As far as I know, adults who live successfully with ADHD brains have just learned tonnes of trategies of masking and coping and/or have a lifestyle/job that works well with ADHD. Why else would so many thousands get diagnosed as adults, after first picking up unhealthy coping mechanisms, addictions, depression, anxiety and OCD? My childhood worked fantastically with my ADHD so I heard for decades that I can't have it ("No, cuz you did well in school"-BS). ADHD brains are generally fantastic in certain jobs like police, fire department, freelance, arts&crafts, the army, consultant firms and highly structured jobs. It is also a spectre. There is no default setting for neurotype in humans. Autism can't be "cured" either, but we can learn like any other. E: Thank you for the explanation of "remission". I guess it can make sense if they only mean the negative aspects of "symptoms of ADHD". But, ADHD is only defined as a deficiency in modern society. The human race have evolved ADHD brains because it has been largely beneficial most of our existence. We generally work fantastically in a crisis and high intensity.

I wish I had the guts to risk my good salary to be my own boss in a freelance creative business. But the risky money aspect scares me

Yeah totally, but the way OP (and the article?) uses "remission" makes no sense. We are born with this brain. People don't grow out of their ADHD brain.

Wow, you are me. I was exactly the same. Realizing in my 30s that I've lived with ADHD my whole life was such a relief. I was mindblown. It all suddenly made sense. Thought I was doomed to not handle life and have been constantly stressed for 15 years. I just hope I can repair my self esteem in time to save my health from further unhealthy stress

Because modern society is often not condusive to our good brain health. We have to find the few healthy pathways that are left to us. We would have been the bomb 10 000 years ago though.

Yeah, the phrasing in this OC rubs me the wrong way. People can't learn away fundamental workings of their brains... This is like saying you can learn away...your eyesight?

How can one get "remission" on a neurology you were born with? Isn't ADHD a lack of dopamine reseptors, among other inherrent physical aspects? I know the brain is adaptable, but remission sounds like it is a disease, which it is not. You probably just had a lifestyle that fitted well with your teenage ADHD brain? I lived totally functionally until I was 19, when my life went into the shitter because of changes in my life.