Can ADHD/ADD get worse with age?

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Can it?
And if does, why does it?

am no scientist, but I can speak from my own experience. it has not gotten better for me but at least it has not gotten worse either. the frontal lobes of my brain are just a size too small relative to the rest of my brain. or they are wired not so well. maybe it is one or the other.

Hmmm, I wondering if it's more to do with perspective than biology.
I got through school, struggled through college and dropped out of uni. It's only been very recently that I've been thinking about ADD. If I have it then I'm struggling more with it now because of my increased responsibilities as an adult.

Other factors can worsen it or even cause ADHD/ADD like symptoms like depression or stress or PTSD.
So the inability to focus and to pay attention isn't always necesserely a sign of ADHD/ADD, but can also be a sign of a whole bunch of other disorders.

I can only talk about myself but when I started to have depression, my ability to focus and to pay attention when down't to zero.
Also hypomania and hyperactivity can look very much alike.

So I would rather look for other factors (like stress, trauma etc.) that can worsen the symptoms, than thinking the ADHD/ADD got worse. Disorders very often influence each other.

Strattera was helpful to me and many others, it is worth a try. it had the mildest side effect profile of all the frontal lobe stimulants I was prescribed.

In all probability, the actual neurological deficits get worse with age and are sometimes mistaken for dementia (my physician asked me 5 years ago did I think I was developing Alzheimer's). To balance this, actual coping strategies continue to evolve resulting in a variable outcome, depending on how much effort one puts in. To actually improve outcomes one has to look at the proven technology of neurofeedback (works for me at 66) and the more speculative stuff concerning transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS (also works for me and is kitchen sink technology)

In all probability, the actual neurological deficits get worse with age and are sometimes mistaken for dementia (my physician asked me 5 years ago did I think I was developing Alzheimer's). To balance this, actual coping strategies continue to evolve resulting in a variable outcome, depending on how much effort one puts in. To actually improve outcomes one has to look at the proven technology of neurofeedback (works for me at 66) and the more speculative stuff concerning transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS (also works for me and is kitchen sink technology)

I do not have ADHD/ADD just AS. I do have executive functioning issues so there is some similarity.

I agree about depression affecting focus. When I had issues with depression, I was extremely forgetful. I do have executive functioning issues when not depressed, so I usually am forgetful. However, it was MUCH worse. I would forget my phone, go back home for the purpose of getting it, then go back to work without it. Normally, I would just forget my phone, go back home to get t, and return to work with it. Also depression completely turned off my Aspie hyperfocus. It was actually the forgetfulness and lack of focus that finally made me go to he doctor, not the sadness.

To a lesser degree, regular non depressive stress can make my executive functioning worse.

You may find this video useful:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9x45oIF8k[/youtube]

Thank you for posting that video, StarCity, it was useful and interesting.
I watched it in 3 sittings.

i still cant pay attention to anything. I never pay attention in class its hard to pay attention even for 10 minutes