Does Tourette's just... go away?
I just learned ADD and ADHD are the same thing, that ADD is the outdated term, and because I was diagnosed with ADD I couldn't have ADHD. I always said I had ADD because I have trouble focusing, I can't sit through lectures, I just participated in a webinar and could not stop myself from zoning out. But apparently I don't have ADD, because after having a conversation with my mother I learned they misdiagnosed me with ADD, it was actually Tourette's. The story I remember is they misdiagnosed me with ADD because I had OCD which exhibited the symptoms of ADD, but no it was Tourette's.
My mind is blown right now because I knew I had Tourette's as a kid, I just completely forgot about it. The thing is I don't have it now, or rather I don't exhibit any of the symptoms now. Does it just go away as you get older? If I get older and start losing my memory will it come back?
Are all of these related somehow? Is that what is meant by spectrum? It is so confusing how symptoms overlap. I'm on a mission now to see if I can't acquire my medical records from when I was a kid.
As far as I know, one (if not THE one) reason for combining old diagnosis under umbrella diagnosis of ASD was, that there are plenty of people who didn't fit neatly under any one diagnosis and had trouble fitting in those narrow boxes known as Asperger's, Tourette, ADD etc. In that case, it's less confusing to describe oneself just being "on the spectrum" and then describe what you are like as an individual.
AFAIK, all spectrum traits can come and go during life, depending one's stress levels and whether they get into circumstances that push Autist buttons hard. Tourette tics are something that often go disappear when a child grows up.
From personal experience I know that my Asperger traits were very clear when I was a kid (not that anyone had even heard of HFA at the time), then they become a little milder as I learned social skills. Then, in my late 30's, extreme prolonged stress turned the volume up to whole new levels. Since then, I think I have recovered a little and more importantly, after diagnosis been forced to learn more about my traits and live with myself.
You just work with what you have, and when you learn something new about yourself, you'll find ways to deal with it.
My oldest brother was diagnosed with Tourette's as a child and grew out of it. I think a lot of sources for it say that it's possible for children to grow out of it. I personally had a lot of simple motor and verbal tics (was never diagnosed with anything relating to Tourette's though, but have always shown symptoms of OCD which is apparently related) but now don't have as many as I had before.
Here's one source: https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/tourette.html
"Tourette symptoms typically appear in childhood, usually when kids are between 5–9 years old. It's not very common, and boys are more likely to be affected than girls.
The tics associated with Tourette syndrome tend to get milder or go away entirely as kids grow into adulthood. Until that happens, though, parents can help their child cope with the condition."
"Tics usually are most severe before the mid-teen years. Most people see great improvement in their late teens to early adulthood, though some will have their tics continue into adulthood."