Why do people think those are childhood disorders?
Why do so many people think that certain lifelong disabilities or disorders only exist in children?
I often come across people who think that various lifelong disorders, such as autism, Asperger‘s syndrome, PDD-NOS, ADD, ADHD etc. are childhood disorders and that they don‘t exist in adults. I‘m curious about what those people think happens to those who have those disorders? Do they think people "grow out of" those disorders or get cured or simply snap out of them when they reach adulthood or that they die before they reach adulthood?
Why are so many people unaware that those disorders exist in adults too and that they never go away completely and continue to affect the person throughout their life? Is it because there is so much focus on children with those disorders that the adults just kind of get forgotten about, or is it something else? What do you think?
That Nurse2010-04-28T18:53:02Z
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Offhand I'd say that a lot of people want easy answers and it's easy for them to consider some conditions as only existing in children. They don't or dint want to think too far ahead. Altot of people are too involved with themselves to consider anyone else. Feel sorry for them.
I'm an adult (age 18) and have Asperger's, PDD, and ADHD. It does not only exist in children, because it is lifelong. Children with autism will reach age thirty and still be affected. Why are so many adults diagnosed with Asperger's if it is a childhood disorder? Couldn't it have been caught sooner? I think it has something to do with a generation gap. People have become much more knowledgable over the past ten years. Because I was little over ten years ago, it was hard for my doctor to tell with a lack of information. An 8-year-old today is much more likely to be diagnosed.
"Why do so many people think that certain lifelong disabilities or disorders only exist in children?"
Perhaps because the childhood environment is so different from the adult environment. Such conditions present in different ways.
Childhood is largely about constraint and confinement. We go to school. Schools have rules, order and plenty of structure. Homes hopefully have rules, order and plenty of structure.
When you become an adult, school goes away and order and structure manifest in different ways or they can manifest in different ways. A change of environment can change how an illness presents.
I've largely "grown out" of ADD. It's barely an issue these days. Of course in elementary and middle school, it was indeed a factor, and I took various medications for it, and the medications did help, but by they the time I was in high school, I noticed that it was becoming less of a factor, and I decided to stop taking the pills, and see how I fared without them, turns out I could get by fine without them. That's what happened to me. I suspect people who grow up with some disorders learn how to cope with them over the years and the disorders become less and less of an issue as the years go by. That's not to say that they disappear completely, but over time you learn to deal with them better. Some people having better coping skills than others however, so it's definitely a case where your mileage may vary.