Studying Again as an Adult: Going Back to Education With ADHD

Sometimes when a person walks into a classroom years later, they do not sit down at the desk, they sit down in an old version of themselves.

You open the notebook and a voice comes from inside: "You'll leave it unfinished again." "It will come down to the last night again." "You have potential but..."

Nobody says some of these sentences to you now. They were said years ago and they are still there.

Being inside academic work as an adult has shown me this: learning as an adult is both easier and harder than learning as a child. Easier, because I now know what interests me. Harder, because the record of every old failure comes along with me.

Who wants to go back to education

There are many forms of going back to education in adulthood: an unfinished bachelor's degree, a new department, a graduate program, a professional certificate, open education, a long online program.

In this article I look at how ADHD accompanies this return. Especially for someone who was diagnosed in adulthood or has only just been diagnosed.

Because for those diagnosed late, going back to education often brings two questions together: "Can I do it this time?" and "Why couldn't I then?"

What research says: the average and the variety

Let me say the hard part first.

A large longitudinal study that followed people diagnosed with ADHD in childhood into young adulthood found that the educational and occupational level of these people was on average lower than that of peers without ADHD. But the same study stresses one more thing: the educational outcomes of the ADHD group were spread over a very wide range. Being below the average did not mean everyone ended up in the same place. Academic achievement in high school was an important factor predicting continuing education afterward (Kuriyan et al., 2013).

A review that went through 176 studies on long-term academic outcomes also shows two things together. In untreated ADHD, results on both achievement tests and school performance were mostly worse than for those without ADHD. With treatment, outcomes improved; this improvement was seen more often in achievement tests than in school performance (Arnold et al., 2020).

This second distinction told me a lot. Learning capacity and being able to turn that capacity into outcomes such as grades, submissions and continuity are not the same thing. ADHD strains the second most. I talked separately about this distance between intelligence and outcome in the article does ADHD affect intelligence.

A review focusing on university students also reports that ADHD is consistently associated with academic difficulties, but that intervention research specific to this age group is very lacking (DuPaul et al., 2009). I want to say from the start that there is no strong evidence base that can tell adult students "do this."

The effect of late diagnosis on the school story

A review examining the underdiagnosis of ADHD in adults reports that many adults remain undiagnosed and untreated, and that achievement in education and working life is weaker in these people (Ginsberg et al., 2014).

This sentence is the first half of the story of many adults who go back to education. School was cut off somewhere, left unfinished or not finished where it was wanted. At the time the explanation of this was "didn't work," "didn't want to," "was disorganized."

Late diagnosis changes this explanation. But it does not change the old feeling right away. When you walk into a classroom again the shame can still be there. Where this shame comes from and how it can ease I described in the article shame and self-compassion in ADHD.

I don't know whether it will be different this time. But this time I know what I am dealing with.

What strains the adult student

The structure again does not come from outside

As a child, school had a skeleton: fixed hours, a bell, a teacher, family. A large part of adult education is flexible, self-paced and online. This flexibility is a convenience for someone who works. For someone with ADHD it means the outside scaffolding that stands in for the missing order inside is largely gone.

I explained why outside structure mattered so much in the school years in the article ADHD at school and university. In adult education you often have to build that structure yourself.

Work, home and classes on the same day

An adult student is rarely only a student. Work, home, caregiving responsibilities and classes try to fit into the same twenty-four hours. Every area has a start-up and transition cost, and in ADHD these transitions tire you separately.

The enthusiasm at the start

When a new program starts, a very strong energy comes. Books are bought, a new notebook is opened, a study plan is made. Then within a few weeks this energy fades. In the glossary this is called the fading of novelty. I talked about the pile-up of unfinished courses and abandoned pursuits in the article on the hobby graveyard in ADHD. With a return to education this risk is more expensive, because money, time and a promise made to yourself are all at stake.

To set it up differently this time

Here I draw on my own experience and on patterns I often hear from readers. Think of what follows as a framework worth trying.

Choosing the program out of interest

The biggest advantage of being an adult is that you know what interests you. In ADHD interest is one of the strongest fuels of motivation. If there is a large difference between "what makes sense for a career" and "what I am really curious about," this difference should not be underestimated. Sustaining a program you are not curious about takes far more energy than sustaining one you are.

Preferring a structured format

If possible, choosing a format with fixed class hours, regular submissions and live sessions instead of a self-paced program. Flexibility is tempting, but for an adult with ADHD a fixed calendar is often the best friend.

If this option does not exist, building the structure yourself: classes on the same days every week, at the same time, in the same place. Putting the class hour in the calendar like a meeting and not cancelling it.

Starting with a single course

Starting with one or two courses in the first term instead of taking the whole load can help both to find a realistic pace and to get through those critical weeks when the starting enthusiasm fades. A small success won becomes the best fuel for the next term.

Writing on one page at the end of the first term what worked and what strained you is also like producing your own user manual. When deciding how many courses to take in the next registration period, this page is far more reliable data than the enthusiasm of that moment.

Learning about the support units from the start

At many universities and educational institutions there are units for disabled students, and students with an ADHD diagnosis may be offered exam or submission arrangements. Whether this exists and how it is requested varies from institution to institution. Learning it before the need arises is much easier than calling in a crisis. How much to tell whom is entirely your decision.

Taking a study partner along

A short weekly study meeting with someone from the same program helps both to keep up with the course and not to be left alone with the shame of "I did nothing this week."

One page before returning. Before starting the program, write on a page: why do I want this program (one sentence), if education was left unfinished in the past, what strained me most (three items), what will I set up this time for those three items (one measure for each). Returning to this page in a hard week reminds you why you started and what you are doing differently.

If it ends up unfinished this time too

I do not want to finish without saying this. Sometimes even the best-built plan does not hold. Life changes, the program is not what was expected, another priority comes.

Leaving a program is sometimes the right decision. What matters is that the decision to leave is made in a calm moment and for real reasons.

And if burnout, a long-lasting low mood or hopelessness accompanies it, this may not be only a matter of an education plan; you may need to talk to a mental health professional.

What I think about today

Learning as a child was always a matter of catching up for me. Catching up with homework, with exams, with expectations.

Learning as an adult feels for the first time a little like walking. Knowing where I am going, but also paying attention to how I go.