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314 reviews for:
Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
John J. Ratey, Edward M. Hallowell
4.08 AVERAGE
314 reviews for:
Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
John J. Ratey, Edward M. Hallowell
4.08 AVERAGE
a comprehensive overview of ADHD, symptoms for children and adults, potential biological explanations and management strategies. A bit outdated since the abundance of research that've come out since.
Very informative. A little outdated, but still useful.
Read this book at the recommendation of my psychiatrist. Didn't really expect to like it but I don't think I made it through the first chapter before I was in tears. I could have written most of the anecdotes myself, though not half so well, and all the best advice I've ever been given is here in one place. I felt extremely seen and validated through the whole book and now that it's finished I feel almost lonely. I'm practically forcing my adhd friends and family to read this, and strongly recommend it to my neurotypical loved ones as well.
I got this book sometime in college because I thought my bf at the time might have ADD and I wanted to help him with his issues. (This really never works if you're trying to "fix" someone who doesn't really want to do the work themselves. But I was too young to know it at the time.) So yeah, this book is old and there are probably more books out there with more information since 20 years ago. But I read this to get some info and also so I could finally donate it and have one less book in the house. I appreciate what I learned and what was shared at the time about ADD not being a "moral failure" or "character flaw." I think people needed to know that at the time because it was so easy to blame themselves for neurological and biological issues.
“ADD is a neurological syndrome whose classic defining triad of symptoms include impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity or excess energy.” pg. 6
“However, one bases the diagnosis of ADD not on the mere presence of these symptoms, but on their severity and duration, and the extent to which they interfere with everyday life.” pg. 6
“He was a very likable guy, even though he didn’t like himself very much.
And this is the case with so many people who have ADD. They are very likable, although they get into the most difficult of patches. They can be exasperating in the extreme . . . but they can also be unusually empathic, intuitive, and compassionate, as if in that tangled brain circuitry there is a special capacity to see into people and situations.” pg. 10
“Due to repeated failures, misunderstandings, mislabelings, and all manner of other emotional mishaps, children with ADD usually develop problems with their self-image and self-esteem. Throughout childhood, at home and at school they are told they are defective. They are called dumb, stupid, lazy, stubborn, willful, or obnoxious. They hear terms like ‘spaceshot’ or ‘daydreamer’ or ‘out in left field’ all the time. They are blamed for the chaos of family mealtimes or the disaster of family vacations. They are reprimanded for classroom disturbances of all sorts and they are easily scapegoated at school.” pg. 16
“Month after month, year after year, the tapes of negativity play over and over again until they become the voice they child knows best. ‘You’re bad,’ they say in many different ways. ‘You’re dumb. You just don’t get it. You’re so out of it. You really are pathetic.’ This voice pulls the child’s self-esteem down and down, out of the reach of the helping hands that might be extended, into the private world of adolescent self-reproach. Liking yourself in adolescence is hard enough work for any child. But for the child with ADD it is especially difficult.” pg. 17
“An important, and often overlooked part of both learning disabilities and ADD is the social consequence of having them. ADD can interfere with one’s interpersonal life just as dramatically as it does with one’s academic or job performance. To make friends, you have to be able to pay attention. To get along in a group, you have to be able to follow what is being said in the group. Social cues are often subtle: the narrowing of eyes, the raising of eyebrows, a slight change in tone of voice, a tilting of the head. Often the person with ADD doesn’t pick up on these cues. This can lead to real social gaffes or a general sense of being out of it. Particularly in childhood, where social transactions happen so rapidly and the transgressor of norms is dealt with so pitilessly, a lapse in social awareness due to the distractibility or impulsivity of ADD can preclude acceptance by a group or deny understanding from a friend.” pg. 19
“In brief, what Zametkin proved was that there is a difference at the cellular level, in energy consumption, between the parts of the brain that regulate attention, emotion, and impulse control in subjects with ADD as compared with subjects without ADD.“ pg. 71
“It turned out that he had mild ADD, the most problematic manifestation of which was an inability to observe his own behavior and to gauge correctly the responses of other people. This made him appear quite self-centered or indifferent. In fact, his problem was in paying attention, in noticing the subtle cues social fluency depends upon and in regulating his own responses.” pg. 80-81
“These are a few of the areas in which mild ADD may interfere with an adult’s life: underachievement; reading one’s interpersonal world accurately; getting started on a creative project, or finishing it; staying with emotions long enough to work them out; getting organized; getting rid of perseverative, negative thinking; slowing down; finding theme to do what one has always wanted to do; or getting a handle on certain compulsive types of behavior.” pg. 81
“Any of the following might be a tip-off for high-stimulation adult ADD:
- Chronic, high-risk behaviors of any sort
- Type A personality
- Thrill-seeking personality
- Addictive behaviors
- Explosive temper
- Exercise addiction
- Irascible impatience
- Habitual gambling
- Violent behavior
- Accident-proneness
- Repetitious whirlwind romances
- Chronic overspending
- Other disorders of impulse control like kleptomania and pyromania” pg. 181-182
“Remember what you have is a neurological condition. It is genetically transmitted. It is caused by biology, by how your brain is wired. It is not a disease of the will nor a moral failing, nor some kind of neurosis. It is not caused by a weakness in character, nor by failure to mature. Its cure is not to be found in the power of the will, nor in punishment, nor in sacrifice, nor in pain. Always remember this. Try as they might, many people with ADD have great trouble accepting the syndrome as being rooted in biology rather than weakness of character.” pg. 247
“ADD is a neurological syndrome whose classic defining triad of symptoms include impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity or excess energy.” pg. 6
“However, one bases the diagnosis of ADD not on the mere presence of these symptoms, but on their severity and duration, and the extent to which they interfere with everyday life.” pg. 6
“He was a very likable guy, even though he didn’t like himself very much.
And this is the case with so many people who have ADD. They are very likable, although they get into the most difficult of patches. They can be exasperating in the extreme . . . but they can also be unusually empathic, intuitive, and compassionate, as if in that tangled brain circuitry there is a special capacity to see into people and situations.” pg. 10
“Due to repeated failures, misunderstandings, mislabelings, and all manner of other emotional mishaps, children with ADD usually develop problems with their self-image and self-esteem. Throughout childhood, at home and at school they are told they are defective. They are called dumb, stupid, lazy, stubborn, willful, or obnoxious. They hear terms like ‘spaceshot’ or ‘daydreamer’ or ‘out in left field’ all the time. They are blamed for the chaos of family mealtimes or the disaster of family vacations. They are reprimanded for classroom disturbances of all sorts and they are easily scapegoated at school.” pg. 16
“Month after month, year after year, the tapes of negativity play over and over again until they become the voice they child knows best. ‘You’re bad,’ they say in many different ways. ‘You’re dumb. You just don’t get it. You’re so out of it. You really are pathetic.’ This voice pulls the child’s self-esteem down and down, out of the reach of the helping hands that might be extended, into the private world of adolescent self-reproach. Liking yourself in adolescence is hard enough work for any child. But for the child with ADD it is especially difficult.” pg. 17
“An important, and often overlooked part of both learning disabilities and ADD is the social consequence of having them. ADD can interfere with one’s interpersonal life just as dramatically as it does with one’s academic or job performance. To make friends, you have to be able to pay attention. To get along in a group, you have to be able to follow what is being said in the group. Social cues are often subtle: the narrowing of eyes, the raising of eyebrows, a slight change in tone of voice, a tilting of the head. Often the person with ADD doesn’t pick up on these cues. This can lead to real social gaffes or a general sense of being out of it. Particularly in childhood, where social transactions happen so rapidly and the transgressor of norms is dealt with so pitilessly, a lapse in social awareness due to the distractibility or impulsivity of ADD can preclude acceptance by a group or deny understanding from a friend.” pg. 19
“In brief, what Zametkin proved was that there is a difference at the cellular level, in energy consumption, between the parts of the brain that regulate attention, emotion, and impulse control in subjects with ADD as compared with subjects without ADD.“ pg. 71
“It turned out that he had mild ADD, the most problematic manifestation of which was an inability to observe his own behavior and to gauge correctly the responses of other people. This made him appear quite self-centered or indifferent. In fact, his problem was in paying attention, in noticing the subtle cues social fluency depends upon and in regulating his own responses.” pg. 80-81
“These are a few of the areas in which mild ADD may interfere with an adult’s life: underachievement; reading one’s interpersonal world accurately; getting started on a creative project, or finishing it; staying with emotions long enough to work them out; getting organized; getting rid of perseverative, negative thinking; slowing down; finding theme to do what one has always wanted to do; or getting a handle on certain compulsive types of behavior.” pg. 81
“Any of the following might be a tip-off for high-stimulation adult ADD:
- Chronic, high-risk behaviors of any sort
- Type A personality
- Thrill-seeking personality
- Addictive behaviors
- Explosive temper
- Exercise addiction
- Irascible impatience
- Habitual gambling
- Violent behavior
- Accident-proneness
- Repetitious whirlwind romances
- Chronic overspending
- Other disorders of impulse control like kleptomania and pyromania” pg. 181-182
“Remember what you have is a neurological condition. It is genetically transmitted. It is caused by biology, by how your brain is wired. It is not a disease of the will nor a moral failing, nor some kind of neurosis. It is not caused by a weakness in character, nor by failure to mature. Its cure is not to be found in the power of the will, nor in punishment, nor in sacrifice, nor in pain. Always remember this. Try as they might, many people with ADD have great trouble accepting the syndrome as being rooted in biology rather than weakness of character.” pg. 247
One of the best resources on ADHD out there. Having a child with ADHD, my favorite chapter was the one that listed 25 family rules for dealing with it. Great resource, should be required reading for anyone with a nuclear family member with ADHD. Planning to read the follow up books.
Quite possibly the best, most enlightening book I've ever read. Also the only book where I've ever bought another copy specifically to take notes in!
informative
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced