Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder PDF
Preview Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder
CONTENTS Title Page Dedication Epigraph Preface to the New Edition Acknowledgments A Note on Authorship How to Read This Book Introduction: Welcome to the World of ADD, Where Landing Is Learned in Midair Part One ♦ ♦ WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE ADD? 1. The Skinny on ADD: Read This If You Can’t Read the Whole Book 2. The Feel of ADD 3. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective ADD-ers 4. ADD Self-Assessment Quizzes for Adults: A Screening Test 5. Won’t Pay Attention, or Can’t? The Crux of the Matter 6. An Evil, an Illness, or a Kind of Mind? From Stigma to Science 7. The Itch at the Core of ADD Part Two ♦ ♦ THREE STORIES THAT TELL THE STORY 8. The Benevians: How This Diagnosis Can Change Your Life for the Better— at Any Age 9. Joey: When There’s More Than ADD 10. The O’Brien Family: A Houseful of ADD Part Three ♦ ♦ MAKING THE DIAGNOSIS OF ADD 11. The Steps to Diagnosis 12. The qEEG and the SPECT Scan: Two Useful New Tests Not Widely Used 13. How Do You Tell a Child About the Diagnosis of ADD? 14. Conditions that Coexist with ADD 15. Bipolar Disorder or ADD? How to Tell the Difference 16. ADD, Reading Problems, and Dyslexia 17. Genetics: If I Have ADD, What Are the Odds My Child Will Too? and Other Interesting Questions 18. Are We Training Our Children to Have ADD? 19. ADD, Addictions, and a New Use of the 12 Steps Part Four ♦ ♦ MASTERING THE POWER AND AVOIDING THE PITFALLS: THE TREATMENT OF ADD 20. The Treatment of ADD: What Works Best 21. The Key to Treating ADD: Find the Buried Treasures 22. How to Find the Buried Treasures: Five Steps That Lead to Lasting Joy 23. How to Find the Buried Treasure in School: One Shining Example That All Schools Should Follow 24. Major Danger Alert: College and ADD 25. Nutrition and ADD: A Cornerstone of Good Treatment 26. Omega-3 Fatty Acids: A Nutrition-Based Treatment for ADD 27. Physical Exercise: A Great Treatment for ADD and a Magic Tonic for Your Brain 28. Powerful Exercises for the Brain That Improve Attention 29. Cerebellar Stimulation: A Specific Kind of Physical Exercise That Can Be Used to Treat ADD 30. To Try Medication or Not: Some Reassuring Guidelines 31. If You Choose to Try Medication, Which Should You Choose? 32. Don’t SPIN 33. And Don’t SLIDE 34. The Big Struggle Revisited: ADD in Families 35. Living Through the Pain of ADD 36. How to Get Rid of Piles: The Kudzu of ADD 37. Worry and ADD 38. Sex and ADD 39. Hallowell & Ratey’s Top Tips for Adult ADD 40. What Kind of Mate Is Best If You Have ADD? 41. What Can You Do If Your Mate Has ADD? 42. Getting Well Enough Organized: The Hallowell Approach 43. What the Best Treatment Must Include Appendix: A Compendium of Resources About the Authors Also by the Authors Copyright Page Since this book is about hope and the power of positive human energies, we dedicate it to the memory of two women who radiated those qualities in their lives: Josseyln Hallowell Bliss and Priscilla Luke Vail and to one team that never gives up: The Boston Red Sox Boy, what ever you is and where ever you is, don’t be what you ain’t, because when you is what you ain’t, you isn’t. —UNCLE REMUS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people helped to create this book. Above all, John and I would like to thank our patients who contributed their stories, as well as the people who were not patients but contacted us and shared episodes from their lives. Although their names have been changed, all the stories are true; we never could have given this book the power that true stories pack were it not for the courageous cooperation of the dozens of people you find in these pages. Many other people supported this work. Ginny Grenham, dear friend and creative genius, was most helpful, as always. It was she who urged that a chapter be included on making the transition to college, and she who suggested the chapter on explaining ADD to children. A devoted advocate of all who live with ADD, she always finds the best in people and helps them reach and grasp higher than they think they can. We also thank Kay Murray and Roxie Nickerson for their painstaking work on the final section of the book, the resource section. A great number of top experts helped us in our research. We especially want to thank Janet Wozniak for her help on the chapter on bipolar disorder and Demitri Papolos for his comments on that topic. Mel Levine was, as ever, generous, brilliant, and provocative in sharing his thoughts about attention. Ellen Braaten was most helpful in discussing psychological and neuropsychological testing. Sue Smalley was a great help in giving us information for the chapter on genetics. Stacy Bell and Helen Rasmussen shared their expert knowledge about nutrition, and Eugene Arnold helped in the evaluation of alternative or complementary treatments. Len Adler advised us about the most current data on the new medication Strattera. Ross Greene helped with his innovative ideas on untangling struggles in families. Susan Cole Ross taught me about educational therapy, and, a fine writer herself, she also helped to edit the manuscript. Peter Jensen offered encouragement and knowledge whenever we turned to him, which was often. Peter Metz, one of the best psychiatrists in the land, was a great help all along the way. Michael Thompson offered encouragement and wisdom at many junctures, as he always has. Diane Santangelo, Peter Mustich, and others from the Rye Union Free School District gave of their time and experience in showing me the details of a school system that does it right. Sam Goldstein, Sally Shaywitz, Clarke Ross, Bob Brooks, Kathleen Hopkins, Michele Novotni, Sari Solden, Kathleen Nadeau, Patty Quinn, Joe Biederman, Tom Spencer, Tim Willens, Larry Silver, Rick Lavoie, Russ Barkley, Kevin Murphy, Kitty McEaddy, Alice Thomas, Thom Hartmann, Theresa Citro, Lynn Meltzer, Daniel Amen, Jonathan Mooney, and many others from disparate domains of the ADD and LD communities have always encouraged us and shared their experiences enthusiastically. Thanks to the efforts of these people and many others, a community that used to be weakened by division and dissension now gains strength and even glee from discussion and cooperation. We also thank our teachers from years ago, men and women at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston who helped us learn to listen, to observe, and to believe in what John Keats called “the holiness of the heart’s affections.” Many of our best teachers were our patients. And many were faculty who gave of their hearts and minds tirelessly and enthusiastically. Among the faculty, Doris Menzer Benaron, Jules Bemporad, William Beuscher, Thomas Gutheil, Leston Havens, Allan Hobson, Elvin Semrad, and Irvin Taube all instilled in John and me, as well as hundreds of others in training, a habitual curiosity and open-mindedness. With their encouragement, we didn’t just study psychiatry—we studied life. We thank our agent, Jill Kneerim, for her many years of care and help, and the team at Ballantine, led by the warm-hearted and astute editorial guidance of Nancy Miller and her assistant, Deirdre Lanning. Writers often have good reason to complain about publishers; in this instance, we have reason not only to give thanks but to feel uplifted by a sense of teamwork and kinship with the publishers. The team at Ballantine believed in this book from the outset and did all they could, every step of the way, to make it as good as it could be. Finally, and most personally, we thank our families. John thanks his wife, Nancy, and his children, Jessica and Kathryn, for their support, loyalty, and love. And I thank my wife, Sue, and our children, Lucy, Jack, and Tucker, for making
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