This was THE BOOK on ADHD, until it was largely superseded by Delivered from Distraction. A milestone book that moved perceptions on ADHD a long way, and from a doctor with ADHD himself, who understands ADHD is far more complex than simply disorder. In the best-seller “Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood” Edward Hallowell & John Ratey have written the seminal book on ADHD, compassionate yet rigorous.
In Driven the medical professionals with ADHD themselves, Hallowell and Ratey reveal a balanced view of the problems and down-sides of ADHD whilst exploring and revealing the many strengths: “high energy, intuitiveness, creativity, and enthusiasm” … “completely overlooked by the ‘disorder’ model”. The authors suggest Mozart and Einstein as examples of people who are ADHD.
The authors, dispel the myth that ADHD is only found in children or that it is about lack of self-discipline and convincingly argue that ADHD is not an attention deficit but an attention inconsistency: “most of us with ADHD can in fact hyperfocus at times.”
Helpful tips for dealing with ADD in a child, a partner or a family member are given along with some case studies of the many adults who have dealt successfully with their diagnosis.
Andrew Lewis is an ADHD Coach, writer and founder of SimplyWellbeing. He has over 16,000 hours and 20 years of experience in coaching over 600 ADHD executives, ADHD business professionals and ADHD creatives. Andrew ran a major ADHD support group and an ADHD diagnostic clinic for a while. He is an ADHD specialist backed with business expertise from a twenty years career in software, from roles in programming, through marketing, sales and to running a few software start-ups.
