Delivered From Distraction - How It Changed My Inner Lens Part 1
“I’m not a psychiatrist but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.” That’s how I feel when talking about AD/HD. I am not a trained mental health coach, PhD, or MD. I have read a lot on the internet, books, and talked to people. This is about Dr. Hallowell and Dr. Ratey’s book “Deliverd From Distraction”**. I contacted Dr. Hallowell a few weeks ago and asked him about referencing sections so I should be ok as long as I follow the guidlines we discussed.
This book is organized expertly for people that can only read in short spurts. It covers a huge range of information concerning AD/HD. It has helped me even more than his first book. In this entry I want to cover the first few sections that really impacted me and why. Bear with me, I hope that it might help someone else, if nothing else to go see someone to get help.
In his introduction the doctors put AD/HD in the best light possible. They say, “The best way to think of ADD is not as a mental disorder but as a collection of traits and tendencies that define a way of being in the world.”(xxxii) This is by far the most positive description I have ever heard. It immediately helped me to think in a different about AD/HD in a good light. In that same section he hits AD/HD on the nose.
Having ADD makes life paradoxial. You can superfocus sometimes, but also space out when you least mean to. You can radiate confidence and also feel as insecure as a cat in a kennel. You can perfrom at the highest level, feeling incompetent as you do so. You can be loved by many, but feel as if no one really likes you. You can absolutely totally intend to do something, then forget to do it. You can have the greatest ideas in the world, fut feel as if you can’t accomplish a thing.
….The goal is to sculpt ADD into a blessing.(xxxii)
The first chapter is designed for everyone - but especially for those that can’t focus long enough to read the whole book. It’s in a question and answer format with complete and positive answers. Some of the questions asked are:
- What is ADD?
- What is the typical profile of a person who has ADD? (The answer to this is AWESOME!)
- Aren’t most people somewhat like this.
- What causes ADD? Is it inherited.
- Other than its being heritable, is there any other evidence that ADD has a biological, physical basis to it, as opposed to psychological or environmental?
- Does ADD ever go away on it’s own?
- What is the proper procedure to diagnose ADD
- What else should one watch out for regarding the diagnosis of ADD and getting treatment?
- In what ways are diagnosis, identification of talents and strengths, and implementation of a plan that promotes talents and strengths part of the treatment?
- What are the most important lifestyle changes? (This answer won’t surprise some people but it will definitely help.)
- What are the dangers of stimulant medications?
- What alternative medications are there to stimulants?(xxxiii)
There are many more questions but each of these questions they have a good short answer. In the chapters throughout the book they cover all of these questions and even more to great detail.
When I read this it got me so excited to keep reading. Unlike some people when it comes to reading something that I am genuinely interested in I have no problem. My wife will roll her eyes because she’s seen me on several occaissions completely disappear into a book until it was done.
The second chapter in my opinion is landmark. It says something that I’ve ever seen captured in any of the other things I’ve read. It’s called “The Feel of ADD”(3-19) Both doctors have ADD as well and so they know first hand what we face. I can’t imagine what it must be like for them to treat patients or to go through the rigors of their practice. I think from the volume of books they both love to express themselves and probably disappear into their writing to the point that their wives or business partners are pulling them out. (that was a side thought that just came into my head.)
In here is a list of ingredients that are not diagnostic but is what it feels like.
- High mental or physical energy (coupled with extreme lassitude at times)
a fast-moving, easily distracted mind (coupled with an amazingly superfocused mind at times)- trouble with remembering, planning, and anticipating
- unpredictability and impulsivity
- creativity
- lack of inhibition as compared to others
- disorganization (couple with remarkable organization skills in certain domains)
- a tendency toward procrastination (coupled with an I-must-do-it-or-have-it-now attitude at times)
- a high-intensity attitude alternating with a foggy one
- forgetfulness (coupled with an extraordinary recall of certain often irrelevant remote information)
- passionate interests (couple with an inability to arouse interest at other times)
- an original, often zany way of looking at the world
- irritability(coupled with ternderheartedness)
- a tendency to drink too much alcohol, smoke cigarettes, use other druges, or get involved with addictive activities such as gambling, shopping, spending, sex, food, and the Internet (coupled with a tendency to abstain altogether at times)
- a tendency to worry unnecessarily (coupled with a tendency not to worry enough when worry is warranted)
- a tendency to be a nonconformist or a maverick
- a tendency to reject help from others (coupled with a tendency to want to give help to others)
- generosity that can go too far
- a tendency to repeat the same mistake many times without learning from it
- a tendency to underestimate the time it takes to complete a task or get to a destination
- various other ingredients, non of which dominates all of the time, and any one of which may be absent in a single individual(20-21)
When I read that I thought - wow - talk about inconsistent. Yet this list of ingredients is my mind. Here someone was writing about what it was like who has it. I have no idea what people with Attention Surplus Disorder(that’s everyone else in the world) see when they look at this list but it inspired and gave me some hope.
The rest of this chapter continues to elaborate on the “feel” of ADD. What we see. What we experience. What we struggle with. It’s one of my favorite chapters in this book because it tells me the one thing I was so afraid of. That I am not alone and other people struggle and overcome everyday with the same struggles and obstacles I do.
Thank you Dr. Hallowell and Dr. Ratey
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