Customer Reviews

Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults: A Different Way of Thinking

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has been a great help to me. It puts forward a very enlightened view of ADD by referring to it as a "brain style." What does the author mean by that? Although this is not how Lynn Weiss puts it in her book, I think it sums up what she believes about the basic nature of ADD: Having ADD is like being born left handed in a world that does not understand or even recognize left handedness as a possibility.
So ADD, like hand dominance, is simply a way of being. Unfortunately ADD has much greater consequence in our lives than being left handed, and to make things more difficult, it is much harder to see. Since ADD is not readily apparent, understood, or acknowledged in our society, people with it suffer greatly without fully underatnding what is going on or realizing why they feel so bad/stupid/wrong/broken.
I have known I am ADD for about 3 years, but even after consulting several professional, I never got the useful sort of information and insights that I found in this book. Of great help has been the information on how ADD affects relationships and on how many of the pathologies associated with ADD develop not from ADD but rather from our frustrating interactions with a society/family that is functionally alien to us and indifferent/ignorant to our needs as well as our gifts.
At the moment, I am in the process of divorce with a wonderful spouse who has simply run out of energy to deal with me and my
ADD. I am pretty sure that if I had only found this book a yearor so earlier, the insights on ADD and relationships would have helped us recognize that ADD was at the root of our difficulties, seek appropriate help, make accommodations or changes in our lives and, and preserve our marriage. I plan to get the ADD workbook as well as the ADD and the workplace books that she has written.
In short, I think this book is a great explanation and introduction to ADD and should be read by everyone with ADD as well as their spouse and family. Armed with the information in this book you will know what to look for as you seek a professional to help you cope and thrive with ADD. This knowledge will prevent you from thinking, as I did, that you are getting good professional help when in fact, the professionals you are counting on may well not have a clue!

This book really shines in its descriptions of how the behaviors of adults with ADHD affect interactions and relationships with those around them. Dr. Weiss also offers helpful and practical solutions for dealing with the daily problems that arise in these relationships and interactions.

Many good books for adults with ADHD have appeared in the last few years, and like most of the others, this one provides scientifically accurate information about symptoms, causes, and treatments of ADHD. Its insightful information about relationships, its practical approaches to problem solving, and its encouraging tone make it stand out as one of the most valuable for adults with ADHD and for those who care about them.

In my Clinical Psychology practice, I find this book especially useful in helping adult clients with ADHD recognize exactly how their behaviors affect their spouses, friends, and co-workers. If these others can be persuaded to read the book, it also helps them see that many of the infuriating behaviors they have to deal with come from ADHD rather than from the client's personal failings or purposeful choices to be difficult.

- Dr. Lynn Daugherty, Bestselling Author of the Award Winning Classic
Why Me? Help for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse (Even if they are adults now), Fourth Edition

This immensely readable and commonsense book offers a different way of looking at ADD. The author, a practicing psychotherapist, has ADD and has raised an ADD child. She champions classifying ADD as a "brainstyle" instead of a disorder, which I find refreshing. My husband and I have an adult child who was diagnosed with ADD in his early 20's after a bout with depression, and ADD runs very strongly in both of our families. We both have ADD brainstyles and can identify with this book, and especially with the pain and loss of self-esteem our very bright but very ADD ("active entertainer") son suffered growing up in a linear world. As the author says, ADD people are truly gifted--they are often extremely sensitive, creative,spontaneous, perceptive, intense, down to earth, and fun! I highly recommend this book for any adult with ADD.

This book is a great book if your an adult who has in adulthood discovered your ADD. It teaches you in such a way that you can follow, and skipping around doesn't make it impossible to read either!

Based on the description and reviews I expected a science based education on the subject of Adult ADD from a medically trained expert. Instead, I found a book written by a self made expert with little medical background. The book is more a Stuart Smalley like collection of affirmations designed to make people with ADD feel good about themselves but doing little to overcome the difficulties created by ADD. The author's perspective on ADD is based on her "beliefs" about what ADD is and how best to treat it. I could find little scientific evidence cited to back up her assertions.

If you are looking for a book to tell you that there's nothing wrong with you and that all of your problems are due to the rest of the world trying to force their way of thinking on you then buy this book. But if you want to understand what ADD is according to scientist and medical doctors and if you want to learn how to live with this condition in the real world then look elsewhere.

I know that it is in vogue right now to think of scientists and doctors as evil shills of BIG BUSINESS and to believe that we can learn all we need to know about the world by just getting in tune with nature and trusting our feelings, but I'll take evidence over instinct every day.

Lynn Weiss offers a controversial but invaluable and refreshing understanding of ADHD as a different way of processing information, a unique brain style that is neither a disability nor a medical disease. She outlines scientific flaws in the research used to conclude ADHD is a neurological disorder and debunks the myths promulgated by the American Psychological Association in their ADHD pamphlet that was funded by Celltech Pharmaceuticals. She gives those with ADHD a choice, allowing them to decide how they will view themselves and their unique style. They may choose to use medication or to invoke the Americans with Disabilities Act to allow them to thrive in environments that are not conducive to their global thinking style. Or they may choose to educate those with a more linear mode of thinking, to look for and create situations better suited to their way of processing information. She is careful not to denigrate the former choice, putting the power back into the hands of those with ADHD. She outlines positive attributes of this brain style including being "cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary", "perceptually acute", "empathetic with the feelings of others". ADHD can be seen as an issue not of disability but of diversity. Will our culture allow for different ways of thinking? Will we create environments that foster global brain styles, creative solutions to problems, all/and thinking instead of the prevalent either/or bias? In Weiss' view, when we create environments that suit multiple intelligences and brain styles we all benefit.

ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER IN ADULTS by Lynn Weiss PhD
September 9, 2007

Amazon Rating: 5/5 stars

I bought ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER IN ADULTS by Lynn Weiss Ph.D. immediately after I was diagnosed with ADD a few months ago. Lynn Weiss explains how ADD affects people and how to recognize traits and symptoms by using example scenarios of ADD adults and situations they have gotten into. While I couldn't relate to every single example depicted in the book, each example scenario did help explain the many traits that I have, and helped me understand a lot about what I have been going through my entire life.

This book helps the ADD person feel that they are not alone and that they do not have a disorder, but that their brains are wired differently. What I liked about the book is that it did mix in the personal examples with discussion, and she also had exercises that helped out as well. The appendix has lists of medications used for ADD and organizations that are out there for ADD people to utilize. I think this book is perfect for anyone newly diagnosed with ADD (as an adult). I'm definitely keeping this as a reference book on my bookshelf.

This is one of the best self-help books I have read in years. The author is really an expert on the topic. The book is very helpful and easy to read and understand.

Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults is a fairly good general reference on the subject. The author uses too many case summaries and they tend to be too long. It does not give the adult patient a basis for evulating direction for seeking treatment. It should be noted that, in this case, the patient was a well educated, successful, retired 79 year old male, who had been advised, after a rather extensive test, that he had two or more traits that were attritable to ADD.

I found this book to be very poorly written. It doesn't read well, doesn't capture the readers interest (and should since it's aimed at folks with attention deficit!). This seemed like the author's biography more than anything else - very self-indulgent. Lacked real advice. Basically it says there's nothing wrong with you when you have ADD, and that the world really should adapt to you. Not likely to happen in the real world. Don't waste your money.