Customer Reviews

Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the Six Types of ADD

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3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I was the terror of the neighborhood, failed grade 1,
dropped out of high school after grade 10, then after the
army, 3 teachers talked me into returning to school. A
VERY difficult journey began - hard to concentrate, memory
problems, hyperactivity, and etc. It took a LOT of help,
but ultimately I received a BA, MEd, and Ph.D. I became a
chief of psychology in a psychiatric hospital, teacher,
therapist -- and then at 46 years of age, I was diagnosed
with ADHD. Suddenly, "everything" made sense, as the
disorder was 'classic' to how I had behaved, thought,
struggled with relationships, and etc. MEDICATIONS
comletely turned MY life around (as my wife, friends, and
work associates would affirm) - they don't work for everyone,
but for me, it was like a miracle from heaven. Of course, the
anti-medication zealots will not wish to believe this, but
my experience is like that of so many others I have seen IN MY
PRACTICE AS A PSYCHOLOGIST. When medications work, they
really do a great job. When they don't, the experience can
be very disappointing, and anger can run high. I also
conducted over 500, 1-day seminars in almost every state in
the USA, and provinces in Canada (this took place over a
14 year period). Having said all of this - the absolute
best book in the field, based on my having read scores of books,
articles, and my experiences factored in, is Dr. Amen's book!!!
I have, in fact, cleared out about 80% of all the AD/HD
literature I had, and Dr. Amen's book remains my favorite.
It is the ONLY book I now recommend to individuals who ask
for my opinion, as a psychologist WITH ADHD.

Healing ADD is a landmark book that every counselor, psycholgist, psychiatrist,and pastor will want to have. More importantly if you struggle with ADD or know someone who does this book is a must read. I and the therapists who are associated with me have referred over 600 people in the last four years for SPECT Brain Imaging Scans. As a psychotherapist I have found Dr. Amen's work to be truly a landmark in the field of psychiatry, psychology and medicine in general. "Healing ADD" helps the reader to identify which of the six types of ADD that they have, and then the practical steps to take for treatment. An alarming number of people are medically mismanaged when it comes to ADD treatment, and the work that Dr. Amen has done through over 10,000 SPECT Brain Imaging Scans has resulted in a system of diagnosis and medication management that brings more precision to the care of the ADD patient.So many of the horror stories and bad press that Ritalin is given are due to inaccurate diagnosis. Ritalin or another stimulant will be prescribed when another system of the brain needs to be treated first before a stimulant is given. The checklists that are provided in Dr.Amen's book will give the reader a guide as to whether the counselor or physcian they are working with is headed in the right direction with the treatment program they design. What is also exciting about this work is how it educates and empowers the lay person to truly be in charge of their care, and be able to ask their therapist, or physcian the needed questions to make sure they are getting the most up to date care and treatment possible. This is a book that the lay person and professional will benefit from. If you are being treated for ADD you might want to purchase a copy for your doctor.

Earl R. Henslin Psy.D., B.C.E.T.S. Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress Diplomate in the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress

I really appreciated the explanation of the different parts of the brain and how they should work, but don't in the ADD brain. There is a list of 71 questions which helps you determine which type of ADD you are, and recommendations for how to change your lifestyle (diet, exercise) to give you more focus.

Unlike most ADD books, this one does not focus on children but should be very useful for children with ADD. There is a chapter for each type of ADD. Prescription medications are discussed, as are natural and over-the-counter alternatives. When you read this, it will give you a really good idea which meds or supplements are likely to work best for you, in combination with changes in diet and exercising frequently. Medication alone is most often not enough.

There is a section on ADD coaching. It gives exercises to help determine what is most important to you, and advice of accomplishing goals.

Are you a parent confused about what doctors are saying about your child's difficulties? Are you a person having a problem finding a good fit for yourself in readings about problems in attention, anger outbursts, depression, getting stuck on things, road rage, alcohol or substance misuse, or disorganization? Are you a mental health clinician or medical doctor who wonders if ADD and ADHD exist and doesn't mind telling your patients that? Welcome to the club. Happily, after reading this book, you may drop your club membership.

Daniel G Amen MD writes and talks to you about the six major types of ADD in his newest book, "Healing ADD." Confusion turns into clarity as you learn about kids and adults with ADD and the add-on symptoms that confuse even some experts.

Using specialized SPECT brain scans, Amen shows where the parts of the brain that are having trouble functioning are and how they are detected.

This book is rich in the details of the lives of persons afflicted with ADD. It brings alive the torments endured when ADD is not properly diagnosed, subtyped, or appropriately treated. It also describes the promise, indeed the results, of well-tailored treatment based on an accurate understanding of the complexities associated with ADD.

While considered controversial, physicians and clinicians are giving Dr Amen's approach increasing acceptance. More locations and physicians are offering evaluations and treatment in part based on brain SPECT scans. More centers are making these specialized scans available.

For the appropriately skeptical physician practicing evidence-based medicine, the needed research details about the role of brain SPECT scans in evaluation and treatment of ADD and its associated disorders are yet to be done. Yet many of those physicians are not conversant with such recommendations as the National Institute of Mental Health Guidelines about ADD or other recently published large research-based studies. I found it hard to read this book and not be intrigued to want to learn even more.

For parents, teachers, and persons with ADD, this book will enlarge their understanding, if not their acceptance, of the emotional and behavioral problems inflicted by this disorder. For mental health clinicians, including physicians whose practice has persons with ADD, "Healing ADD" is close to a "must read" work.

Dr. Daniel Amen describes several sets of ADD symptoms, illustrating them with images of abnormal brain activity in those who suffer from the symptoms. While I'm not convinced that his six types are all really primarily ADD, or that they are the only types of ADD, still, this book provides fascinating insight into the physical basis for psychiatric difficulties. Dr. Amen's case studies are fascinating and quite compelling, and he shows both great tenderness for his clients and great insight into the needs and difficulties of people with ADD.

This book is extremely valuable for debunking the myth that ADD is not a real disability. Dr. Amen's use of brain imaging technology demonstrates the ways that some people's brains work differently and ineffectively. It's not just laziness--when people with ADD try to concentrate, the part of our brain that controls concentration just shuts down. It's genuinely a physical disability. Although I can "feel" this, to see it verified in black-and-white was extremely validating.

While Amen's treatments might be experimental, his diagnostic methods do not seem so. It is not "experimental" to use brain imaging technology to identify where the brain is working properly and not working enough. This has been done for many years. And it's not true that Amen's work is completely "out there"--his work was reviewed by research physicians in two departments (nuclear medicine and neurology, I think) at UCLA and found to be "good medicine" and worthwhile. Comparisons made in other reviews to procedures completely unsupported by any scientific evidence are really in themselves unsupportable.

I am not a doctor and can't recommend whether the treatments outlined in this book should be implemented. I can say that people with ADD, and those around them who doubt the reality of their difficulties, will learn a lot from looking at the brain images in this book and understanding the connections between the brain's impaired functioning and the associated symptoms.

Reading this book almost makes me feel that "normal" psychiatry is working in the dark without tools... Dr Amen might or might not have made as much progress in the field as this book appears to demonstrate, but nonetheless I think he must be on the right track. I wonder whether it will one day seem to us that trying to guess what's wrong with someone's brain without looking at it, is as strange as trying to diagnose strep throat over the phone.

This book is an excellent resource on ADD / ADHD. I have been reading and attending workshops on ADD since my son was 8 and he is now 30. I was diagnosed with ADD myself in my late 40's, and now take Adderall. It took me 2 years to find the right medication. Dr. Amen shares suggested medication for the 6 different types of ADD, which can save you time and money in Dr. appointments and trying medications and different doses of medications that don't fit your needs. This book is worth it's weight in gold. My family suffered a great deal because of my son's ADD and the difficulty of getting it diagnosed. I have purchased 19 of these books and given them to teachers, counselors, doctors and parents of children with ADD. I gave this book to the past Head of Psychiatry at University of Birmingham and he was extremely impressed with it. Taking the test to see which type or types of ADD you have is simple and right on the money. I read Dr. Amen's first book "Change Your Brain Change Your Life," and was so impressed with it, I called his office to see if he could see my son. I was told he didn't treat patients anymore, and asked for a referral of a Dr. somewhat close to me (since I live on the East Coast). I took my son to Dr. George Stein in Alexandria, VA (who they referred me to), and I truly believe he saved my son's life. My son is doing great now, and it's because of Dr. Amen and Dr. Stein.
I suggest you tell everyone you know that deals with ADD about this book. It will be the best thing you can do for them.

Well, I found which type of ADD that I had, and understand it and myself better. No one ever believed me when I said that ritalin made it worse, but this book confirmed what I felt. What really scared me is the similarities between my school performance and that of many of the examples in the book. I didn't graduate high school on time, even though I am very intelligent. I haven't had time to complete the book yet (midterms are this week and next week), but from what I have read it is an excellent book, and very accurate. If you have Add, you owe it to yourself to learn more about it through reading this book.

At last! Some real guidance through the difficulties of identifying, let alone trying to correct ADD. I'm the director of a nutritional therapy clinic. We have sent several people with ADD (as well as with brain injury and stroke) to Dr. Amen's clinics. Until now, though, I never understood why his medication protocols typically worked so well. His book makes it clear, using fascinating "before and after" SPECT "photos" of the ADD brains treated, that there are several distinct kinds of ADD. It goes on to explain the special treatments suitable for each. Dr. Amen also devotes several chapters to some effective, non-drug options. Like his first great book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, this one is full of inspiring case histories, and is so readable that you can't put it down.

Through his groundbreaking research Dr. Amen, a well-respected psychiatrist, demonstrates that ADD/ADHD is a neurological disorder, which can be positively identified using brain imaging. Although some experts in the field may take exception to his characterization of different ADD/ADHD sub-types (since we have always identified many of those sub-types as co morbid disorders existing with ADD), he makes a valuable contribution to our understanding and therefore treatment of ADD/ADHD. Surprisingly, by identifying each of the sub-types, he makes medication recommendations, which have been used by many doctors for years, they just never called it what Dr. Amen does. A good read for struggling parents of ADD/ADHD kids who are not responding to standard stimulant medications and those wishing broader and more diverse knowledge of the field.
Ali Hashemian, Ph.D.

Healing ADD,by Dr.Amen, is an advancement of his ideas presented in his prior book,Change Your Brain Change Your Life.

He connects brain function with a spectrum of familiar symptoms under the umbrella of "attention related disorders" for a very useful reason: to empower the reader with hope and possibility. A scientific approach to an "age-old condition" of ADD,he encourages the reader (patient,parent,physician,a child, etc.) to seek an integrated approach to treatment. Through the visual presentation of SPECT images, Dr. Amen engages the imagination of the reader into a novel understanding of overlapping symptoms under one umbrella. The book begins with descriptive subtypes from "Ring of Fire" to "Classic ADD" more cogently than in his prior book. Chapters five through ten on the six ADD subtypes is written for the lay person yet broad-reaching enough for those more clinically trained in the field. The major advantage of this section over contempory books on ADD is to integrate, not isolate, symptoms under one umbrella. Each chapter cover page helpfully lists differences in core symptoms(ie:Temporal lobe ADD versus Ring of Fire ADD) in easy to read BOLD print.This makes it easy for the first time reader to retrace the important points.

In part III,Dr. Amen includes alternative intervention strategies that he uses in his clinic. Chapter 20, on Neurofeedback strategies, is particularly helpful to those persons seeking assistance from professionals without relying solely on medication.

Having performed over two hundred Brain Spect scans on my patients in the past year I found Dr. Amen's book to be an accurate approach to the evaluation and treatment of ADD in the twentyfirst century.