Married to Distraction: Restoring Intimacy and Strengthening Your Marriage in an Age of Interruption [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Edward Hallowell (Author, Reader), Sue Hallowell (Author, Reader), Melissa Orlov (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 16, 2010

Modern marriage is busy, distracted, and overloaded to extremes, with ever-increasing lists of things to do, superficial electronic connections, and interrupted moments. Now Edward M. Hallowell, the bestselling co-author of Driven to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction, teams up with his wife, Sue George Hallowell, a couples’ therapist, to explain the subtle but dangerous toll today’s overstretched, undernurtured lifestyle takes on our most intimate relationship. The good news is that there are straightforward and effective ways to maneuver your marriage out of the destructive roadblocks created by the avalanche of busy living.
• Observe the natural sequence of sustaining love: attention, time, connection, and play.
• Develop and nurture empathy—the essential building block to healthy communication.
• Carve out small moments of uninterrupted attention for each other.
• Identify the pressures that our crazybusy lifestyles put on love and marriage, and fight back with tenderness and appreciation.
            All of us who have been part of a couple for more than a few years will recognize ourselves in this reassuring book. Married to Distraction will set couples on a course of understanding, healing, and love.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“With its wise and compassionate counsel and great ideas for bridging the “disconnect” all too often a part of married life these days, this is a unique, engaging, and profoundly helpful book. It can save a marriage or simply help people in happy marriages get closer and feel more fulfilled.”—Suzy Welch, New York Times bestselling author of 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea
 
“Edward Hallowell is already beloved by readers for his compassionate, incisive and accessible books about ADD, crazybusiness and creating childhood happiness. Now he teams with his wife, Sue, and together they bring his trademark mixture of science, good humor, empathy and faith to the topic of marriage in the age of distraction. They draw upon a wealth of professional experience to illustrate the difficulties of maintaining meaningful intimacy in our disconnected time, but it is ultimately their own personal spirits—generous and warm, honest and yes, loving—that make this book a pleasure. I urge all people who yearn for more in their marriages to read Married to Distraction--and, in particular, those hungry to move beyond conflict and condemnation to connection and understanding.”—Judith Warner, author of Perfect Madness

“This timely book could save your marriage. With wit and humor, Ned and Sue Hallowell astutely call attention to the epidemic distraction plaguing our relationships today. They gently guide us toward intimate connection—through the art of paying attention. Spare some time to focus on their wisdom, and discover anew the depth of love.” —Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age
 
“It is remarkable that a couple so well versed in the woes of their patients’ marriages has the capacity for the kind of optimism and clear-sighted wisdom that readers will find in these pages. The Hallowells (he teaches at Harvard Medical School and heads the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health; she is a couples’ therapist) examine the new and hard-to-resist stresses placed on the modern-day marriage with a compassionate focus on forgiveness and self-reflection. Those in search of practical, concrete advice for creating and saving healthy marriages will find what they need.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., was an instructor at Harvard Medical School for twenty years and is now the director of the Hallowell Centers for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and New York City. He is the co-author of Delivered from Distraction and Driven to Distraction as well as the author of CrazyBusy, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, and Worry. Visit him online at www.DrHallowell.com.

Sue George Hallowell, LICSW, has been a practicing couples’ therapist for more than twenty-five years.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (March 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307712990
• ISBN-13: 978-0307712998
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.1 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,429,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a child and adult psychiatrist with private practices in Sudbury, Mass as well as on the upper west side in New York City. Both practices operate under the name The Hallowell Center, where we offer diagnosis and a range of treatments for ADHD and learning problems in children and adults. I also am a writer and a speaker. I am married to Sue Hallowell, a social worker and a therapist. We have been married for 24 years and have 3 children, Lucy, now 23, Jack, 20, and Tucker, 17 (as of April, 2013).
The major theme that runs through all my work is the magical power of the human connection, and the power of positive connections of all kinds. I also specialize in learning differences and have written books about how to deal best with attention deficit disorder, a condition that I regard as a potential gift, if it handled correctly. Having both ADHD and dyslexia myself, I am particularly qualified to help people with these conditions bring out their best
I welcome hearing from readers. Just send me an email to [e-mail] or visit my website at drhallowell.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Married to Distraction March 21, 2010

By E. Dionne

Format:Hardcover

I found this book to be extremely insightful, practical, and hopeful. Communicating in the 21st century is often fast, easy and constant...but not always meaningful or worthwhile. This book offers guidance for those who want to nurture and enjoy a special relationship while managing the demands of living in a fast-paced, high-tech world.
Married to Distraction is a very thought-provoking book and comes at a time when many people need to assess how to balance work and play.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars good, but I wish it was great July 27, 2010

By Margaret

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Good book, but I wish it was more nuanced. It was too obvious in sections and did not present enough different situations. But it is good to see a book on older couples and hopefully will encourage more work dealing with this subject.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, but good February 28, 2011

By Shulie

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

A friend told me this was promoted in a TV interview as being a book on marriage with an ADD partner. Having previously read Driven to Distraction by the same author, I expected this to be an illuminating guide to my daily reality. Unfortunately, only one chapter is really devoted to this; the bulk of the book deals with the general distractions of modern life which affect marriages without diagnosed ADD. Nonetheless, it does offer some very cogent ideas for focusing one's attention on what matters, and I did learn several useful points.