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Comments/reviews? on Dr. Ned Hallowel's Delivered from Distraction, got some?

Comments/reviews? on Dr. Ned Hallowel's Delivered from Distraction, got some?2012-08-11T22:59:00+00:00

The Forums Forums Tools, Techniques & Treatments Comments/reviews? on Dr. Ned Hallowel's Delivered from Distraction, got some?

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  • #90911

    Robbo
    Member
    Post count: 929

    Delivered From Distraction

    That’s the first adhd book I’ve gotten. I had to choose from this book, You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy, or Answers To Distraction, wanted all 3. The psychologist I’m seeing suggested I get Answers To Distraction, by Dr. Edward Hallowel, but about 1/3 of the questions in it were not questions I was curious about. I also didn’t like the format. I’ve watched Journey Into Dyslexia 3 times. I’m pretty sure I only have the part of dyslexia that causes us to transpose letters when writing mostly, and to some unknown degree while reading. I rarely do math, so it’s not an issue. I’m not curious enough to get tested either.

    I think the methylphenidate helps me to read and write enough that I only have to deal with adhd. One blazing symptom of dyslexia I remember most painfully, is not being able to understand written questions. Hearing a teacher read the questions I couldn’t make sense of used to baffle me, it made perfect sense to hear it. No matter how many times I tried to read, it didn’t. I remember how much it just killed me! dragging myself up to the teachers desk just to get a question “I didn’t get” read out loud to me. My reading skills have improved tons just from reading here the most, I think out of desperation. adhd was destroying my sanity!. My writing has improved some, I’ve been struggling with writing, endlessly editing out typos, and excessive extra words to make simple points since 1997, litterally. I still struggle with self expression, finding less words to make my point, etc, etc. For the life of me I can’t figure out how to keep a post on any given topic brief. Sometimes it kills me. It sux tons seeing many of my older and even not so old posts here. But it’s pain that is making me grow hopefully. It’s really hard for me to see any progress, but I think I’m making a lil. After just reading the preface, “A note on authorship, and most of one chapter of Delivered from Distraction, and seeing/reading a lot of his stuff on the Internet I’ve decided to go back to school and seriously become a writer/English major. An amazing (to me) but realistic goal.

    It would be cool to find out if anyone else has read Delivered From Distraction. So far it’s been great, I find Dr. Hallowel’s writing especially easy for me to read. I don’t think this is a case of my interest making it easier. Some writers are just better at putting words together. Maybe it’s a little bit of each. I absolutely have to approach my adhd with a positive attitude. I suffer much more from it if I don’t. So I agree much more with Dr. Hallowel’s attitude toward adhd. Maybe I’ll end up doing work similar to his. Russel Barkley reminds me too much of my dad. Strict, hyper disciplined, almost mean. I’m more like Dr. Hallowel, he’s a genuinely happy golly dude. He’s got infectious enthusiasm, I can relate to that. I betcha he dresses up as Santa every Christmas lol.

    It would be cool to get a little feedback about my own writing. Even if it’s negative constructive criticism. I like to get “both barrels” as Pete put it on a post about my writing a bunch of months ago, it was an opinion I had asked for. I sometimes want to make my posts smaller, but that would be catering to the adhd community here, and the Internet. As opposed to the human race in general. Maybe brevity is a cultural thing imposed by the use of smart phones, and people just being too busy in general these days. I consider writing to an art form. I don’t feel like I’m at the “artistic writer” level just yet. After I get some more education behind me maybe. I bet I’ll be able to put together some decent literary stuff. All I need is a good editor :-)

    8-11-12

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    #115452

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Hi Robbo….I’m on my 3rd time around on on “Journey into Dyslexia”. What thrilled me most is dyslexia, ADD or what have you is just a difference and the brain has untold differences…..and neither label is about intelligence…. the key is…. how do I get there from here!!!! So many paths……so many alternatives….outside the tiny common spectrum!!!

    As for writing…..it is a skill, a learned skill and I don’t mean the actual printing or writing but the art of communication using the written form. It is not my strong suit…..I seem unable no matter how hard I try to write what academics deem a University Class paper…..it escapes me. Oh well……….

    In my working career we had a writing department 10 or 15 English Majors who more or less would take technical information and turn that information into documents a “practice library” of technical how to stuff and “procedural stuff”..which in a technical corporation is critical. They also were speech writers, spin doctors for the media etc etc….you get the picture. Word crafters!!!

    I would have huge corporate projects with aspects of cross departmental procedure, IT reprogramming, internal communication elements and external communication to the Premier’s Office, political implications and media spin…..well it was all my responsibility. So at the very onset of a project I would go and get a writer assigned to my project…..right from the get go!!! I learned more from sitting and working with a “professional communicator” than most anything else I ever did!!! Writing is an amazing challenge…..writing well anyway. It is very difficult to write some thing SIMPLY….CONCISE….EASILY UNDERSTOOD and that only can mean ONE THING…..and leaves no room for interpretation. Edit Edit Edit Edit Edit and edit again then give it to somebody else to edit then edit again…….that is what I learned. Leave your ego at the door……be prepared to be humble…..patient….and grateful!!!

    I love writers….what they see, what they know, and what they contribute…….it’s an amazing skill and art form…..I’m still shitty at it, but I’m waaaaaay better than I used to be. So I will share this… find writers…..seek them out….ask them to read what you write…..critique…edit….share…..grow……..it is a wonderful form of communication……that is never finished….and first and foremost write write write and then write somemore.

    Go hard……..the rewards are tremendous.

    Toofat

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    #115453

    Wgreen
    Participant
    Post count: 445

    Oh c’mon TooFat, you don’t need to apologize for your writing. It’s better than most— stylized but good. I bet you’ve got a novel in you!

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    #115454

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Hahahahaha Wg, a generous comment for sure…… but…..well……..hmmmm maybe……..if I just wasn’t so damn lazy!!! :)

    Toofat

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    #115455

    kc5jck
    Participant
    Post count: 845

    I read Delivered from Distraction first as well. It’s probably the best one to read. After all, if the first thing you looked at after finding out you have ADHD is a Barkley video, you would probably go out and shoot yourself.

    Although I feel I have been fairly successful, I feel that ADHD has severely limited my potential. I also think that if I had been diagnosed earlier, even as late as before I hit forty, I would have been far more successful. But every day is a new day and knowledge is power.

    Robbo, I have noticed a marked improvement in the readability of your posts in the past month or so. They seem much more coherent and well thought out than were your first posts, which I had difficulty in reading. I agree that writing is an art form. Simple well crafted sentences using simple carefully selected words is probably the best way to go. If you’re interested in better writing, you should check out “Elements of Style” by Strunk. And as in most things, practice will increase proficiency.

    I remember hearing about a writer speak of an editor he once had. The writer would submit a piece to the editor who would look it over, hand it back, and ask “Is this the best you can do?” Where upon the writer would go back and rework the piece. This process would happen several times with each piece the writer submitted. He later admitted that the editor caused him to become a great writer, just through his own “self editing.” Years later, the writer found out that the editor could not read.

    You mentioned school. I remember when I was probably eight years old, the teacher would give homework assignments. If I copied the assignment off the board, I would get it wrong. If I didn’t get it wrong, I would forget it at school or lost it before I got home. My mother would make me call a classmate (Linda, not cool to call a girl for assignments when you’re eight years old) to find out what the homework was. If I managed to copy it down correctly on this attempt, I would be doing good. Then it would take three hours of aggrivation and tears to do maybe twenty minutes of work. The next day as I handed in the answers to the odd numbered problems to the history questions, I would find out that it should have been the odd numbered problems in the geography book. 😯

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    #115456

    Tiddler
    Member
    Post count: 802

    I’ve got Delivered from Distraction – it’s still sitting unread on my bedside table and has been for months. :) Kind of says it all I suppose! I’ll get round to it…

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    #115457

    Wgreen
    Participant
    Post count: 445

    Hey Tiddler, doesn’t “Delivered from Distraction” start off with a summary of the contents because, as the author acknowledges, most ADDers won’t be able to read the whole thing!?

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    #115458

    Wgreen
    Participant
    Post count: 445

    And while we’re talking about books, has anybody read Thomas Brown’s book, “Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults”? Brown’s website says he is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders. http://www.drthomasebrown.com/books/index.html .

    I dunno. It may be less of a “user’s manual” and more of an exegesis on the professional literature…

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    #115459

    Bibliophile
    Member
    Post count: 169

    I personally can’t tolerate Dr. Ned Hallowell’s everything but the kitchen sink approach to symptom mitigation and treatment. He is all over the spectrum of ADHD = Gift one minute to ADHD can be serious impairment the next.

    While I have not read, Dr. T. Brown’s book, it sounds like more of a Dr. R. Barkley view. I particularly liked this review of the book on Amazon as it seemed quite balanced and fair:

    A clinical sobering view–somewhat helpful, at times misleading, December 2, 2005

    By JackOfMostTrades “Jack” (Washington, DC) – (VINE VOICE)

    Brown eschews the spate of ADD books that champion the idea ‘How wonderful that I have ADD. I’m unique, creative and all I have to do is learn to adapt myself to the world and I will have a great life’ hype that sells copies for people with ADD seeking a cure-all. Brown is an empiricist and does not subscribe to anecdotal evidence such as prominent people who have ADD to suggest everyone can. In fact, his sobering view is that the executive functions of the brain are compromised in the ADD mind, and therefore, ‘training’ is of little use nor are the newer strategies of neurofeedback or exercises that purport to ‘balance the cerebellum,’ which he likens to trying to treat autism by providing courses in communication skills. Rather, his emphasis is that ADD is a serious disorder, or rather a syndrome since there are many parameters to it, or in other words, many roads that lead to it. On the positive side he denounces the deniers of ADD like scientologists and ‘common sense’ observations that you just need to give a child some motivation and will power. He believes thus far medication is about the only good treatment, and wryly states stimulants and other medical treatments are fine for 8 out of 10 people with ADD, fine that is, if you happen to be one of the eight. He presents advice to families that has been covered already in much of the literature. While his views are conservative–and he does not discuss various severities of ADD–this is a helpful book if you need a good outline of the available evidence on the subject, and will be a welcome ADDition to your library, particularly if you have been frustrated by the upbeat hype, and begin blaming yourself for not ‘getting with the program.’ At times, however, he overreaches his thesis, making suggesting that the ‘executive functions’ in people with ADD are so compromised they are practically hopeless. He does not mention degrees of ADD although he mentions types of ADD. He also does a bit of contradicting by first stating that it is a syndrome with multiple causes but then treats it as though all the variables result in basically the same condition. He also fails to address sufficiently the cultural variable of a world saturated with information that can exacerbate the condition, nor does he mention the idea that ADD may evolve during the lifespan, regardless of medication or behavioral training.

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    #115460

    Robbo
    Member
    Post count: 929

    Yep Wgreen, that chapter is called “the skinny”, it encouraged me to read the rest. I think folks have generalized their opinions of Dr. Hallowel, a lil too much. He tells the whole ugly truth about this dastardly awful when untreated malady. I’ve read about a 3rd of it and I’ve found it very easy reading. Just a 3rd is not enough to give a full review. Duh!. This is a progress report. I really like what I’ve read so far. It was only 15 bux here in Ca. totally worth that price, n the time I’ve spent reading it.

    Dr. Hallowel definitely has adhd, it shows in his writing, but he’s cool. I don’t think he’s had the same struggles that I’ve had. His compassion for those of us who really have suffered is genuine, and he comes across warm hearted. He’s one of the few Dr.’s out there I’m confident calling an expert.

    Thanks for the generous feedback Kc, real cool.

    I’ll keep up the practice Toofat, good advice too.

    Tiddler, I bet you’ll really like this book, he keeps it interesting, gives solid solutions, n expert advice. I like Dr. H because I strongly believe a problem should be attacked with a full frontal assault of positive energy. I think he’s like that. Positive also means telling the whole truth. He does that too. We all got different challenges in our cans of adhd worms. He’s got more books and talks about stuff we can all use. I wanted to buy more.

    Here’s my favorite quotes so far, best one first.

    “The more you emphasize the downside, the more you create additional pathology: A nasty set of avoidable, secondary problems, like shame, fear, and a sharply diminished sense of what’s possible in life”

    “Having ADD is also like trying to build a house of cards in a windstorm”

    “As far as I can see, many people who don’t have ADD are charter members of the Society of the Congenitally Boring”

    Thanks Biblio. I like what you said about Dr. Hallowel, the same things you can’t tolerate are what I like about him. He talks about what works for me. It’s a giftcurse n keeps changing, good days bad days, goodbad days.

    It’s best to get everyone’s perspective. Plenty of folks think like you, see how you see. Your comments have helped me work harder at editing my posts also.

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    #115461

    Amy
    Member
    Post count: 161

    “You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy” has been my favorite book by far. I read both Driven and Delivered from Distraction and they just didn’t really speak to me. I think “You Mean I’m Not…” did because I liked the sense of humor in it and that it was written by two women. It seemed more down to earth than the others.

    One book that I liked that probably most people wouldn’t is “Taking Charge of Adult ADHD” by Barkley. I am a nuts and bolts type of person, and knowing WHY I think the way I do helps me more than anything.

    Amy

    http://acatwithadhd.com

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    #115462

    Robbo
    Member
    Post count: 929

    Whelp, I finished that book by Dr. Hallowell and Dr. John J. Ratey. All in all, I’d have to say it’s got a ton of info packed into the 379 pages. I didn’t get the “You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy”one cuz it looked a lil bit big, almost did, but instead, I had a victory over a mini bout with impulsively buying 3 books that day… My reading confidence is much better now. I seriously got a lot out of the Delivered from Distraction one, more than I usually get just reading a book the first time. I’m nowhere as educated as Dr. Ned, but I can relate a lot to his kind of ADHD, it kinda shows in his writing. That book encouraged me to take some serious English classes soon. I’m gonna search the Internet for some basic grammar lessons, maybe a creative writing thing. Then just do what Toofat suggested. I still can’t figure out when to use a colon. I think I have a clue about a semi-colon, but I’m still a lil confused about all the other stuff I still don’t know I’m doing wrong. I just have a feeling my writings not up to the level I want it to be. I can’t figure out how to be brief. Maybe brevity is overrated, huh?.

    So what kind of writing?, well I ain’t no expert an anything, so probably fiction. My life has been one heck of an action adventure survival story, so I might as well capitalize on how funny and adventurous me surviving ADHD has been. Heck it’s a freakin miracle I’m not dead or locked up!. I’ll make up a story very loosely based on me, and maybe even some of the characters from here. I’ll change the names to protect the innocent of course :-) This is one of my biggest goals.

    I definitely respect your opinion Amy, that’s part of why I’m gonna go ahead and tackle that Lazy, Stupid, Crazy one next. After that, the one by Dr. Barkley you mentioned. By the time I read those, n study em. All the new features should be running like a well oiled machine here at the New and Improved totallyadd.com huh?

    Did you guys notice the new changes to the ADD Shop? It’s AWESOME!, They have a bunch of book reviews n lot’s of treats I haven’t even gotten around to checking out yet.

    Check it out. Ear ya go http://totallyaddshop.com/collections/more-stuff It’s Grrreat!. Way cool. You’re gonna love it!. :o)

    ukay, that’s it

    8-27-12

    p.s. This may sound a lil bit lazy, but I will be spending some time searching around for some kind of creative writing educational type thing on the Internet myself, I’m not sure what I’m looking for. But if any of you guys already know of a place that might be what I’m looking for. Could ya post a link to it?. Thanks in advance gang :-)

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    #115463

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    I have downloaded books written by Doctors Ned Hallowell and Russell Barkley. While Hallowell seems more compassionate, Barkley is a serious student of ADHD and speaks in an unvarnished way, which I appreciate. The short YouTube clips they’ve both posted are cool.

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