Description
New York Times bestseller!
From renowned mental health expert and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition.
In this breakthrough guide to understanding, treating, and healing Attention Deficit Disorder, Dr. Gabor Maté, bestselling author of The Myth of Normal, and himself diagnosed with ADD:
- Demonstrates that the condition is not a genetic “illness” but a response to environmental stress
- Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy – and why
- Shows how ‘distractibility’ is the psychological product of life experience
- Allows parents to understand what makes their ADD children tick, and adults with ADD to gain insights into their emotions and behaviors
- Expresses optimism about neurological development even in adulthood
- Presents a program of how to promote this development in both children and adults
Whereas other books on the subject describe the condition as inherited, Dr. Maté believes that our social and emotional environments play a key role in both the cause of and cure for this condition. In Scattered Minds, he describes the painful realities of ADD and its effect on children as well as on career and social paths in adults.
While acknowledging that genetics may indeed play a part in predisposing a person toward ADD, Dr. Maté moves beyond that to focus on the things we can control: changes in environment, family dynamics, and parenting choices. He draws heavily on his own experience with the disorder, as both an ADD sufferer and the parent of diagnosed children. Providing a thorough overview of ADD and its treatments, without blaming anyone, Scattered Minds is essential and life-changing reading for the millions of ADD sufferers in North America today.
Really good info for adults with ADD. This booked help to address some of the feelings I have felt since I was a kid as well as my low self esteem, inability to focus, and my relationships with others and substances.
Dr. Mate does a good job in this book explaining the origins and the feeling of some adults with ADD. My psychologist recommended this after my diagnosis and I the reader recommend to you if the above resonates.
Came in good condition
As someone in their 40s who was only recently diagnosed, this book has given me an exponentially greater understanding of how my thoughts, behaviours, feelings and experiences have unknowingly been impacted and informed by ADHD all these years. I recognized myself and my experience on practically every page. If your experience reading it is anything like mine, I caution that I find with this greater understanding also comes a sense of grief for time missed or mistakes made, but that the simultaneous sense of hope and optimism of how different the future can now be is far, far stronger. Thank you, Dr. Maté: this book will change my life.
Absolutely excellent! Easy to read, excellent info and insight, brilliant author. Made me feel so understood!!!!
An excellent book! Fascinating and informative. A must read; not only for parents with children that have ADD. For everyone.