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Outside the Box: Rethinking Add/Adhd in Children and Adults - a Practical Guide
Outside the Rethinking ADD/ADHD in Children and Adults A Practical Guide assails decades-old assumptions and presents an up-to-date, science-based understanding of this disorder that causes significant impairment and considerable suffering for about 8% to 10% of children and at least 5% of adults. Designed for the layperson, as well as for clinicians, the book offers science-based answers in plain, understandable language to questions such as the Why are those with ADD/ADHD able to focus very well on a few tasks in which they have strong interest but are unable to focus adequately on many other tasks they recognize as important? How is ADHD like having erectile dysfunction of the mind? Is medication treatment for ADHD more or less risky than its not being treated with medicine? Both down-to-earth and cutting-edge, Outside the Rethinking ADD/ADHD in Children and Adults A Practical Guide highlights multiple perspectives on how this disorder affects children and adults who suffer from it, as well as those who love and care for them.
336 pages, Paperback
Published April 25, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 13, 2019
Since I am awake at 4 am (thanks, Calder) with my brain racing but processing slow (wow, so slow, just going through the drop down list of shelves took forever, distracted by each word, but also having a hard time focusing enough to select appropriate options, and even so I missed "medicine") now seems like an excellent time to say a bit about this book.
As a person with ADHD (pause to go look up types because I can't remember), subtype Inattentive (not physically manifesting the brain agitation, hardly ever fidgety, able to stay in my seat with no difficulty) I think this is an excellent book, albeit a very slow read (it took me six days because no matter how beneficial it might be in the long run, in the short term it is academic, and by the time I get home from work there isn't much concentration left and focusing enough to take in a sentence can take forever, even though you'd think this would be engaging enough because Relevance, but no). There is quite current research for a book (it often takes a year to publish a book, after a year to write (journals being electronic now can publish much more quickly, but most people would have to physically go to a university's library to have access, and even then I am not sure what the process would be to get to read them without a university log-in, although I have no doubt a librarian would be able to provide that access, and probably a computer too). Lots of stuff about brain imaging and observable differences in how people with ADHD think in a fMRI, as well as measurable differences in specific brain matter that I can't recall very well at all. There is a substantial body of research supporting the diagnosis of ADHD despite it being about symptoms everyone experiences sometimes just at a level that isn't impairment. One could present this material to an ADHD denier, of which there are a great many, but they can't be swayed by reproducible research or tests that are consistent across providers, or noticeable successes in treatment,and I don't understand why anyone not directly involved with a person with ADHD world care about anyone else's diagnosis or treatment, but I also don't understand why anyone who is involved would prefer to believe that a person is chronically late, unable to locate anything, incapable of doing tasks until a vital deadline is looming (often not even then), etcetera. People with ADHD have sadly common difficulties in adulthood, since most people are required to be at work at a specific time, and meet deadlines; are expected to pay their bills on time, to listen to instructions and be able to repeat them, to prioritize tasks and do the important ones, to finish tasks, to maintain tidy homes and workplaces in which other people can find a chair to sit down, etcetera. As if anyone would choose to disappoint everyone all the time.
There is much here useful to professionals evaluating or treating people with ADHD, and also to people living with it, although untreated, one is unlikely to think of reading up on the topic, let alone being able to assimilate it. Good stuff about treatment options and evaluating and adjusting.
I don't think I am very different from other people in nature, only in degree. My medication doesn't improve me in anyway compared to other people, it isn't fun. But this year I managed to renew my car registration only a few weeks late, rather than two years, and I was able to produce all the supporting documentation for an income tax audit slightly ahead of the deadline (I got my refund, and interest on it, which was an unanticipated tiny bonus) and since I am able to sit down and actually do my work, I got a really good performance review, the best ever. I still have to double -check my alarm, but without looking at my calendar I could tell you what I have to do at work tomorrow. That wouldn't seem like a miracle to most people, but it is to me.
Brown infuses his book with understanding and empathy, even a little humor. Apparently specializing in ADHD means a disproportionate number of no-shows. Despite the emphasis on data and references that an academic text requires, one imagines he is an caring and kind clinician. Given that the vast majority of us will have little if any medical assistance and I'm going to guess a disproportionately low rate of insurance coverage, most of us won't ever see anyone like him. But may the primary physicians we see will have effectively assimilated both his very practical advice on treatment and his kind understanding.
That's the first time I was ever using my kindle when the blue shade automatically turned off. Between that and the fact that I left behind my sleepy brain muddle some time ago, I think it would behoove me to get out of bed and start doing things. That's a happy-making thought now that it's likely I will actually complete something today. Another little miracle.
To be clear, reading and writing up my reading have never been a problem as long as I got to choose the book. Required reading, on the other hand has been very nearly impossible. When I have been unlucky enough to take a class that I didn't choose for its syllabus, I have been a miserable failure. Literally. Could not read the text, couldn't process anything my eyes happened to pass over. It's why I rarely accept books for review and never join bookclubs: if my interest doesn't engage I cannot progress. Could not read Tolkien, hell, one of the most popular writers of the 20th century, the mind behind some very enjoyable movies, and not only could I not read him, I can't remember how to spell his name, and had to open another window to check.
Library copy
As a person with ADHD (pause to go look up types because I can't remember), subtype Inattentive (not physically manifesting the brain agitation, hardly ever fidgety, able to stay in my seat with no difficulty) I think this is an excellent book, albeit a very slow read (it took me six days because no matter how beneficial it might be in the long run, in the short term it is academic, and by the time I get home from work there isn't much concentration left and focusing enough to take in a sentence can take forever, even though you'd think this would be engaging enough because Relevance, but no). There is quite current research for a book (it often takes a year to publish a book, after a year to write (journals being electronic now can publish much more quickly, but most people would have to physically go to a university's library to have access, and even then I am not sure what the process would be to get to read them without a university log-in, although I have no doubt a librarian would be able to provide that access, and probably a computer too). Lots of stuff about brain imaging and observable differences in how people with ADHD think in a fMRI, as well as measurable differences in specific brain matter that I can't recall very well at all. There is a substantial body of research supporting the diagnosis of ADHD despite it being about symptoms everyone experiences sometimes just at a level that isn't impairment. One could present this material to an ADHD denier, of which there are a great many, but they can't be swayed by reproducible research or tests that are consistent across providers, or noticeable successes in treatment,and I don't understand why anyone not directly involved with a person with ADHD world care about anyone else's diagnosis or treatment, but I also don't understand why anyone who is involved would prefer to believe that a person is chronically late, unable to locate anything, incapable of doing tasks until a vital deadline is looming (often not even then), etcetera. People with ADHD have sadly common difficulties in adulthood, since most people are required to be at work at a specific time, and meet deadlines; are expected to pay their bills on time, to listen to instructions and be able to repeat them, to prioritize tasks and do the important ones, to finish tasks, to maintain tidy homes and workplaces in which other people can find a chair to sit down, etcetera. As if anyone would choose to disappoint everyone all the time.
There is much here useful to professionals evaluating or treating people with ADHD, and also to people living with it, although untreated, one is unlikely to think of reading up on the topic, let alone being able to assimilate it. Good stuff about treatment options and evaluating and adjusting.
I don't think I am very different from other people in nature, only in degree. My medication doesn't improve me in anyway compared to other people, it isn't fun. But this year I managed to renew my car registration only a few weeks late, rather than two years, and I was able to produce all the supporting documentation for an income tax audit slightly ahead of the deadline (I got my refund, and interest on it, which was an unanticipated tiny bonus) and since I am able to sit down and actually do my work, I got a really good performance review, the best ever. I still have to double -check my alarm, but without looking at my calendar I could tell you what I have to do at work tomorrow. That wouldn't seem like a miracle to most people, but it is to me.
Brown infuses his book with understanding and empathy, even a little humor. Apparently specializing in ADHD means a disproportionate number of no-shows. Despite the emphasis on data and references that an academic text requires, one imagines he is an caring and kind clinician. Given that the vast majority of us will have little if any medical assistance and I'm going to guess a disproportionately low rate of insurance coverage, most of us won't ever see anyone like him. But may the primary physicians we see will have effectively assimilated both his very practical advice on treatment and his kind understanding.
That's the first time I was ever using my kindle when the blue shade automatically turned off. Between that and the fact that I left behind my sleepy brain muddle some time ago, I think it would behoove me to get out of bed and start doing things. That's a happy-making thought now that it's likely I will actually complete something today. Another little miracle.
To be clear, reading and writing up my reading have never been a problem as long as I got to choose the book. Required reading, on the other hand has been very nearly impossible. When I have been unlucky enough to take a class that I didn't choose for its syllabus, I have been a miserable failure. Literally. Could not read the text, couldn't process anything my eyes happened to pass over. It's why I rarely accept books for review and never join bookclubs: if my interest doesn't engage I cannot progress. Could not read Tolkien, hell, one of the most popular writers of the 20th century, the mind behind some very enjoyable movies, and not only could I not read him, I can't remember how to spell his name, and had to open another window to check.
Library copy
April 26, 2025
Extremely helpful for my understanding of ADHD in my family. This is an academic read, but not difficult to understand at all. I’ll be reference it for years.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews