Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

by Gabor Maté

The world is much more ready to accept someone who is different and comfortable with it than someone desperately

seeking to conform by denying himself. It’s the self-rejection others react against, much m...

So the solution for the adult is not to “fit in,” but to accept his inability to conform. The child’s uniqueness has to first find ...

A person with ADD does start off with a sense of isolation. It is good to realize that many other people have had the same experience, are having the same experience.

Three conclusions may be drawn from that experience. First, the medical view of the

world tends not to trust nature very much. Second, there are things in the world that are true, even if they’re not taught in medical school. Third, sometimes doctors have to be educated by the public—under duress, if necessary.

We each for ourselves have to discover the age-old wisdom that the thing is not to struggle against pain, but to be able to endure it when it is unavoidable.

We don’t do our children any favors when we try to protect them from experiencing sadness or failure. What we really want for them when they feel sad is to be able to endure disappointment and hurt

feelings, not to hide behind defenses, angry acting-out and driven behavior in order to avoid emotional distress.