Delivered From Distraction

Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder

By: Edward M. Hallowell M.D., John J. Ratey M.D.

Narrated by: Dan Cashman

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 1994, Driven to Distraction sparked a revolution in our understanding of attention deficit disorder. Now a second revolution is under way in the approach to ADD, and the news is great. Drug therapies, our understanding of the role of diet and exercise, even the way we define the disorder, all are changing radically. And doctors are realizing that millions of adults suffer from this condition, though the vast majority of them remain undiagnosed and untreated. In this new book, Drs. Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey build on the breakthroughs of Driven to Distraction to offer a comprehensive and entirely up-to-date guide to living a successful life with ADD.

As Hallowell and Ratey point out, "attention deficit disorder" is a highly misleading description of an intriguing kind of mind. Original, charismatic, energetic, often brilliant, people with ADD have extraordinary talents and gifts embedded in their highly charged but easily distracted minds. Tailored expressly to ADD learning styles and attention spans, Delivered from Distraction provides accessible, engaging discussions of every aspect of the condition, from diagnosis to finding the proper treatment regime. Inside you'll discover:

• whether ADD runs in families
• the links between ADD and other conditions
• how people with ADD can free up their inner talents and strengths
• the new drugs and how they work, and why they're not for everyone
• sexual problems associated with ADD and how to resolve them
• strategies for dealing with procrastination, clutter, and chronic forgetfulness

ADD is a trait, it only becomes a disorder when it impairs your life. Featuring gripping profiles of patients with ADD who have triumphed, Delivered from Distraction is a wise, loving guide to releasing the positive energy that all people with ADD hold inside. If you have ADD or care about someone who does, this is the book you must read.

©2005 E. Hallowell and J. Ratey (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"An excellent resource." (Publishers Weekly)

Excellent Book on ADD

This book is awesome!
Hallowell gives fun and useful strategies for dealing with child and adult Attention Deficit Disorder.

I read his first book, Driven to Distraction, in the 90's and am quite impressed with the new strategies and 'improved' or updated philosophies and methods of dealing with ADD.

An audiobook is a much easier way for ADD'ers to get through a book like this! Listening in LA traffic has been great.

The book is full of examples of actual patients as well as some in depth stories of successful adults with ADD.

The new thrust of dealing with ADD (in addition to outer structure, exercise, nutrition, medication, etc) is Emphasising the Strengths and Talents of the individual with ADD and the 'play cycle.'

This is a very EMPOWERING AUDIOBOOK FOR THOSE WITH ADD AND THEIR PARENTS OR FAMILIES.
I have ADD and my wife didn't want to listen at first, but I got her take the questionaire with me. Upon finishing the test, she had new understanding and compassion for my ADD.

It includes some self-diagnostic questionaires and Hallowell makes good use of humor.

Well narrated.

Too much pseudoscience

I am shocked that this book has so many good reviews. I have ADHD and I found this book 100% unhelpful. I stopped listening when I got to the point where he starts talking about diet. I firmly believe that a balanced, healthy diet can be beneficial to anyone. Of course, if you eat a bunch of garbage you're probably going to feel like garbage and it can make the symptoms of any disorder worse. But I definitely DO NOT believe that ADHD is caused or made worse by candida overgrowth (because that isn't a thing unless you are actually dying) or too many food dyes, and ADHD symptoms definitely will not be improved by MLM scams. I had a big wtf moment when he started taking about all the MLM juice powder pills he likes to take and how helpful they are. If there is good, practical advice in this book, I didn't get there, but it doesn't matter because I've totally lost faith in this guy.

Also, as other people mentioned, there is a lot of advice for parents of children with ADHD mixed in with advice for adults with ADHD and it's not well organized or separated in any meaningful way. There is a lot of stuff that's just irrelevant. Not to mention, his advice for parents includes being overly involved in your adult child's life when they go off to college. If my parents had treated me as the book recommends, I would have probably stopped answering my phone. For what it's worth, I graduated and managed to do my own laundry without my mom coming over every day.

I guess I sort of understand the appeal Dr. Hallowell's work might hold for some people. He can make people with ADHD feel good, as though ADHD were a mostly positive trait rather than, you know, a real neurodevelopmental disorder. I just don't agree. One can be smart and creative and run a business, or whatever, without ADHD and the problems associated with it. Personally, I'd rather people just acknowledge that I have a disability and give me medication that will help me function like a normal person. Near the beginning of the book, Dr. Hallowell drones on with a list of about 500 ADHD personality traits and I think I saw myself in maybe a handful. I do like bicycles I guess, but I am not sure what hat he pulled that one out of. I don't like to drive race cars and I have no desire to play the stock market or start a business or base jump or any of that stuff. I'm not all that inventive and I'm not a misunderstood genius. I really just want some help to be able to clean my house, and this book didn't provide that.

Excellent Book!

This is the best book I've read (heard) on ADD. It's more thorough than any book I've seen and I've learned a lot about what causes many/all of my problems. I know what to watch for in my behavior/situation and what to do about it! It paints a very accurate picture of ADD - it's more accurate and complete and up to date than any book I've seen before. It also has some exercises to increase my attention-which are easy to do & they do in fact increase my attention - like the cerebellum exercise of practicing balance on a wobbly board. I never heard of stuff like this before and it's easy and works! I highly recommend this book - there's a lot of great information. I also really like the audio format because it's much easier to complete and relisten to.

Simply phenomenal!

Over the past year both myself and my 8 year old son have been diagnosed with ADHD, both of us predominantly inattentive type (no hyperactivity). Dr Hallowell's book has opened my mind and my eyes to so much. It is because of this book that I even sought diagnosis for myself. I originally purchased the hard copy of this book when my son's teacher indicated she thought he might be ADHD, and as I read part of this book I thought to myself, my goodness, THIS IS ME!!! This is who I have been my entire life...unorganized, absent minded, forgetful, easily distracted, unable to concentrate to follow a conversation without going over what I was going to say next in my own head...and on and on. Needless to say, as an ADHD'er there was no way I was reading this whole book front to cover, as I rarely finish anything, especially a book, that I start. And then I found Audible. I downloaded the book to my phone and on my 90 minute commute each way to work each day, I listened. And I still listen. I have been through the whole audible book at least 4 times and every time I listen I learn something new that I drifted off on the last time I listened! The person narrating has a great voice to listen to and I wish he would have narrated Dr Hallowell's other book. I am eagerly anticipating Dr. Hallowell's new book Married to Distraction! All I can say is thank you...this read/listen is simply awesome for anyone who is or loves someone who has been diagnosed with or you think may have ADHD.

Read the book

As an audiobook this is guaranteed to waste your time. Why? About 2/3 is for parents of children with ADD and 1/3 is for adults with ADD. Since the book isn't divided that way, anyone who listens to this book will spend a lot of time listening to material they really don't care about. So ADHD adults who buy this book looking for practical advice on how to help their careers and household organization will spend hours listening to stories about experimental schools for dyslexic children. Individual chapters also suffer from a tendency to repeat the same point long after it's been made. Since the sections of the file are much larger than individual chapters, there's no way to skip from one topic to another. The only solution is to buy the book and skip the large amount of material you don't need.

Eye Opener

I purchased this audio to learn more about ADD, since my Grand Daughter was diagnosed as having ADD. In fact I really had no idea what ADD or ADHD was all about. Not only did this book help me with understanding her problems, it help me to see that I too have ADD and have had it all my life. I cannot express in words how this book has helped change my life and that of my family. It is truly worth its weight in gold.

Absolutely Fantastic

As an adult with ADD with three children who have inherited this trait, I found this to be the best book I have ever read on the subject. The author provides numerous resources and has a positive and unique way of viewing ADD. Practically all of the other books I have read on ADD spend 95% of the book defining the "problem" and 5% on so called solutions like "add structure to your life." This book gives practical advice which would benefit even those without ADD. Thank you for writing this excellent book Dr. Hallowell and Dr. Ratey.

Very revealing!

I bought this book because I am interested in psychiatry. But as Iistened I kept thinking "I understand exactly what you are saying". I was quite hyper as a child but seemed to gain control as a teenager. But as I listened I could see myself in his descriptions. A great book written by authors that have ADD themselves, so they can explain it very well. I also enjoyed the fact that most of the chapters can be listened to independently. Highly recommended.

Liked Dr Hs previous book more

Delivered from distraction was alright, I got more out of his previous book. This one is more of a compilation of patient stories than anything else. I related to a lot of the stories and it was a decent listening, but I was looking more for further enlightenment of ADHD and the development of tools to help me deal with ADHD.

Fantastic and accurate

I loved this book. I started reading it, in an effort to help my son. I learned so much about how he was feeling, and how I can help him feel better about himself. After reading, I could better understand him, and was able to get my son to open up more with me about what goes on in his head while in school etc.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to understand ADD and other like, diagnosis.