- ISBN13: 9781887424370
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Hartmann’s latest book presents simple methods involving visualization and positive thinking that can readily be picked up by adults and taught to children with ADD. “Thom Hartmann has laid out a controversial but appealing theory”.–”Time” 12-city author tour. Radio satellite tour. Web site promo …. More >>
Healing ADD : Simple Exercises That Will Change Your Daily Life
I read this book and several others on the subject to help myself recover from a painful life-long relationship with an untreated, undiagnosed ADDer. My goal was to understand, and have compassion for those with ADD.
This book seems to be aimed at making those who have to live with ADD or ADHD feel good. In an attempt to make the ADDer feel better, he takes the approach that ADD is an outdated human survival mechanism that causes problems in our more organized society, therefore, it is not a “defect” or something that needs to be treated with medication.
The tendency to pile on fat is also such a mechanism, but that is no reason to consider it a “gift” or not seek ways to overcome it. The reality is that such things can pose very real health risks and the danger is that such opinions can assist those in denial to ignore the consequences of ADD/ADHD behavior on the family’s health, happiness, and survival.
He also blames a lot of the increase in ADD on a society that watches TV, and an education system that stifles creativity. Many people try to link ADD with creativity as though one relies on the other. However, there are a lot of us that have grown up in the same environment as those with ADHD, but we manage to remember to pay the bills, we can maintain a job, and we manage to maintain healthy human relationships. And there are many artists, musicians and creative individuals who do not have ADD, and are no less successful for it.
If you are the parent of an ADD/ADHD child, there are some good tips for parenting. But if you are a spouse or child recovering from a disastrous relationship with someone with undiagnosed or untreated ADD, or if you are currently in a relationship with an adult with untreated ADD this book won’t help you a bit.
There is no doubt that our society has been bad at helping those with ADD and our attitudes toward the behavior of ADD have caused self-esteem problems. However, the same is true of the overweight issue.
The bottom line is that ADD and ADHD has caused an untold amount of unhappiness for the person with ADD and the family. The behaviors of risk taking, the communication problems that manifest in relationship problems, and the impulsiveness and lack of self control that can lead to emotional or physical abuse are far too serious to be ignored. The exercises in the book are fine, but for anyone facing serious issues because of ADD behavior, think about medication to get the worst of the behavior under control. If medication can help treat it, I say, go for it. Then we can all sit in a circle and sing Kumbayah and rejoice in our “differentness”. Rating: 2 / 5
You really need to be careful when reading this book. Understandingly, people facing the challenges of ADD/ADHD are stressed out and overly receptive to a voice like Hartmann’s. Strangely unprofessional, Hartmann offers a “soft ball” lob to those looking for a feel good camp-fire-like discussion of the challenges of ADD/ADHD. This is not a productive way to approach these challenges. Overcoming these challenges takes discipline, a manner of thinking totally absent in Harmann’s writing. I would go so far as to say that the author’s writing style, the manner in which he presents his ideas, and the thinking behind those ideas represents the worst, rather than the most optimal aspects, of traits associated with ADD. Beware. Rating: 1 / 5
the book promises “practical exercises” that can “be readily picked up”, yet there are hardly any. those that are there are described in such a vague manner that the ADD reader will just lose interest and not actually get the point.
apart from one or two bits I consider this book largely a waste of my precious time Rating: 2 / 5
This book is a very accessable and readable and usable summary of, and introduction to, NLP. It puts it in the context of ADD, which is very useful and appropriate, but it’s also a very solid NLP book in its own right. Rating: 5 / 5
This is a book that is designed to make you feel that the ADD brain is perfectly normal and, in fact, just out-dated by modern society. As if in times past the ADD brain actually conferred an advantage to its owner. So those of us with ADD, or with children who have ADD, should really just rewire our thinking about ADD to fix the problems we encounter with this disorder.
Never mind that ADD causes problems for the child in integrating him or herself into this modern society. Never mind that the world will not stop to accommodate those of us who are “different”. Never mind that without some real help the ADD child is at terrible risk of not successding in today’s world.
Dont waste your money on this feel good nonsense. Buy the “Healing ADD” book by Amen instead. That one is rooted in science and is actually helpful. Rating: 1 / 5