Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
Edward M. Hallowellamazon.com
Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
engaging in heavy exercise; keeping many projects going simultaneously; carrying games or crossword puzzles around in case a moment of tedium arises; taking on very challenging work; living on the brink of chaos by not tending to checkbooks, appointment books, and the like; provoking testy conversations for the fun of it
Edward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
phobia. Only if the symptoms are more intense than is normal, if they last a long while, and if they interfere with one’s everyday life, only then can one entertain an actual diagnosis.
Edward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
No matter how trivial the subject or how painful the worry, the individual keeps the worry alive, returning to it magnetically, obsessively. Some of these people do in fact have obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the majority do not. They are actually using worry as a means of organizing their thinking. Better to have the pain of worry, they seem t
... See moreEdward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
The hidden anxiety is hard to believe, but we see it frequently in clinical practice. This is the anxiety or worry that the individual actively seeks out. The person with “anxious ADD” often starts the day, or any moment of repose, by rapidly scanning his or her mental horizon in search of something to worry about. Once a subject of worry has been
... See moreEdward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
Chronic overspending Other disorders of impulse control like kleptomania and pyromania
Edward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
Most adults who have ADD do not suspect they have it. They just feel that something is amiss in some unnameable way.
Edward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
then the bad feeling comes back. It isn’t despair. I’ve never attempted suicide or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve never felt good, about myself or about life or about the future. It’s all been an uphill battle. I guess I always thought that’s just what life was—one long series of disappointments interrupted by moments of hope.
Edward M. Hallowell • Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder
I don’t think I’ve ever really been happy. For as long as I can remember, there’s always been a sadness tugging at me. Sometimes I forget about it. I guess that’s when you could say I was happy. But the minute I start to think,