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ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table by Blake E. S. Taylor
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Blake E. S. Taylor Foreword: Lara Honos-Webb Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2008-02-02 ISBN: 1572245220 Number of pages: 192 Publisher: New Harbinger Publications Product features: - ISBN13: 9781572245228
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner TableBook Review: Perfect book for a child or adult living with adhd Summary: 5 Stars
I'm reviewing this for the individual actually living with add or adhd. I can't and won't speak to what a person who does not have this "disorder" might take from it.
This is a short and brilliant little book, in which a young man who has yet to be jaded by the adult world and has been incredibly well-supported by his family explains, honestly and with a good degree of insight, how his life experiences have been impacted by having adhd. This book was more or less what I was looking for and something I simply haven't been able to find in the clinical literature. If you look up a definition of adhd, you get a list of symptoms that you are somehow supposed to match your or another's behavior to. Over time I've realized that not only are those lists not terribly useful but they frequently are completely useless and leave a great deal of uncertainty about what is adhd and what is behavior that is separate from that and it's really sort of impossible to diagnose from these lists (or by visiting so-called "professionals" - but that is a different issue). In order to understand a disorder, you really have to hear stories from people who have lived with it. Those are the symptoms you have to look for.
The other problem with books by and assistance from people who are not intimately familiar with a disorder is that they generally contain absolutely useless advice. An example would be orderliness. It's good and well to say, you need to organize yourself. But when you present something in a vacuum like that, it induces stress and intimates a negative trait on the listener's part - as though being "organized" in a very traditional way is the only correct way to do things and anything other than that is incorrect. And a number of people (maybe most? I don't honestly know) actually believe this to be true. Those of us who operate with a lack of obvious organization (from the perspective of an external party) know that our systems generally work well, oftentimes much better than what appear to us to be pathologically "organized" systems. But the point is that you know what works best for you. When someone else has already dealt with your underlying issues, the advice they give based on their experience is actually useful. The author offers examples of how he adapted his world to certain types of organization, rejected others, all the time knowing that he would have to see for himself what worked. Throughout the book he does this. The end is particularly insightful, speaking to the positive and unique abilities of those with adhd in the form of a short list. And what's nice about that is that it underlines that while adhd may represent a different way of being or processing information or interacting with the world, it doesn't mean that it is an incorrect way or really represents a disorder. It just means that to do what you want to in this world, you may need to adapt your behavior to those who have less creativity and insight.
And yes, he does say medication helped him immensely. I don't know of anyone with adhd it has not helped and I see no reason for people not to do things that help them and do not hurt others and so I think it's a very responsible and appropriate statement for the author to repeat. he's explaining what works for him.
Summary of ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner TableBlake Taylor's mother first suspected he had ADHD when he, at only three years of age, tried to push his infant sister in her carrier off the kitchen table. As time went by, Blake developed a reputation for being hyperactive and impulsive. He launched rockets (accidentally) into neighbor's swimming pools and set off alarms in museums. Blake was diagnosed formally with ADHD when he was five years old. In ADHD and Me, he tells about the next twelve years as he learns to live with both the good and bad sides of life with ADHD. Blake's memoir offers, for the first time, a young person's account of what it's like to live and grow up with this common condition. Join Blake as he foils bullies, confronts unfair teachers, struggles with distraction and disorganization on exams, and goes sailing out-of-bounds and ends up with a boatload of spiders. It will be an inspiration and companion to the thousands of others like him who must find a way to thrive with a different perspective than many of us. The book features an introduction by psychologist Lara Honos-Webb, author of The Gift of ADHD, and a leading advocate for kids with ADHD.
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