ADHD 2.0 - Some insights into a fantastic book!

ADHD 2.0 by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey offers a unique exploration of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, exceeding in my opinion conventional narratives. As physiatrists with ADHD, the authors bring personal insight to their work, making the book exceptionally engaging. They have also spent years diagnosing ADHD so can speak to some of it's nuanced traits.  I spent a child-free Sunday morning immersed in it's pages, absorbing valuable insights and writing notes to share with clients. I thought I would share some of them here with you.

 One of the parts I loved the most is the discussion around some of contradictory paradoxical tendencies that appear within the ADHD brain.

 Here are some:

• a lack of direction combined with highly directed entrepreneurialism
• a lack of focus combined with an ability to super focus
• a tendency to procrastinate combined with a knack for getting a week's work done in two hours
• impulsive wrong -headed decision-making combined with inventive out of the blue problem solving
• interpersonal cluelessness combined with uncanny intuition and empathy

Looking at this list it is easy to understand why it’s estimated that 25% of adults in jail have ADHD and 25% of entrepreneurs do too. It is the brain that can so easily become derailed but can also lead to the most incredible success. One of my favourite paragraphs in the book is this one:

'ADHD is a powerful force of pain and needless suffering in too many lives but if mastered it brings out talents you can neither teach nor buy. It is often the lifeblood of creativity and artistic talents a driver of ingenuity and iterative thinking. It can be a special strength even a bona fide superpower. ADHD can become the springboard to success beyond that which you ever imagined and can be the key that unlocks your potential.’

 My sister and I have been inspired by the neurodivergent members of our family to make sure that we can help as many kids as possible to reach beyond their own anxiety, pain and worry to realise the incredible brains they have. And more then this to help overturn the sometimes negative connotations that are still linked to being neurodivergent. 

I would thoroughly recommend this book if you are curious about neurodiversity and ADHD.