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This means that the lion’s share of cognitive development occurs after birth. The human infant’s brain makes millions of new connections every second in her first years of life. This development is physically striking. By the age of three, an infant’s body is less than 20 percent of its adult size, but her brain is 80 percent of its adult size. The point, though, is that this development takes place in this world, among other things and other people. Dr. Gabor Maté offers hope that the symptoms of ADD/ADHD are not inalterable. He explores the idea that the child’s environment and genetics are equally essential contributors in determining if an individual will develop ADD/ADHD. None of this is achieved by an act of will, and it is possible one will not succeed completely. That is not important. What is important is to engage in the process, difficult as that is. Healing is not an event, not a single act. It occurs by a process; it is in the process itself. (320) The symptoms are real, but they don't have to be permanent, and what is permanent can be helped and harnessed.
However the book is positioned as a source of truth and insight into ADHD generally and he uses his role as a medical professional to provide authority to what he’s written. Working as a psychologist with high performers I regularly see clients with ADHD. Sometimes diagnosed but also, as wait times for adult diagnosis can be very long or very expensive, suspected. I find even if someone just suspects they may have it then it can be helpful to work as if they do – helping to put in place external scaffolding, support or strategies that make life feel smoother and easier to navigate.
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Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy—and why This opening passage shows how Maté’s deep well of compassion for others draws water from the aquifer of his personal narrative. It also displays his talent as a writer (including a flair for great analogies and metaphors), creating an overall reading experience that’s engaging and inspiring.
This book is amazing and really changed my thinking about ADD/ADHD. Maté describes in detail how ADHD is not genetic, but how a genetically sensitive brain protects itself with ADD behaviors. I've become a bit of an evangelist about this book, since I see things so differently now. Things to learn in this book: Unconditional Positive Regard, Counterwill, Wooing the Child, Unfinished Business.There is a genetic component to this development, but it isn’t genetically predetermined. Genes are blueprints. They’re plans for how the proteins which regulate the structure and function of cells get synthesized. But plans contain potential. How that potential is expressed is a question of circumstance. Take the neurological circuitry involved in sight. The plans for this circuitry are encoded in genetic material. But the development of eyesight depends on environmental factors. If an infant who is genetically capable of developing perfectly good eyesight spends his first five years in a dark room, he’ll be blind for life. Without the input of lightwaves, this visual circuitry atrophies and dies, leaving his genetic potential unexpressed. Some people are hyperreactive – they have intense responses to relatively negligible stimuli. When these stimuli are physical, we say they are allergic. A nonallergic person develops an irritating welt if they’re stung by a bee; an allergic person experiences a sudden drop in blood pressure and a life-threatening constriction of their airways. But the bee sting didn’t “cause” this reaction. Instead, it was the interaction between the stimulus and the person’s physiological response that brought them close to death. While Dr. Mate does give some credence to the genetics of ADD, he pretty much leaves the implications of this behind as he goes into a long description of failed or inadequate parental attachments being the primary reason for ADD symptomatology (as if the parents of ADD kids didn't feel guilty enough about passing on a genetic inheritance they most likely didn't know they had). Even if this was not the doctor's intent, it is so pervasive in this book that one cannot help but feel that if a child or an adult exhibits ADD symptoms, that there is "someone" to blame, not just for the genetic inheritance but for bad parenting."
The parent taking responsibility for the relationship; demonstrating daily that they want the child’s company. They do not wait to be invited in – they ask to join in. “The hunger in a child is eased by the parents seizing every possible opportunity to devote positive attention to the child precisely when the child has not demanded it.”
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When we try to explain today’s epidemic of obesity in countries like the United States, we look at changing lifestyles, not genes. So let’s apply that lens to ADD. Recall what we said about infants and their environment. Attunement, the emotional bond between child and caregiver, plays a critical role in cognitive development. The question is, has something changed in the parenting environment in recent decades which might be getting in the way of attunement?
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