Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

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So, our collective workaholism––whether chosen or coerced––could be one of the main drivers of the ADD epidemic. Combine that with the meteoric rise of social media and its attendant mental health risks; the capitalistic incentives of pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs like Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine; and the profit margins of insurance companies that act as gatekeepers to “legitimate” treatment; and you’ve got a real mess on your hands. All of this is purely speculative, so take it with a grain of salt, but it was interesting and fun for me to knit these threads together and I thought it might be helpful to share this part of my learning and exploration process. If environment and attachment relationships play a significant role in the development of ADD/ADHD, then they should be key in the healing/treating of ADD/ADHD. Dr. Gabor Maté believes that if we alter the environment positively and allow for healthy attachment relationships, we can lessen the symptoms of ADHD. Not trying to protect them from sadness or failure – emotional distress is required to thrive as an adult. It takes a lot of loving to help a child except sadness to know that it can be endured and that sadness like all other states will pass.

Shows how “tuning out” and distractibility are the psychological products of life experience, from in utero onwardsADHD children often do not believe their parents want to spend time with them because there is an interruption in the parent-child attachment. 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.

Remembering that temper in the AHDH context is an automatic anxiety response. It is the reaction of a person who cannot tolerate the feelings of anxiety. If we sooth the anxiety the temper should calm. 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.”Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy - and why I know, I know. You're reconsidering your opinion of my mental abilities and private beliefs. Before you make a final decision, let me share a few experiences. He emigrated to Canada with his family in 1957. After graduating with a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a few years as a high school English and literature teacher, he returned to school to pursue his childhood dream of being a physician. The answer to underdevelopment is development, and for development the appropriate conditions must exist. No matter how efficiently they are able to arouse the higher brain centers, medications offer only a partial solution to the problems posed by ADD. We may not be able to prescribe development directly, but we can promote an environment that makes development possible. Fortunately, as we will see when we come to the chapters on the healing process in ADD, neurological and psychological maturation can take place at any time during the life cycle, even in late adulthood. (42-3) Then he shifts over to speak about epigenetics and how past history affects the genes, which in turn creates changes in the brain of a developing fetus and a child is born with ADD.