Free Downloads Scattered: How A.D.D. Originates And What You Can Do
An controversial analysis of the true cause of Attention Deficit Disorder. In the United States more than 3 million children--and numerous adults--suffer from A.D.D. Based on personal experience and years of medical practice and research, Scattered is a groundbreaking book that explodes the conventional wisdom that A.D.D. is a genetically based disorder, declaring instead that its roots are environmental. Dr. Gabor Mate, a family physician and himself an A.D.D. sufferer, asserts that A.D.D. originates in infancy as a response to conditions that fail to provide a necessary degree of emotional or physical security. Financial problems, marital strife, job stress, and substance abuse can all create an environment that may trigger A.D.D. In Scattered, Mate's mission is not to place blame. Instead, he provides the means of identifying problems and arms parents and readers with the necessary tools to solve them. His plan for healing is an optimistic approach, placing emphasis on what changes need to be made to a child's environment instead of focusing strictly on what is wrong with the child. Neither pro nor anti-drug, Mate believes that medications such as Ritalin should be considered as part of the overall treatment of A.D.D.
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1 edition (August 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0525944125
ISBN-13: 978-0525944126
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #977,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #30 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs > Hyperactivity #203 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Children's Health > Learning Disorders #354 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Attention Deficit & Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders
Having been in therapy longer than Woody Allen, I practice what Karl Menninger called `bibliotherapy'-i.e., reading widely and deeply in the field of mental or emotional disorders. Since I'm a voracious reader, and since I've been doing this for twenty years, I sometimes feel there isn't much left for a layman to learn, or at least nothing much that could be called new. But Dr. Mate's book is wonderfully helpful on two fronts: first, it is a "why-you-or-your -child-are-like-this" book, and second, it is a "and-here-is-what-you-can-do-to-allieviate-the-condition"book. Not cure it, mind you, just make the cards you drew a little easier to play.On the first front, the neurobiology of ADD, Dr. Mate makes his point conclusively: this disorder arises first in the infant, in how he or she is wired-or not-and it occurs in the make-up of the hypersensitive baby, highly aware and from the very beginning suffering at the smallest slings and arrows life offers. Resilient children roll with the punches; ADD kids are flattened by them and get back up more slowly. Momma used to call this type "high-strung" and, boy, was she ever right. Dr. Mate even points out a study done on the vagus nerve of five-month old babies that turns out to be highly predictive of which of them will later, at fourteen months, prove to be "more reactive to maternal separation." In other words, ADD could as well serve as an acronym for Attachment Deficit Disorder. People who are hypersensitive have a disordered attachment to their caretakers that is pre-verbal and pervasive. One had better learn to deal with the fact that the fault is mainly synpatical, not social. My family doctor told me that my then-nine-year-old son suffered from severe separation anxiety because he hadn't been in pre-school or away from his parents enough.
I must say that my opinion regarding Dr. Mate's "Scattered" is... well... "Scattered!" On the one hand, it contains some of the most eloquently poetic descriptions of A.D.D. I've ever seen (some of which come directly from Dr. Mate's patients). One need look no further than the chapter headings to see how beautifully the ambiguity of poetry describes the A.D.D.experience- headings like "So Much Soup and Garbage Can," "Forgetting to Remember the Future," "A Surrealistic Choreography," "Severed Thoughts and Flibbertigibbets," and "My Marshmallow Caught Fire." In fact, on page 43, Dr. Mate offers one of the most poignant metaphors for A.D.D. I've read, in his description of the trees on the shores of Vancouver Island. Passages like this one make "Scattered" a worthwhile book to own, and I've recommended it highly to several people on that basis alone. But while "Scattered" delivers in grand style on the promise of the first part of its title (i.e. "How A.D.D. Originates"), it fails to deliver consistently on the promise of its second (i.e. "What You Can Do About It"). This unrealized expectation is established by the last sentence of the very same page referenced above (p.43), which reads: "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." As well-established as the author's intentions are for the remainder of the book, what unfortunately follows is heavily and disproportionately weighted more towards offering specific advice to parents of A.D.D. children than towards offering practical solutions for the A.D.D. adult.
Scattered: How A.D.D. Originates and What You Can Do Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It The Executive Functioning Workbook for Teens: Help for Unprepared, Late, and Scattered Teens Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential Smart but Scattered Teens: The "Executive Skills" Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential I CAN CAN RELISHES, Salsa, Sauces & Chutney!!: How to make relishes, salsa, sauces, and chutney with quick, easy heirloom recipes from around the ... (I CAN CAN Frugal Living Series) (Volume 3) You Can If You Think You Can Dirty Little Secrets: Why buyers can't buy and sellers can't sell and what you can do about it A Man, a Can, a Microwave: 50 Tasty Meals You Can Nuke in No Time (Man, a Can... Series) Insecure in Love: How Anxious Attachment Can Make You Feel Jealous, Needy, and Worried and What You Can Do About It Pendulum Power: A Mystery You Can See, A Power You Can Feel You Can Write a Column (You Can Write It!) Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do about It Pilgrim Tips & Packing List Camino de Santiago: What you need to know beforehand, what you need to take, and what you can leave at home. You Can Negotiate Anything: The World's Best Negotiator Tells You How To Get What You Want Airbrush T-Shirts: Learn How You Can Quickly & Easily Airbrush Your T-Shirts The Right Way Even If You're a Beginner, This New & Simple to Follow Guide Teaches You How Without Failing How to Airbrush Nails: Learn How You Can Quickly & Easily Airbrush Your Nails The Right Way Even If You're a Beginner, This New & Simple to Follow Guide Teaches You How Without Failing Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You : Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises (Bright and Early Board Books) Amalgam Illness, Diagnosis and Treatment : What You Can Do to Get Better, How Your Doctor Can Help You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded), Revised and Updated Edition: Strategies for Bringing Out the Best in Your Strong-Willed Child
