Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It

In this breakthrough guide to understanding, treating, and healing Attention Deficit Disorder, Dr. Gabor Maté, bestselling author of The Myth of Normal shares the latest information on: • The external factors that trigger ADD • How to create an environment that promotes health and healing • Ritalin and other drugs • ADD adults • And much more... Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) has quickly become a controversial topic in recent years. Whereas other books on the subject describe the condition as inherited, Dr. Maté believes that our social and emotional environments play a key role in both the cause of and cure for this condition. In Scattered, he describes the painful realities of ADD and its effect on children as well as on career and social paths in adults. While acknowledging that genetics may indeed play a part in predisposing a person toward ADD, Dr. Maté moves beyond that to focus on the things we can control: changes in environment, family dynamics, and parenting choices. He draws heavily on his own experience with the disorder, as both an ADD sufferer and the parent of three diagnosed children. Providing a thorough overview of ADD and its treatments, Scattered is essential and life-changing reading for the millions of ADD sufferers in North America today.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Author's Note Introduction PART ONE: The Nature of Attention Deficit Disorder 1 So Much Soup and Garbage Can 2 Many Roads Not Traveled 3 We Could All Go Crazy 4 A Conflictual Marriage: ADD and the Family (I) 5 Forgetting to Remember the Future PART TWO: How the Brain Develops and How the Circuits and Chemistry of ADD Arise 6 Different Worlds: Heredity and the Environments of Childhood 7 Emotional Allergies: ADD and Sensitivity 8 A Surrealistic Choreography 9 Attunement and Attachment 10 The Footprints of Infancy PART THREE: The Roots of ADD in Family and Society 11 An Utter Stranger: ADD and the Family (II) 12 Stories within Stories: ADD and the Family (III) 13 This Most Frenetic of Cultures: The Social Roots of ADD PART FOUR: The Meaning of ADD Traits 14 Severed Thoughts and Flibbertigibbets: Distractibility and Tuning Out 15 The Pendulum Swings: Hyperactivity, Lethargy and Shame PART FIVE: The ADD Child and Healing 16 It Ain't over Till It's over: Unconditional Positive Regard 17 Wooing the Child 18 Like Fish in the Sea 19 Just Looking for Attention 20 The Defiant Ones: Oppositionality 21 Defusing Counterwill 22 My Marshmallow Caught Fire: Motivation and Autonomy 23 Trusting the Child, Trusting Oneself: ADD in the Classroom 24 Always on My Case: Teenagers PART SIX: The ADD Adult 25 Justifying One's Existence: Self-Esteem 26 Memories Are Made of This 27 Remembering What Didn't Happen: The ADD Relationship 28 Moses Saved by the Angel: Self-Parenting (I) 29 The Physical and Spiritual Environment: Self-Parenting (II) 30 In Place of Tears and Sorrow: Addictions and the ADD Brain PART SEVEN: Conclusion 31 I Never Saw the Trees: What Medications Can and Cannot Do 32 What It Means to Attend Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Gabor Mate, M.D., is a physician with a family practice in Vancouver, where he lives. He has written a widely-read medical column for The Globe and Mail and currently writes on medical issues for The Vancouver Sun.

Review :
“One of the most comprehensive and accessible books about Attention Deficit Disorder.”—Publishers Weekly   “This delightful, helpful book is a welcome addition to the literature on ADD. I would enthusiastically recommend Scattered to anyone touched by ADD—adults, parents, and professionals.”—John J. Ratey, M.D., co-author of Driven to Distraction   “Utterly sensible and deeply moving… The most plausible account to date of one of the current mysteries of the human mind and personality.”—The Vancouver Sun