Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder
Author: Edward M Hallowell
In 1994, Driven to Distraction sparked a revolution in our understanding of attention deficit disorder. Widely recognized as the classic in the field, the book has sold more than a million copies. Now a second revolution is under way in the approach to ADD, and the news is great. Drug therapies, our understanding of the role of diet and exercise, even the way we define the disorder–all are changing radically. And doctors are realizing that millions of adults suffer from this condition, though the vast majority of them remain undiagnosed and untreated. In this new book, Drs. Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey build on the breakthroughs of Driven to Distraction to offer a comprehensive and entirely up-to-date guide to living a successful life with ADD.
As Hallowell and Ratey point out, “attention deficit disorder” is a highly misleading description of an intriguing kind of mind. Original, charismatic, energetic, often brilliant, people with ADD have extraordinary talents and gifts embedded in their highly charged but easily distracted minds. Tailored expressly to ADD learning styles and attention spans, Delivered from Distraction provides accessible, engaging discussions of every aspect of the condition, from diagnosis to finding the proper treatment regime. Inside you’ll discover
• whether ADD runs in families
• new diagnostic procedures, tests, and evaluations
• the links between ADD and other conditions
• how people with ADD can free up their inner talents and strengths
• the new drugs and how they work, and why they’re not for everyone
• exciting advances in nonpharmaceuticaltherapies, including changes in diet, exercise, and lifestyle
• how to adapt the classic twelve-step program to treat ADD
• sexual problems associated with ADD and how to resolve them
• strategies for dealing with procrastination, clutter, and chronic forgetfulness
ADD is a trait, a way of living in the world. It only becomes a disorder when it impairs your life. Featuring gripping profiles of patients with ADD who have triumphed, Delivered from Distraction is a wise, loving guide to releasing the positive energy that all people with ADD hold inside. If you have ADD or care about someone who does, this is the book you must read.
Publishers Weekly
This follow-up to the authors' 1994 manual, Driven to Distraction, has the advantage of personal testimony regarding adult Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)-the authors themselves have ADD-as well a very readable presentation of the latest research in the field. Defining ADD as a collection of traits, some positive, some negative, the authors intend to encourage those who have this condition or are raising children with it and advise on how to maximize their abilities and minimize characteristics, such as procrastination, that may hinder them at school or work. In a comprehensive overview, Hallowell and Ratey provide a new screening questionnaire for adults and list methods that physicians, parents and educators can use to diagnose and treat the ADD child. Of primary importance to readers are the recommended steps for living a satisfying life with ADD; these include developing personal relationships and engaging in creative activities that will foster self-esteem. The authors also separate nutrition fads from what is known about how diet can affect brain functioning and discuss whether to take medication. Overall, this is an excellent resource. Agent, Jill Kneerim. (Dec.) Forecast: Driven to Distraction has sold more than one million copies over 10 years; the market should be equally promising for this sequel. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Here are two different but successful takes on attention deficit disorder (ADD). Psychiatrists Hallowell and Ratey (Harvard Medical Sch.) follow up their successful Driven to Distraction, which dispelled myths about ADD, with this comprehensive guide to living a successful life with ADD. The authors cover new medications; dietary and nutritional suggestions; approaches to diagnosis, including quantitative electroencephalography and single proton emission computerized tomography; and understanding of the characteristics of ADD. A concise Q&A chapter on the basics of ADD is followed by reader-friendly sections organized around actual stories of patients with ADD who have all been successfully treated by the authors. The authors' professional clinical background is further enhanced by their firsthand experience with ADD, which results in an important contribution to ADD collections in all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/04.] Only 19 when he wrote this book, which was first self-published in Australia in 2003, Polis has lived with ADD all his life. In his distinctive writing style, he shares what it's really like inside the mind of a child/adolescent with ADD and provides encouragement for parents and educators who strive daily to reach children and adolescents with ADD. Through his great determination and use of self-taught concentration techniques, along with timely intervention by the right medical team, the author managed to complete high school, attend university, and create this remarkable firsthand account. Polis's youthful perspective is a significant contribution to the growing ADD literature and includes a foreword by Edward M. Hallowell (see review of Delivered from Distraction, above); highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/04.]-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story
Author: Richard Preston
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.
Publishers Weekly
Far more infectious than AIDS, filoviruses (thread viruses) are relentless killer machines that consume a human body in days, causing a gruesome death. Symptoms include liquefying flesh, spurts of blood, black vomit and brain sludge. Outbreaks of the Ebola filovirus devasted Sudan and Zaire in 1976. And in 1989 Philippine monkeys in a Reston, Va., research lab, found to be infected with Ebola, were the target of a U.S. Army-led biohazard task force that decontaminated the lab, exterminating hundreds of monkeys to prevent the possible airborne spread of the disease to humans. In a horrifying and riveting report, portions of which appeared in the New Yorker , Preston ( American Steel ) exposes a real-life nightmare potentially as lethal as the fictive runaway germs in Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. Preston plausibly argues that the emergence of AIDS, Ebola and other highly adaptable rain-forest viruses is a consequence of ecological ruin of the tropics. A movie based on this book, directed by Ridley Scott ( Alien ), will star Robert Redford. Author tour. (Sept.)
Library Journal
Expanded from Preston's 1992 New Yorker article, this account of a lethal virus run amok is Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain come true. In the fall of 1989, imported monkeys at a Reston, Virginia, facility began dying of a mysterious illness. Was it simian hemorrhagic fever (fatal to monkeys but harmless to humans) or was it Ebola, an extremely deadly tropical virus that had devasted villages in Zaire and the Sudan in 1976? Writing in a breathless novelistic style, Preston (American Steel, LJ 4/15/91) follows a military SWAT team as they don biohazard space suits to enter the "hot zone" and contain the alien virus. While this is thrilling reading (there are plenty of gruesome descriptions of Ebola's effects on human victims), one does wonder how much Preston sensationalized events for the sake of a good story. He also only sketchily discusses the possiblity that the destruction of the rainforests are releasing unknown viruses into the human population. Still, with a forthcoming movie starring Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, there will be demand. Buy multiple copies. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/94]-Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
School Library Journal
YA-Warning-not for faint hearts or weak stomachs! In 1989, an obscure filovirus travels from the African rain forest to a lab near Washington, D.C., where the monkeys quickly sicken and die. Preston traces the history of the Warburg and Ebola filoviruses in minute, horrific detail that is as fascinating to read as it is alarming to contemplate-these filoviruses have the capability to mutate and possibly cross species. There are extraneous descriptions of scenery and of the characters' lives, but these passages serve to relieve the mounting tension and terror as the virus spreads and the CDC, the Army, and a private firm work out a containment plan to prevent a mass epidemic. YAs interested in science or fans of Stephen King or Michael Crichton will find this a fast-paced medical chiller right to the last disturbing page.-Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
BookList
One of the nation's more famous planned communities, Reston, Virginia, stands at the epicenter of this whirlwind tale of potential biological disaster. Preston, award-winning author of "First Light" (1987) and "American Steel" (1991), wrote a 1992 "New Yorker" article on the recognition and containment of a devastating tropical filovirus at a monkey house--the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit--operated by a division of Corning, Inc., about 10 miles from Washington, D.C. Preston expands on that article by describing his 1993 journey to Kitum Cave on Mount Elgon near the edge of the Rift Valley in Kenya, the place scientists believe is the source of all four identified filoviruses: the Marburg, the Sudan, the Zaire, and the Reston strains of Ebola. "The Hot Zone" is a compelling "science fact" thriller: filoviruses kill most of their monkey and human hosts in vividly gruesome ways. The process through which the U.S. Veterinary Corps at Frederick, Maryland, spotted Ebola at Reston and recruited a secret SWAT team to contain it is tense and terrifying; and Preston, who lived in Kenya for part of his youth, places this chilling incident in a broad global context, eloquently arguing that "the emergence of AIDS, Ebola, and any number of other rain-forest agents [may be] a natural consequence of the ruin of the tropical biosphere." Expect reader interest: Random House plans heavy promotion; Robert Redford and Jodie Foster are working on a motion picture based on Preston's article; and Dustin Hoffman stars in a second film on this frightening subject.
Booknews
Look for a pot-boilin', splatter flick from this fictionalized medical horror story. On the filovirus out of Africa & the Philippines and its ghastly symptoms in man & monkey. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Table of Contents:
| Part 1 | The Shadow of Mount Elgon | 1 |
| Part 2 | The Monkey House | 155 |
| Part 3 | Smashdown | 283 |
| Part 4 | Kitum Cave | 373 |
| Main Characters | 412 | |
| Glossary | 414 | |
| Credits | 419 |
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