Let me share a review from Linda, which tells a lot about ADD or ADHD:
I’d read only a few pages of Dr. Puryear’s book before I unexpectedly began to recognize myself. It wasn’t the idea of making lists on colored index cards (although one of the first things I did after starting the book was buy a pack of colored cards). I’ve always kept lists, not to help me remember things (well, now that I’m 62, yes, to help me remember things) but to help me feel less overwhelmed by all the stuff running through my head. Keeping notes on backs of old envelopes? Yes, I do that too. Probably picked it up from my mother, who even cut up old tissue boxes for something to write on. When I realized, however, that the drawer in the side table was so crammed with old envelopes and scraps of paper that I could barely open it, I began to wonder. Then there is the clutter in my office, so much that I can’t make myself work there and I can’t make myself clear it away, obviously because I’m lazy and sloppy. Always being late for things. Procrastination (I call it “inspiration by deadline”). Feeling my life is too big for me and I can’t keep up with it all. Being irritated by interruptions when I’m concentrating on something. Not getting along with bosses (I work for myself now–and I still don’t get along with boss!). Addiction to computer games. No longer starting projects that excite me because I know I’ll never finish them. Blurting out (Why did I say that?). It all began to ADD up.
Dr. Puryear’s book is chock-full of stories about and strategies for living with ADD–ideas that can be useful to anyone, with or without ADD. But as I continued reading, something else began to make a difference for me: I felt understood, and I began to understand myself in a new way. I found myself being less judgmental and more gentle and reasonable, checking myself (there’s a chapter on that) instead of berating myself. I began to feel hope that my life can be better; that my problems are problems, not lack of good moral character; that I don’t have to be stuck in the mire of it all; that the “too bigness” of my life can be broken into smaller and smaller and even smaller chunks–orderly chunks that I feel I can handle instead of always feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and demoralized by “never doing anything right.”
I was really moved by this review – she got it! and the point of writing the book was to help people. thank you linda
doug 
which leads to the next post – “self-abuse”
ADDadultstrategies 
Wow! Thank you for the comment. I am getting some feedback that the book is really making a difference for some people, and is helpful to others. It’s very gratifying.
LikeLike
thank you, Linda, and thank you, Doug!
Like Linda, while reading (consuming) Doug’s book, I too, began recognizing aspects of myself in ways that, despite the years I’d spent in academic and clinical settings in the field of psychology, I was not able to put the pieces together regarding my own neurobiological challenges and their significant and painful impacts upon my early childhood and my adulthood.
Looking back, I am much more able to see and understand reasons why I was so at-odds with myself —even when very young. I was not diagnosed accurately until mid-life. Thereafter, I began to comprehend how my difficulties with concentration, impulse control, and being labeled as a “high strung,” fed into and exacerbated abusive family dynamics and being scapegoated. Children and youth who struggle with ADD/ADHD are at significantly higher risk of abuse due to unenlightened parenting and negatively biased and uninformed educators. Adults, too, are prone towards playing out negative, self-reenforced feedback loops and low self-esteem.
Doug Puryear’s work in the area of ADD/ADHD is both cutting-edge and life-changing.
LikeLike