Driven To Distraction By Hallowell: Book Review

In his book, Driven to Distraction (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994), Hallowell recounts his experience having ADD. He relates to when he first discovered that he had Attention Deficit Disorder. (ADD) It was in one of his college classes. He, like some of the millions of other people in the United States alone who have it, had no idea. To him, he was just a kid who couldn’t pay attention in class and who wasn’t able to try had at many things. Hallowell states that one day in class, his professor began describing it when he had an “Aha!” moment (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994). Hallowell recounts what his teacher had said as she explained the common symptoms of ADD “’There are some children’ she said, ‘who chronically daydream. They are often very bright, …show more content…
Children were just expected to shape up and be more attentive. It wasn’t even until late into the 19th century that ADD was even recognized as a medical condition. Although the first person to define ADD is not clear, all credit is given to the closest we have to the discoverer, British pediatrician George Fredric Still. He talks briefly about one of his patients who was so inattentive he wasn’t able to pay attention to a game for very long at all. (Palmer & Finger, 2001) He hypothesized that this difficulty to control, lawlessness, and lack of inhibitory volition was a genetic and biological problem, and not a result of bad parenting. Hallowell states that ADD so far is only known for sure to be genetic, although there may be other factors that can affect the ADD. (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994) It was first thought to be touched on by Sir Alexander Crichton. In his book, Inquiry, he talks about an unknown disorder that meets the modern definition for ADD. When ADD was fully noticed by the medical community, ADD was thought to be a disorder that was caused by repeated head trauma suffered by children. (Palmer & Finger, 2001) In 1909, Treghold discovered a disorder in which he thought was connected to ADD and how it was received. This however, was not so even though every child who suffered prenatal brain injury suffered from Inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and pool inhibition of thinking. (Palmer & Finger, …show more content…
(Clarke & Lang, 2012) Due to the hyperactivity of the people, there is actually the benefit of something called hyper focus. Hyper focus allows people with ADHD to use a kind of super focus. This is something that happens when someone with ADHD finds something very interesting or intriguing. (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994) This however can contribute to the bad side of having ADHD. Sadly, this factor in ADHD makes addiction a very big threat, and it makes it much more powerful than it would normally be in any other people who may not have ADHD. (Atasoy, Senormanci, & Kardeş,