Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Delivered From Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder

Top positive review

Best ADHD book I've found

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2017

I ordered this book in 2010 and had forgotten about it. I recently hired an ADHD Coach/ Counselor who suggested I get this book at our first meeting. I found it on my bookshelf and to my surprise, I had highlighted passages throughout much of the book, something I almost never do. Then of course being ADHD I put it away and forgot about it. (I guess the big surprise here is that I could find it again.) Now we are using it in our sessions. I find it very helpful to be able to point to a certain section and say, that's me! I connected with this book in a way that hasn't happened with any other book. I feel like the authors really understand both ADHD and how it affects me personally.

76 people found this helpful

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here & now

Doesn't add much to his earlier work.

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2015

Dr. Hallowell's earlier book, <i>Driven to Distraction</i>, was a benchmark book for many people, myself included; but it presented ADHD as essentially a disability. Here he tries to recast ADHD as an asset in the rough. Unfortunately, it really isn't, so there's a lot of encouragement here, but not much actual content. The most useful statement in the book is that if you have ADHD, your two most important coping strategies are to marry the right person (someone who is organized and willing to be the organizer) and go into the right profession. That's sound advice. (I have ADHD, the right spouse, and the wrong job, so I know.) But there's disappointingly few specifics, especially about choosing professions. What do you look for? How do you recognize it? What are examples? Has Dr. Hallowell or anyone else actually studied this? The author's intentions are good; I'll be very interested in the follow-through...when it appears.

113 people found this helpful

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sara-34

Good, but there are better ADD books.

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017

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Overall, this is a good book, written for people with ADD by someone with ADD. As such, early n in the book the author gives the reader permission to read the book the way people with ADD are going to read it anyway - to skip around and not feel bad if you don't finish it. This is wonderfully refreshing, and shows he knows his audience. There are suggestions for adjustments in diet, physical exercise, and mind exercises.

The downside is of the book is unfortunately also that it was written by someone with ADD. He has an entire chapter about an e-mail someone sent to him with advice that he never bothered to verify the accuracy of. Most of his advice is vague. Some of the information he provides on nutrition is just incorrect.

Overall, it does contain useful information. However, I found the book Healing ADD (https://www.amazon.com/Healing-ADD-Breakthrough-Program-Allows/dp/0425183270/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1494637438&sr=8-3&keywords=amen+add) more useful.

93 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

A great anecdotal book about living with and learning to live with ADHD.

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2020

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Overall I thought this book had some great advice about living with ADHD and the challenges people with ADHD and who live with people affected by ADHD face. I would give it five stars but I was really hoping for more straight forward advice on managing my difficulties and more structure. I was hoping for something more along the lines of a 12 Step Program, or Stephen Covey's 7 Habits for Highly Effective People aimed at people who suffer from ADHD. I have read other books relating to Neuroscience by John J. Ratey which were quite good but also very anecdotal so I should not have been surprised. If you are looking for a broad overview of ADHD with entertaining anecdotal stories about living with ADHD I highly recommend this book. If you are like me searching for a more concise treatment plan based on cognitive therapy I recommend Willam Glasner's Choice Theory, or Stephen Covey's 7 Habits for Highly Effective People. They focus on proactive lifestyle choices and provide simple checklists for implementing them. LIke Ratey, Glassner takes a very anecdotal approach but is much simpler and structured in his advice. I hope that I can take the information gleamed from this book and adapt it to some of the frameworks I have enountered elsewhere and while I was not looking for anecdotal advice there are a lot of positives knowing that I am not alone in my struggles which I think was the authors' prime concern which they delivered on so the book lives up to its name Delivered from Distraction even if it is not exactly what I hoped for.

17 people found this helpful

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palmettomac

If only I (or someone) had known

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014

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A breakthrough work because it deals with ADD in adults. I loved the reviews and the comments on them. I only gave it four stars because it is a job to read and not all of it applies to everyone. This book covers a lot of ground, but the most important thing for me was finding out for the first time, at age 62, that what made life not fixable was ADD. Like most, I never considered it because I had an effortless youth with high grades and no trouble. I had a great, rewarding 35 year career in computers, then my life no longer worked and I had no "Plan B." If a friend had read this book five years ago, it would have saved me and them a lot of misery. Luckily, my psychiatrist deals with ADD in adults.

Just reading Chapter 1 will tell you who has ADD. It may be you...or a friend. There is also a chapter on how to live with a person who is working on his ADD.

48 people found this helpful

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Bert66

What Hallowell has that Hollander doesn’t: Optimism

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2021

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No miracles or ground-shattering new insights in Hallowell and Riley’s “Delivered From Distraction,” but I got what I needed: readability (so I could recommend it to my patients) and compassionate optimism. I did not come away with any way to honestly say that I’m glad I have ADHD, like a hidden blessing from near-sightedness, which at least when treated with eyeglasses has the benefit of protecting the eyes from flying bugs.

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Today's Tom Sawyer

A reassuring book about ADD/ADHD and practical and progressive approaches to treatment

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2013

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I found the book informative and written in a casual and comforting tone. Dr.'s Hallowell and Ratey cover symptoms, diagnosis, history, and treatment of ADD/ADHD as well as give informed advice on when to seek diagnosis, how to choose a Dr., how to approach treatment options, as well as proven strategies to augment medication if you choose to go that route. They neither shy away from treatment via proven and tested medications nor do they 'prescribe' them as the only way to deal with ADD. They also stress treatment from a holistic approach, suggesting from experience and studies that one should augment any medication with complimentary strategies that might improve bad habits so commonly formed by those who have lived with ADD undiagnosed. On the whole, I found it a deeply reassuring and refreshing read. If I had to give a critique, it is that several nuggets of information, advice, and warning are reiterated throughout the book more than a few times. That may well have been intentional b/c this book is ostensibly for those who may think they have/do have ADD as much as it is for parents of children with ADD, and thus the authors may have understood: must repeat and spread out this stressed information b/c of the reading habits of those w/ADD. Or maybe it's because one of the authors has ADD. Either way, it's a minor observance, and overall I loved the book.

3 people found this helpful

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LisaM

I appreciate the layout of the book/table of contents as having ADHD myself I rarely read straight through a book anymore like i

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016

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First, I appreciate the layout of the book/table of contents as having ADHD myself I rarely read straight through a book anymore like i used to as a child. I highlighted this in my copy:" If you tell a person that she has a mental disorder, you create a mental disorder--not only in the patient but in those who love her as well. The disorder is fear. Chronic fear holds more people back in life than any other mental infirmity. How ironic--and wrong--that the helping professions all too often create this problem." This is where the book's 'strength based model' comes in to explanation and the book is written so in ways to use it and show it to us. Good news...is what is presented in this book. There are the facts of ADD/ADHD, and there are stories and feelings of others with ADD/ADHD depending on how you choose to read this book. I enjoyed the chapter about "The 12 Steps" and ADHD as it definitely relates to my personal story. My other great enjoyment of this book are the loads of tips and suggestions for many different aspects of having ADHD. This is a good read and I feel others will get out of it something new that they may not have come across due to 'fear' of mental 'illness'.

11 people found this helpful

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Christine M., Mebane NC

clear and concise

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2007

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Being a 42 year-old social worker myself who has just recently been diagnosed after all these years with ADD, this helped me clarify whether I had ADD "traints" or ADD itself. I bought the CD since I knew I would start the book and never finish it. The information I learned comforted me since so many traits that I had spent years making myself wrong for, can now be linked to ADD. I was able to cut myself some slack. I was also able to see how many things I had successfully overcame throughout my life, and how determined I was to succeed in spite of what I thought were self defeating charecteristics.

I have been working with children with ADD and ADHD for over 10 years and was thrilled to find a tool that I can use with anyone. I love the way the author describes ADD to children and I will use that same explanation myself. Overall a solid, down to earth and informative body of knowledge.

9 people found this helpful

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mont6732

Just buy this one - we like "Delivered from Distraction" the best

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2018

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Just buy this one - we like "Delivered from Distraction" the best. The other "Distraction" books by the same author are mostly rehashes of this one - we read all 3 and are returning the other 2.

Pair this one with "You mean I'm not Lazy, stupid or crazy?" and you'll be in good shape. For heaven's sake avoid "Adult ADHD: How to Succeed as a Hunter in a Farmer’s World." That book is useless. The "Delivered from..." and "You mean..." books are full of practical advice and move quickly past the idea that ADHD people are miraculous etc. We all have strengths and weaknesses, but ADHD doesn't make you miraculous as claimed in the "How to succeed as a hunter..." book - this book is utter nonsense.

4 people found this helpful

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My Sister's Sister

I would love it if font was larger and clearer

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2013

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I love this book and have it in audio version. But I thought reading it as well would help the information stick better. It's hard enough to get through a book with ADD but when the font is as small as a War and Peace novel.... it makes it more daunting. No i don't need glasses because i have no problem with the Driven to Distraction layout. Will try the hardback version. Not ready for Kindle.

One person found this helpful

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M. Wolf

Easy reading but far from "dumbed down"

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2008

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This book is a very easy reading but packed with lots of information in a very well organized format. After having two different professionals ask me if I've ever considered ADD as a possible condition I figured it was time to learn some more. I love that the author calls out how ADD is about how the mind organizes. He has a balanced approach to medication. He believes in a multi-pronged approach of developing strategies to develop strengths and minimize the challenges of ADD.

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