The first specific guidebook for how to be successful in the world as a teenager or adult with ADD - from the author of Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception. Inspiring real-life stories show how people with ADD can succeed in school, at work, and in relationships. This book tells children and adults from all walks of life how to reach the next step - a fulfilling, successful life with ADD. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Ingram
A motivational guide for adults and children with ADD presents inspiring stories of parents of ADD children, ADD students, ADD businessmen, and women who have learned to use their ailment to their advantage. Simultaneous. 40,000 first printing. Tour. IP.

From the Publisher
Thom Hartmann is the creator of the Hunter-Farmer theory about ADD, profiled in Time magazine, which theorizes that today's Attention Deficit Disorder is a remnant of the hunter/gatherer society of ancient times. His pioneering book has sold over 100,000 copies. He is the author of six books on ADD.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover
"You absolutely must read this book! Thom Hartmann provides people with Attention Deficit Disorder great hope, encouragement and a sense of direction." -- Paul Elliott, M.D., ADD specialist. "This book is in large measure a presentation of shared stories about individuals who have succeeded in engineering their environments to help them both overcome and utilize the characteristics of their ADD. -- John J. Ratey, M.D., co-author of Driven to Distraction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author
Thom Hartmann is the author of six books on ADD and former executive director of a residential treatment facility for abused and emotionally disturbed children. He authored more than 200 published articles and has spoken at conferences around the world. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpted from ADD Success Stories by Thom Hartmann. Copyright(c) 1995. Reprinted by permission, all rights reserved
There's Power in How We Look At Things
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. (Schopenhauer, Further Psychological Observations, 1951)

As I travel around the country and share the Hunter/Farmer model* of ADD, I'm struck by how many people find it a liberating point of view. Although even the Merck Manual recognizes that no one knows exactly what ADD is or where it comes from, "Hunters & Farmers" gives people a useful paradigm to describe ADD that helps them see new ways to view career choices, organizational strategies, and even the value of therapy and/or medication.

And that, after all, is the point: to find something useful, something with practical value we can use to improve our situation. However, I also encounter a small minority of individuals who tenaciously want to embrace a label of "ill" when describing themselves, while other people with ADD--and with symptoms just as strong--are successful in business, school, or the professions. They no longer lose their keys, they have learned to improve their memory--in short, they've learned to deal with it.

Let's establish a clear overview: The Hunter/Farmer concept is a model. It's not hard science, and was never intended to be (although more and more scientists are embracing it as a possible working hypothesis). There are dozens of theories about the cause or origin of ADD. They range from prenatal fetal injury to neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain, to developmental "hiccups" where a person failed, for whatever reason, to learn organizational and focusing strategies at some particularly critical point in childhood.

As more proof accumulates that ADD has a genetic basis, it gives increased credibility to the Hunter/Farmer model and the possibility that ADD was once a useful adaptation that's maladaptive in modern society (much like sickle cell anemia, which protects against malaria in Africa but is a liability in malaria-free America). Recent studies done at the University of Chicago have all but proven that ADD is a genetic condition, and has little or nothing to do with parenting or environment. It's all nature, and no nurture, at least in its baseline state, although the specifics of it are still elusive.

The Merck Manual, the official book of the medical profession for defining diseases, states: "The etiology (cause) is unknown. Several theories advocating biochemical, sensory and motor, physiologic, and behavioral correlates and manifestations have been proposed." The Merck Manual further states: "Diagnosis is often difficult. No particular organic signs or set of neurologic indicators are specific."

In other words, nobody knows what ADD is or where it comes from, and anyone who says differently is not speaking on behalf of the scientific community. I developed the Hunter/Farmer model of ADD first as a way to explain ADD to my own son, after a psychologist had told him he had a "brain disease." I felt that was a pretty poor way to describe any sort of challenge to a person, and wanted to give him a paradigm for understanding that the challenges he faced would not be crippling to his self-esteem.

Hunters/Farmers explained his problems in terms he could understand, and allowed him to discuss his ADD with teachers and friends without hanging his head. Instead of denying the value of therapy or medication, it made him more enthusiastic about considering those options. Asking, "How can we look at this usefully?" always validates approaches that are already proven effective.

The Hunter/Farmer model approaches head-on the difficulties people with ADD face in modern society. It brings those difficulties more clearly into focus. It also provides a rational explanation for some of the many techniques that psychologists suggest for working around, overcoming, or working through the ways that ADD can challenge a person's life. --

Fantastic Book for ADD'ers, June 16, 2002

Reviewer: Rob opednews.com Kall (see more about me) from Newtown, PA United States

Thom Hartmann is one of the best writers on ADD, for ADD'ers. Why? Because he doesn't label people with ADD as having brain disease and broken. His Hunter in a Farmer's World Model makes so much sense. It's been dissed by Barkley and others, but in the last year hard genetic research has come in proving the theory, and other ADD researchers have reached the same conclusions.
But that's not why you should buy this book Buy it because it gives tons of examples of people with ADD who have had success in all different aspects of life. The fact is, ADD people are the ones with ants in their pants who change the world. Who don't sit there and settle for the ordinary. They do things-- start companies (entrepreneurs,) make noise about problems (call them politicians and activists,) investigate stuff (detectives, reporters, scientists who don't wash test tubes and replicate the ADD scientists visionary work.)

So read about how ADD'ers make it, how they succeed, and start feeling not only hopeful, but perhaps even a bit cocky about being an ADD'er or knowing one.