Driven to Distraction
What I did most while reading was stop, because I was reading myself. Knowing yourself and knowing what to do are different things; this book gives you the first.
It was published in 1994 and was one of the first books to explain ADHD to a wide readership. Both authors are psychiatrists, and both have an ADHD diagnosis.
Its Turkish edition came out in 2013 from Pozitif Yayınları under the title Dikkat Eksikliği Bozukluğu (translated by İrem Karaçay Yücel). So that it is not confused with other Turkish books carrying the same title, I write it here under its original name.
The structure of the book
Most of it is made up of case stories.
One person is described: their life, where they struggled, the diagnosis process, what came after. Then the authors use that case as a starting point to open up a topic.
In between there are sections like "The Faces of ADHD": different presentations, in children and adults, in women and men.
At the end come the sections on diagnosis, medication and coping.
What I did most while reading was stop
Reading a case story, closing the book, sitting for a while, then continuing.
Because I was reading myself.
What the people described do is so familiar that at some point you get the feeling "did I tell this story?": the man who loses his keys every day, the woman who starts twelve projects and finishes none, the child who is told they are very smart and keeps getting low grades.
This is the book's real job, and it does it well.
What touched me was its tone
The book blames nobody, anywhere.
It builds the exact opposite of the sentences I heard for years: you are not lazy, you are not careless, there is no flaw in your character. Here is something that has been described, and it has a name.
Hearing this was a need that came before getting information. The book met it.
The fact that the authors themselves are diagnosed with ADHD is decisive for the tone. They do not talk down from above.
But it did not teach me what to do
When I wanted to build a system, I did not go back to this book.
Its advice is general: keep a to-do list, break tasks up, build external structure. All of it is right and none of it is usable, because it does not say how to do it.
More importantly, you cannot tell which sentence rests on research, which on clinical observation and which on the authors' own experience. The habit of citing sources is weak.
Knowing yourself and knowing what to do are different things, and this book gives you the first.
The parts that have aged
It was written thirty years ago and this has to be taken into account.
Since then the diagnostic criteria have changed. Medication options have grown. And, most importantly, the understanding of ADHD in women has changed markedly: when the book was written, the picture was still built largely around the hyperactive boy.
There are updates in later editions but the basic structure is the same.
You need to read it knowing this, especially the diagnosis and treatment sections.
The side that bothers me
The tendency to lean on a strengths narrative.
The book likes to bring out the positive sides of ADHD: creativity, energy, thinking outside the box.
It is well-meaning and wants the reader to value themselves. I understand.
But it has a cost: if it is an advantage, why would I ask for help? Asking for an accommodation at work, asking for extra time at school, all of it rests on accepting a difficulty.
In the authors' later books this tendency has grown stronger.
For whom, and when
A good first book for someone newly diagnosed. Also for someone wondering "do I have it too?"
For anyone who wants to reduce shame and recognize the picture.
The second book should be something different: it is not enough for building a system, for treatment decisions and for current information.
Around four hundred pages. Since the case stories are short, it suits reading in stretches very well; you do not need to read it from beginning to end either.