Tests measuring electrical activity show that fast-wave brain activity in kids with ADD declines when they’re presented with math problems. The point, though, is that this development takes place in this world, among other things and other people. There is very little referencing, it is mainly his assertions and interpretations of other studies that he does not actively link to. This may be because their specific circumstances were worse, or because they were more sensitive, deeply affected by conditions that others with more robust temperaments could better withstand. My only real point of contention is the author's assertion that tuning out and dissociation are the same thing.

Although Maté doesn’t explicitly go this far, I believe his work has consequential implications for politics, economics, and social justice. We may not be able to prescribe development directly, but we can promote an environment that makes development possible. But I think more attention needed to be paid by this book to the difference in effect that stimulant medication has between those affected by ADHD and those not. Caregivers are more likely to be stressed, depressed, and distracted from parenting than at any point in recent history. This would have been fine if he stated up front that this is his own anecdotal experience with ADHD and what he felt drove it.We do not have to look for diseases to explain why some people are not able to experience the full flowering of their potential. We also need to consider the familial and social context in which parenting and childhood development take place. Gabor Maté’s connections—between the intensely personal and the global, the spiritual and the medical, the psychological and the political—are bold, wise and deeply moral. In an earlier chapter, he speaks on how poverty and lack of proper nutrition affects an infant's ability to properly develop, which creates ADD - which he states doesn't happen in North America as children are not starving and poverty isn't an issue. I also found the science behind the genetic and biological elements of the impairment more compelling than the evidence he gave on it having such a strong environment aspect.

Maté is careful to point out that the factors parents might bring to "causing" the child's ADD are in many cases stressors that they themselves are not aware of (they may even be legacy and thus implicit to them), and that clearly most parents do not want to harm their children.I think it is greatly complicated by very real concerns that pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in promoting the diagnosis of a disease which is exceptionally well-treated by medication. I cannot recommend it enough for anyone who has ADHD, thinks they might have ADHD, or is just a hypersensitive individual who struggles with emotional regulation. This was his first book, and in almost all respects is a bit worse than In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. Kids who can’t focus fall behind in school; adults with the same issue make silly mistakes at work and miss out on promotions. Gabor Maté is a revered physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry and psychology – and himself has ADD.

His maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz when he was five months old, his aunt disappeared during the war, and his father endured forced labour at the hands of the Nazis. A child with ADD may speak before thinking, blurting out thoughts that others find rude or inappropriate. I don't think I'd be the way I am if I didn't live in a culture that is saturated with information, that removes us far from our natural rhythms, that requires me to be vigilant all the time, that values achievement to a degree that's ridiculous, that insists on fast and "good enough" over the spacious reflection and full consideration that engenders much better than good enough. He said he felt like a human giraffe: his body lived in the same world as other people but it was as though his head were stuck in the clouds far above. When it comes to harm reduction and symptom control, much of Maté’s advice boils down to something like: “First, parents need to be loving, respectful, mutually supportive, and emotionally mature with each other and other adults.As Mate expresses his own childhood trauma as a newborn Hungarian Jew on the periphery of the Holocaust, so too does he invite us all to engage with his understanding that all formative experiences come with their own pain and hurt that require healing and the duty of all parents to bestow a foundation of unconditional love in its service. Hi Lisa, I’m a parent of a child recently diagnosed with adhd and we co-slept, kept them close and were always responsive. But proper treatment and, sometimes therapy, will help heal the poor relational pathways that will make living with it much more joyful. His critiques of the medical model of mental illness and overuse of psychotropic medications carry the weight of someone who knows of what he speaks.

This is a must-read for everyone with regular contact with anyone diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, or a great help for anyoneexploring the possibility of having ADHD as an adult. Two parents that I know of, one extremely abusive, but neither with any sign of ADHD, who have 3 children with horrible ADHD and the other with major depression issues. Instead, I think he’s suggesting that socialization and parenting (primarily attachment dynamics) are major factors that can ameliorate and/or exacerbate ADHD when it presents in young people and adults.What I'm appreciating is that he doesn't pander, and he doesn't wrap it up as simply a brain function issue, which is what I've felt to be true.