Quotes from Edward M. Hallowell

We've got an overabundance of attention, more attention than we can cope with; our constant challenge is to control it.

Without knowing it or meaning to, we are training ourselves to be constantly on the alert for interruptions; to seek out messages incessantly, to process data rather than discover, invent, think, or feel, and in general to lose the propensity or even the capacity to ponder, pause, imagine, or give full focus to anyone or anything for more than a few restive moments.

Most people with ADHD or VAST have low scores in Fact Finder (which does not mean bad; there are no bad scores on a Kolbe test) because their natural talent lies in their ability to cut to the chase and summarize information instead of digging into details.

It's a funny thing about those of us who have ADHD. We want what others avoid. We like problems. We need the difficult. That's because easy is boring. We need the stimulation of intense challenge. But as we've said, a challenge undertaken just for the sake of a challenge can be counterproductive at best, self-defeating at worst.

But because kids today have so little free time, and because they're always surrounded by media, they don't explore what's off the beaten path. They want their fun to be quick and easy. The art of being bored is lost." . . . There's no question that Klauber's findings are

Tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about, alternating with inattention to or disregard for actual dangers. Worry becomes what attention turns into when it isn't focused on some task.

They may have fast-track hyperkinetic personalities, be impatient, restless, impulsive, often intuitive and creative but unable to follow through, frequently unable to linger long enough to develop a stable intimate relationship. Usually, they have self-esteem problems that began in childhood. The

The single most important factor in predicting health, longevity, occupational success, income, leadership ability, and general happiness comes down to one four-letter word. "It's love," Vaillant famously stated. "Full stop.

When someone is alcoholic, is abusing cocaine, or is dependent upon marijuana, we often become so preoccupied with the problems the drug use creates that we fail to consider what purpose the drug must be serving for the user.

Kindness makes kids grow, and adults as well.

I guess I always thought that's just what life was—one long series of disappointments interrupted by moments of hope.

The therapist must become active and directive in helping the patient reorganize his life. Contrary to the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapists, the ADD therapist must offer concrete suggestions concerning ways of getting organized, staying focused, making

For most of human history, problems with learning, emotion, or behavior have been viewed through the lens of morality, often colored by theology.

I always feel as if describing how I feel and think about myself is too complicated—it's as if I can hear the whole conversation in advance, and I know all of the twists and turns it will take before they happen, so why bother? The effort just isn't worth it.

The tension of constructing an explanation, from A to B to C to D, apparently so simple a task, irritates many people with ADD. While they can hold the information in mind, they do not have the patience to sequentially put it out. That is too tedious. They would like to dump the information in a heap on the floor all at once and have it be comprehended instantly. Otherwise, as Douglas says, it's just not worth the effort. It's too boring.

Structure is the vessel needed to contain the mercury of the ADD mind, to keep it from being here and there and everywhere all at once. Structure allows the ADD mind to be put to best use, rather than dissipating itself like so many tiny beads of mercury on the floor.

Happiness is not something that happens to people but something that they make happen." His research shows that people are happiest in a state he has named "flow." In a state of flow, you are one with what you are doing. Children know flow well. They call it play. Play is one of the childhood roots of adult happiness. But there are others—four others, to be exact—in the schema I outline in this book.

It turned out that many women dropped out of Dr. Felitti's weight loss program because losing weight made them feel unbearably anxious and vulnerable. Their girth helped them to feel safe, beyond a man's desire to assault them. So, even though they knew that their obesity put them at risk for disease, they did not want to give up the protection they felt it afforded them.

Melanie and Douglas are now both doing well.

Try to fall for a stable person who is also stimulating. They really do exist.

A model that explains the "itch" at the core of ADD

Having ADHD costs a person nearly thirteen years of life, on average.

The mind of someone with ADHD is in fact constantly at work. Our productivity may not always show it, but this is not because of a lack of intent or energy!

You'd find ideas firing around like kernels in a popcorn machine: