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| Top Amazon Review Praise for Commanding Attention |
Format:Kindle Edition
I have read many books about ADHD. I keep reading them with the hope that I will magically find something different, but unfortunately they are usually very similar: Diagnose yourself (or someone else)! Life has been hard, but now at least you know why! Medicate! Buy clocks, make lists, establish routines, and always put your keys in the same place! (And so on.)
My husband and I had concluded that what we really needed to do was to immerse ourselves in medical journals and other primary sources to see what new studies have been done and to learn about alternative treatments that others are using. What an enormous task--but we knew that we needed to find something new to try. I have a new baby, and I'm nursing her, so I don't feel comfortable going back to medication right now. I started reading a couple more books about ADHD and then within a few days the author of Commanding Attention happened to contact me wondering if I might be interested in reviewing her book.
I recently finished reading Commanding Attention, and it is EXACTLY what I had been looking for! The author doesn't waste time telling story after story about people losing their keys or forgetting to wear shoes. Instead, she presents a scientific (but readable) collection of all of the research out there. Some of the research is on medications, but the vast majority is about other things: lifestyle changes, brain training stuff, nutrition and supplements, etc.
For each topic, the author covers the studies that have been done (and studies that are being done), what the result has been and what dosages were used (if applicable), how effective it is for treatment of ADHD, what is available for those who are interested, and any economical alternatives. At the end of the book, there are charts that compare how effective different options are, and flowcharts showing the logical order that different options should be tried, based on how likely they are to work and how big of an effect they could have.
Discussion on how much the person with ADHD has messed things up and jokes about lost keys are basically absent--the book is totally appropriate for those who have ADHD themselves or for parents of kids with ADHD, or even for doctors who treat patients with ADHD. The author cites her sources, which to me is an essential component of any health-based book. Even though it is scholarly, it is very readable and easy to relate to.
Also, this book is appropriate whether the person with ADHD is male or female. Some symptoms manifest a little differently in men than in women, but it just doesn't matter much in this book.
One of the best features of this book is information about "effect size", which means, how much can something help (if it does help). For everything that has an effect size available, the author includes it, so you can quantify different options when you're comparing them--how much can diet and exercise help compared to Adderall? How much does this supplement or that supplement help compared to everything else? It's extremely useful information, in my opinion, and it really explained why I have had so much success with the GAPS diet in the past.
This is one book that I came away from with actual real ideas of new things to try. I felt like it gave me hope.
There were a few things I didn't really like about this book. My biggest issue was that this book desperately needs an editor. I usually stay away from books that are self-published because the authors are not always great editors. In my experience, books that are self-published are often poorly organized, use sentences that are too long, and they tend to be repetitive. I was pleasantly surprised to find none of those problems in this book; it is extremely well organized, the sentences are well constructed, and there are no bizarre tangents. However, there are still a lot of simple punctuation problems (mainly missing commas and extra commas), and lists are not standardized. I think most people will probably not even notice these problems. My degree is in English, so I noticed them. I contacted the author and she was very interested to know about this. She did have the book edited, but she is going to have someone else edit it before the physical copy is published. I considered giving this book four stars for this problem, but the truth is, I don't just "like" this book; I really do "love" it.
The other things that I didn't like about this book are matters of personal preference. The author explains at the beginning that she has used a pen name, and I didn't really like that. She said that it was for the privacy of her children, and when I was halfway through the book I still felt like that was not a really good reason. In the second half of the book she shared more personal details that made her use of a pen name reasonable, in my opinion. I also didn't like all of the information on various types of brain training. It felt kind of redundant, and I didn't really understand the differences between the different variations. But, I could have skipped it once I felt like I'd learned all I wanted to from that section, and clinicians may be more interested in the specifics from those chapters. Also, the section on treatments that are being developed was kind of lacking, but other sections also talk about potential future treatments, so there is more than there seems to be.
Is this the best book I have read on ADHD? It is one of the best. I think this book is best when paired with one other book on ADHD: Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder and More Attention, Less Deficit: Success Strategies for Adults with ADHD are good options. If you are dealing with adult ADHD, The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps is also extremely helpful. I wouldn't buy any of those books instead of this one, though; they just cover different things. If you have one general ADHD book (by Ed Hallowell or Ari Tuckman), this book, and the relationship book, that is a very good, very complete library that is representative of the books that are available. If you can only buy one book, Commanding Attention is a great option. It definitely will make a difference for you, and it's hard to say whether the others will or not.
If you're considering this book, I cannot recommend it highly enough! There really is no substitute. (Unless you want to spend a bunch of time going through medical journals...) Great book, very well written, great ideas, great information.
My husband and I had concluded that what we really needed to do was to immerse ourselves in medical journals and other primary sources to see what new studies have been done and to learn about alternative treatments that others are using. What an enormous task--but we knew that we needed to find something new to try. I have a new baby, and I'm nursing her, so I don't feel comfortable going back to medication right now. I started reading a couple more books about ADHD and then within a few days the author of Commanding Attention happened to contact me wondering if I might be interested in reviewing her book.
I recently finished reading Commanding Attention, and it is EXACTLY what I had been looking for! The author doesn't waste time telling story after story about people losing their keys or forgetting to wear shoes. Instead, she presents a scientific (but readable) collection of all of the research out there. Some of the research is on medications, but the vast majority is about other things: lifestyle changes, brain training stuff, nutrition and supplements, etc.
For each topic, the author covers the studies that have been done (and studies that are being done), what the result has been and what dosages were used (if applicable), how effective it is for treatment of ADHD, what is available for those who are interested, and any economical alternatives. At the end of the book, there are charts that compare how effective different options are, and flowcharts showing the logical order that different options should be tried, based on how likely they are to work and how big of an effect they could have.
Discussion on how much the person with ADHD has messed things up and jokes about lost keys are basically absent--the book is totally appropriate for those who have ADHD themselves or for parents of kids with ADHD, or even for doctors who treat patients with ADHD. The author cites her sources, which to me is an essential component of any health-based book. Even though it is scholarly, it is very readable and easy to relate to.
Also, this book is appropriate whether the person with ADHD is male or female. Some symptoms manifest a little differently in men than in women, but it just doesn't matter much in this book.
One of the best features of this book is information about "effect size", which means, how much can something help (if it does help). For everything that has an effect size available, the author includes it, so you can quantify different options when you're comparing them--how much can diet and exercise help compared to Adderall? How much does this supplement or that supplement help compared to everything else? It's extremely useful information, in my opinion, and it really explained why I have had so much success with the GAPS diet in the past.
This is one book that I came away from with actual real ideas of new things to try. I felt like it gave me hope.
There were a few things I didn't really like about this book. My biggest issue was that this book desperately needs an editor. I usually stay away from books that are self-published because the authors are not always great editors. In my experience, books that are self-published are often poorly organized, use sentences that are too long, and they tend to be repetitive. I was pleasantly surprised to find none of those problems in this book; it is extremely well organized, the sentences are well constructed, and there are no bizarre tangents. However, there are still a lot of simple punctuation problems (mainly missing commas and extra commas), and lists are not standardized. I think most people will probably not even notice these problems. My degree is in English, so I noticed them. I contacted the author and she was very interested to know about this. She did have the book edited, but she is going to have someone else edit it before the physical copy is published. I considered giving this book four stars for this problem, but the truth is, I don't just "like" this book; I really do "love" it.
The other things that I didn't like about this book are matters of personal preference. The author explains at the beginning that she has used a pen name, and I didn't really like that. She said that it was for the privacy of her children, and when I was halfway through the book I still felt like that was not a really good reason. In the second half of the book she shared more personal details that made her use of a pen name reasonable, in my opinion. I also didn't like all of the information on various types of brain training. It felt kind of redundant, and I didn't really understand the differences between the different variations. But, I could have skipped it once I felt like I'd learned all I wanted to from that section, and clinicians may be more interested in the specifics from those chapters. Also, the section on treatments that are being developed was kind of lacking, but other sections also talk about potential future treatments, so there is more than there seems to be.
Is this the best book I have read on ADHD? It is one of the best. I think this book is best when paired with one other book on ADHD: Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder and More Attention, Less Deficit: Success Strategies for Adults with ADHD are good options. If you are dealing with adult ADHD, The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps is also extremely helpful. I wouldn't buy any of those books instead of this one, though; they just cover different things. If you have one general ADHD book (by Ed Hallowell or Ari Tuckman), this book, and the relationship book, that is a very good, very complete library that is representative of the books that are available. If you can only buy one book, Commanding Attention is a great option. It definitely will make a difference for you, and it's hard to say whether the others will or not.
If you're considering this book, I cannot recommend it highly enough! There really is no substitute. (Unless you want to spend a bunch of time going through medical journals...) Great book, very well written, great ideas, great information.
