What to read next: Scattered Minds by Gabor Maté

Aug 25

I always suspected I have ADHD. With any of those online questionnaires, I'd score in the "very highly likely to have it" category. But I never did anything about it because I always associated the condition with my ability to think in creative ways. And, in fact, being creative has been my profession since my first job as a junior copywriter in 1995.

I never understood my creativity but associated it with being "different" from people who could focus for a long time and didn't always misplace their keys. It was a small price to pay for having a job that paid me for coming up with ideas all day long.

Starting the Journey

A few years back, I met someone who set me on a course to change the way I think about this. Shane Smart, an Aussie living in Amsterdam, is a brilliant workshop designer, and he was leading a client workshop I attended. In my life, I have never met someone who could sustain so much focus and energy over a period of hours - taking in inputs from 10 different people and bringing it together into a cohesive whole.

During the lunch break, I asked him what his secret was.

"ADHD," Shane told me.

I was floored. Here was someone behaving in the opposite way to what I have associated ADHD to be and my own lived experience.

He then went on to explain to me how he went for a diagnosis and that he was now reliant on a drug regime to help him with his focus and attention. I shared with Shane that I have long suspected that I have the same condition but that I was afraid that ADHD meds would affect my creativity.

He told me my fears were totally unsubstantiated, and that I should get a diagnosis and have my life changed. What an invitation!

So I started the process of getting an assessment and went through a battery of tests. Upon discussing the results with the psychiatrist, he told me I had the second-highest score that he had ever seen in his career and was surprised I could function at all.

I started the journey with the medication, and it has helped me a lot. I have still remained curious about what other, non-pharmacological treatments there might be to help me even more.

Scattered Minds - My Take

Then, for Christmas, my daughter got me Gabor Mate's book - Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder.

I only started reading it a few weeks later. But once I started, I couldn't put it down. On almost every page, there was a sentence that was a punch to the face. (In a good way.)

I've never read anything so insightful about my own lived experience. It opened my mind on so many levels about the consequences of this condition and the effect it has had on my life. Things I have taken for granted, my own insecurities, relationship challenges, and anxiety all came into focus.

Overall, I'd say this self-knowledge I was gaining helped me to manage certain aspects of my ADHD in a better way. I am able to recognize patterns in my behavior, either in my personal or professional life, that I can manage in a more constructive way. I'm far from the point where I can say I have mastered it, but it is a journey, and I feel good that this book has given me a roadmap for a journey that could lead me to a better and more fulfilled life, whilst maintaining my creativity.

One of the most valuable concepts I found was the idea of self-parenting. Because so many ADHD symptoms present themselves as that of a young child or a teenager, you have to develop the ability to step in and guide the child in you to act in a structured, less emotional way when doing so would be in your best interest.

Watch Outs!

It is fair to say that the book has had some criticism, especially in the sections relating to the origins of ADHD during early childhood. On a superficial level, he seems to suggest that it is a lack of bonding that allows an infant to develop the condition in later life. But I do think Maté doesn't lay the blame at the feet of anyone, more that it is a complex picture of genetics, environment, and other contextual situations that lead up to it.

Well Worth Your Time

In short, if you suspect you have ADHD, or you are in any relationship with a person with ADHD, this book will go a long way to help you understand the condition. There is plenty to take from it, so I highly recommend it.

Click here to view the book on Amazon.