Scattered. How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Spring, 2000

MATE, Gabor. Scattered. How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It. New York: Dutton, 1999. 348pp. $24.95 (h).

Relying on the latest research on the relationship between the body, brain, and mind as well as his own clinical experience, Mate shows why ADD is not, as many people believe, an inherited condition. What heredity dictates is only a predisposition toward ADD, not the condition itself. According to Mate, diagnosis is not destiny. Scattered makes a powerful case for the crucial role the social and emotional environment plays in the genesis and healing of this disorder. As an adult with ADD and the father of three ADD children, Mate describes how it feels to live with the distractibility, hyperactivity, and poor impulse control associated with the disorder. He brings into focus the struggles that take place daily, both in the home and in the classroom. He discusses the specific external factors that can trigger ADD, from familial to societal stresses, and what parents can do to create an environment that promotes health and healing. Parents can teach their ADD children new emotional intelligence skills. Through making changes in their own lives, and offering the kind of encouragement and support their children need, they can help their children grow out of this disorder. Further, ADD adults can learn how to nurture themselves in order to solve their own problems of self-esteem and addictive, destructive behaviors. Also included is a balanced discussion of Ritalin and other medications, in which Mate weighs the pros and cons of using drugs to treat ADD.