Dr. Hallowell on Unwrapping The Gift of ADD - An Interview
I am pleased to share with you an interview I did with Dr. Hallowell - where we cover the basics of ‘unwrapping the gift of ADD’. Dr. Hallowell shares his personal experiences as someone with ADD and Dyslexia.
In this 21 minute audio - you’ll discover:
* How a 1st grade teacher helped Dr. Hallowell when he couldn’t read
* What the only REAL learning disability is…
* How Dr. Hallowell went from a boy who couldn’t read - to a graduate of Harvard College, went onto Medical School, and now makes his living with words
* How there can be gifts in ADD and Dyslexia (and why it’s different than medical conditions like arthritis)
* The ‘double edged sword’ - if you nurture and support these gifts, they can be great. But if you don’t - you can be cursed by them…
* How if you ‘unwrap the gifts - not only will you level the playing field - you will go WAY BEYOND what ‘Joe Ordinary’ and ‘Jill ordinary’ will do
* This message comes directly from over 25 years of Dr. Hallowell’s personal and professional experience
* Dr. Hallowell wouldn’t trade his ADD or Dyslexia for the world - they have given him an edge for creativity, energy, originality, empathy… that other people don’t have
* How Mozart, Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin and many others have this gift - and were able to ‘unwrap it’
* How this information can spare children and adults from the real stigma which is shame, loss of hope and no dreams
* And much more…
We hope you find this interview helpful and instructive.
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To listen, just click on the ‘plus sign’.
Enjoy the audio - and please share any of your comments in the forms below.
Dr. Kenny
p.s. we are excited and committed to get this message out there to as many people as we can. Would you consider forwarding this to your friends who want to know more about ADD/ADHD?
Technorati Tags: ADD, ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Gift of ADD, Gift of ADHD, Dr. Hallowell
Great going guys!!! I am with you 100%! One comment though, too bad Thom Hartmann is not in on this conversation, also. The concept of ADHD being a gift was his premise years ago and I think he might possibly have been “drummed out” of the ADHD community” as a result of it. His book “The Edison Gene” is mind opening. It, along with “Driven,” and “Delivered,” are recommended (really, almost required) reading for my clients. Thank you for this push to bring the strength based approach to ADHD management to the forefront. We ADHD coaches truly appreciate your efforts.
Oops! I forgot to check the box below before I submitted my comment!
Thank you for popularizing the strength based approach to ADHD. I have observed similar “strengh based ” trends in the field of psychology with Martin Seligman’s “Authentic Happiness” and in the field of learning disabilities with Mel Levine’s “A Mind at a Time”. Personally, I have ADHD which I found difficult to have diagnosed as an adult because I have been a “success” in my academic, work, and personal life. I found my ADHD was keeping me from going from “good” to “great” . The diagnosis has allowed me better understand my unique challenges and find the help I need.
I have had ADD/ADHD all my life, I am going on 64. I did not know about my ‘gift’ until I was 61. I had no one, not even my parents, to take me aside and help me. My parents, unknowing of my ‘gift’ treated me as a dummy, beating me in the hopes of a change. I did not get any better. I could barely read or study and did not do well in school, but did go to college (10 years) and I did get a college degree, but took away almost nothing.
Today, I see a psychiatrist and a psycologist who both have experience dealing with ADD/ADHD. I am finally seeing some improvement. However, I went to psychiatrists and a psycologist throughout my life, but they missed my ADD/ADHD, entirely. My losing jobs (10) was blamed on others, by me and the doctors.
Now, I realize that my job loses and relationship issues were (and are) due to my ADD/ADHD and not to anything else. My issues today, are still self-esteem, focus distractions, and relationship issues. I read your book Driven to Distraction and others, but feel yours is by far the most insightful. I read about me.
What I haven’t been able to do, so far, is determine my strengths. I was afraid of failure so I don’t even have a hobby. At 64, trying to find the best path to take is not easy. I am working on me, but my strong points are elusive. I am getting good help now and when I find my strengths I will be so happy.
Your recorded interview was helpful and I look forward to listening and reading to more of your “Unwrapping the Gift”.
Thank you SOOOO much for sharing this interview! I am going to share it with my 15 yr. old son who was diagnosed w/ADD three years ago. I think he needs to be able to unwrap his gift so he can be every wonderful thing he is meant to be! Both you and Dr. Hallowell have really cemented the message for many people that ADD is NOT a disease or a disorder, but is traits!
Thanks for all you (and Dr. Hallowell) are doing.
Barb
April 10,2008
5:00 a.m.
Dear Dr. Hallowell & Dr. Handelman
I have been running through all your reports regarding this syndrome. I had so many links regarding this deficit but I found out that yours was the best.
My daughter, Ruth Danielle, who is 7 years old, has not been directly diagnosed with ADHD by her Pedia Developmental Doctor when she was 6. She was only diagnosed as “she tends to have one”. But as years progressed, I have more symptoms than what the doctor recommended.
As a result, I made an appointment with a psychiatrist this 2nd week of April. Hopefully, we will get our answers then.
NO matter what diagnosis she will give us, I am more & better equipped this time for I had your book & audios that could give me strength and confidence that I could handle & unwrap the gift of my child.
Thank you so much & may God bless you a hundredfold as you continue to give encouragement to people around you who has the situation as mine.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Hope M. PIlien
Thanks so much for the gift.
I was diagnosed at 59 when I was going through training at CTI to become a life coach. The diagnosis has deepened my compassion for myself and others. Building on our strengths is the great shift that’s needed to teach all of us that we are gifted rather than disordered.
In my opinion we are the “canaries in the coal mind.” Through my diagnosis and treatment, I passed my certification exam to be a Life Coach and guess who I attracted in my coaching business? Others with ADHD who had no idea they have that type of brain. Thank you God for the diagnosis and the ability to impact others with this delightful type of brain function.
This is such great information .My 9 year old grandson is having such difficulty for 3 years in school and copying work. I always knew he is a gifted child in many aspects but to get it across to other people is a difficult task. Hopefully these blogs will give us some ideas on how to inform the education systems on how to unwrap these gifts.Thanks keep up the wonderful work-you really can,t possibly realize what a good feeling you get when reading or listening to these blogs and know there is hope for these people.
Great to have a break in my own schedule to listen to this interview between Dr. Hallowell and you. Any consideration of going onto “Good Morning America” and starting to promote your perceptions as did Rick Lavoie on learning differences?
Ellen
Thanks a lot for this report. Its so nice to hear all this. Have done really wrong things with my daughter but from today itself will try to be good to her.
Kenny, Ned, congratulations on your new co-venture. Dee, Pauline, Sandy and other fellow AD/HD coaches whose comments are to come, it is all of our jobs (anyone involved with AD/HD) to help rid others of the perception of AD/HD as imaginary, a moral flaw, or simply a human defect which cannot be something to be cherished as a successful, fulfilled human being. I read the other day that about 35% of entrepreneures are dyslexic. We also know many people with ADHD also are dyslexic. (percentage?)
As AD/HD coaches we must support doctors like Ned and Kenny and John Bailey, as well as the works of men like Thom Hartmann whose book “The Edison Gene” brings home the brain development and brain differences that help make different brains that “unwrap the gift” as Ned says, so necessary for the progress of human culture.
What a great idea! I’ll pass this along to all those (and I know a lot!) I know who have been touched by ADD. I attended Dr. Hallowell’s seminar at the Cape Cod Institute about three summers ago, and it was the most insightful, helpful and hopeful 5 days I have spent since our son was diagnosed with ADD at age 25. He’s 32 now, and if only his teachers had tried to “unwrap the gift” 25 years ago so many things could have been easier for him and for us! He truly is a genius, and all we ever were told was that he was an “underachiever!” He can and WILL achieve great things now!
Hopefully this message will filter down to the parents of kids with ADD ADHD so that they can begin to learn to use their strengths when they are young. and not have to wait until they are 30 and in Grad school to find out why they have been struggling to learn for so long.
Thank you for making people look at ADHD this way. I hope it will change people’s minds (the way it changed mine) and their interactions with their loved ones with this gift.
I am looking forward to hearing the whole series, I hope you will also talk about:
1) medication and children (is it really safe)?
2) how to make your child’s teachers see the “gift” instead of the “disorder”
3) ADHD and autism spectrum — there are studies that claim nearly half of children with highly functioning autism also have ADHD, yet there are few specialists who talk about BOTH issues, yet these individuals have different needs than those who have just ASD or just ADHD
4) gifted kids and ADHD — is it really ADHD or is it just a trait of being gifted?
I feel blessed to have stumbled upon this Webcast lecture series the very day it started. I hope I am not building unrealistic expectations here but I feel a sense of new hope and the need to pay attention here.
Like Barry (see above reply) I have sought help on numerous occasions from mental health professionals and not one of them made any mention of ADD or ADHD yet the description I read here of the condition rings so true, this is me I’m reading about.
School was not a great experience for me, from the moment I joined the secondary school, (UK) where life became competitive, my grades started off poor and got steadily worse, in class-work I would rarely manage to write more than my name and the date on the paper. I was frequently off sick, suffered depression, became withdrawn and moody, our family GP recommended I have psychological tests. Thanks to his insightful intervention I was given a lucky break, and happily accepted a transfer to a special school for boys graded as “above average intelligence, but underachieving in conventional schools. Ever since I have felt quite at home among people who are otherwise regarded as strange or troublesome misfits.
The teachers at this new school were caring and patient, and I started to enjoy study and managed to pass some exams. At the time (1970’s) I don’t think anyone had heard about ADHD but I recall many boys were prescribed drugs, which mostly they pretended to swallow but later flushed down the toilet. We were however encouraged to think of ourselves as bright and capable individuals, and I left school very much conscious of being gifted.
At the age of 52 I have lost count of how many jobs I have been through, some were rewarding others were demeaning, all ended in a kind of fatal fall from grace, and I mostly blamed myself.
Let me just say a word of thanks for the work you guys are doing, someone is at least trying to help me understand myself. I hope to keep in touch with you in some way, I am usually very wary of schemes like this especially when promoted with Hollywood-style advertising. but I have a hunch about this and look forward to hearing more of the webcasts.
CE
To CE..
No need to feel skeptical about Dr. Hallowell and his motives! I have been a fan of his since his book “Driven to Distraction” finally led us to a reason for our son’s difficulties and a diagnosis for exactly what you say your school life was like! I’m sure the others are just as sincere. It’s unfortunate that you had to wait for so long to learn what was holding you back - our son is a “genius” intellectually, but his “under-achievement” didn’t have an explanation until he was 25. I can honestly say Dr. Hallowell has been our “savior,” and I can’t even count the number of people to whom I’ve recommended his books. Best of luck to you - you still have time to find your gift!!