arguchik: (gossamer)
arguchik ([personal profile] arguchik) wrote2014-01-20 01:19 am

Books

So I got a Kindle Touch awhile back, and recently replaced it with a Paperwhite. One of the things I've been using it for is to collect books about ADHD.

A lot of the books I've looked at are pretty general. Some of them are strictly focused on childhood ADHD, which is a) not terribly relevant to me (that horse is obviously way out of the barn, at this point) and b) actually kind of dangerous to me, because it leads right down the "what if...?" rabbit hole. Anyway, I recognized right off that I shouldn't buy those books. Bullet dodged, yay me. I've picked up a few that focus on adult ADHD. These have been interesting and informative, but with not quite enough anecdata for me to sink my teeth into. I like individualized stories. It's just easier for me to understand what the book is trying to say, if there are concrete examples and actual people reporting what things are like for them. Overall, though, I've been struck by a lack of books about adult women with ADHD. There are a few, but none that seemed compelling to me, either because they were too abstract, or were written from and for the POV of clinicians treating clients with ADHD. What I really wanted was a "survival guide" written by an actual woman with ADHD.

Well, I recently found this book: ADHD According to Zoë, by Zoë Kessler, which I've just started reading. I'm not sure when I actually found and bought the book; I was just going through my Kindle library this evening and found it in there.

Anyway, Kessler was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult--and not a young adult, either. She was 47 when she was diagnosed. She wrote this memoir to fill the exact void that I was feeling frustrated by--and so far it looks like exactly what I wanted. I'll report back when I've read more of it.
xtingu: (Default)

[personal profile] xtingu 2014-01-20 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
This sounds like the book that a bunch of my other pals have been searching for, too. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting and book searching and presenting the results!

[identity profile] arguchik.livejournal.com 2014-01-20 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Sure thing!

[identity profile] shellefly.livejournal.com 2014-01-21 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Very interested in your review of ADHD According to Zoe (with an umlaut that I can't make happen easily on this laptop).

[identity profile] arguchik.livejournal.com 2014-01-28 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm about 1/4 of the way in right now. So far I like it well enough. She writes with a very exuberant tone. The book seems more focused on the primarily hyperactive type of ADHD because that is her experience. I have the mixed type, with a slight skew toward the inattentive aspect. Thus, a lot of what she says doesn't speak directly to my situation, but it's interesting to read about her experiences anyway. She promises to get into more detail about different aspects of ADHD and different kinds of treatment in later chapters, so I'm hoping for more directly-relevant material.