19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
I have A.D.D. : Help for Attention Deficit Disorder
Date of Review: Feb 12, 2006
The Bottom Line: If you or your child has ADD this is an excellent magazine that offers a lot of helpful advice, hope and insight for dealing with attention deficit disorder.
Attention Deficit Disorder, it's not a label anyone would really want, is it? Well, like it or not, I have it, but I believe that people should overcome their obstacles and not be limited by them. ADDitude helps me to overcome. As a child, I was "hyperactive", but that term has fallen out as politically incorrect I suppose. Now kids have ADD or ADHD. It doesn't go away when you become an adult either. This wasn't known when I grew up, I got to be diagnosed all over as an adult. ADD, despite its name, affects concentration only on tasks that we find boring or repetitive. Give someone with ADD something we like, and lunch and dinner will be forgotten as we hyper focus on the interesting task at hand. Lucky for me, I found law school infinitely fascinating and my ADD actually helped much more than it hindered.
Nevertheless, ADD does present complications, even with medication. Medicine helps to focus and not get distracted, but it doesn't help with organizing or remembering all the mundane tasks of everyday life. I read lots of self help books, organization books and most recently ADDitude magazine. I have subscribed now for about one year. I know because I just got the renewal slip in the mail.
ADDitude is a 6 times a year publication. It isn't very thick, but its articles are very helpful and informative. I will use the March 2006 issue to illustrate what sort of help you will find in ADDitude.
Each Issue has a Features section with the main articles. This issue has the following main articles
Saying No to Side Effects Concerta, Ritalin, Adderall, etc. all have various side effects in some people. This particular article focuses on medications for children with ADD and what to do about countering the possible side effects. Common side effects for ADD meds are loss of appetite and sleeplessness. Advice ranged from trying different medications, different timing of medications or activities and actions to counter these. I am not rewriting the article here, but it contained a 3 pages of to the point practical suggestions.
Standing Up for Your Child's Educational Rights This article discusses federal laws about children with disabilities. ADD qualifies as such, and this article helps to make sure that your ADD child has an education plan that meets his or her needs
When Mom Too has ADD Well you don't need to know too much about genetics to know that if a parent has a particular trait, the child may have that trait too. My ADD and my sons ADD make for a great hyperfocused afternoon of Halo, but sometimes we may find problems in tasks requiring focus, like finishing his homework. Although I'm a divorced dad, I found the information here quite relevant and helpful to my own situation for dealing with household, discipline and school work with my son.
Fun! Friends! Learning?! This article was about summer programs for kids with ADD. I didn't even know they had such a thing.
I have found over my past few issues that at least one of the major articles was of direct help to me. Last month for example was a list of 33 tips to help me keep on track. I used it until I misplaced it. I wish I was making an ADD joke here, but thats what happened to the Dec/Jan 2006 issue.
In every Issue of ADDitude are Letters from Readers, an ASK ADDitude column, Impulse, (a little page of ADD related things like To Do lists that hang on doorknobs and a funny quote from Steven Wright I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering), In the News (ADD relevant news articles), gADDgets (blurbs on electronics that help us with ADD, like keys that beep, organizer programs, etc.) and Book Reviews. You can imagine that there are hundreds of books on ADD, and the reviews help to choose the ones that we may find helpful.
Each Issue also has articles under Inspiration, Organized Life, Healthy Living, ADD Coach, and Success at School. Hopefully, the category title tells you what the articles focus on. Below is a sampling of this months articles under each category.
Inspiration One article this month was on a woman who didn't know what was wrong with her until she was diagnosed with ADD and able to get help, another was about a woman in college struggling with ADD. Ned Hallowell, M.D. contributes several articles to ADD, and in this issue he had an article on being the kind of parent your child needs. Dr. Hallowell has written several books on Attention Deficit and his articles and insights appear regularly in ADDitude. (I met him once at a seminar on ADD, he is informative, easy going, and he also has ADD).
The Organized Life This month only one article appeared here, it was on tracking medical expenses and how to save money doing so. Heck, thats an article I think even my non ADD friends would find useful!
Healthy Living Dr. Silver's column is here, he is the senior medical advisor for ADDitude and he is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He answers questions on ADD, medications and treatments. His answers are clear, to the point and easy to understand.
Your ADD Coach This months articles were right on point for me. One was on multitasking, when it works and when it doesn't. I.E. I can write this review while listening to my new David Bowie DVD-Audios to review next, and keep my eye on my son, but I probably shouldn't try to do too many things when I am concentrating on an intensive task. The other right on point article for me was on procrastination, my life long nemesis. It had an easy five step program for stopping procrastination, which I plan to start next week. don't put off until tomorrow, what you can just as easily put off until next week sometime. Actually, I used this article to motivate me to finally write this particular review, which I have been wanting to write for the past two months.
Success at School This month had articles on an innovative school, preparing for the IEP (individual education plan), using daily reports to help students improve school behavior, and a way to orgainize notes, ace exams and write term papers.
Price / Issues
The magazine is not expensive, its 19.99 for six issues or 34.99 for 12 issues. It only comes out 6 times a year though, I wish it came out every month. This may be more than you pay for Time or Entertainment Weekly, but if you or your child has ADD, this magazine is far more valuable.
Advertising Even the advertisements in the magazine are helpful, because they are all geared towards people with ADD. I am much more likely to find something to help me with my ADD in ADDitude than any other magazine.
How it Helped Me
Its nice to know that I am far from alone in having ADD, and that so much research has been done. I find the articles inspiring. Many folks with ADD are also professionals and from all walks of life. The articles on organization I find particularly useful, and I have used them from everything from household chores to a better way of doing "To Do" lists at work. Book reviews have led me to some good books, and the parenting articles have helped me with my son who also has ADD.
Summary If you or your child has ADD, I think you will find this magazine invaluable. Its very well written, and it covers many aspects of ADD and helps with all of them. So before you get distracted, read the next paragraph and order a subscription for yourself!
Ordering Information
ADDitude can be ordered by phone 1-800-762-8475 or you could send them mail at ADDitude PO Box 1993, Marion, OH 43306-2093.
This is NOT a paid endorsement, and I have no affiliation with the magazine. I am only a subscriber who has ADD and really has found this magazine to be a great help to me.
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