Review: Review of Commanding Attention: A Parent and Patient Guide to More ADHD Treatment
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2013
Tess Messer's new book, Commanding Attention: A Parent and Patient Guide to More ADHD Treatment, adds something of great value to the canon of clinical and popular literature about ADHD. Specifically, this book is focused and readable and can be understood by both clinicians and by parents or individuals that have an ADHD diagnosis or symptoms. Many previous books and clinical papers on ADHD have been technical to the point of being unreadable by the lay public; however, Tess Messer has written this book with the goal that both clinicians and the general public will find useful information - Messer has admirably achieved her goal.The book is well researched and if you are an academic or clinician, you will be pleased the background material and source material is cited throughout. There is an excellent bibliography at the end of the book if you want to review more source material. Tess Messer begins the book begins with a discussion of the term ADHD and the numerous forms this disorder can take. Messer tells how ADHD touched her own family and then about the discovery that she also suffered from undiagnosed ADHD. Messer explains that this book is not "anti-medication" but seeks to inform readers on the variations ADHD can take and the reasons one type of treatment does not fit for all individuals that have ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms.As well as discussions of treating or living with ADHD without medication, the book also goes into behavioral therapy, natural and herbal remedies, as well as cutting-edge pharmacological interventions and treatments such as Adderall, Ritalin, Strattera and other medications. One of the primary values of Messer's book is that it makes the case that individual personality differences influence how a person experiences ADHD. In other words, there are multiple factors in play in each case which is why a holistic approach in treating or living with ADHD makes sense.The bottom line for me is that this book taught me things about ADHD that I did not know previously. It helped me think about the disorder in a new way and if a client came to me today I would have more options in my clinical "tool-kit" to offer them. For anyone who suffers from ADHD or attention deficit symptoms, and for the clinicians and teachers that work with children and adults with ADHD, I would unreservedly recommend this book.Sincerely,Rocky Cole, MACounselor