ADHD 2010
Taking Charge of Adult ADHD
- General, the track now showing
- #41
- ADHD
- #7
The most scientifically reliable adult ADHD book in existence, from the researcher whose executive-function model defines the field; it gives an accurate account of what is impaired and what actually treats it. If only one ADHD title survives to the final list, evidence says this one.
The chapter guide
Adult ADHD is a disorder of self-regulation at the point of performance, so effective care combines evidence-based treatment with external supports that make time, information, motivation, and problem solving concrete.
Introduction: How to use this book
The introduction frames adult ADHD as manageable and explains how the book’s assessment, treatment, and daily-life sections fit together.
Step One and chapters 1–5: Getting evaluated
Chapters 1–5 explain when ADHD may warrant professional assessment, how to find help, what information to bring, and what an evaluation can establish.
Step Two and chapter 6: Knowing your ADHD
The step heading and chapter 6 begin the book’s explanation of ADHD as a persistent neurodevelopmental condition that can be understood without moral blame.
Chapter 7: Resisting impulses
Self-control begins by inserting a pause between an event and the response it would otherwise trigger.
Chapter 8: Self-control and delayed goals
Self-control connects present action to a later goal by using internal representations of time, consequences, and rules.
Chapter 9: Executive functions and self-control
Seven executive abilities let people represent the past and future, guide themselves, regulate emotion and motivation, and solve problems across time.
Chapter 10: The nature and management of ADHD
ADHD disrupts self-regulation across daily settings, and management works by building treatment and supports around those recurring impairments.
Chapter 11: Owning your ADHD
Accepting ADHD as a real and persistent condition makes it possible to seek treatment, disclose selectively, and take responsibility without denying impairment.
Step Three and chapters 12–15: Medication
Chapters 12–15 explain why medication is worth considering, compare stimulant and nonstimulant options, and describe monitoring during treatment.
Step Four and chapter 16: Stop the action
Interrupt an automatic response long enough to choose what happens next.
Chapter 17: See the past and future
Use mental images of relevant past outcomes and likely future consequences to guide the present decision.
Chapter 18: Say the past and future
Describe relevant past experience and future consequences aloud so language can guide current behaviour.
Chapter 19: Externalize key information
Put reminders, rules, plans, and other crucial information into the environment instead of relying on memory.
Chapter 20: Feel the future
Make a future outcome emotionally vivid enough to influence what you do now.
Chapter 21: Break it down and make it matter
Divide distant, multi-step goals into short units and add immediate consequences that make each unit matter now.
Chapter 22: Make problems external, physical, and manual
Turn complex thinking into visible objects and physical steps that can be rearranged outside the mind.
Chapter 23: Have a sense of humor
Accept ordinary ADHD mistakes with perspective so that frustration does not become self-condemnation or abandonment.
Step Five and chapter 24: Education
Apply ADHD treatment, external organization, study supports, and formal accommodations to learning settings.
Chapter 25: Work
Choose and shape work to reduce executive demands, use external supports, and address impairment or accommodations deliberately.
Chapter 26: Money
Reduce impulsive financial decisions and missed obligations through budgets, barriers, automation, and outside oversight.
Chapter 27: Relationships
Recognize how ADHD affects shared commitments and conflict, then use treatment, explicit agreements, and external supports to reduce repeated harm.
Chapter 28: Driving, health, and lifestyle risks
ADHD raises preventable risks in driving and health, so treatment and concrete safeguards should be applied where consequences are highest.
Chapter 29: Other mental and emotional problems
Common co-occurring mental-health conditions can resemble, compound, or alter ADHD and may require their own assessment and treatment.
Chapter 30 and appendix: Drugs, crime, and symptom reference
ADHD can intersect with substance misuse and legal risk, making early treatment, harm reduction, and professional help especially important; the appendix provides a closer symptom reference.
Scorecard
- Universality
- 4 of 5
- Evidence
- 5 of 5
- Reread value
- 3 of 5