[bound008]

I would highly recommend any readers on here who have ADHD to read "Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates" by Dr. Gabor Maté[1]

It provides a compelling argument as to the root cause of ADHD.

[1] https://drgabormate.com/book/scattered-minds/

[elcritch]

I would recommend taking this book or similar ones with a grain of salt. Just going off the summary it claims to "prove" that ADHD isn't inheritable, which goes against lots of well established research showing strong inheritability of ADHD.

Any books that claim to undercover the "root cause" of something as varied and complex likely haven't. Now it might have great insights, but presenting the book this way gives a bit of undertone as "cure ADHD with this one simple trick!".

Guessing about the content of the book, it likely seems to discuss healing emotional regulation by some means. If so I'd agree it's a valuable aspect of treating ADHD, as most ADHD'ers also suffer significant emotional damage. That damage and accompanying maladaptive coping often is far impactful than ADHD itself.

[mbrock]

Maté says the inheritable trait is a kind of nervous sensitivity that develops into ADHD in certain early childhood environments especially when the caretakers are stressed, depressed, or otherwise unable to provide the infant with the stable, responsive gaze that they need. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s the idea in “Scattered Minds.”

[cja]

He literally starts the book by saying that he didn't know much about ADHD until four or five years before writing and then he and his three(?) sons were all diagnosed with it and then (or so I gather because I stopped reading then) he comes up with some novel theories contradicting the experts in the field.

There's so much evidence-based material to read from people who have spent decades studying ADHD that it's a shame instead to waste time on Mate. He may be an expert in some things, just not this

[astrange]

Nice nominative determinism, maté is quite the most caffeinated thing I've had in my life.

[rauhallinen]

Agree with other responses. Maté's book, as his other works, resonates intuively - a humanistic shout in this cold and sick world.

Things are however more complex. He gets a lot of publicity, eg with recent Joe Rogan interview clips on the topic being spammed to me by YouTube's rec engines. Mental health issues are something that many people take intellectually lazy stances, to one direction or another, and this is somewhat worrying.

This book is 20 years old. I'd imagine the scientific & clinical understanding of ADHD has progressed since. Opposing views are of course important for progression, but I'd like to understand his thinking in wider context of psychiatry. Would be interesting to see a dissection of his ADHD points, carried out in a rigorous way.