Living with ADHD, ASD, Tourette’s and all that comes along with the conditions, reading has never been a strength of mine, in fact it’s been almost impossible. I do though have a desire to learn everything I can about things that interest me.
I am constantly striving to learn everything I can about my conditions, this desire has been strengthened by my invovlment in supporting others, aiding in the teaching of students and helping them to understand my conditions and how I live with them.
I have tried many times in my life to read books, but quickly put them down after a page or two, as the exchange of words into understanding and knowledge just didn’t happen. Also, I have a very short attention span.
One day I saw a review on ‘The Idiot Brain’ I liked what I read, then I read up on the author ‘Dean Burnett’ and liked that too, so the Amazon app was opened and the book was ordered.
The book arrived the next day and I opened the package like an excited child on his birthday. When I get parcels my wife often jokes and shouts happy birthday.
I opened the book and quickly scanned the first two pages which were reviews and not important to me as I have the book now and want to get stuck in, then I’m stopped in my ADHD tracks and read a page that seems to be designed for my brain, it has two lines on it and reads
Dedicated to every human with a brain.
It’s not an easy thing to put up with, so well done.
“You’re not kidding Mr Burnett” I said to myself.
I start reading the introduction and it gets me hooked right away, for me its not just the introduction to the book it’s the introduction to the man himself speaking to me, proving there is a book I can actually read. Its funny how you give the person who wrote the book a voice in your head, this sticks with me for the whole book and into the future when I quote it in my mind.
I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone by quoting chapters and giving bits of information, so what I will say is, after the first chapter I realised I am not only reading more than I ever have, but I am learning some things too.
After a few days and a few chapters I find myself looking forward to some of the chapters to come but don’t want to skip ahead in case I miss something.
I carry this book around with me and read it when I find myself in places that I can focus, this is usually somewhere out of the house with my noise cancelling headphones on.
A kind of sadness comes over me when I am finished the book and it’s like a friend has gone home after a long visit.
I speak about this book often and recommend it to many of the students I meet, also I spoke about the book at my ADHD meeting and one comment made was “if you can read it then we should be able to read it too” this made us laugh but it was also very true.
I have read the book a couple of times and some of the chapters I have read more.
I have a keen desire to learn about myself and the people around me and this book has opened me up to pursue more knowledge, it definitely had a big impact on me.
I have just received my copy of ‘The happy brain’ which is the next book written by Dean Burnett and I am excited for him to speak to me again and teach me something else.
It’s strange as I never knew a book could make me feel I know the person writing it and have a strange kind of friendship with a person I have never met.
Thank you for the lengthy one-sided chats Dean my mate.
https://neurologically-challenged.co.uk/
