Dateline: 04/19/98

Book Review

Brainstorms
Understanding and Treating the Emotional Storms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood

by H. Joseph Horacek

c1998 Aronson

Every once in a while, a book comes out with an idea that is so radical that it demands only one response:

"WHY HASN'T SOMEONE SAID THIS BEFORE?"

Such is the case with "Brainstorms", by H. Joseph Horacek.

In this book, Dr. Horacek (who already has an impressive set of credentials to his name in neurophysiology and ADD research) makes the connection between ADD or ADHD and all of the "Side Orders" that seem to so often accompany the disorder. Rather than stringing letters together in some kind of psychological alphabet soup, Horacek recognizes a pattern in the chaos and leads us through an amazing discussion of how, why and who we are.

But make no mistake: this book is NOT intended for those who are "new" to ADD. The writing is entertaining in some places, and extremely academic in others. Overall, I found this balance to be interesting and enjoyable. However, I could see how some may find it tedious at times. The medical details and sections on specific medications are perhaps occasionally a bit too detailed for anyone without a vested interest to plow through. There is an entire chapter on Clonidine, for example.

But, if you're in one of those hyperfocus modes, "Brainstorms" would be a great way to spend all of that focus.

Perhaps the best summary of "Brainstorms" comes from the book itself:

This book is about brainstorms, brainstormers, and the brainstorm syndrome. It is about understanding the regulation of normal cognitive, emotional and motoric arousal and reactivity, and how to diagnose when symptoms of excessive autonomic hyperarousal and hyperreactivity point to a neurobiological disorder or syndrome.

Brainstorms is about how to manage these stormy brains medically and psychologically. It is based on my (Dr. Horacek) clinical experiences.

What Horacek is saying makes a lot of sense. Why should we collect diagnoses like so many merit badges?

We may have much more in common with one another than we thought.

Read an Excerpt

More info about Brainstorms

This review from Bob Seay on the Mining Co. Original Page.

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© 1998, 1999 Charles K. Kenyon

Attention Deficit Hyperativity Disorder is sometimes known as Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD, ADHD, and AD/HD. In the past it was called minimal brain dysfunction, among other things. This paragraph is added to this page to make it more likely that a search engine will pick up this page if you are looking for information using one of those terms.