Center of Attention
Newsletter of CHADD of Northern California
Also at: http://www.chaddnorcal.org/newsletter
6 January 2003

CHADD Works to Improve the Lives of People with
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder through Education, Advocacy,
and Support

===== In This Issue =====

About the Newsletter
Calendar of Events
Feature Article: Review: View from the Cliff
Please Tell Us

===== About the Newsletter =====

The Center of Attention is CHADD of Northern California's bi-weekly
newsletter. The newsletter is designed to keep you up to date with
CHADD of Northern California's activities and updates in the field.
It's a step toward bringing the members closer together.

======== Calendar of Events ==========

Sacramento - 1/7/2003, Tues. 6:45 p.m.; 7-9 pm
Dealing with AD/HD at Home, Work, and at School -- Angela Paccini,
MFT, private practice in Roseville
Sutter Center for Psychiatry, Sacramento - Contact: Greater
Sacramento CHADD: 916-552-1557
============================
Alameda - 1/8/2003, Wed. 7 - 9 pm
Tri-Valley Parent Support Meeting --
Thomas J. Hart Middle School, Pleasanton - Contact: JoAnn Matone: 925-484-2173
============================
Santa Clara - 1/8/2003, Wed. Reg: 7pm, Meet 7:30pm
ADD Through the Life Cycle -- Dr. Harry Verby of the Behavioral
Medical Clinic in San Mateo
Friends Meeting House, Palo Alto - Contact: Silicon Valley Warmline:
650-949-5472
============================
Marin - 1/14/2003, Tues. 7-9pm
Learn down-to-earth skills to manage your anger. -- Peter Chinnici, LCSW
Town Center Corte Madera Community Room, Corte Madera - Contact:
Beverlee: 415-789-9464
============================
Contra Costa - 1/15/2003, Wed. 7-9 pm
Walnut Creek Adult General Support Meeting -- Ongoing, confidential
support groups for Adults with ADHD
Kaiser Mental Health, Walnut Creek - Contact: Donna Love: 925-687-4324
============================
Santa Clara - 1/15/2003, Wed. Reg: 7pm, Meet 7:30pm
Silicon Valley Adult, Parent and Spouse Support Groups -- Separate
peer-facilitated groups let you share struggles and strategies with
each other. Includes video.
Friends Meeting House, Palo Alto - Contact: Silicon Valley Warmline:
650-949-5472
============================
Yolo - 1/16/2003, Thu. Lending Library 7:00 pm; 7:15 pm to 8:30 pm
County Meeting -- CHADD welcomes all with interest or concerns
regarding attention deficit disorder.
Davis Branch, Yolo County Library, Davis - Contact: Yolo County
CHADD: 530-750-3929
============================
San Francisco - 1/20/2003, Mon. 7:00 - 9pm
Adult Success Group - Topic: Time Management -- Share skills and
strategies for success at home, in the workplace, in relationships,
etc.
CPMC Pacific Campus, San Francisco - Contact: Rachel Rosenfeld: 415-362-7227
============================
Marin - 1/21/2003, Tues. 7-9pm
Drop in Support Group -- for Adults with ADHD and Significant Others
Marin Community Mental Health, Greenbrae - Contact: Beverlee: 415-789-9464
============================
Santa Clara - 1/22/2003, Wed. 7:15 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
New Directions in Brain Scan Imaging -- William C. Klindt, MD.,
Director of Silicon Valley Brain Imaging, Inc.
Friends Meeting House, Palo Alto - Contact: Kitty Petty ADD/LD
Institute: 650-329-9443 or visit www.kpinst.org/
============================
Marin - 1/22/2003, Wed. 9:30-11:30am
Parent Informational Resource and Support Group -- Call First...
30 Catalpa Ave., Mill Valley - Contact: Victoria Vogel & Holly
Seerly: 415-383-6048
============================
San Francisco - 1/23/2003, Thu. 7-9pm
Educational Speaker TBA --
CPMC Pacific Campus, San Francisco - Contact: San Francisco Warmline:
415-442-1944
============================
San Mateo - 1/25/2003, Sat. 9 am - Noon; Registration at 8 am
It's So Much Work Being Your Friend; Teaching Friendship Skills to
Children. - Richard Lavoie, MS, MEd. -- This workshop will outline
the development of childhood friendships and will offer specific
strategies designed to enhance the child's friendship skills.
Register online.
South San Francisco Conference Center, South San Francisco - Contact:
Schwab Learning: 800-230-0988 or visit www.SchwabLearning.org/
============================
Contra Costa - 2/5/2003, Wed. 7-9 pm
Walnut Creek Adult Topical Meeting: TBA --
Kaiser Mental Health, Walnut Creek - Contact: Donna Love: 925-687-4324
============================
Santa Clara - 2/5/2003, Wed. Reg: 7pm, Meet 7:30pm
Central Auditory Processing Disorder versus AD/HD. -- Judith Paton,
pediatric and adult audiologist, will speak.
Friends Meeting House, Palo Alto - Contact: Silicon Valley Warmline:
650-949-5472
============================
===== Feature Article ======

Book Review:
View from the Cliff - A Course in Achieving Daily Focus
by Lynn Weiss, PhD

Reviewed by Lew Mills, PhD, MFT (http://www.millsconsulting.com)

Some books are just too hard to tackle when you are an adult with
ADHD, even if they are intended for an ADHD audience. After a couple
of excursions into multiple theories and a lengthy examination of the
research, we have checked out.

There are two styles of books that are more effective for ADHD
Adults. The more common style is to be very stimulating, with lots of
variety, pictures, cartoons, sidebars, cute stories and so on. This
can work well at engaging and keeping your attention. I personally
enjoy reading these. A fun example is "Time Management for
Unmanageable People."

The downside of this style is that it can spin you off into more
tangential thoughts and plans than you are ever going to be able to
follow through on. While it appeases your ADHD curiosity, it also
plays to all of its distractibility. You can have a lot of fun
reading it, but at the end, you are not sure what you are going to do
about what you learned.

The second style for Adult ADHD books is more rare and, I think, more
useful. This gives you a very simple clear-cut executable plan for
addressing problems and maximizing the assets of having ADHD. Weiss'
book falls clearly in this second category. On the surface, it may
seem relatively dull. But if you pick it up and read a page or two,
you find yourself instantly engaged in advice from someone who knows
just what you are struggling with. This kind of book is likely to end
up being useful over years to come.

The way the book works is to cover a very wide range of issues that
many ADHD adults grapple with, all in a simple standardized format.
Each dilemma you face is first phrased in an assessment question like
"Do you procrastinate starting projects?" or "Do you regularly burn
pots, lose contact lenses, or overflow the backyard pond because you
don't pay attention to what you are doing?" She then proceeds to
describe you succinctly in a few paragraphs. OK, now you know that
she knows you, (even if you don't have a backyard pond).

Here is where she takes you through what becomes a familiar process
to work on each problem. It really does feel like a well-structured
"course" in achieving focus. Each "lesson" is very concise and
tightly constructed, respecting the effort you are putting into
understanding it.

After describing just what you do, she explains "Why this happens."
This is the part that may be familiar from other ADHD books, and it
is very helpful to understand the "whys" of ADHD. But then she goes
to the part on "What not to do." Often this section includes the
injunction to not get down on yourself about just being the way that
you are. Hopefully you have already heard this before, but even so,
it bears repeating!

The next step is about what you can and should do. There are some
marvelously clever tricks here that I have not seen elsewhere. For
example, she describes a technique of "anchoring" yourself at the
point where you are about to drift off on a tangent, so that you have
a way to get back on track when your tangent is completed.

As you begin to tell yourself that this technique will never work for
you, you are surprised that the next section acknowledges "What makes
this hard to do." Her recommendations don't just leave you with the
feeling that if it doesn't work for you, you did it wrong. Instead
she tells you how you can work more successfully at the toughest
parts of the task.

Throughout the whole process, Weiss acknowledges the three parts of
yourself that you bring to your struggle with ADHD: the hurt you feel
at a world that rarely understood you, the ways you can get the world
to accommodate you now, and the "true you" that you will rediscover.
This perspective pulls the book far past being just a collection of
clever tricks, to where she really grasps how and why ADHD adults do
what they do, in a way that helps you make better choices.

So here is a book that you will be able to come back to over and
over, that will teach you very usable strategies, and that
acknowledges that you are already trying a lot harder than it may
look to others. This one is definitely worth owning.

===== Please Tell Us! =====

We thank members for their responses to the Newsletter. Any comments,
suggestions, or criticisms will be greatly appreciated. Please
continue to help us make this newsletter more beneficial to you all.

We also invite readers to share their experiences with us and other
members. Please feel free to write to us about anything that you
would like to see published.

You can e-mail your comments to us at CHADD_Dimples@....
Simply replying to this e-mail will also send your message to the
right place.