I'm one chapter in, but thinking of DNF. Will update if I continue reading.
Like others have criticized about the first edition, chapter one starts off with a bold paragraph about how people with ADHD simply experience "learned helplessness."
This was an immediate put-off for me.
The author suggests that the problems that adults with ADHD face are their own fault through lack of effort and lack of persistence.
The author argues that this behaviour can be unlearned through changing one's thoughts -- basically positive pop psychology.
And yes, positive thinking can indeed show meaningful change, but ignoring the context from which cognitive distortions occur shows a total lack of compassion and understanding.
People with ADHD often have many co-morbidities, including depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, substance use, eating disorders, autism, etc. Growing up in a family, community, and school environment that doesn't accommodate neurodivergence leads to complex trauma, or C-PTSD.
Even more, given that ADHD is usually genetic, and diagnosis is only recently becoming more widely available, it's also fair to say that adults with ADHD grew up in an environment with parents who were themselves disabled, likely with some of the above comorbidities. People with ADHD are more likely to end up in abusive relationships. The list goes on...
Cognitive distortions simply don't occur in a vacuum, and the author doesn't acknowledge the bio-psycho-social factors and intergenerational trauma that contribute to negative thought patterns.
Overall, the author's use of the term "learned helplessness" is reductive and pathologizing, placing the blame on the individual rather than addressing the systemic, relational, and structural barriers that shape our experiences. It frames ADHD-related struggles as personal failings rather than as responses to chronic invalidation, ableism, and trauma. It also reinforces harmful narratives that we are broken and in need of fixing—when in reality, the world around us often refuses to make space for the ways our brains work.