PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AND PSYCHOTHERAPY IN ADULTS WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT DISORDER

TW is a handsome, intelligent young man who nevertheless feels like a failure. As a teenager, he flunked out of a number of preparatory scho ols, unable to take any interest in class and incapable of paying atte ntion to lectures. He has a history of substance abuse and is a vetera n of several 12-step programs. He has a tendency to feel overwhelmed. He never seems able to direct his focus or his energy and feels this i s due to being lazy. If he is able to see something through to the end , inevitably it comes up short of his and others' expectations, reinfo rcing his belief that he should not even try. He claims his biggest pr oblem is his inability to cope with interpersonal relationships. Their multidimensional demands give him vertigo. To manage this, he says, h e views others in. black and white. He realizes that he does not let o thers be who they are and laments his inability to change.