Married to Distraction

Restoring Intimacy and Strengthening Your Marriage in an Age of Interruption

By: Edward Hallowell, Sue Hallowell, Melissa Orlov

Narrated by: Edward Hallowell, Sue Hallowell

Modern marriage is busy, distracted, and overloaded to extremes, with ever-increasing lists of things to do, superficial electronic connections, and interrupted moments. Now Edward M. Hallowell, the best-selling co-author of Driven to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction, teams up with his wife, Sue George Hallowell, a couples' therapist, to explain the subtle but dangerous toll today's overstretched, undernurtured lifestyle takes on our most intimate relationship.

The good news is that there are straightforward and effective ways to maneuver your marriage out of the destructive roadblocks created by the avalanche of busy living:

• Observe the natural sequence of sustaining love: attention, time, connection, and play.
• Develop and nurture empathy - the essential building block to healthy communication.
• Carve out small moments of uninterrupted attention for each other.
• Identify the pressures that our crazybusy lifestyles put on love and marriage, and fight back with tenderness and appreciation.

All of us who have been part of a couple for more than a few years will recognize ourselves in this reassuring book. Married to Distraction will set couples on a course of understanding, healing, and love.

©2010 Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. (P)2010 Random House

Better than I expected!

As I read the poor reviews on this book I can't help but notice that most of them probably only listened to the first 1 or 2 chapters and then stopped listening. As an adult with ADHD, this book has been a godsend to helping restore and strengthen my marriage. I love its approach of not blaming or pointing fingers. I love how it doesn't even mention ADHD. Before my husband listened to this book he was sure that all of our marital issues were because of "my ADHD". After listening to this book, he saw for the first time, how his actions were also contributing to our poor relationship.
This is not a book about how to manage your spouses ADHD symptoms, nor should it be. It is a book about how to react to your spouse and show them that you still care about them. It is a book about working as a team and utilizing each other for your strengths. It is a book about reconnecting with your spouse to get back to that place where you both loved and respected each other. It is a book about being heard and listening to strengthen your relationship with each other.
This book is a great prelude to "The ADHD Effect on Marriage"

Excellent!

I had just finished listening to this by myself, and will be listening to it with my husband this week as we are traveling. So many times, I could relate to exactly how the authors were describing the problems between couples. I have hope for us, finally!

Not so much for dealing with ADHD as I hoped

I thought this might be more about helping couples deal with a partner with ADHD but it really doesn’t address that at all sadly, and the other thing that scored this book down for me was the often negative tone of the book. That the world was grinding us down and that things seemed so bleak. I just don’t feel that way, so coming at it from that perspective just didn’t resonate with me and didn’t seem to really connect for me. There are some good pointers in there, but I feel this might be a better book for couples on the brink than for couples just looking for tools to strengthen their bonds.

amazing book.

This is a great book for anyone in a less than perfect relationship.......loved this book.

Great book!

I recommend anyone who wants to improve their marriage, whether it is failing or thriving.

Great book

Loved it! many good insights that I personally do not believe every wife reading this book will follow.

Seems angrier than it has to be.

Would you try another book from the authors and/or Edward Hallowell and Sue Hallowell ?

No, I guess I'm just coming from a different place than the intended audience for this book. I picked it because I have ADHD, my husband and I both struggle with electronics and life getting in the way of our time together and I thought it would have helpful advice. If there is any in there I haven't seen it yet because the first few hour or more seems to be one angry example of an argument after another. I understand the need to give examples but an hour of listening to couples argue makes me feel angry and isn't very helpful at all. I don't think I can even finish this audio book.

Not what I expected

What disappointed you about Married to Distraction?

I was looking for an audio book about ADHD in marriage. This book only has 1 chapter about it. I should have read the intro using the "Search Inside This Book" tool. Although I checked the Table of Contents, and browsed through, somehow I thought it's for ADHD because that's the authors' field. I'll try to return this.

Would you ever listen to anything by the authors again?

Probably, if something interesting comes up.

What about Edward Hallowell and Sue Hallowell ’s performance did you like?

Good voices and performance. Not boring.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Married to Distraction?

I don't know. I didn't listen all the way to the end. It's not the material I needed.

Top notch soporific!!!

You would think that a book written by an expert on ADD would know that incessant rambling leads to turning off the book. I tried, I really, really tried. I should not have been listening to the book while I was driving, though. It was truly dreadful. I am sad, though. Edward Hollowell has also done much better books than this, so I’m sadly disappointed.