"Written with vivid detail and transparency, Russell Kramer's memoir is a portrait of a boy's sensitive vitality in collision with the collective. It is also the portrait of a young man of tremendous integrity who dares to leave the seductions of stimulant medication and face the task of building a grounded, creative life. I highly recommend this book not only to those affected by ADD/ADHD and stimulant medications, but to anyone sensitive to the struggles of young adulthood. It's a beautifully written book."
-Anne
Hocus Focus offers perspective on the phenomenon of using stimulants to treat ADD through personal experience of using them from childhood to early adulthood.
We have been treating ADD with stimulant medications for decades and counting. While the medications provide a tremendous benefit for many users, it is important to examine the phenomenon, as R.L. Kramer has observed it personally. One of the most challenging aspects of the medications in his experience was that they worked. After being diagnosed in 1996, R.L. Kramer started using stimulant medications to treat his Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). He experienced benefits and continued using until his early twenties. When confronted with the reality of his need for medication, he sought to understand better how to focus on his own, and wrote to better understand his relationship to ADD and the substance he used to keep it at bay.
This personal story of growth, indecision, recklessness, bodily injury, and aimless determination is not only a testament to an unspoken experience of the millennial generation, but it is a timeless story of growing up. Kramer and the amphetamine form a bond and together go on many adventures, several of which are presented in Hocus Focus. Without trepidation towards mind-altering substances, he explores other drugs. He drops out of college twice, graduates and then rides a bike across the United States. He holds many jobs, makes art in an endless fervor, and writes poems in coffee shops. When he can't fill his prescription, withdrawal pitches him into a reversal effect of what was once a source of energy, happiness and productivity, making him depressed, irritable, and unable to feel useful. He is shown plant medicine and finds healing through habits and growth. He examines what was that is at the core of his attention troubles and becomes committed to managing his ADD without medications.
This book contains discussions of drug use and suicidal ideation.