No BS Book Review for Adults with ADHD: Dirty Laundry

Dirty Laundry. R. Pink and R. Emery. 2023. Ten Speed Press. 138 real pages and 16 chapters. $16.99. Amazon Link.

The punchline: Dirty Laundry is written for both the person with ADHD and the person who wants to help someone with ADHD. Although chapters are brief and highly structured, it is hard to quickly pull out advice. It was written by British authors and some examples don't apply to a US reader. Best to avoid, unless you are trying to help someone with ADHD.

Dirty Laundry was written by a British couple, one of whom has ADHD. You can find them by searching @ADHD_love. It's well written and entertaining. There is a lot of humor and empathy in the book. If you want to be entertained and learn a bit more about ADHD, and you don't have ADHD, it's a quick and pleasant read.

The bulk of the book is divided into ten chapters, each devoted to an aspect of ADHD. Note that the chapters refer to everyday terms used to describe functional problems with ADHD (time blindness, hyperfocus).

Each of the chapters in Dirty Laundry starts with a brief personal story, then includes specific advice for the person with ADHD and specific advice for the person who wants to help someone with ADHD.

Much of the advice in Dirty Laundry is helpful and empathic. For example, under task avoidance, one tip is to tell others that you have ADHD. However, it it is hard to find chapters because the chapter names are only included at the start of a chapter and in the table of contents.

Dirty Laundry is a very good book if you are trying to help someone with ADHD. It's entertaining to read and has good advice, too. If you have ADHD, Dirty Laundry may be challenging to enjoy due to the story-telling approach it takes.