Archive for December, 2025

Small Space, Big Living: Interior Design to Make Every Inch Count is a book by Sofie Hepworth.

It focuses on designing small space interiors. Most of the book uses the Shila Shed as a case study, which is a tiny home they build in their garden while they were renovating the house. It is fantastic for this kind of maximising space on a blank canvas situation, but the advice for being stuck in a rental property is somewhat limited. That said, I came away with plenty of of tips I could implement in those situations so it was worth a read.

It is also pretty practical in terms of the process of designing. It talks about how to do a draw out a floor plan (and provides ezamples), or build a mock-up model, or find a reliable tradesperson.

Mad about the House: The budget how-to guide for smart home decorating with style is a book by Kate Watson-Smyth.

The book starts with some general advice on colour, then goes systematically though each room in the house commenting on different design elements to consider. It ends with a top ten design ten design hacks. It is illustrated with a mixture of lovely line drawings and photographs. It was an enjoyable and fun read but I might struggle to tell you what crystallised knowledge I took away from it. It might be a book I come back to when I am designing a specific room.

The Interior Design Handbook is a book by Frida Ramstedt.

It’s the best book on interior design for beginners that I have read. I’m brand new to the topuc and I’ve only read three books so far. But this one is my favourite. It teaches a lot of the fundamental theory but in an acessible way. For example, how to vary your light sources, using things like the rule of three, acoustics, and all of the elements you need to bring a design together.

If you are thinking about decorating your house, this book seems to be a great place to start.

Could It Be Adult ADHD: A Clinician’s Guie to Recognition, Assessmnt, and Treatment is a book by Jan Willer.

It provides a a lot of good information for professionals on recognising signs of ADHD in adults. It goes beyond the simple list of ICD/DSM criteria and talks about related problems and offers a bit of guidance on differential diagnosis. It is accessible and comes with vignettes.

It is written from a compassionate perspective, and does talk about ADHD strengths, but overall comes from a very medical deficit-focused perspective. Everything is written as a disorder and there isn’t much attempt to describe the ADHD experience beyond the vignette quotes. As a result, I skim read most of it and skipped the treatment section entirely. That talks about CBT and skills training.

We all have that one nightmare scenario that sits in the back of our mind. Sometimes it comes true…

ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction is a book by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey.

It is written for adults who are ADHD or have ADHD children, but could also potentially be a read for clinicians who want to gain greater insight into the ADHD experience. It talks about one of the underlying models of ADHD (default mode network) and then goes on to talk about practical strategies such as building the right environment, exercise, diet, and discusses the use of medication.

From a critical perspective, many of the strategies are simple and common sense. That doesn’t mean they work. But, for example, the authors try to sell us on the benefits of to-do lists. But many ADHD people have told me they can never remember to check their to-do list so more scaffolding is needed. Perhaps the biggest criticism of the book, though, is that it writes in support of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), an approach firmly rejected by the neurodivergent community.

I don’t know how to reconcile these differences. For the most part, it is a very neuroaffirmative book and I’m thinking “these people really get ADHD”. But then when I read other bits, such as ABA or just write a to-do list, I’m thinking “these people have never met an ADHD client”. On the whole, I the whole, it is mostly the former but I don’t think I would recommend it as a resource.

Them: “Have you been to Eureka before?”
Me: “Yes. But not in the past 30 years so maybe you should give us a refresher.”

We have freed up some more space for the clinic, so from next week, I will be available for in-person sessions at Leeds Anxiety Clinic, as well as online. Chris’s appointments are available as usual, too, so you can have your pick.

This year’s Hyde Park Harriers Christmas party took place at the Water Lane Boathouse. Great pizza. Thanks Paul for organising it, and Toby for doing the quiz.