A French Doctor's Guide to ADHD: Annick Vincent's Book
A short note before I start. Most ADHD books I review here are in English. This one is in French. It's written by Annick Vincent, a psychiatrist from Quebec, and it's called Mon cerveau a encore besoin de lunettes. There is an English version, My Brain Still Needs Glasses, published by Juniper Publishing in 2017. But the original audience is francophone, and that matters.
Why am I reviewing it for English readers? Because the French-speaking world of adult ADHD is small, and Vincent is one of its most trusted voices. If you have a French-speaking partner, parent or patient who has just been diagnosed and doesn't read English comfortably, this is the book to put in their hands. And if you read French yourself, even a little, this is a good reason to dust off that skill.
Who Annick Vincent is
Annick Vincent is a clinical psychiatrist in Quebec, specialized in ADHD for years, and a member of CADDRA, the Canadian expert group that writes the national ADHD guidelines. She first wrote a children's book, Mon cerveau a besoin de lunettes, framed as the journal of Tom, age 8. Then this sequel, for adolescents and adults, published first in 2010 and revised through 2022.
The tone is that of a doctor talking to patients, not to peers. Heavy vulgarization, illustrations, sidebars, recap pages at the end of each section. Five stages: understand, scientific layover, diagnostic path, psychological glasses, biological glasses. It's built as a journey.
The glasses metaphor
The whole book turns around one image. Vincent distinguishes two kinds of glasses. Psychological glasses cover adaptive strategies, sleep, organization, therapy. Biological glasses cover ADHD medication. The central idea is that we don't blame someone for needing reading glasses. We just give them glasses.
The image is pedagogical without being reductive. It removes guilt without denying reality. Vincent carried it so well that it has entered the everyday language of Quebec patients and French-speaking clinicians. When I have to summarize ADHD to someone who knows nothing about it, I use that image, sometimes without remembering where it comes from.
One sentence struck me, in stage 5 on medication. In her words:
De même qu'une paire de lunettes permet de mieux voir les lettres mais n'apprend pas à lire, la médication ne règle pas tout !
Roughly: just as glasses help you see letters but don't teach you to read, medication doesn't fix everything. Stage 5 of the book, on biological glasses. When I took Ritalin for four months, I was waiting for it to transform me. It helped me focus. It didn't reorganize my life. This sentence would have calmed my expectations sooner.
What I learned about the diagnostic path
Stage 3 is the most useful chapter for anyone in the diagnostic process. Vincent walks through the assessment with a clarity I haven't found elsewhere in French. The questionnaires (ASRS, DIVA, SNAP-IV, Conners, Brown, Barkley, WSR, WFIRS) are framed as thermometers. They measure intensity, they don't deliver a diagnosis. That's the clinician's job.
Un score élevé à un questionnaire TDAH suggère tout au plus une bonne probabilité que la personne puisse en souffrir, mais ne garantit pas du tout un diagnostic.
Stage 3. Roughly: a high score on an ADHD questionnaire suggests a likelihood, never guarantees a diagnosis. I'd love to send this line to everyone who tells me "I scored 22 on the ASRS so I'm ADHD". No, you have a high score. That's different. Vincent says it better than I would.
She also lays out the DSM-5 criteria without burying them in an annex. Five out of nine symptoms after age 17. Present before age 12. In at least two environments. With significant functional impact. Not better explained by something else. I haven't seen these thresholds stated this cleanly anywhere else in French. I rely on this clarity in my page on getting diagnosed.
Emotional dysregulation, finally named
One thing Vincent does very well is bring emotional hyperreactivity into ADHD from stage 1. Not as a separate comorbidity. As an intrinsic part of the disorder for many people.
Les réactions émotionnelles, quoique appropriées au contexte, sont ressenties et exprimées de façon plus intense et avec moins de filtres.
Stage 1. Emotional reactions, while context-appropriate, are felt and expressed more intensely and with fewer filters. This section would have saved me years of wondering whether I was ADHD, highly sensitive, "too intense" or bipolar. Vincent explains clearly how to tell this emotional reactivity apart from a mood disorder. I follow up on this in my page on ADHD and emotions.
Learning to procrastinate better
Stage 4, on adaptive strategies, gave me an expression I still use. "Learning to procrastinate better". The idea is not to suppress the last-minute sprint, which works well for many ADHD brains, but to multiply it by shortening each step.
Apprendre à mieux procrastiner, c'est-à-dire à procrastiner plus souvent, mais moins longtemps, en découpant les tâches en petites étapes.
Stage 4. Roughly: procrastinate more often, but for shorter periods, by cutting tasks into small steps. Vincent doesn't try to turn me into someone I'm not. She takes my way of working and proposes to make it less costly. That posture changes a lot. Most productivity methods ask ADHD brains to function like non-ADHD brains. Vincent says the opposite.
On medication, without pushing or pulling
Stage 5 is the densest. Vincent describes psychostimulants (methylphenidate, amphetamines, lisdexamfetamine, mixed salts), then non-stimulants (atomoxetine, viloxazine, guanfacine, clonidine). Mechanisms, release modes, primary effects, side effects, follow-up. It's complete without becoming a specialist manual.
What I particularly appreciated is what she says about stopping.
La décision de prendre une médication n'est pas un contrat à vie.
Stage 5. Roughly: the decision to take medication isn't a lifelong contract. I stopped Ritalin after four months. I wish I'd read that line at the time. I felt like I was betraying my doctor by stopping. Vincent says planned discontinuation is part of the journey, not an exit ramp. I write about this more in my page on ADHD medication and my honest review of Ritalin.
What's missing
The book is written from Quebec, for a Canadian audience. The diagnostic path, the care system, the drug names, the resources, everything is rooted there. For a French reader, it's useful at maybe 80%. For an English-speaking reader of the original or the translation, you get the framework but you might not recognize all the drug names (Vyvanse, Adderall XR, Concerta are detailed). In France, methylphenidate (Ritaline, Concerta, Quasym, Medikinet) and atomoxetine (Strattera) dominate the prescription landscape, and lisdexamfetamine was only reimbursed there starting in 2024 under restricted conditions.
There's also less advanced neuroscience than in Russell Barkley or Thomas Brown. That's a choice. Vincent aims for patient accessibility, not theoretical depth. If you want to dig into executive function or the neurobiology of ADHD, complete elsewhere.
The inner story of ADHD is also lighter than I'd like. Vincent includes patient testimonials (Anne, 45, Benoit, 32, etc.), well chosen, but this isn't a book that makes you feel ADHD from the inside. For that, Gabor Mate in Scattered Minds is irreplaceable. Vincent does something else: she equips you.
Finally, the adult female ADHD profile is underrepresented. Vincent mentions that the boy/girl ratio approaches 1 to 1 in adulthood, but doesn't dedicate a section to women diagnosed late, who have often compensated for thirty years before crashing. That's a gap of the current editions.
Who it's for
If you've just been diagnosed with adult ADHD and you read French, this is the book I recommend first. Not because it's the deepest. Because it's the most accessible, the most complete on the patient journey, and the least jargon-heavy. You get a clear map: what ADHD is, how it's diagnosed, what you can do without medication, what medication adds and doesn't.
If you're close to someone with ADHD and you want to understand without slogging through medical English, this is also for you. The sections on emotional reactivity, interpersonal difficulties and household task-sharing are particularly useful to a partner or parent.
If you're looking for an intimate narrative or for resonance with what you feel, look toward Gabor Mate. And if you're looking for the most developed practical tools, complete with Hallowell and Ratey, or with other books I list in my selection of ADHD books.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Annick Vincent?
Annick Vincent is a clinical psychiatrist in Quebec, specialized in ADHD across childhood, adolescence and adulthood. She is a member of CADDRA, the Canadian expert group that writes the national ADHD guidelines. She also wrote a children's book on ADHD, Mon cerveau a besoin de lunettes.
Is the book available in English?
Yes. The English title is My Brain Still Needs Glasses: ADHD in Adolescents and Adults, published by Juniper Publishing in 2017. The book was originally written in French in 2010 and revised through 2022.
Who is this book for?
It's a patient guide aimed at French-speaking adolescents and adults who were recently diagnosed with ADHD, or are being assessed, and at their families. It also helps non-specialist clinicians who need an accessible francophone reference.
What is the glasses metaphor?
Annick Vincent distinguishes between psychological glasses (adaptive strategies, sleep, organization, therapy) and biological glasses (ADHD medication). The idea is simple: we don't blame someone for needing reading glasses, we just give them glasses. ADHD calls for the same pragmatic posture.
Does Vincent recommend medication?
She presents medication as one tool among many, never as a starting point. She insists that pills can help you focus but won't reorganize your life. The decision is made case by case with a doctor and is not a lifelong contract.
Why read a French book if I speak English?
Most ADHD literature is in English. Vincent's book is a useful window into how ADHD is discussed in French-speaking medical culture, especially in Quebec and France. It's also worth reading if you have French-speaking relatives or patients who need a reliable source in their language.
How does it compare to Gabor Mate or Russell Barkley?
Vincent is more practical and patient-facing, less psychosomatic than Mate, less theoretical than Barkley. She doesn't replace either, she complements them. If you want the inner experience, read Mate. If you want executive function theory, read Barkley. If you want a clear roadmap, read Vincent.
References
- Vincent, A. (2022). Mon cerveau a ENCORE besoin de lunettes : le TDAH chez les adolescents et les adultes. Montreal: Les Editions de l'Homme. Revised and expanded edition.
- Vincent, A. (2017). My Brain Still Needs Glasses: ADHD in Adolescents and Adults. Juniper Publishing. English translation.
- Haute Autorite de sante (HAS). Trouble du deficit de l'attention avec ou sans hyperactivite (TDAH): clinical practice guidelines. has-sante.fr
- INSERM. Information dossier: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). inserm.fr