How I Helped My Son Improve His ADHD Symptoms Without Medication

I’m Rosalinda, a single mom, and I love my kid more than anything.

He was diagnosed with ADHD a long time ago, so certain aspects of life are more challenging for him than they might be for other kids. 

It would take so long to calm him down when things weren’t going his way. And he had been like this his whole life.

I’ve personally gone through ADHD parenting training, and we’ve both gone to psychotherapy and tried medication. It has had the most success in treating my son’s inattentiveness and hyperactivity symptoms.

I know I cannot just rely on our extended family and me for his social needs – he needs a supportive group of friends.

He’s turning 14 in a couple of months, and he’s getting to a point where the connections he makes in school and his other activities will be essential for him to be happy among his peers.

It is also approaching when he will be starting to think about college, scholarships, and grades – a massive moment in his young life.

We’re lucky enough to live in a great school district, and he attends a lovely state school that’s rated pretty high for the quality of education.

I try my best to provide him with everything he needs, from school work, time with friends, family, and chores – everything that will help shape him into a functional adult.

However, I have one hurdle that we’ve been trying to work on together for a long time, and that’s his ADHD

Don’t get me wrong, I love him with his ADHD, and I couldn’t imagine him without it. But we’ve tried a lot of things to help him.

He has frequent issues with his attention span that is beginning to severely affect his school work – not to mention his hyperactivity.

He would struggle to plan and then get highly frustrated whenever something he didn’t anticipate went wrong.

After using the medication we were prescribed for him, we began to notice how it impacted his personality – and we didn’t like what it did to him.

He lost interest in his hobbies and making new friends, things he previously loved.

So we eventually intervened with advice from his doctor, and he stopped taking it.

I love his bubbly personality, how friendly he is, and how much he tries when he’s focused on something, but he’s been a little off at school lately.

He’s been falling behind on some work, he finds it hard to concentrate on homework, and his teachers have complained that he’s been getting carried away in class.

I read his report card with some concern, and teachers were clearly worried that he was off track – he had so much potential, and I couldn’t blame him for his performance.

He fidgets a lot, but some of the fidget toys that I’ve bought him over the years have been going out of style. 

He doesn’t want to keep using them in front of his classmates because it makes him seem uncool, which I understand since coolness is the most valuable currency when you’re his age.

What struck me the most was a conversation I had when I bumped into one of what I thought was his good friend’s mom.

We started some casual small talk, and when I asked whether she’d like to send her son over for a playdate that weekend, she told me that they didn’t speak anymore. She told me what her son had told her.

Apparently, when my son hangs out in big friend groups, he gets very hyper, loud, and a bit out of control

She said my son would interrupt people when they talk, yell and just be quite a irritating since he’s overstimulated by the number of people in the group.

I listened to her, and it obviously made me sad. If I hadn’t gone through enough parenting training and known my son well enough, I probably would have yelled at her for even suggesting that my son was anything other than an angel.

But I was just glad someone had told me about these issues before they got any worse.

That evening, I sat my son down for a chat.

I talked to him very openly and honestly about the fact that I was concerned about his performance at school and that we were going to do something about it.

We needed to make an action plan that would help him bring his grades up, keep his teachers happy, and keep him on the right track to getting the scholarships he needs for college.

But before we decided on anything actionable to do, I asked him how his friendships were going

Even though it’s awkward to open up to your mom about your friendships when you’re a teen, he told me that it wasn’t going so well. 

He hadn’t told me this before, but he was pretty distraught that he didn’t get invitations to 3 of his buddies’ birthdays over the last couple of months and that fewer people were talking to him at school.

As he expressed his frustrations about how he wasn’t doing as well as expected, he even considered that he might have to get on medication again. 

He obviously didn’t want to do it, but he just wanted something to help him do well in school and get his friends back.

I could see he was fixating on the idea of taking medication, circling around how it’s going to affect him, and getting more anxious as he was thinking about it more.

I stopped him.

I told my son that we would do everything we could while making sure he felt his best

We talked about our options and what had worked for him in the past.

While talking, we agreed that structured physical activity had done wonders for him. Not only was he interested in exercise for long enough to do it, but the benefits spilled over to other things he did.

He would feel calmer and more collected at school, increasing his attention and performance.

He mentioned that he really liked something he’d seen on TikTok and showed me a few videos of people doing some impressive-looking things with rope.

It was called Octomoves. He even showed me some TikTok creators with ADHD who had been using the ropes and talking about their benefits.

From the videos, it seemed like the people were using almost every muscle in their body to make gliding movements along with the rope, going up and down and spinning.

The creators said it calmed their anxiety, let their brains focus better, and improved their strength and coordination.

But the best part was that the ropes were light and compact – you could use them anywhere and anytime you wanted, and you could feel the benefits even by using them a few minutes at a time.

My son and the TikToks convinced me. I ordered the ropes for him, and as I was waiting for the order to arrive, I started reading and watching some more videos about Octomoves and even ordered some ropes for myself!

The benefits were apparent after the first month

Sure, we needed to watch some tutorials to get the hang of it at first.

But as we were getting into it, we noticed that my son was starting to have a much easier time sitting down to do his homework.

Seeing how much calmer he was at home, I called up a couple of teachers to ask how he was doing at school.

Soon enough, my son received an invite to a sleepover at a friend’s place. I guess he was doing better with friends as well.

Now Octomoves is something I get to share with my son every morning

We do a bit of exercise together every now and then, but now, every morning, we’re not in a rush. We take a moment to put on some music and just let the ropes flow.

My son is pretty keen on getting better at it, while I’m just enjoying some quality time spent with him as we get better at this hobby together.

It’s such a great way to start the day – it’s even better than meditation because you get to focus on something you enjoy!

It’s great for the social and educational development of my son who has ADHD, and it’s equally as beneficial for me – a neurotypical – who just wants to spend some time moving my body and clearing out my thoughts.

These ropes might bring balance and flow into your life as well, whether you’re neurotypical or not.