ADHD improved in 9th Grader
Prakash (name changed), a 9th grader with ADHD attended 8 of my classes over 5 months . He has been attending special classes at school. His class performance was reported to be very good. His mom was averse to medication and wanted to try ‘focusing on breathing’ and related techniques to help improve his symptoms. He was my first client with ADHD. Prakash, his mom and younger brother in 6th grade jointly attended first 5 classes. Then he continued with solo classes. A summary of his case follows.
What were his problems?
Anxiety, Anger, Impatience, Stress, Lack of focus, Nervousness, Frustration, Uncontrolled laughter and Lack of eye contact.
What modes did he practice?
First, I introduced the regular modes of ‘focusing on breathing’. He liked them but the restless movement of his body and uncontrolled laughter ware not showing much reduction. On a hunch, I introduced the ‘Dynamic modes of ‘focusing on breathing’ as an experiment. He liked these techniques a lot and practiced them on his own with very little prompting from his mom.
When did he practice?
Bedtime, waking up, waiting, Stressed, Walking, Tired
His mom’s assessment of his improvements.
Anxiety: Reduced by 60%
Impatience: Reduced by 50%
Focus: Improved by 70%
His younger brother's assessment
His younger brother in 6th grade wrote his own impressions with the permission of his mother during the evaluation session.
Anxiety
Decreased a little
Patience
Before: He couldn’t wait
Now: He entertains himself doing the 911 mode and enjoys it.
Focus
Before: He couldn’t make eye contact. His head always faced the window.
Now: This is slowly decreasing.
Frustration
Before: When he was mad, he was yelling and out of control.
Now: This is slowly decreasing.
He does some chanting/ prayers taught to him by his grandma. He has been taking 1000 mg of EPA+DHA per day in the form of Fish oil on my suggestion.
I added waking up routine and simple stretching and moving based on Yoga to his daily routines.
Dec 2013
Updates
Feb 9, 2014
His mom said that in the recent PTA meeting with Prakash’s math teacher, she said his focus improved and he could be put in regular class instead of the special class next year.
April 19, 2014
During the class 2 weeks back, his mom said his behavior was sometimes out of control at home. He was in the habit of pinching her and his younger brother and apologizing soon after. But he did nothing of that kind at school or outside. I told her privately his school behavior showed he had enough self-awareness and self-control with other people. I advised her that when he pinched her next time, she should immediately tell him calmly and firmly “I don’t like to be pinched”. She should not get angry or blame him or comment on him at all.
Today when I called her to know how this new response to his pinching was working, she said it was drastically reduced and she was happy for this improvement.
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