Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Obsessive-Compulsive
“Imagine if you will, living in a state of constant worry. Sometimes it is just a sense of uneasiness, at times it is a chronic state of fear, and at still other times, it is a paralysis of will. There are people who spend their entire life bracing for what could happen. Some individuals are in constant dread of some event that may or may not happen. Others have episodic dread and even panic. Technically speaking, this exaggerated fear response is a result of an overexcited limbic system. That is a part of the brain that responds to emotions.
We often refer to anxiety and panic attacks as the disorder of “what if.” What if this happens, what if that happens, what if I get sick, what if they die, what if the sky falls. Most of us are not paralyzed by the future. Sure, things can happen and we could suffer the insults of life, but we will deal with it when it happens. For others, however, their entire lives are predicated on what could happen, the thoughts and images they conjure are not very pleasant. They are living almost exclusively in the future, which means that they have abdicated the now. There is very little danger in the now. If people stopped to look realistically at the now, they would find that they are in no immediate danger of death, starvation, mutilation, or any of the other awful fears they have. The now is usually very safe, but patients with anxiety and panic don’t live in the now because they are too busy fighting with the future. Neurofeedback calms the overexcited limbic system and helps them focus on living in the now.
Unfortunately, there is still a stigma associated with mental health disorders. Many individuals see mental health treatment as something that detracts from one’s character, intelligence, or reputation. In some families, there is the perception that mental health treatment reflects disgrace on the entire family. Instead of admitting to a need for help, people will disguise the situation with comments like, “Oh, she is just high-strung” or “That is just the way he is.” Most mental health issues can be resolved or, at the very least, improved, and this is certainly true of anxiety and panic.
The broad term”anxiety” represents a wide variety of disorders. It includes panic attack, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and numerous phobias. We have general clinics and, like most clinics, we see a little bit of everything. We have helped people prepare to give speeches and get over driving phobias. We have seen brainwave training calm the most nervous patients and fearful, withdrawn children become socially active. We have had combat veterans thank us for saving their lives, but most of it is due to simple neurofeedback/biofeedback procedures. We are not wizards; we just have a wonderful tool in brainwave training.” (Healing Young Brains. Robert Hill, Ph.D. and Eduardo Castro, M.D.
Meg Sheehan discusses how she used neurofeedback to help her son Bobby alleviate his anxiety symptoms in the following video:
