New Focus on ADHD/ADD: Neurofeedback training explained and compared to medication
ADHD and ADD, Anxiety, Depression, TBI
From A Symphony in the Brain: “What I found was a small subculture of people who enthusiastically practice brain wave biofeedback: the simple science of quantifying subtle electrical information from a person’s brain, amplifying it, and sharing it with that person, who can then control the information in a way that makes the brain more vigorous and able to do a better job of managing body and mind. Many of those who work in the field of biofeedback are passionate about what they do because the believe biofeedback/neurofeedback is very effective, and will change the world. The more people I met in the field, the more impressed I was with their intelligence and commitment. Many had been using it for years–in some cases, two or three decades–and some of the results were astounding. At gatherings of neurofeedback practitioners, the stories of people who have had their memory restored, seen their child’s hyperactivity or autism or epilepsy significantly improved, and had their lifelong migraines problem disappear are legion and routine. The effects of neurofeedback are not subtle. They are extremely robust. There is nothing else like it, not even other kinds of biofeedback. That is one of the reasons it has languished. There is nothing to compare it to.
Yet neurofeedback is neither miracle nor panacea. It is science. But because the science is young and relatively unknown, because it turns the way we have categorized and thought about illness upside down, because it functions outside of most frames of reference, it seems like mumbo jumbo. It works on a sound scientific principle, though one that was abandoned by the powers that fund science before it was fully investigated. A limited analogy can be drawn to acupuncture. There is no Western medical model to explain the technique, and it has been long dismissed in the West. But it works, and it works well, and now Western science is grudgingly coming to terms with it and searching for a biological explanation. And many insurance companies pay for acupuncture therapy.
So I decided to tell the story of brain wave biofeedback. It is a journalist’s dream. A sprawling, dramatic, multifaceted story filled with controversial figures and tales of discovery, about a new technique that performs what most of us have been conditioned to think of as miracles. It has slumbered for more than 30 years, under everyone’s nose. The most exciting thing is that is only beginning to come into its own. “I feel like someone has given me a grand piano and I’ve learned to play a couple of keys,” said Sue Othmer , one of the field’s pioneers. I do not know if what all of the practitioners claim will prove to be true. But there is enough evidence to know that neurofeedback has changed and will continue to change lives, without drugs or side effects.”
The book is well written and provides insights into how neurofeedback is changing many lives for the better with natural protocols. The improvement seems to be permanent. The first step in neurofeedback care begins with an extensive consultation and a QEEG. The brain map is scientific and shows where brain dis-regulation is taking place. The doctors are trained to recognize the patterns and to know the protocols to train the brain to regulate itself in normal, healthy patterns. If you have questions or interests
