How Neurofeedback Therapy Changed the Life of an Adult ADD Sufferer: Tim’s Story
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How Neurofeedback Therapy Changed the Life of an Adult ADD Sufferer: Tim’s Story
For more information about Neurofeedback, go to http://www.NeurofeedbackBook.com Dr. Clare Albright is a psychologist (CA License PSY11660) and a Neurofeedback practitioner and can be reached at (949)454-0996
Like many adult ADD sufferers, Tim had been feeling that he was living his life “in a haze.” After researching treatment options, he decided to try neurofeedback therapy. Tim recently shared his experience with a psychologist and neurofeedback therapist. In their interview, Tim first related how he felt upon being diagnosed with ADD.
“It actually took a lot of burden off my shoulders,” he said, “knowing that there was a reason for my dysfunctional behavior…I had looked for ways to address it through medication and groups, adult ADD groups, but I had a severe reaction with one of the medications, and the other medications didn’t work for me. So I was doing some investigation on the Internet to learn a little bit more about it, and I came across neurotherapy, and I decided that I would try it out and I had some great success with it.”
Tim describes his memory before neurotherapy as having been very poor; he frequently forgot things like grocery lists and keys, and often missed large parts of conversations when his mind would “wander off.” Tim went through life with the feeling that he was “only partly there.”
Tim didn’t have room in his budget to visit a therapist, so after spending time to research and get testimonials from others who had tried it, he decided to invest $1500 in a passive infra-red HEG, or hemo-encephalography unit, which measures the oxygenation of the brain. “The goal behind it,” Tim said, “is to open up new places for blood to get to the brain, nourish the prefrontal cortex, and allow the prefrontal cortex to do what it does better.”
When asked how HEG neurotherapy compares to what she wrote about in her book, which is standard neurofeedback, Tim said that the HEG neurotherapy seemed easier, in part because there is no need to attach sensors to your forehead. You simply put on a headband, plug the unit into the computer, and run it through the software.
The HEG unit measures blood flow, whereas the EEG system measures brain waves. Tim believes the EEG is better in some ways, however, because it can be utilized in different areas of the brain, but the HEG unit is purely for the prefrontal cortex.
The interviewer then questioned Tim about how a person gets an assessment when using the HEG unit, since it does not have an assessment function to measure blood flow.
“It’s difficult in that way,” Tim answered. “You have a baseline with the unit, and it will give you a reading of what your pIR is, the temperature, but really, you don’t really have an assessment. There’s no assessment to say this is where I am and this is where I need to get to. It really is very subjective. So you have to say, what is it I’m trying to accomplish? What are the issues that I’m dealing with? And then look at seeing what changes are occurring in those conditions because this is very subjective.
I know there’s TOVA testing and other tests out there that you can do…initially to see where you’re at, and then do them again after a certain period of time of doing the sessions to determine what improvements have occurred, but I truly believe that the improvements that you find in doing these sessions really come from the heart, what you experience, and what you’re looking for out of it. I don’t like to reduce it down to metrics because you’re dealing with people.”
The interviewer asked Tim to relate the changes he has experienced after five months of using the machine. “Prior to using this unit,” Tim responded, “I would be in a daydream state, because that’s the idea of ADD – that you have certain brain waves that are under performing and others that are over performing.
“After I started using the HEG…what I found is that I was more alert. I would still go into that phase of daydreaming, but I snapped out of it much quicker. So I would be able to function if I needed to. So if I’m in conversations, for example, with business, I would be able to pay more attention to the subject matter versus going off into that space.”
Tim added, “My memory has gotten much better. Just my whole well-being is better; I feel more confident. I was never able to read books because I would have to keep reading the same pages over and over and over again because I would not actually pick that information up. Now when I read, I’m remembering more of what I read because I actually am taking it in. So those are some of the things that I’ve found.”
Since some of his family members also have ADD, Tim is trying to get them to try HEG therapy, and says he would strongly recommend it, not only for anyone with ADD, but also for people who suffer from migraines and other conditions.
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