Anxiety
This topic deserves a longer discussion, but in this thumbnail sketch let it just be said that the bread and butter of the biofeedback field is the treatment of anxiety disorders. There are any number of ways in which a person's physiology can be trained to function in a calmer fashion at lower levels of physiological arousal or state of agitation. A lot of the work with anxious people involves teaching them the ways in which they can help their own condition with conscious influence on their own physiology.
A simple change in breathing strategy, for example, can bring about profound changes in health and well-being. One does not have to go around thinking about one's breathing all the time, either. The learning of new ways of functioning will lead to the adoption of new habits by the body-mind. One is consciously engaged with one's physiology only a small fraction of the time-perhaps when one is under challenge, or one is standing on the threshold of a command performance.
Neurofeedback / EEG Biofeedback can help as well. Gently the brain is trained to operate out of a calmer place. Initially this may take the anxious person out of his or her historical comfort zone. Even if this is actually a zone of discomfort, it is still what the person is accustomed to. The loss of anxiety may actually seem like the loss of a kind of safety. Anxiety may not feel good; but it is at least keeping the person alive! The sudden disappearance of anxiety may leave the person feeling exposed and insecure.
So it is important to train people toward calmer states while keeping them within their comfort zones. The training is therefore highly individualized, and that is the breakthrough that Neurofeedback has made possible. We encounter three classes of anxiety: 1) anxiety so severe that it is practically disabling to the person; 2) an anxiety level that interferes with the quality of life and keeps the person from optimum functioning; and 3) living in a condition of high arousal that costs a person in terms of energy expenditure now and possibly depression or even reduced life expectancy later; however, the state may not be felt as one of anxiety. Such a high-wire act may in fact be seen as a pathway to success and be rewarded as such. But it is costly, and not at all necessary because it is inefficient and ultimately exhausting.
Each of these takes a different approach in training. The more severe condition may also have its roots back in the early childhood history of the sufferer, and that also has implications for what is to be done. Fortunately, with Neurofeedback one can even reach back figuratively into early childhood history and alter the present consequences of such early trauma. If the present experience of anxiety is rooted in early memories, then a thoroughgoing resolution of the issue will involve a retraining of the physiology that will involve a reworking of the early trauma history. With Neurofeedback, that can all take place quite benignly through sequential training procedures.
The benefit of resolving anxiety conditions are not just to be seen narrowly with respect to anxiety per se, but will influence the person's entire quality of life. Altered will be how the person pays attention; emotional relationships will change; and the person will relate differently to the perceived "self." This is not something that the anxious person is necessarily even capable of imagining. It may simply have to be experienced. - Siegfried Othmer, PhD
Case Vignettes:
Reports from clients:
"I feel mellow all the time now. I'm not panicking over things like I used to. I can stay in the moment and be focused. I am much more productive and energetic. My creativity and energy level is up. I feel clear-headed. A lot of people are asking what is different about me. They notice a change. I sleep well. Overall, I feel happier."
Photographer (after 17 Cygnet sessions)
"Before I started I was having anxiety all the time and couldn't shake my depression. Now, I feel stable, calm, relaxed, and have no anxiety or depression anymore. My friends say I am more energetic. My thinking is clearer and I'm happier. I'm not obsessing over everything like I used to. My mother says I'm not as argumentative. I let things go more."
Receptionist (after 14 Cygnet sessions)
"It's been a life changing experience and the only thing that has really worked for me. All my anxiety has gone away and I no longer need Xanax. I have more clarity of thought. I feel grounded. I'm not overreacting to things that are normally drama loaded. I have no more gloom and doom. I have as much stuff going on in my life, but I'm dealing with it differently. All I had been offered was drugs. I'm so glad I found neurofeedback."
Business Consultant (after 12 Roshi/Amiga sessions)
Other Resources:
Anxiety and PTSD Research
