Eating Disorders

Neurofeedback / EEG Biofeedback can be helpful for the common eating disorders. But it is actually difficult to discuss the eating disorders under one conceptual umbrella, that is to say, as a single entity. The conditions are in fact quite multi-faceted. But all of them do involve disregulations of brain function of various kinds. We start by considering appetite, hunger, and satiety as regulatory functions managed by our body-mind. They are not absolutes, but rather judgment calls by our own bodily systems. As such, they can be badly off with respect to the actual realities that they are supposed to reflect. And the good news is that appetite is trainable.

The first order of business with eating disorders is to restore regulatory integrity, and that is likely to have favorable consequences for appetite as well. Many people are just not getting the necessary signals from their bodies about when they are hungry and when they are sated. Or else the signal is delayed. This is all manageable.

Additionally, there is the issue of compulsive behavior around food. As discussed in the section on compulsive behavior, this can be helped rather comprehensively regardless of the specific nature of the compulsive activity.

A third issue is that eating disorders may be seen in association with such conditions as depression or anxiety, or other mental health condition. In these cases, Neurofeedback can help not only with the eating disorder directly, but it can also help to relieve the associated condition.

A fourth issue is that eating disorders are frequently associated with conditions of underweight or overweight. This likely means that the person is not receiving optimum nutrition, on the one hand, and it means that the person is even more likely to be disregulated in general. So we have a kind of vicious circle in which the status of weight and of nutrition feeds back on the state of disregulation and exacerbates it further.http://www.eeginfo.com/

Neurofeedback / EEG Biofeedback can be very helpful here, but it should be imbedded in a comprehensive treatment program that is attentive to the nutritional and other factors as well.

Finally, eating disorders are very highly correlated with early childhood trauma. In such cases, food may play a soothing and ameliorating role in the short term, while costing the person over the long term. Resolution of the eating disorder should address the trauma issue as well, which can be accomplished with the aid of Neurofeedback also.

The more severe eating disorders, including bulimia, anorexia, body dysmorphic disorder, and rumination syndrome are discussed separately in this compilation.