Hypomania

Peter Kramer suggests in his book "Listening to Prozac" that being hypomanic may in fact constitute a kind of ideal for the American white collar worker, a virtue almost sure to get a man hired. But from the standpoint of health, it may represent less of an ideal way to live. Training the nervous system to live in calmer states is the strong suit of biofeedback and Neurofeedback techniques. This does not restrict the nervous system in any way from rising to a demand when that is called for. It merely allows the brain to work at a more efficient (i.e., lower) level of activation to get its work done.

The brain needs to be sufficiently activated to get the job done, but any higher levels of activation than that do not contribute to additional efficiencies but rather begin to cost the person.

The Neurofeedback training gives the brain more ready access to different states, so that it can manage more optimally. Our Western lifestyles tend to move us incrementally toward more engaged states, and that is even more true of the person with a propensity toward hypomania. Eventually such states become the comfort zones in which the person "hangs out" even in the absence of a challenge. Brain training allows the person once again to experience calmer states, and eventually the person learns to live there. Occasional refresher sessions may be called for, perhaps only once a year or so.