neurofeedback for anxiety

[smartyjones]

up until our recent school troubles, i had said ds7 was healthier than he'd been in 3 years since sudden onset. we finally found a needle in the haystack psychologist who gets it and has had great suggestions for anxiety that ds was showing very good progress with. recent stress has thrown him into an exacerbation that i do question if he's really been as healthy as i think all along . . .or if it is simply exacerbation or what -- not so much the subject of this post.

 

at any rate, we basically have a muddled mess of separation anxiety and general anxiety (that has reasonable unresolved problems at the base if we are able to get to the base, which i usually am -- other people are not so much) and overreactions that may be one or all of : a) possible pandas symptoms ; a)- what may be learned behaviors and/or missed development b/c onset was age 4.5, he is now 7 = pretty key developmental time for coping skills and c) what may be personality issues regardless of illness.

 

 

i am now trying to learn about neurofeedback as a treatment for anxiety. it would be something in addition to the work we do with psych with creative solutions, problem solving. i seem to remember some discussion in the past -- not really so positive. i am not seeking this as a real treatment for pandas generally -- but more so in treatment for 'pandas fallout' of helping to learn and/or relearn coping skills.

 

thanks.

[emst]

We have done a lot of NF w our 2 kids one w PANDAS ADHD OCD and one with the same + Autism. My sense is as you are presenting it adjunct with psyc care it would be helpful in calming. There are definite physiological effects to NF and up front they can look negative as the body adjusts so it should begin very slowly even just a few minutes working up to more time each session. It's tempting to rush. But, it also wears off after a while and you need to keep doing it unless you can do approx 60 sessions in an intense time period then you can own more of the change. Having said that I think it ultimately helped the kids discover calm. These kids may have never experienced it and certainly need a lot of support. They may have never known it, they may have never known how to get it but at least now they can say when they are not calm, and that's a gift -- their ability to self identify, self advocate was the big gift of NF as well as the diminished flight response in my son which I am sure was a gift to him but selfishly has probably prevented me having a heart attack from the bolting and the running away.