Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Do not Believe what you read about Neurofeedback on the web!!!

I finally put up on adsense on this blog and woe do what I see as my first ads. The're based on the Superforcus Procedure so they link to 3rd rate shops that I never heard that advocate doing Neurofeedback on yourself without providing information-these are horrible. Right now I can't block by keyword, only the domain. I have signed up for a new ad screening process which should allow me to filter them much more easily by next week.

So buying your own neurofeedback machine-you can learn how to hack your own brain, sounds pretty safe right? You read that training T3 or T4 can improve memory so you think you should buy a machine to do that following the procedures.

NO! First, your hooking up a semi-direct line that transmits electricity (in this case from YOUR head TO the machine) to a wall socket. THIS IS VERY BAD IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING!!!!! Certified machines like from Brainmaster are connected to the wall socket when off that charges a battery. When switched on they draw power from the battery instead of the wall socket to protect your head from being shocked by a power surge. Imagine yourself spazzing out on your own with no one to help you.

Second, most people have never heard of neurofeedback so they may have no idea on how to use it. They just make assumptions based on what they have read in books or on the internet. Like if there feeling sluggish they need more beta for energy. Guess what? The brain is not that simple-yeah I know, you really needed to be told that. Did you know that there is 'low beta' and 'high beta'? Did you also know that Neurofeedback training is very site specific (the region you train on your brain)? If you train high beta on sensory-motor strip (C3, Cz C4) you will go off the wall. Did you also know that neurofeedback is training your brain and in that process you can get migraines, low energy or hyper energy? Did you know that simply adjusting the frequency by 0.5 hrz can make all that go away? As if the neurofeedback provider flipped the headache switch off. Trust me-it's happened to me.

Third, even the most experienced nf providers will admit that nf is more of an art then a science. Every human brain is different and responds to nf in different ways. My brain for example, being autistic likes the frequency very low-sub delta-and it gives me energy. Some brains need it very high to function in the reverse. Other issues can complicate treatment-such as injury to the head. My nf provider told me the story of this one prison guard who was hit to the side of his head with a bag of rocks in a breakout. He became very socially withdrawn after that-becoming a different person. His wife brought him to another nf provider who trained him by the book (canned procedures) and he would become very violent whenever the damaged side of his head was trained. He was brought eventually by his wife to my nf provider who only trained on the other side of his head thinking that the other side must have taken over the damaged sides operations. A year later of training he made such excellent progress that his wife told my nf provider that "you gave me my old husband back".Your working with the lower internals of your brain-whatever quirks that exist in your brain will be exposed by nf and you will discover alot more then you ever knew about yourself (an undiagnosed medical condition, enhanced intelligence, certain problems or cravings all your life going away).

The gotchas are many in nf. What you know about your own brain is (probably) not enough to use nf in a safe manner. What you read about on the internet are canned procedures that make certain assumptions . Every brain is different so if you don't know what your doing you will mess yourself up. This site is all about overcoming the obstacles so you know what your doing. So where do you start?

-

First I would recommend that you actually goto a nf provider. Everyone is required to have medical insurance so there is no excuse for that. The first part of nf training is the hardest-once you get used to how your brain operates being trained then you might be able to do it on your own.

Finding a good nf provider is a different story. Here are questions to ask your provider.First your provider should have several years of experience (or practice under someone who does). Second your provider should actually do the training themselves-this sounds obvious but quite a few just follow the canned procedures and tell a clerk to train you at this frequency for this long-despite my earlier claim that headaches and other problems can come up that can be solved by shifting the frequency by 0.5hrz. (In my opinion practices like this should be banned-many brains often need to be trained at different frequencies for little things like the weather.). Third if you can't see crediation that the provider has accomplished some sort of class or they say no to any of the past two questions-leave.

If you can't find a good provider or you want to know more because it is your brain (and it can be messed up if the provider is an idiot). You can go to these sites to learn more.

To find a provider (of eeg based neurofeedback, there are other types such as heg)
http://eeginfo.com
Brainmaster's youtube site, contains training videos from operating the equipment to the science behind nf.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brainmastereeg
A intro guide to setting up a neurofeedback practice. ISBN: 978-0393704501
Getting Started with Neurofeedback
A more academic overview, covering many different technologies and treatment procedures for bipolar disorder, anxiety, autism and others. ISBN: 978-0123745347
Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback, Second Edition: Advanced Theory and Applications

Ciao

No comments:

Post a Comment