ADHD

By Anna Raab, M.A. Counseling, BCN

New Year’s Resolution: FOCUS. GET ORGANIZED. FINISH PROJECTS. MASTER TO-DO LISTS. LISTEN BETTER…

“BUT I JUST CAN’T!!!  EVERY YEAR I FAIL… I FEEL LIKE SUCH A FAILURE.  I KNOW I’M SMART; I HAVE THE IDEAS AND THE KNOW-HOW… I JUST CAN’T FULFILL MY POTENTIAL!!”

IF THIS IS YOU, OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE, KEEP READING!!!!

There is a REASON you struggle.  It’s not because you are lazy, unintelligent, or not capable.  I have treated so many extremely intelligent people who have carried the burden of ATTENTION ISSUES for years.  Most often, the burden of carrying the extra struggle, no matter how accomplished they are, has also led to a certain amount of depression or anxiety, which is usually what brings them to my office.  After doing an electrical reading of their brain we find the foundational issue is actually a traffic jam of brain wave activity.  The frontal lobe is full of excessive slow wave activity and often not enough of the fast processing waves.

The frontal lobe is responsible for our higher executive function, and when there is a traffic problem with brain wave activity not flowing as it should, untold frustrations can arise.  Attention, decision making, problem solving, memory, social awareness, motivation, planning, judgement, emotions, empathy, time management, and more can all be a huge struggle.  And it can have NOTHING to do with your desire to be better… it is a REAL issue.

I have seen so many people of all ages who have struggled with this invisible giant their whole lives, and then slowly but surely, they begin to feel their lives have become unmanageable.  Relationships have suffered, attempts at higher education have suffered or failed all together, they have stress disorders, they have emotional control issues… life is just so much harder than it needs to be, but it’s all they’ve ever known.

And, it’s not just adults.  Very often anxiety and depression are the presenting issues for children also.  Because these struggles can be masked by high intelligence and good coping skills it is not unusual for them to fly under the radar undetected.

Even if these issues have been identified and medications are employed, patients are often riddled with side effects and the aid of medication may only be enough to make the limp a little less apparent.  There’s nothing wrong with turning to medications for help, but often patients are left wanting and still feeling very incomplete.

Anyone can miss it.  I missed it myself in one of my own children.  It wasn’t until they had a traumatic accident that I began to do extensive work in their frontal lobe to help with the trauma and anxiety that ensued.  In doing so, I treated their attention disorder that I had not even detected.  They were always in the middle ground (but not loving) school, adored by teachers, happy at home… just a normal, delightful, energetic child.  However, the semester I treated them they went from average to outstanding in school.  I’m so thankful to say that as a result I had them tested last year and they are now in the gifted and talented class with all A’s, loving school.  Potential unveiled!

This may describe you or your loved one.  Does life seem harder than it should be?  Maybe it is.

If you live in the Tulsa, OK, area and are interested in learning how neurofeedback can help a loved one with ADD or ADHD, click here.

Best Kept Secret in Mental Health, Part 4

By Anna Raab, M.A. Counseling, BCN

In my last three articles I’ve been able to explain some of the key aspects of Neurofeedback Therapy.  I’ve brought to the forefront that the brain is electrical, that brain wave balance is at the foundation of mental health, how brain wave activity can be mapped, and the basic concepts of how Neurofeedback can normalize brain wave activity to lead to reduction or resolution of mental health issues.

In this edition I would like to use the foundation of what I have explained and now begin to apply it to specific mental health issues that Neurofeedback can help resolve. I will begin with one of the most well researched applications of Neurofeedback which is ADHD.

ADHD is marked by failure to pay close attention, making careless mistakes, poor listening, lack of follow through, inability to sustain attention, misplacing items, being easily distracted, having difficulty filtering out external stimuli, and forgetfulness. Hyperactive symptoms include fidgeting, roaming around, restlessness, loud or obnoxious behavior, being driven as with a motor, and excessive speech.  In addition, some individuals may also have symptoms of impulsivity which include speaking before thinking, impatience, interrupting, and intrusive behaviors.

There is much debate about ADHD, whether it is over-diagnosed, if it is just a “boy-thing” that will be outgrown, or if it’s the inevitable outcome of asking kids to sit still for hours on end.  All of these thoughts are valid and understandably confusing.  From my vantage point as a Neuro-therapist, however, I can definitively say ADHD is clearly illustrated in client brain maps and has very real signatures of abnormal brain wave activity which I have seen consistently in hundreds of client maps, and has been well documented in QEEG research.

As I explained in part 2, the brain map illustrates brain wave activity in the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the brain) a little bit like a traffic map.  All the major types of brain wave activity are shown in terms of how the client map compares to a person with no abnormal symptoms.

One of the major measurements included in the map is called “magnitude” and demonstrates how much of each type of activity is present in the individual and whether they have too much or too little in any of the measured locations.  Without exception, individuals with ADHD produce too much slow (delta and/or theta) activity in the frontal and sometimes temporal regions of the brain.

This excessive slow wave activity begins to create what I call a traffic jam that can impede normal processing, specifically in the executive centers of the brain which control attention, cognitive inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, reasoning, and problem solving.

Think of it like the larger, slower brain waves getting in the way of the more concentrated, faster processing transmissions.  This causes transmissions to be slower, or sometimes fall off completely, resulting in the very real and frustrating symptoms of ADHD.

In conclusion, as I explained in my last article, with Neurofeedback intervention the brain can be trained through operant conditioning feedback to normalize.  Hence, in the case of treating ADHD, overwhelming headway can be made to train the brain to reduce the production of slow wave activity and increase faster speeds so issues like focus, attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity can become a thing of the past.