Did anyone ever use neurofeedback for schizophrenia or psychosis?
I read the following and hoped neurofeedback could help:
http://www.centerforbrain.com/papers/Schizophrenia.Paper.NF.study.Surmali.pdf
The effects in this particular study seem to be quite promising.
I have used biofeedback to manage my migraines and OCD for the past ten years. I highly recommend it for intrusive thoughts especially. I never noticed a change in hallucinations, but the coping skills I learned there have helped me calm down during intense delusional episodes or panic attacks. It definitely helps with irrational thought patterns.
Can you recommend any biofeedback devices?
The most cost effective option is the board game Mind Flex. You can get it on Amazon for like $100. Basically, you strap a sensor to your forehead, and it reads the thermal output of your prefrontal cortex. It is attached to a fan that levitates a ball. When you have high activity, the fan spins faster and the ball floats higher. When you have lower activity, the ball lowers. You set up an obstacle course and try to navigate the ball all the way around.
The one I use is legit medical equipment, but it cost like $2,000. It plugs into a laptop with the program loaded on it. Then I watch a new movie, and whenever my brain activity drops too low (IE: what movies are designed to do) the movie pauses until I can bring my levels up. My friend is borrowing it right now, but once I get it back Iâll tell you what brand it is.
I would highly recommend doing it with a trained doctor for the first few times, but I know there are very few of those in the world. Just make sure in the beginning you only do it for a few minutes at a time, and only once a week. If you overdo it, it will give you a headache. As you get used to it, youâll learn how much you can tolerate, and what it feels like when your brain starts getting tired. I only do 15 minutes once per week. It doesnât take much at all. It is also most effective first thing in the morning, before youâve had your morning coffee, but after youâve washed the oils off your forehead. Caffeine tends to mess with your brain waves and give you wacky readings.
I âinventedâ a DIY form of neurofeedback. Every morning I would go for a half hour walk and keep my gaze on the ground in front of me. I would then force myself to come out of my constant (and I mean constant) fantasies and just see the footpath - and only the footpath - in front of me. Itâs sort of like switching off the fantasies and daydreams and switching on pure raw reality. I would attempt to maintain this state for the full half hour of my daily walk.
The result of doing this was astonishing. After a few weeks my thought disorder went away completely, my vision became super clear and my ability to communicate increased dramatically.
Today I had my first neurofeedback session. They measured my brainwaves. They said I have a lot of the brainwaves that makes one dreamy, dissociated and meditative. I also have an extreme amount of âcreative, associative thinkingâ brainwaves. That sort of makes sense, since delusions are the extreme of associative thinking and Iâm always a little bit inattentive and not fully there.
They will train my brain to be less associative, more grounded in reality and they will do prefrontal training for less chaos, less impulsivity and more calm.
I am curious what it will lead to.