FOR REAL GAIN, TRAIN THE BRAIN

A few weeks ago a good friend, Kathy Willis, PhD and clinical director, wrote an article in which she laid out specific issues regarding the brain and addiction. They were terrific points that dovetail perfectly with how neurofeedback can make a huge difference in addiction treatment and in making existing treatment programs in recovery centers much more effective – as much as four times as effective.

To quote Kathy, “Our population in treatment today very frequently have dual disorders; personality disorders, major problems with anxiety, depression, stress and anger, process addictions such as eating or restricting, gambling, shopping, internet and pornography, and most of all post traumatic stress disorder.”

These are all, in large part, disorders of the brain.

She continues, “All human beings have a primal drive towards pleasure and away from pain. With a brain that is anxious, depressed, always in “alert” mode for some un-named danger, the initial effects of a drug, alcohol, marijuana, opiates or cocaine, give the user an initial euphoria not previously experienced. This experience is recorded in the limbic system as a “good thing”. Away from pain, towards pleasure. Memory of past trauma or traumas is quieted, hyper-arousal is, for the moment, quieted, and fear recedes. The most natural thing would be to repeat the experience of drug taking to re-experience the relief of stress symptoms.

“Only a small percentage of people with addiction receive treatment. When they do go to treatment, they receive on average 28 days of treatment and then return to the same environments from which they came. We now know that not much changes in the brain in 28 days, that we need 90 days to be of real help. In the last 5-7 years, there has been an explosion of information regarding addictive disease as a Brain Disease!”

Kathy is right on the money, but there are a couple of points I would like to add. First, in a study conducted at Cri-Help, a recovery center in North Hollywood, CA, the experimental group using neurofeedback stayed in treatment an average of 40% longer than the control group (Scott, et. al. 2005). Second, while there is no question that longer is better in addiction treatment, major studies on addiction treated with neurofeedback have been conducted using 30 sessions of neurofeedback over as many days and demonstrate measurable and amazing changes. The fact is, long-term alcoholism or addiction leads to brain damage. In current recovery scenarios 28 days doesn’t change much in the brain, but when you add neurofeedback to the mix, clients, on average, will stay in treatment longer, and there can be substantial change.

Getting back to Kathy’s piece, she continues, “However, even in the face of new information, most of us are using the model of emotional/behavioral approaches to treatment. I am not saying this is wrong but I am saying that before applying emotional behavioral solutions, we need to TREAT THE BRAIN-FIRST.

(We couldn’t agree more!)

“We have for many years asked people to sit and listen to lectures and sit in process groups while they work on written assignments. There is nothing wrong with this approach but we need to first help the brain and body to heal for this approach to be effective.”

The best way to do that is with neurofeedback! It’s been proven time and time again, in study after study over two decades. In every case, neurofeedback reduced stress, anxiety, depression, and led to better sleep. Plus, follow-up studies one, three, and as many as ten years later revealed a 77% or better success rate – that is 77%, or more, of the subjects were still sober! The studies added neurofeedback to individual and group counseling.

“People with anxiety have developed a changed manner of breathing in a shallow way. They are continuously breathing in a manner that deprives the brain of necessary oxygen. Whatever a facility designs around teaching breathing, it is central to helping to heal the brain. Because this is a dramatic change for the body, resistance to this exercise should be expected. The body will fight what it is not used to. It is possible to achieve an aerobic workout through breath work alone which means that even people with physical challenges can participate.”

We couldn’t agree more. That’s why, with The Clarity Model® of neurofeedback there is a great emphasis on correct breathing and relaxation. In fact, that is the foundation of the program. Training someone to breathe correctly is even easier during a Clarity neurofeedback session, because we are the only neuroscience provider that also incorporates biofeedback. Clients are continually aware of their breathing because they are seeing the direct effect of it in what it is doing to their body and mind. Once we’ve achieved a satisfactory level of relaxation we can then further address impulsivity and relapse triggers.

“It is almost impossible for a person to learn and apply what they have learned with a brain that is anxious about the loss of the chemicals it has learned to rely on, while simultaneously experiencing the pain of withdrawal and post acute withdrawal.”

Once again, neurofeedback training eases the anxiety of withdrawal by reducing cravings and makes the brain far more receptive to the other therapies in recovery. Moreover, Clarity’s program is designed on a case-by-case basis, customized to the individual to insure maximum effectiveness. We are the only neurofeedback provider in addiction treatment that does this.

Additionally, most recovery centers currently have no real way of tracking a client once that client leaves the premises. Yes, there are sober living homes, possibly some form of outpatient treatment. But these can be hard to track and it isn’t unusual for clients to disappear at this point.

We designed The Clarity Model® to include a full year of continuing care. Clients who leave the recovery center can still be tracked and treated. Their success is substantiated, and the success rates are far greater than what is achieved in recovery scenarios without neurofeedback.

That’s why you may have noticed that neurofeedback is being offered in more and more recovery centers. Those recovery centers will not only enjoy much higher rates of success, that they can actually verify, they will also enjoy a competitive edge in an economy that is narrowing the field.

If you don’t currently have a layer of neurofeedback in your program, we strongly suggest you investigate doing so.

References:
Scott, William C., Kaiser, David, Othmer, Siegfried, Sideroff, Steven I., “Effects of an EEG Biofeedback Protocol on a Mixed Substance Abusing Population,” The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 31:455–469, 2005.
Willis, Kathy L., “No Brain No Gain:The Impact of Multi-Generational Trauma on the Addictive Brain,” Recovery View Treatment Resources, www.recoveryview.com, December 10, 2009.