Train Your Brain to Live Free of Drugs and Alcohol with Neurofeedback Training at FHE Health
At FHE Health, we strive to stay on the cutting edge of treating substance abuse disorders and other psychiatric illnesses by using an integrated medical, psychiatric and clinical approach. One of the ways we do this is through our innovative Neurofeedback Training Therapy. Neurofeedback Training helps our patients outline and execute the essential steps necessary in order to recover from the disease of substance abuse, as well as other psychological problems.
Unlike other diseases, substance abuse disorders cannot be cured through a conventional medical treatment; there is no magic pill that erases addictive tendencies or that can undo the changes within the brain functioning that have been caused by long-term drug or alcohol abuse. With Neurofeedback Training, our goal is to get the brain to function as well as it did before drugs and alcohol, or even better, rather than trying to “cure” the condition.
Neurofeedback Training Helps Treat the Following Conditions:
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Depression
- Suicidal Thoughts/Ideation
- Rage Disorders
- Anxiety
- Bipolar Disorder
- Insomnia
- Night Terrors
At FHE Health, we believe that information and understanding are the keys to helping people get better. With our NeuroRehabilitative treatment programs, we can provide you with both the information and the tools needed to get better and stay better.
What is Neurofeedback?
Neurofeedback is a specialized form of biofeedback and is also referred to as Neurotherapy or Neurobiofeedback. Biofeedback therapies, like NFT, give recipients greater awareness of the inner workings of their body, by way of means that capture information about functional activity, such as brainwaves. Neurofeedback in particular uses Quantitative Electroencephalography (qEEG) to show our patients real-time displays of their brain activity during sessions. The end goal is to teach NFT users how to control and self-regulate their brain activity, and thus their thinking. In short, Neurofeedback Training helps train your brain against addiction and mental illness.
Neurofeedback is tailored to each individual. Because of the immense amount of research that has been conducted on the brain, we can target symptoms such as addiction, anxiety, mood dysregulation, attention, and executive functioning (focus, planning, judgment, multi-tasking, etc.). After targeting the affected areas of the brain, the neurofeedback training can then guide these dysregulated areas to behave more like the normal brain.
Utilizing Neurofeedback, our medical professionals can scientifically re-train your brain to exist without the negative effect of drugs and alcohol. We personalize your treatment plan to address your specific addiction and mental health needs in order for you to focus on rebuilding your life. Neuro-Rehabilitative therapy allows us to:
- Discover the parts of your brain that are affected by addiction & mental health disorders
- Personalize your treatment plan to your specific needs
- Track your progress over the course of your stay with us
- Train your brain to live free of drugs and alcohol
Neurofeedback Training Brings Data-Driven, Applied Neuroscience into the Realm of Addiction and Mental Disorder Treatment.
Through the process of Neurofeedback Training, our patients learn how to improve their mental health by changing their bodies’ physiological activity. The monitoring devices used in NFT therapy are precise instruments that measure brainwaves, heart rate, skin temperature, breathing, and even muscle activity. All of the gathered information is then rapidly and accurately “fed back” to the user, enabling them to better understand their brain activity and help them work to return that activity to healthy levels. Using electrical neuroimaging and computer-generated simulations, our Neurofeedback technicians are able to identify problem areas of dysregulated brain activity and come up with a strategy for treating those problem areas. Our Neurolink projections also show us what parts of the brain that are not effectively communicating with one another because of interference caused by drugs and alcohol.
Neurofeedback Training is an Integrative Approach that Works in Tandem with Other Addiction Treatments Offered at FHE Health, Including:
- Individual Therapy
- Group Therapy
- 12-Step Meetings
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Psychiatry & Medication
- Hypnotherapy
- Meditation, Breathing & Body Work
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
- Wellness Services
Neurofeedback and The Brain
The human brain is a complex organ. Weighing only about 2.5 pounds, it has a consistency similar to toothpaste. Yet, 40-60% of our total blood glucose (sugar, chemical energy) is consumed by the brain, which also consumes as much oxygen as every muscle in the body combined. The brain is both a highly powerful, and highly delicate organ. All of that energy and oxygen are used by the brain to produce electricity that travels through our brains with the polarization and depolarization of neurons. These bursts of activity appear in oscillating waves, also known as brainwaves, and are represented as different bands of frequency, such as Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma brainwaves. These different levels are associated with different types of brain activity, such as sleeping, relaxing or meditating, and intense thinking. However, in the brains of drug users, these brainwaves are often abnormal or dysregulated.
The EEG used to guide Neurofeedback Training summarizes all of the electrical discharges and brainwaves in order to provide a clear picture of what is happening in the minds of our patients. The self-regulation work (i.e. brain-training) done as part of NFT is based on Operant Conditioning and uses positive and negative reinforcement tools to help patients learn to self-regulate and combat resistance. Neurofeedback combines modern-day diagnostic technology with behavior-based therapies dating back to the work of B.F. Skinner. Instead of focusing on information that may or may not have anything to do with the root cause of the addiction, NFT Therapy focuses on the facts – what is happening in your brain in real time. Needless to say, our NFT treatment is quantitatively-guided, goal-oriented, and results-driven.
Neurofeedback Training is exercise for your brain, which helps combat resistance created by sustained drug and alcohol abuse so your mind can function normally again. In NFT, irregular brain activity caused by substance abuse or other mental disorders is captured and assessed by utilizing our instruments. Then, through a series of tasks that are customized to each patient’s needs, we help you to train your brain to work like it once did.
