Your brain is the driving force behind your body, and taking care of it can help you lead a happy and healthy life. That means eating healthy, exercising, and quitting smoking can all have a massive effect on your mental health.
Although this is true, the simple aspects of brain health may not be entirely effective in every case. Some people require further help in maintaining their brain health, so they seek alternative methods. Let’s look at a few of these brain care methods and how they help people deal with specific issues like depression and overwhelming anxiety.
Neurofeedback Therapy
Getting your brain back on track or pushing it to its peak performance is typically done through neurofeedback therapy. The ultimate goal of neurofeedback therapy is to jumpstart the electrical current in the brain through some sort of stimulus. As you participate in the stimulus, a brain wave monitor you wear sends data to a computer. That computer can read and analyze the data to figure out what parts of the brain are working during different bits of stimuli.
The stimuli can be a variety of things. From reading a book to playing video games, anything that helps activate the brain is seen as a stimulus. The goal of the neurofeedback therapy is boost areas of the brain that have otherwise stopped functioning as intended, so that could mean introducing a new variety of stimuli to do so.
Together with a specialist, you and your doctor work hand in hand to find activities that stimulate and expand your brains activity.
Music Therapy
Music therapy is a form of Neurofeedback therapy that uses music. By using specific tones and rhythms, you can reactivate portions of the brain through simply listening to music. That brain stimulation grows as you play the pieces of music too.
Since music can create important brain chemicals like dopamine, scientists are using it as a method of feedback therapy for the brain. When you like a song, your brain releases the chemical in your brain, and that leads to the happy feeling we all know and love. That’s good for those of us struggling with our mental game because it means a simple playlist can get you back to feeling better. If you create playlists for work, make sure you add a few tunes in there that you know and love. That way, you can press the shuffle button and receive little boosts throughout the day as those tracks are played.
Remember, music can have a profound effect on our moods. It’s the reason even listening to sad songs when we are sad makes us feel better. The music activates the brain and restores more of its original functionality, especially when that music has specific tones and rhythms.
TMS Therapy
TMS therapy is another form of non-invasive neurofeedback therapy. This form of feedback therapy uses frequency-based magnets to activate electric pulses in the brain. Since everyone is different, doctors need an appointment to set you up for success. The first appointment you have will find you sitting in front of a massive magnet while the doctors try to find your “frequency.” Your personal frequency will result in your thumb twitching on the opposite side of the magnet. When this happens, your brain waves are activating.
TMS therapy is FDA approved, so it’s a safe alternative for those suffering from depression who find no relief from medication. The therapy itself can happen in relatively quick 20 minute sessions, and you can drive yourself to and from appointments.
Game Therapy
Game therapy is just like it sounds, you play games as a form of therapy. Since strategy and memory games boost brainwave activity, you can actually play games as a form of feedback therapy. Any type of game that involves high levels of strategy, memory and adaptation can help your brain restore function. That makes games like chess not just good for people of all ages, it makes it good for all people. The set moves along with the need to adapt to your opponent’s strategies make chess a perfect game for those seeking a new form of brain stimulation.
Neurofeedback Therapy Focuses on Your Brain
Everyone is different, so different types of neurofeedback therapy might work better for you than others. If you are looking for another way to battle symptoms of anxiety and depression without overloading on medications, you might want to talk to your doctor about seeing a neurofeedback specialist. They might be able to recommend a great place to go or give you the information needed to see if these kinds of therapy can help you battle your anxiety and depression.
Have you ever participated in a neurofeedback therapy session? What was your experience? Which form of feedback therapy worked best for you? We want to hear about your experiences and thoughts in the comments below.
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Founder Dinis Guarda
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