Many adults and children experience anxiety from time to time. Worries about finances, relationships, children, health problems, school or work challenges can all contribute to stress and anxiety. How do you know when your anxiety is beyond what’s “normal?” When anxiety prevents you from participating in typical daily activities, or you just know that you’re not feeling like yourself, it’s a good time to look into anxiety treatment.
Anxiety symptoms may include:
- feeling overwhelmed by panic
- shakiness
- rapid heart beat
- feeling nervous or agitated
- rapid breathing or shortness of breath
- getting stuck thinking about a particular worry
- difficulty sleeping
- difficulty focusing and concentrating
The good news is, anxiety is very treatable! To help you feel better, we combine counseling with neurofeedback to optimize your brain wave activity. As a result, clients report feeling calmer, better able to focus and in better control of their emotions. Neurofeedback is our “secret weapon” that greatly amplifies the results of anxiety treatment. It works for children and adults.
Is neurofeedback right for you? Give us a call at 801-855-7999 to speak with one of our therapists about your personal situation and we can help you decide.
How does neurofeedback help with anxiety?
Before we begin anxiety treatment, we want a very clear diagnosis so we can provide the best treatment. One-size treatment does not fit all. We perform an in-depth mental health assessment to fully understand your background and symptoms. But we don’t stop there.
One of our board certified neurotherapists will perform a 19-point QEEG brain scan to measure your brain wave activity. It’s a painless, simple procedure for you. You simply relax in a comfortable chair and wear a cap with special sensors that will track the electrical impulses from your brain waves. We’ll measure your brain wave activity for several minutes with your eyes open and again for several minutes with your eyes closed.
That’s it. It’s perfectly safe. Nothing is put into your body (and no, we can’t read your mind!). Your hair will just need a good wash afterwards from the special gel we use on the sensors.
Next, we compare your brain activity to a national database of healthy individuals your age to identify problematic areas. Then we create a customized training protocol for your brain and will share our report with you.
Anxiety usually affects the basal ganglia, which is a structure located deep in the middle of the brain. Beta brain waves are responsible for awareness of our environment, and they create anxiety. When we have too much beta, we get anxious and overwhelmed. We use neurofeedback training to decrease beta in the right hemisphere of the brain, or wherever there is too much beta activity.
Anxiety in Children
Anxiety can be mistaken for ADHD, especially in young kids. Anxiety in children can lead to more emotional problems, temper tantrums, mood swings and irritability–they don’t know how to control their emotions. A QEEG allows us to determine if it’s anxiety or ADHD or even depression, because kids with depression usually have more agitation. We can treat you more effectively if we know exactly what the problem is.
L-Theanine
While we don’t prescribe supplements (or medications), one supplement that is recommended for anxiety is L-theanine. L-theanine is an amino acid supplement and is safe for adults and kids. (We have used it on our children.) You can chew it, like a mint gum. You can buy it at any health food store.
Please check with your doctor before trying any new supplements, especially if you have any health conditions.
If you’d like to discuss treatment for anxiety with a therapist, please contact us at 801-855-7999.
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