Biofeedback Therapy for Anxiety and Depression

People suffering from chronic anxiety and depression are well suited to explore other non-medication options to help them grow their situation. Indeed, pharmaceutical drugs can be useful, but the drawback is that they become an addiction in the long term. Moreover, pharmaceutical drugs contain many harmful side-effects.

Hence, Biofeedback therapy is the best option to consider for anxiety and depression. Biofeedback therapy allows patients of anxiety and depression to learn a great deal about their body processes and how they can control it involuntarily.

What is Biofeedback Therapy?

In general, Biofeedback therapy is a non-drug treatment in which the patients will learn a great deal about their bodily processes. Not only this, but they also learn how to control them in a better way. These involuntary processes might include muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure, etc.

The ultimate goal here is to calm yourself down and allow your body to relax even when under heavy duress and taking a toll from anxiety and depression.  Be sure to also check out braincore neurofeedback as well.

Where does it help?

This kind of therapy does not only help the patients suffering from anxiety and depression but also helps those who suffer from:

  • Chronic pain
  • High blood pressure
  • Urinary incontinence/not being able to control urine
  • Tension due to headache
  • Migraine headache

The primary aspect that makes this effective post-therapy more than usual is that it does not involve any drugs, so there are not many side effects. If you prefer to keep away from medication and are looking for another means to end this misery, then Biofeedback therapy can be of great help.

How does biofeedback therapy work?

To understand how biofeedback works, you must understand the types of biofeedback. At present, there are three types of biofeedback therapy:

  • Thermal feedback—helps in the measurement of the skin temperature.
  • Electromyography—measures the current rate of muscle tension.
  • Neuro or EEG feedback—focuses on the current electrical activity of the brain.

Of all these different types of Biofeedback therapies, the EEG feedback tends to work the best when dealing with different kinds and notions of depression, anxiety, and brain disorders. Patients with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), anxiety, seizures, addiction (Alcohol and Drug abuse), and various other brain disorders react very well to the EGG feedback.

Usually, at the Biofeedback session initiation, an expert or medical professional will attach electrodes to the patient’s body to gather the response produced by it. This information gets sent and displayed on the monitoring unit.

The therapist will monitor those readings and already know all about what the lessons mean, at what specific node your brain is calm or doing its best to manage the stress and depression. Thus, using a series of trial and error techniques, your therapist will be able to determine the most effective relaxation techniques that work best to manage the stress for your brain while helping it deal with depression and anxiety on a better note.

It will allow them to regulate their body’s processes, such as blood pressure and heart rate. Eventually, they will be able to do that independently without any help or monitoring. Moreover, the doctor will provide anesthesia to the patient not to feel anything during biofeedback therapy.

How many sessions do you need?

A typical session would last less than an hour, and it is vital to continue with these sessions at said time intervals as proposed by your therapist. Most patients might start feeling relieved after about eight to ten sessions, while some might require more than twenty sessions to fully control their body processes, allowing their brains to relax.

Some of the mental relation activities might also be advised to the patients by their therapists. They will have to go through in their homes for approximately 5-10 minutes daily. It will bring absolute ease to their conditions while helping them manage their every stress and feelings of being depressed.

Conclusion

Conclusively, various debilitating conditions, whether mental or not, can be cured with the help of this technique. It does require some work from both the therapist’s and the patient’s side, but the results at the end of the day are truly unique. Back pain, depression, anxiety, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic pain, anorexia nervosa, and learning disabilities are some of the conditions that are curable with the help of Biofeedback therapy.

On a more severe note, ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder are some of the conditions that you will be able to cure using Biofeedback therapy. You can consider doing biofeedback therapy, as it is highly beneficial.