My daughter with ASD/Anxiety/OCD/Sensory issues and motor delays went twice a week for NF; we had just over 60 sessions, combined with interactive metronome and CBT.(I pretty much lived in that office for two years). We did see some improvement with attention(her problems with attention and organization stem from the information processing problems of AS, not ADD) and a HUGE improvement in anxiety. She still has an anxiety disorder, but she is able to "function" with a very mild medication(Buspar vs SSRIs)combined with daily yoga. If we had not done NF, I don't think we would have been able to avoid the SSRIs. We saw little improvement in social or motor skills, or sensory issues. I wouldn't hesitate to strongly recommend NF for ADD/ADHD or anxiety disorders, but would caution about the time and expense vs. payoff for AS.
Welcome! My DD was dx’d with ADHD-I, PDD-NOS and then unofficially with Anxiety. Her Neurotherapist has stated (after getting to know DD for a month now) that he believes the PDD-NOS dx may have been incorrect and my DD just has severe anxiety. He believes that this extreme anxiety caused some of the past problematic behaviors; he is going to do some testing and possibly remove her PDD-NOS diagnosis (!) I am so excited to hear that NF made a huge difference for your DD’s anxiety (the therapist told me it would for my DD too but my research did not conclusively back that up). How old is your DD and how many sessions did it take before you started seeing a marked improvement in anxiety?
Nik - I must give you a huge thank you for posting this. Yesterday I met with a 2e specialist and she said neurofeedback would make a world of difference for our DS.
Yesterday Dr. Lovecky confirmed that my eg/pg DS6 has ADHD; signs of PDD; CAPD; some visual processing issues still despite 2.5 yrs of vt; sensory processing deficits - despite 5 yrs of ot (can you say Oh Vey!). She asked me if I had considered medication. I then briefly asked about neurofeedback based on this discussion here. Well, any talk of medication was dropped like a hot potato and she only concentrated on the neurofeedback and what a difference it would make. .
You’re welcome! I hope you are able to find an experienced practitioner and I hope it works wonders for your DS! That is very interesting about Dr Lovecky not mentioning it but quickly raving about it once you brought it up. I must say, if the meds hadn’t stopped working for my DD we probably never would have discovered Neurofeedback (blessing in disguise?)
1) Dr has seen a lot of success with neurofeedback but won't bring it up as an option due to lack of scientific data. .
I vote for this reason, maybe there is some sort of code/liability in the profession?
3) Dr. Likes Neurofeedback but worries that it is too expensive to recommend routinely. .
Possibly since insurance doesn’t cover it, but I am paying $66.00 a session with a seasoned professional; that is only $26.00 more than my co-pay would have been if it was covered by insurance. So not really cost prohibitive and if it means no meds, it could become a savings pretty quickly.
Dr. Lovecky said neurofeedback would re-wire the brain permanently as opposed to a temporary fix. She said it would get to the heart of a lot of his problems with our son and eliminate the need for medication completely. She seemed to think the neurofeedback would resolve the ADHD, the PDD symptoms, and the issues with the visual and auditory processing systems.
Those are some really big promises, I hope she’s right. Did she recommend a seasoned professional practitioner for you? My NFT said it works well for about 80% of his patients he typically sees improvements in X after so many sessions. He said most ADHD patients need to reduce or eliminate meds after 20 sessions. He never promised anything by way of results, so I was ecstatic about the immediate improvement in mental math and sleep.
I heard that neurofeedback re-wires the brain and that was enough for me. I had already seen results with my son and vision therapy, which basically involved re-wiring the brain with ambient glasses and daily vision exercises. So it wasn't a leap to say "what about neurofeedback?"
I'm not opposed to medicating a child, but with my son it wouldn't solve the cluster problems that he has or address the wiring of the brain. Neurofeedback would.
I know neurofeedback is controversial within ADHD but with very high success rates - vision therapy is too...and the list goes on and on. It's a bit out of the box and the idea of re-wiring a child's brain or having surgery is scary to most people. Medication is seen as the answer for ADHD, but it is not the sole answer or the most effective one in treating it.
The whole brain rewiring is no different than learning yoga or breathing techniques, it’s not like a lobotomy, its just teaching your brain how to regulate itself and easily switch from day dreamy to alert states as needed like most people do without even thinking about it.
Dr. Linda Silverman mentions neurofeedback in our book, Upside-Down Brilliance, as an alternative home remedy for ADHD-like symptoms to get off medication completely. She says kids with ADHD spend too much time in theta states, where they are spacey, and they have a difficult time sustaining beta states, where they are focused..
I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST USING NEUROFEEDBACK AS A “HOME REMEDY”!!!!!
NFT works by rewarding the brain for “normal” or “correct activity, someone who didn’t know what they were doing could accidentally set it up to reward the brain for dysfunctional activity and really do some serious damage!!!
Please do thorough research on whomever you chose to provide NFT, get references from previous clients, Google them and make sure they are legit, make sure they have had real training and a verifiable lengthy track record. NFT has so much potential to do permanent good, but there is also so much potential for inexperienced practitioners to buy a machine, hang a shingle and waste your time and money or worse, screw up your child.
