Our habits feel to be under our control, but our obsessions control us. To regain control we need to examine and change the larger patterns in our life and mind.

Three elements that perpetuate addiction are a lack of power, substance dependence, and an assulting environment. Traditional treatment has a poor long term success rate (footnote 1) when it fails to address all of these elements. Neurofeedback addresses this complete cycle to achieve long-term improvment in 80% of client's lives. Neurofeedback is successful because it guides deep personal change, accomplished by each individual, according their own pace, need, and power.

If you are a dependent person you may never have known power; powerlessness is built into who you have become. By "power" I mean will power, metal focus, and the ability to control events in your life.

Neurofeedback enables the nervous system's natural regulation and adaptation that is the basis of your power. By releasing old thought patterns you develop the ability to mental manage resources and adhere to your intentions.

This requires a release from the tensions that make change difficult, a sensitivity to finding your balance, and the flexibility to move toward this point. When you're acting from your point of balance it does not take a great deal of force to control your behavior or environment.

Trauma is the component of substance dependence that is most difficult to resolve. Your independence requires a passage to some state beyond.

This burden may be buried in events of the past, the present, or carried from unknown origins. Healing presents a paradox because the injuries are obscure, too difficult to face, and confusing.

Alpha-Theta neurofeedback is used as tool to guide you back to a place in which your trauma can be reintegrated, working through a combination of induced trance, stimulated awareness, and spiritual support.

This therapy has similarities to psychotherapy, hypnotism, journey quest, and medicine work. And while it has it's mechanical side, relying on the use of a computer, it depends upon a shared trust and understanding between you and me. Independence from trauma is the core of relief from substance addiction.

A change in our community is essential for any permanent change in our behavior. Your personal change must be accompanied by some change in your environment or you will be drawn back into substance dependence.

Because neurofeedback changes your personality, you will effect changes in those around you without conscious effort. Simply by becoming a different person you will relate differently to people and situations.

The task then becomes one of coordinating these for greater support and reward. Common means for this are counseling, group therapy, AA, SMART (footnote 2), or other social networks.

Neurofeedback

A typical neurofeedback treatment for relief from addiction proceeds on these three fronts simulateously. Daily feedback sessions that are conducted to focus and enhance cognative skills are woven in with the Alpha-Theta Therapy which, in turn, proceeds in parallel with social or group support.

Footnotes

(1) A. Orange's "The Effectiveness of the Twelve-Step Treatment"

(2) SMART Recovery Home Page

More Information

References for a general audience, click here.

EEG Info web site: Substance Abuse & Addiction

Enhancement Institute web site: Nancy White's "Neurotherapy: A Multilevel Matrix of Intervention"