“Watching Greg return to his daily activities and hearing him say he feels so much calmer is a relief. He’s now able to focus on coping skills that keep him from spiraling into a panic attack.”
Sixteen-year-old Greg had been anxious most of his life, but he got worse by the time he entered high school. Even after transferring from a large public school to a small private one, Greg made excuses not to go, saying he was too anxious and was having panic attacks. He begged his mother Lori to home-school him. She hoped that he would adjust, but he didn’t, and often missed school.
Then he came home from school one day saying something that greatly alarmed Lori:
“I think I need to see a doctor to get medicine, something like Xanax or medicinal marijuana to help me through my panic attacks,” he said. “I know other kids who use both for anxiety, and it really helps them.”
“I was shocked that prescription drugs were the immediate solution Greg came up with,” said Lori. “I told him that first we were going to try alternative therapies.”
Lori was familiar with neurofeedback and Center for Brain because a family member had been a client, so she took Greg for brain training. After two months of sessions, Greg stopped being resistant about going to school and expressed far less anxiety. To help reinforce his neurofeedback training, and as a way to offer Greg even more support, Lori bought a home-use neurofeedback machine, which Greg uses whenever he’s feeling edgy or has trouble going to sleep.
“Watching Greg return to his daily activities and hearing him say he feels so much calmer is a relief,” noted Lori. “He’s now able to focus on coping skills that keep him from spiraling into a panic attack. Michael Cohen and his team are just great with Greg. He feels understood, which is very important to a teenager!”