Help for Addiction
Treatment centers do their best to help addicts, given the constraints of the current model of addiction and insurance reimbursement. Unfortunately, success rates for the standard 30-day addiction treatment program are poor. Many people relapse and go through treatment programs multiple times, and others leave before completing their program. Professionals working in addiction recognize the benefits and weaknesses of their systems, but until the industry changes and insurance companies embrace systems that work better, it is difficult for addiction professionals to make a more significant impact without additional tools.
Neurofeedback is an important new treatment for addiction
There have been several research studies that show that those who use neurofeedback as part of an addiction treatment program experience much higher success rates and much lower relapse rates than the same program without neurofeedback. This appears to be true for every age group.
Here’s why.
Addiction is a seriously debilitating mental health disorder. It strips people of their self-respect and ability to function optimally and often ruins their relationships, reputation, career, and their soul.
It’s a disease that affects thinking and causes the person to engage in self-destructive, painful behavior. Addicts feel shame, guilt, remorse anger and frustration. These feelings are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, or co-morbid mental health problems.
These issues are very difficult to change through conventional treatment.
You’re not weak.
Addiction is physiological (not psychological)
Many people erroneously believe that addicts are weak… that curing addiction is a matter of self-discipline. If that were true, far fewer people would battle long-term addiction.
Addiction is, in fact, a brain issue. Once the brain gets better, people experience improvements in mood, anxiety, impulsivity, and behavior. Neurofeedback consistently reinforces the particular brain activity present when the brain is calm and focused. The more it’s reinforced, the more easily the brain slips into this better pattern. The more often the brain is in that particular state, the less often the brain has cravings or the less severe the cravings.
Addiction is not a moral issue or a lack of discipline
Addiction is a brain disorder, not a moral issue or a lack of discipline. That’s why neurofeedback can be so helpful. It works directly with the brain to retrain patterns of dysfunction. At the Center for Brain Training, we teach the brain to remain calm, relaxed, and focused. When the brain is calmer, thinking becomes clearer and the brain now has a stronger foundation for recovery and relapse prevention.
Medications can help temporarily, but the problem is that medications don’t teach the addict how to cope nor do they fix any accompanying disorders.
Addicts learn to rely on substances to help them feel calm, or to pay attention, or to manage mood. Medications are just another substance.
How Neurofeedback Helps
At the Center for Brain Training, we offer addicts the option to 
actively and physically gain control in a way that directly impacts their disease.
Neurofeedback training helps teach you how to calm down and connect to the reasonable, rational regions of the brain during stressful times. It also helps improve sleep. When people gain control of their emotions and are more rested, they can more easily choose the option to remain clean and sober.
These changes tremendously reduce the need to “white knuckle” the recovery.
Treatment with respect
Brain training in our center is offered respectfully. We know that people suffering with addiction don’t choose this disease. They are seeking new ways to deal with it.
What types of results can you expect?
Surveys of health professionals using neurofeedback estimate that over 85% of their clients see improvements in focus, behavior regulation and impulsivity when they train on a consistent schedule.
In many cases, medications can be decreased or even discontinued with the help of a doctor, as can the frequency of neurofeedback training sessions.
(We also strongly recommend to our clients that they take part in support groups, talk therapy and behavioral interventions.)
How neurofeedback helps
Neurofeedback works by “rewarding” more functional brain waves as they occur (even someone with many symptoms experiences a “normal” brain state from time to time). To illustrate “reward,” think about when you are learning to catch a ball. Each time you catch it you receive a “reward” (a sense of satisfaction), so you keep doing the thing that worked, hoping for more satisfaction. With repetition, catching a ball becomes easier and doesn’t require any conscious thought to think through the steps. Similarly, once you learn to return to a state of calm and connect to rational and reasonable thought patterns, you won’t forget.
