Brain Bites is all about broadening your reach with easy-to-digest psych knowledge! Join me for quick, interesting medication and brain science tidbits! Elevate your therapy practice with insight and data from your friendly online psychiatrist!
Game flashback for neurofeedback brilliance
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"Warmer... warmer.... WARMER!... HOT!!!" I know you remember the hot/cold game, right Reader? Someone hides something, like a water bottle or a precious heirloom tiara, and there's one person looking for it. Everyone else can give guidance based on temperature where HOT means you're right on top of it!!! (If only it was as easy to find my sunglasses when I don't put them back where they "belong". And I look with my eyes OPEN!) It was a fun game when I was 9 and it was fun to play with a conference room full of caffeinated therapists at the Aloha Summit I presented at last week! This example is a great metaphor for neurofeedback.
Your brain lives in the penthouse of your body but it has a terrible view because it's locked inside your dark skull! (Maybe more like Rapunzle's tower than a penthouse?) Your brain loves patters and is very busy figuring things out, trying a little of this and a little of that to see what happens. But it usually doesn't know if it's on the right track for a while. Which is the amazing part of neurofeedback! It can see what's working immediately, in real time! Well, my talk was all about different things related to neurofeedback and this week's video is all about the devices I use at home and that are available to you! And as a disclaimer, I get nothing from recommending any of these devices! They're just what I've used and I like them. Here's the link to my video talking about the 3 specific devices I like to use (plus one that I don't use but my husband does.) To find out more about the specific devices I talk about here are the website links:
The video is unusually long for me (like 20min!!) but that's because after a short 5min discussion, I demo the Inner Balance, FocusCalm, and EZ pIR so you can always just scan through and look at what's interesting! But I'm still high on my neurofeedback presentation, which was so fun to give with such great participation! The whole conference was awesome, and not just because it was in Hawaii! The presenters were all amazing, everything was well-coordinated, and some of the most engaging and interesting therapists attended! It was absolutely lovely. A-lo-haaaahhhhh.... š Cheers to Healthy Brains, Dr.B P.S. Here's your brain gadget video! P.P.S. I'm at the Menopause Society's Annual Conference in Orlando right now! I know I said I'd lay off the middle-aged female focus here, but if there's anything good I'm still going to have to share it!! |
Welcome to Brain Bites with Dr. B!
Brain Bites is all about broadening your reach with easy-to-digest psych knowledge! Join me for quick, interesting medication and brain science tidbits! Elevate your therapy practice with insight and data from your friendly online psychiatrist!
Iāve been a psychiatrist for a while. Itās not often that Iām āwowedā by some new piece of information on a topic that has been the bread and butter of what Iāve been doing for almost 20yrs. But reading this article about CBT-i had a fascinating sleep pearl that has nothing to do with the main topic which is how to use CBT-i to help get people off their sleep meds. That magical little tidbit? People who get 7hrs of sleep have lower all-cause morbidity and mortality. Not 6hrs Not 8hrs 7hrs....
He was 23, a college senior, and lit up when he talked about photography, something he loved. But every time his excitement broke through, he crushed it with the same line:āI just need to get my shit together and be more like my dad.ā His dad wanted him to push harder, climb faster, succeed bigger. But my patient wasnāt even sure he even wanted that life. And me? I just wrote him another prescription and sent him on his way. I maxed him out on Strattera, watched him become poorly compliant,...
Remember how I said I was on hiatus to study for my menopause exam? Wellā¦it went even longer than planned because I didnāt realize Iād have to wait six weeks after everyone took the test (over a whole month) to get my results. SIX. WEEKS. Ugh. Hereās the evolution of my thoughts as I worked through the questions... Q1: Ok, here we go. Oh nice, only 3 answer choices! Yay! Q6: Huh. I treated this once as an internā¦17 years ago. Come on, brain. Q13: Did you even study for this? Q38: Iām going to...