Brain technology—cognitive enhancement and neurofeedback

So my cognition has become so poor that after watching the video with Dan Rather on neuroplasticity I went straight to my neuro-psychologist to ask about software to help with my cognitive dysfuntion.

Now my first thought when I watched the video was that it was evidence that the “mentally ill” brain can heal as I’ve seen people heal from meditation a number of times now. But my second thought was, “wow, I have a brain like an 85 year old and I bet I could benefit from the software they’re talking about.”

So instead of getting neurofeedback on Wednesday as usual, I asked my doctor if I could talk to him. He is one of my favorite people in the world and has been furiously supporting me since I decided to start tapering about 4 years ago. He got me off anti-depressants and 7 mg of Risperdal and 50 mg of Seroquel safely and with pretty much no adverse effects, before things started going south. My problem is simply too complex for neurofeedback alone at this point. But my holistic psychiatrist still thinks it’s an important adjunct to what we’re doing and I’m sure it is. It worked so obviously well for so long.

In any case—the cognitive software. I explained to him how I forget everything, misplace and lose everything. Space out on appointments. Flake out on friends unintentionally etc. (yesterday I left my purse out in the community for the third time in about 2 months—had no idea where–but luckily I found it. I never did stuff like that in the past.)

I asked him can this sort of software help me? He gave me a resounding yes. He said that at this point in the game the benefit I’ll get is less than if I wasn’t constantly aggravating my system, but it can help with further deterioration and should also give me some of my cognition back. Apparently he does cognitive building work there in his office which is much more sophisticated, but he said it would be a waste of money for me at this juncture. But when my withdrawal is over I have another resource to get some of my brain back which was exciting to me.

I asked him which software I should buy. I was familiar with the one on Dan Rather’s show. Posit Mind I think it was called at $400. Was there anything better? Wonderfully, he recommended something that has had just as much research as the Posit Mind software and does just as well in clinical trials but is only $140. I ordered it as soon as I got home. It’s called Mind Fit, by Vigorous Mind.

Also new on the brain technology front since I am using neurofeedback too. My doctor will be introducing a new neurofeedback software to his office in September. It trains at a much higher rate of accuracy and on a much deeper level than what I’m doing now. I need maintenance now about once a month. Once I get trained on the new stuff I won’t need maintenance more than every few months. Neurofeedback as a science is soaring. This should greatly support the work I’m doing with my holistic psychiatrist.

For a bit on neurofeedback see here, here, and here. My EEG currently shows my brain waves being relatively healthy which they were not when I started the neurofeedback training. I felt great for about 3 years after starting training. Better than I had ever felt. What has made me sick is the toxic drugs and the withdrawals hurting my body. I feel assured that the neurofeedback is providing an important foundation that I wish to maintain.

For some people neurofeedback seems to be enough to heal the brain from both the drugs and the underlying situation that led people to be on drugs. So it’s worth checking out.