Today was a “bad day” brain biofeedback session. My trainer wanted to see how my brain (and heart) would do on a bad day, that is, a day I don’t come straight from home but after an appointment, walking around, and lots of TTC time. Plus just being out for much of the day. Well,…
Category: Brain Health
Writings on brain injuries, remedies, and interesting tidbits, from the perspective of one who suffered a closed head injury and didn’t lose consciousness. Mild brain injuries are injuries too.
Gamma Brainwave Biofeedback: Chatty Time
I used to see a psychologist in the first years after my brain injury. For the last half hour of each appointment, I would lie back in a zero gravity chair, a neurofeedback unit similar to my at-home AVE unit, hooked up to me, shades over eyes, headphones over ears. I never knew what brainwaves…
Gamma Brainwave Biofeedback: First Good HRV Screen
My last brain biofeedback session may've been a washout, but as I mentioned in my blog post, I achieved a huge milestone, one I had thought impossible: my HRV looks like a real one. HRV stands for heart rate variability. Basically, as you inhale, your heart rate rises, and as you exhale, your heart rate…
Gamma Brainwave Biofeedback: A Better Day
Today was much better. My muscle tension (EMG) was way down from yesterday and even down from last week. If it began to bounce back up to the 2.0 mark during one of the biofeedback screens, I’d remind myself to straighten my neck, and for the most part, that worked to drop it closer to…
Gamma Brainwave Biofeedback: Posture is Important
Posture. It isn’t just for looking good. It seemingly affects your physiology too. I was having real trouble with my muscle tension (EMG) in today’s brain biofeedback (or neurofeedback) session. It was reminiscent of the old days, during my original stint with this therapy. As a result, I wasn’t doing too well. My heart rate…
Gamma Wave Biofeedback: Brain Training Begins
First full training session today. Phew. It was hard. To backtrack: I’ve restarted brain biofeedback, but this time I’m training a brainwave frequency that isn’t usually trained, the 40Hz gamma brainwave. It’s all experimental. As my trainer said: “I’ve never done this frequency before.” But I figure if I’m going to recover as fully as…
Gamma Wave Biofeedback, Day One
It’s been a roller coaster the last few months of hope and regression. I got a taste of what having more GABA in my brain means to good functionality. But then I was tossed out of the research trial in which I’d received the GABA-boosting research medication and the commercially available previous version didn’t work…
Recounting the Original Story for the Umpteenth Time
I have told my story a gazillion times. Well, okay, maybe not a gazillion. But between insurance docs, my docs, vocational and functional assessments for the insurers, therapists, new recent docs, it sure seems like it’s been a gazillion. So you’d think by now it would be no big deal. I could go into some…
Brain Injury Anger
I had a rather heated conversation with my doctor the other day about — anger. Brain injury anger, to be specific. It had suddenly occurred to me that since the time of Phineas Gage in the 19th century, physicians and psychologists have known about how brain injury can change personality, including bringing on outbursts of…