How We Deal With
Stress...
How Stress Can
Disregulate
Our Brains, Plus
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Stress physically changes your brain like drugs can!
Then it changes your life for the worse..............
WORK:
America at the top of the list of nations who spend the most time at work. We even beat out Japan!
So, between work and travel, getting home to the family, chores and life--people have little down time.
Let's face it, do you get time to whittle wood, knit, stare at the fire in the fireplace everyday? Do you get at least half an hour a day, or a week to really just not think about anything?
Do you actually take a breaks during the day? You are not alone if you say, rarely, if ever.
Stress is one of the biggest killers among Americans. It causes illness, bad behavior, mental illness and family strife. People do poorly at work, school and at home. It can also affect your immune system.
Standards are impossibly high now--everywhere we turn. We have employees and employers working hard at jobs that require overtime--just to get their 125% done.
People are tired and stressed out. Do you feel this way?
HOME:
People are stressed, so they fight with their loved ones!
They get depressed, and their self-esteem plummets, so they isolate themselves from friends and loved ones....
Or they involve in a form of addiction or excessive use! That includes 12 things, leading to the need for the
12 step programs:
1. alcohol
2.. drugs, including pot, RX
3. food, over or under eating
4. gambling
5. smoking
6. sex
7. shopping
8. stealing
9. internet
10. video games
11. television
12. spending--maxing credit!
Some people
experience long commutes, work problems, communication problems, family problems. Basically, just issues in life that sometimes seem overwhelming. It could all just push them past the brink of keeping together.
..And they just snap from the stress!
That is usually when they visit their doctor for medication. Our program can help prevent the snapping.
Next page, how stress affects students and sleep....
read more... 
Learning to relax can help addictions too!
Substance Abuse: Alcoholism, Addiction and How to Quit
Why do people use alcohol and other drugs?
Basically, people use substances such as alcohol and other drugs (even shopping, sex, and food) because they like the way these substances make them feel.
Pleasure is a powerful force. Your brain is wired in such a way that if you do something that gives you pleasure you will probably want to do it again. All drugs that are addicting can activate and affect the brain's pleasure circuit.
What is addiction?
Addiction is a disease that affects your brain and your behavior.
When you become addicted to alcohol or other drugs, your brain actually changes in certain ways.
Someone who is addicted uses drugs without thinking of the consequences (hence the term, "denial."), such as problems with health, money, relationships and performance at work or at school. What drugs can cause addiction?
People can become addicted to illegal drugs, over the counter drugs (alcohol,cigarettes and caffeine, as examples), and to drugs that doctors prescribe.
People can also become addicted to things they may not think of as drugs, such as alcohol and the nicotine in cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.
How do I know if I have a problem?
You have a problem with drugs or alcohol if
you continue to use them even when they cause problems with your health, money, work or school, or with your relationships.
You may have a problem if you have developed a tolerance to drugs or alcohol. This means you need to use more and more to get the same effect.
Can addiction be treated?
Yes, but addiction is a chronic (going on for a long time), relapsing disease. It may take a number of attempts before you can remain free of your vice, drugs or alcohol.
What treatments are available?
Addiction is believed to change the brain's pleasure circuits and pathways. A complex cascade of signals within the brain creates the craving that characterizes addiction. Thus, an addiction to a substance may be both psychological and physiological, as the body creates demands that are out of the person's control.
As a neurofeedback provider, I have come to see that people have a drug of choice based on their issues. So, depressed types and ADHD children require speed (upper) type medications to self medicate themselves. People with anxiety, tend to like downer type medications (like alcohol) to feel better.
Neurofeedback can be used to fill in the gap for those needs.
Treatment can include counseling, medication or both. Your doctor will help you find the right treatment that works for you.
However....
Neurofeedback can help regulate your brain and work with addiction and habits such as this.
Learning to relax, through the help of neurofeedback, diet, yoga and meditation is a treatment that often gets overlooked.....and with neurofeedback, there are few to no side effects.
Read more about medication side effects.... 
Caffeine and other substances are used to deal with stress. Read about them here!
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| How Yoga Can Regulate Our Brains, Plus |
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Yoga and Meditation: For Stress and/or Pain Relief
Yoga and meditation act as a de-stresser by harmonizing the nervous system. They help promote communication between your conscious and unconscious selves, and serve to bridge the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
People can reduce anxiety, stress panic attacks and some medical conditions with yoga and meditation.
According to Dr. Andrew Weil, in his website, DrWeil.com (4/20/06), it is well documented that chronic pain can lead to feelings of depression, and for most of us this connection is common sense. But the reverse appears to be true as well.
A recent study at the University of Alberta, Canada, followed a random sample of nearly 800 adults who reported they had no pain in the neck or low back.
Researchers found that the participants who experienced depression during the study period were four times as likely to develop intense pain in these areas than were those who were not depressed.
This is just one example of something I have stressed for years: that physical and mental health are commingled in complex ways, and many physical
diseases, perhaps the majority, have their roots in emotional distress.
This, in fact, is good news, because therapies and practices that help improve mental outlook can address pain as well.
Yoga, which involves learning to breathe slowly and deeply as one assumes various poses, may benefit those with chronic back pain – this benefit is typically ascribed to the postures, but Dr. Weil feels that the relaxing and calming effect of conscious breathing is probably even more important.
Continue reading and find out the top 10 things yoga can do for your mind and body. Bet you didn't even know all of them!
We can't always just go away to on a cruise or to a tropical island to relax.
But, there are other ways to relax that are natural, and without medication.
Yoga is one of them.
Neurofeedback uses a machine, but sit there and participate--working to retrain the brain.
This is a proactive approach, with
little side-effects.
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Yoga and Meditation:
Top 10 things Yoga Does For the Body and Mind, and even your golf game!
In a nutshell, it just makes you feel better.
Practicing the postures, breathing exercises and meditation makes you healthier in body, mind and spirit.
Yoga lets you tune in, chill out, and shape up -- all at the same time.
Yoga is good for what ails you.
Specifically, research shows that yoga helps manage or control:
anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, scolioisis, pain, headaches, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, stress and other conditions and diseases.
What's more, yoga:
1. Improves muscle tone.
2. Improves flexibility.
3. Improves strength and stamina.
4. Reduces stress, body pain and tension.
5 . Boosts self esteem.
6. Improves.concentration and creativity.
7. Lowers fat.
8. Improves circulation.
9. Stimulates the immune system.
10.Creates sense of well being and calm.
Yoga Covers All Aspects!
You can stay fit, be flexible, loosen up, be healthier and be more emotionally regulated-- all in one shot.
Yoga works on the body, mind and the soul.
Yoga is not just for women either. Men and women need it equally. In fact, men need it even more because they tend to lose their flexibility with age. Many of the masters in yoga are men.
Yoga also helps improve your golf and tennis game by making your swing more controllable, powerful and flexible!
Children should start practicing yoga early on in order to keep in shape emotionally and physically.
As we age, we are less prone to injury if we are flexible, have a strong core (stomach area) and in decent shape. Yoga's ability to strengthen the body, helps teens and adults manage scoliosis.
We have seen people who were fatigued, stressed out and out of shape and we have helped them get their minds and their shape back through our program.
read more...
Alert for pregnant mothers:
You should understand how your own
stress levels affects your unborn child.
Since it is unsafe to take medications during pregnancy, it is good to consider neurofeedback during pregnancy
to reduce the affects of stress to the fetus.
Studies show that pregnancy stress is passed onto the children. BBC.co.uk, wrote on September 27, 2005, that
children whose mothers were overly stressed during pregnancy may themselves be more vulnerable to anxiety as a result, research suggests. High levels of stress hormone may cross the placenta and affect
the baby in the womb in a way that carries long-term implications, UK scientists believe. A Bristol University team found anxiety in late pregnancy was linked to
higher cortisol levels in children aged 10.
"Several human studies of children and adults suggest that elevated basal levels of cortisol are associated with psychological risk...notably depression and anxiety.
"Our findings point to a possible mechanism by which prenatal stress or anxiety may predict these disturbances
in early adolescence, and possibly into adulthood."
However, for the pregnancy itself, when physical or emotional stress builds up to uncomfortable levels, it can be harmful for pregnant women. In the short term, a high level of stress can cause fatigue,
sleeplessness, anxiety, poor appetite or overeating, headaches and backaches. When a high level of stress continues for a long period, it may contribute to potentially serious health problems, such as
lowered resistance to infectious diseases, high blood pressure and heart disease. Studies also suggest that high levels of stress may pose special
risks during pregnancy.
A number of studies have suggested that very high levels of stress may increase the risk of preterm labor and low birthweight. A 1999 study at the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine found that women who reported high levels of stress at 18 to 20 weeks of pregnancy were more likely to have high levels of a hormone
called corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in their blood. This and other studies have found a potential link between high levels of CRH and preterm labor. CRH, which is produced by the brain and the
placenta, is closely tied to labor. It prompts the body to release chemicals called prostaglandins, which trigger uterine contractions. CRH also is the first
hormone our brains secrete when we are under stress.
Another recent study suggests that the timing of stress during pregnancy may influence pregnancy outcomes.
Researchers at the University of California at Irvine found that the earlier in pregnancy a woman experienced a very stressful event (in this study an earthquake), the earlier she was likely to deliver. The researchers speculate that women become less
sensitive to stress as pregnancy progresses, possiblyhelping protect the baby from adverse effects of stress.
Some stress-related hormones (such as
norepinephrine) may constrict blood flow to the placenta, so the baby may not receive the nutrients and oxygen it needs for
optimal growth.
Stress also may exert potential adverse effects indirectly by affecting the pregnant woman’s behavior. For example,
women who experience high levels of stress may not follow good health habits.
A few studies suggest that women with stressful jobs may be slightly more likely than women with low-stress jobs to develop preeclampsia (a pregnancy-related
disorder that includes high blood pressure and can result in poor fetal growth and other problems). There also is a concern that high levels of stress may increase the risk of miscarriage.
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