Neurofeedback, biofeedback and chronic pain management

Because September is National Pain Awareness month, INDY Neurofeedback is devoting this space to the important topic of pain management.

We wish we didn’t have to experience pain. Ever. Truth is, though, we would not survive without it.

Pain provides us with a valuable warning, letting us know that something is wrong, and where. The intensity of that pain also provides a sense of urgency, letting us know we need to stop and take care of the injury.

Sometimes, however, pain has no obvious connection to any injury and doesn’t serve a useful purpose. This is called chronic pain and presents an incredible challenge for those who live with it. Offering both biofeedback and neurofeedback, our trained staff at INDY Neurofeedback wants to help.

But first, a little background. Researchers have discovered that:

• Pain can not be measured in any absolute
• The perception of pain is registered in the brain, no matter where in the body the injury lies.
• Perceptions of pain vary dramatically from individual to individual and from circumstance to circumstance.
• Depending on the way the brain interprets it, pain may not be scaled to the actual injury and may continue long after the injury is healed.
• The brain registers pain emotionally, so feelings of fear, trauma, or helplessness can often increase pain perception.
• Pain can operate in cycles, so when emotions are triggered, that in turn increases pain perception, which re-triggers trauma – in an endless cycle.
• When the sensitivity escalates to the highest levels, injury messages are no longer necessary to sustain the experience of pain.
• Medications used for pain can also require ever increasing doses.

It begins with the brain.

Since the brain is ultimately in charge of how severely individual pain is perceived and where it is localized in the body, biofeedback and neurofeedback begin right at the source — the brain itself.

There have been numerous clinical studies showing that the techniques of both biofeedback and neurofeedback can be used to break the cycle of pain and lead to a major decrease — or even the total elimination of — chronic pain.

INDY Neurofeedback works with clients of all ages and all kinds of pain, from post-surgical to fibromyalgia, brain injuries to PSTD-related pain. Our goal is to help each client redefine the way his/her brain interprets nerve impulses (the experience of pain) and gradually return brain-pain sensitivities to normal levels.

We are happy to talk with you about what you are experiencing. The therapies we offer may well provide the relief you are seeking. We sincerely hope so.