# Brain State Technologies



## peachy (Feb 9, 2008)

Hey guys. I've spent a fair amount of time researching lately and there is a new kind of treatment available at the place I go to therapy that I wanted to give a go. I went in last week for basically a "test run" where they hooked up my brain to machines and had me doing various activities just to get an idea of what my brain was doing and record the different brain waves. Well, I just got the results back today and they are really interesting. They found that my theta waves were actually faster and more active than my alpha waves, where as in an average human, alpha waves should be the most active at these times of day. Wow! That makes so much sense. Yesterday after the post someone made on binaural beats, I came across different brain waves and what they mean for us. I actually found an Alpha-Theta connection description and said THAT'S WHAT'S GOING FAULTY IN OUR BRAINS I BET. They explain that theta waves are the waves that are most active when you are in a state of drowsiness before sleep, daydreaming, meditation, etc. Alpha waves are those waves that are present when you are going about your everyday activities. So, essentially, my brain is operating at a really sufficient daydreamy meditation level but not well at an everyday activity kind of level. I wonder if this is the connection for most of us with depersonalization? The odd thing she found was that these alpha theta waves were different when I had my eyes closed as opposed to open. There was more dysfunction with eyes open. So for those have you that have been talking about "seeing" depersonalizatoin visually, it's totally possible that's really occuring and they were able to actually map that with my brain and see it!

Another few things I found really cool about this treatment is 
1) The guy who researched this to come up with this treatment suffered from PTSD that he was able to treat after a sufficient amount of sessions. 
2) There is an actual mind-body connection piece in the brain that they are able to see in the brain scans. Mine was low...at about a 10% and they said that through these sessions it could be possible to level out my brain and feel a greater mind-body connection. They happened to have a gymnast on folder in the office and her mind-body connection was way higher...it was interesting to see that. I was a gymnast too but hell, I have DP so I guess the two evened out. :? 
3) They are able to help people with problems that haven't been solved with medication, such as a girl with a stutter. This to me signals so much for us because we've yet to find a medication that is a cure all for DP. Not that this brain state treatment will be a cure all, but if it could make ANY difference, I'd be a little less hopeless about the diagnosis. 
4) Yes, this is like neurofeeback/biofeedback. The difference is that brain state technologies treats your brain as a unique make up, different from every other one out there. Your brains norm, aka harmony, is not the same as another brains harmony. Neurofeedback treats your brain like there is one standard brain to work with and match up to. Therefore, it takes longer to find results, and it likely wont cover the larger variety of offbeat problems or irregularities such as depepersonalization. 
5) Even if this doesn't turn out to help at all, I've been validated that there are pieces in my brain causing dysfunction. They are able to be SEEN and that in itself is a miracle. 
6) One last thing...what they explained about the theta waves being higher than alpha is that likely, there are subconscious traumas and/or thoughts that are not able to escape that would like to. They are able to uncover these better with assistance with the brain.

Now, I realized I haven't even really gone into the science behind how it works. Well I'm not incredibly smart so I cannot go on and on about different brain functions and how they are reacting to this. However, I can tell you for certain that this isn't a bunch of mumbo jumbo witch doctor stuff (not that I have anything against witches :wink: --love you lynsey!  ). There is science behind it. Basically, what I've been able to find from reading and research is that this is somewhat like having your brain look into a mirror at itself (damn! that's gotta be trippy for a depersonalized brain :shock: ). The computer reads your brain waves and converts that into sound waves that are played through headphones placed on your ears. Hearing the imbalances and also seeing them on the computer screen causes your brain to react to what it's being given visually and auditory(ly?). That in turn is what brings about a greater harmony. I know that's the magically fuddy duddy unicorn way of describing it so do not take these words too literally. I do not have the knowledge to give you a better understanding.

This treatment has been used for people suffering with emotional traumas, head injuries (oh yes, they were able to find irregularities in my brain and asked me if I had had a head injury in the past! which I did as a child and what is what I believe to have caused this, at least at this point in time). Also, ADHD, sleep problems, addictions, better concentration in school and sports, depression, anxiety, etc etc.

I don't want to get too excited but this seems really promising for me and my hope would be that at least this could give us some insight, if not some kind of relief from these symptoms! I'm hoping to start treatment next monday. It's very intensive...twice a day for ten days straight. I'm debating whether to update on progress or what not between sessions. I'm thinking it may be emotionally draining and exhausting and if so, I will want to spend more time off the computer and not ruminating about my symptoms. I hope to update this at some point though.

One last thing:
Please do not come on this post and bash it apart and talk about how there is no science behind this and it's just placebo effect. I've been debating posting this on here at all for some time because I do not want to in any way become discouraged by this opportunity...DO NOT ruin it for me. The other reason is because this is the first time in a long time I've actually been able to write out thoughts in a coherent pattern that other people may actually understand.

Anyway, have a good day!


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2009)

That sounds AWSOME!!!!!!!  Im gonna have to try that as well as Naloxone. Im tryin everything I can possibly try before I give up. This bullshit isnt going to ruin my life anymore than it already has. :evil:


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Awesome Jinelle  I really hope this works for you!!!


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## Guest (Jun 3, 2009)

Love u 2 jinelle lol 

Its good to hear all this positivity, and it sounds really interesting. Keep us posted and I hope it is what youve looking and hoping for and that it helps you.


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## peachy (Feb 9, 2008)

Okay, here's the deal. I'm back. Finished my last session this afternoon. What I've noticed so far....(there's a three week integration period now for my brain to figure out what it wants and where it's gonna go so this isn't the end result for me)...I feel...different. Not sure what that means yet. But it has changed SOMETHING. As far as run of the mill, everyday depersonalization, hasn't really put much of a smudge on that yet. However, my dreamlife feels a little bit more colorful. Like if I wanted to, I could touch everything and use it and it'd smell good or whatever. That's always been a big issue for me...application of the world around me. I often feel like I'm in a white room with nothing around me and nothing applicable to me but now I feel a little bit less of that...like I can use stuff a little easier. And as weird of a concept as food and cooking are, I think I'd be able to realize I can make stuff, even if it tripped me out.

Another thing I've noticed is that I have less tolerance for people. But in a good way. I've become less sympathetic towards people's feelings, which is good. Because I've always been way over empathetic and sympathetic towards people to the point where I do not matter. So for instance, the other day, I was able to call a guy an asshole and not be sitting there going "ohh but maybe he's just had a bad day". So that's good for me cause now I can actually worry about what I want in life and stop worrying about all the needy people in my life that are going to expect me to be the same as before and sacrifice myself to help them on their every need.

I've been having little angry spurts. They really aren't ideal but they shouldn't last forever.

I feel more comfortable in my dream world today. I am even able to own the word depersonalization for short periods of time. During one of my sessions the word "depersonalization" actually became uncovered from the depersonalized way I was looking at it. I don't really know how to explain that. There are a lot of weird, intricate things going on that I'm just going to have a hard time explaining because they are all very personal issues. What I just explained in this paragraph may very well have no connection to the therapy I'm going through.

Today at my session was the big kicker. I was able to start uncovering very buried feelings from very old parts of my life. I've been having extremely visual imagery during these sessions of vomiting gray colors out of me, as well as another one where all the people in my life were cutting my skin open while I sat and took it, a calm one of being in my "beach fantasy", and another where I had a man talking to me and he gave me pretty sound advice. There were other weird visuals such as unwrapping all the layers of my skin off like an onion and color being injected into my veins and all throughout my skin. These pieces of imagery sound a bit insane but they really helped me get to the subconscious place. I believe in these sessions that I am finally opening the doors that have been shut all my life...the doors from the room in which trauma is stored. For those of you with very typical, pure DP....the dissociating aspect being a large part of it, this could be very beneficial. It's been the only way I've been able to open up these doors of my life at all. I would like a few more sessions to really get into it...we spent so much time "brain balancing" the finer details, I never got much time to delve into my subconscious. I may ask for more sessions if in 3 weeks if I feel it's necessary. What's still very confusing is the "what is actually coming up from my subconscious?" I do not know yet but I feel lighter like the traumatic emotions are releasing themselves. I'm hoping with help from my regular therapist, I can get to this subconscious spot much easier now. The trauma is becoming a threat which is better than the way my mind has been functioning in the past...which is very much too organized and too watchful for anything that may be hurtful for me. It would have been impossible before to get to these places cause my brain has found mechanisms far too clever. That could be part of where the "angry child" in me is coming from. It would make sense if someone took away my finest working mechanisms as a child that I would be a very genuinely pissed off 4, 5, 6 year old.

During the first few days of this therapy, I was in this weird place where I felt I didn't have anything to hold onto. So I induced a greater state of depersonalization and was able to relax and think much easier. Lately, I feel I have a better hold on my "shut down" mechanism and hope when I go back to school and have papers assigned to me, under stress I will function better and not go into freeze mode the second it's assigned. She did mention that at the beginning of therapy, my parasympathetic was way way high and they spent quite a bit of time on lowering that so I would actually be able to do something under stress!

Now I just want to try everything in my life over again to see what it would feel like now if I could perform under stress. Get a job, be a competitive gymnast again, go back to college. I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I will summarize again....as far as feelings of depersonalization have gone....they weren't touched a bit...I'm still out of my body, unreal, all that fun stuff. As far as dissociation and freeze mode go, I'm doing better and may actually be able to function as a regular human if I put some work into it. I feel like all of the things my brain adjusted itself to do when I became depersonalized are unraveling (being less empathetic for example...lol i guess this would be a good time for people to stay away from me  ).

I hope to write more in the next few weeks. Sorry the thoughts are as scattered as they usually are...sometimes my thought patterns find interesting spots to place themselves.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Good stuff Jinelle  Hope it continues to get better in the 3 week period.


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## Claymore (Jun 13, 2009)

Im glad its going good Jinny.  Are you really seeing these visual imagrey things like visions? Like the vomiting gray and all that, are you having visions or are you just picturing this in your mind?


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## Robsy (Dec 3, 2007)

Im so utterly happy for you, I laughed when you said that you could call that guy an asshole and not second guess your feeling. I too need to do this x


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## peachy (Feb 9, 2008)

thanks guys.

lol no, i'm not having hallucinations. i'm just picturing it in my mind....they have you do a lot of visuals in this therapy and it's cool cause it just kinda lets the creative part of your mind take over...but in a therapeutic way.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2009)

Holy Moses. Was this done in a hospital? More information please. I skimmed this as I just posted info of Sierra's full article on organic causes of DP/DR which include TLE/Migraine, etc., but also cause anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms. They may even explain DID! Hate to ask ... is this covered by insurance, and do you need a neurologist's referral. No one will give me a test at U. of M. as it is deemed too costly and not part of a trial and I don't have "an organic condition". Whatever. They can remove a section of my brain at this point and I wouldn't care.


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## peachy (Feb 9, 2008)

No, this is not done at a hospital. It's quite a comfy and cozy environment. I can give out the website of the places they are located. There are many in every state. Mine is located right in my therapists facility. You lie in a zero gravity chair--real comfy and they lay you back and turn off the lights. They even gave me blankies! They were willing to do almost anything for me to be comfortable lol. You also do not need a referral from a neurologist. The problem however is that insurance does not cover it period. And it is costly. The money issue though...it looks like a big number when first glancing at it but they have you pay in full before you begin your sessions. I did the math and honestly, each session is about equivalent to the amount I pay for my sessions with my talk therapist. The neato thing was...I got go and get my brain scan for free. They gave me the results of what they found and then we went from there on money and what I wanted to do. These brain scans aren't exactly the run of the mill EEG. I don't know what those even look like. But they are using the same equipment they would be in the sessions balancing your brain...they just aren't interfering with the patterns when they do the basic scan. I don't know if they would do this free scan for everybody but they were willing to at my specific clinic because I explained dp to them and they knew I would be a bit hesitant of something that could potentially help with it at all. Keep the questions coming. I'm open to answering all of them.

One other thing I forgot to mention earlier....even though I wrote down specific goals when I began my sessions, the brain state does more than just your goals. It helped me with my sleep cycle! I've been able to fall asleep at 12:30!! I cannot tell you the last time I was tired at 12:30 without the use of sleeping pills. It's definitely put my very-off-balance circadian rythyms back into place. Another thing it's helped a little with is my poor circulation. That could be a factor from the dissociative problems...they apparentely go hand in hand, dissociation and circulation.

Here are the office locations:
http://www.brainstatetech.com/locations.htm

and also here is the general website. 
http://www.brainstatetech.com/
just don't read too much into the website cause like I said before, they make it look like rainbows and butterflies. I'm a researching kind of girl. I need to see that there is SOMETHING actually going on besides daisies and ice cream.

And lastly, here is the video on the guy who I guess is an advocate? (I don't even know what I'm saying)
http://revver.com/video/438226/dr-rober ... nd-trauma/

He doesn't talk about brain state but that's what the title says and there are a few connections in his video that I can see relating to brain state. This was what first caught my attention before I began therapy...he knows what he's talking about on trauma. I think I remember reading that him and the guy that started brain state, Lee Gerdes, were co-buddies looking for answers on mostly trauma and dissociative disorders. Robert Scaer is a trama expert and Lee Gerdes suffered with PTSD.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2009)

Yes, please post the general website. If it's remotely affordable I think I want it all done -- shoot, I could conceivably add it as a medical tax deduction, maybe. The INERNAL REVENUE SERVICE! :? Thank you for all of this! :mrgreen:


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

side note: happy 1000th post dreamer!


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## peachy (Feb 9, 2008)

I edited above to make more sense of things. Just posting so it doesn't go unnoticed.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2009)

Bless you!


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2009)

surfingisfun001 said:


> side note: happy 1000th post dreamer!


LOL. I don't know if it's good or bad! :shock: I did look at my quota, and it is 1 post a day over a period of years. When someone plays the games in That's Life .... Oh MY it can get up to many thousands.

Oh, and of course, I have to maintain my reputation of never shutting up, or typing 140 wpm and writing tomes. Forgive me.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Dreamer* said:


> Oh, and of course, I have to maintain my reputation of never shutting up, or typing 140 wpm and writing tomes. Forgive me.


What's a tome? 140 wpm??? that's impressive.


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## peachy (Feb 9, 2008)

WOW you def beat me! how the hell do you type that fast????? :shock: i'm at 111 wpm and i dont think i could possibly get faster.


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