How is neurofeedback used to treat OCD?

OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a relatively common psychological disorder that leads people to suffer from thoughts obsessive behaviors frequently, on the one hand, and to carry out repetitive actions to try to get rid of the discomfort that they generate, on the other the other. Fortunately, today there are therapeutic resources to effectively intervene in this pathology, and in this case we will focus on one of the best: neurofeedback.

Thus, below we will see a series of advantages that it offers us the use of neurofeedback to treat people who may have cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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What is OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a psychological disorder that significantly interferes with the normal development of the person in their daily life and characterized by the presence of mutually reinforcing obsessions and compulsions.

Obsessions often consist of the constant appearance in the person's mind of mental images or unwanted thoughts, which produce a destabilization in the form of a crisis due to stress or anxiety; and compulsions manifest in repetitive and stereotyped behaviors that the person repeats after experiencing the obsession to try to put it out of mind and immediately relieve the discomfort.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder affects between 1 and 3% of the world population and significantly damages their mental health. Its course deteriorates the quality of life of the person within months, and if it is not treated, it can last for years or decades.

In addition to that, this type of disorder presents comorbidities with other psychological alterations, such as depression, anxiety, tics, self-injurious behaviors, emotional disturbances, and dysmorphic disorder bodily.

The symptoms that people with OCD manifest are very diverse, since not everyone experiences the disorder in the same way. However, there are a series of symptoms that are fairly shared at a general level that are grouped into three categories.

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How does neurofeedback work?

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive brain training technique that consists of recording and monitoring the patient's brain activity to subsequently modify those patterns of activation of non-adaptive neurons that cause psychological alteration and promote its maintenance through the time.

Is about a resource used to treat psychological problems linked to anxiety, stress, and psychological sequelae in the form of trauma, since it helps the person to reintegrate into their memory system the anxious memories associated with those experiences that destabilize them when they are evoked. This occurs thanks to the fact of combining the logic of psychotherapy, on the one hand, and of direct intervention in the brain, on the other, and without using invasive or painful procedures. It has characteristics similar to systematic desensitization, in the sense that it helps the person to face those mental states that generate discomfort and to "tame" them by linking them to a state of calm.

In other words, support is provided in the process by which the patient reconfigures their neural networks linked to memory or images. of what causes them discomfort, so that these mental contents stop taking the person to a state of hyper-activation nervous.

The key to how neurofeedback works consists of the modification, through conscious training, of all kinds of negative neural activation patterns that may be occurring in the brain. The person is trained in emotional management skills and anxiety management.

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How can neurofeedback treat OCD cases?

That is why it is such an effective technique to treat cases of OCD, a psychological disorder that has its origin in a certain brain function that does not conform to the patterns that should be normal in any person, and that leads them to always think through the same "mental alleys", giving rise to the vicious circle of obsession, compulsion, obsession, etc

To modify or restructure this brain malfunction in people with OCD, the first thing that is done is a study and evaluation of the current patterns of the brain of the person who suffers from this alteration.

This evaluation can be done by applying (without surgery of any kind) a series of sensors on the person's scalp. that measure your brain activity and whose results are reflected in real time on a screen visible to both the therapist and the patient.

This screen marks a prize when the person manages to modify her brain patterns with the help and instructions of the therapist, in this way new knowledge is acquired that helps you to change your brain patterns negatives.

With the implementation of neurofeedback in cases of OCD, the probability of the appearance of patterns of brain activity is reduced dysregulatory and those waves related to states of relaxation and calm that help to improve the psychological state of the patient. By applying this technique to cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder we get reduce excess fast brain waves in posterior areas of the brain (those that generate states of rumination and obsession) and replace them with slow waves typical of states of calm and relaxation.

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Looking for OCD treatment?

If you are interested in starting a neurofeedback therapy process applied to OCD, get in touch with us.

In neurocenter We have the experience, knowledge, and equipment necessary to deal with your case with all the guarantees.