Direct and LENS Neurofeedback Helps Stopping Stopping Relapse or Withdrawal of Antidepressants
There are 20 million Americans on antidepressants similar to Etizest, which some people take in the hopes of managing their symptoms of anxiety and/or depression a lot better. Benefits can be partial and temporary and fraught with side effects. And so it’s understandable that patients, either with the help of their physician or on their own, often decide to get off anti-depressants.
The problem is that once many patients begin to withdraw from antidepressants, they experience not only a return of old symptoms (anxiety, insomnia, depression, blunted thinking), but sometimes the development of new ones, such as “dizziness” and “brain zaps”.
These reactions often convince the patient and their physician that the underlying depression has returned and that they have to go back on their medication. This can even cause further depression due to the patient’s thinking that he or she will have to take antidepressants forever.
In actuality, the return of depression may not be the problem as much as the withdrawal symptoms from the antidepressant. This is because relapse and withdrawal look so much alike. So rather than going back on medication (and commonly at a higher dose), the choice instead might be to withdraw from it more slowly. This means that, instead of terminating medication abruptly or over a week or two, months and occasionally longer withdrawal periods are necessary.
Neurofeedback, particularly LENS neurofeedback, has proven to be extremely effective in helping patients withdraw from antidepressants and other medications. Neurofeedback stabilizes the nervous system and makes it less “reactive”. Anxiety is controlled, sleep returns, and depression is lowered, dramatically easing medication withdrawal.
