Have You Tried Biofeedback for Anxiety?

[Arch]

I couldn't figure out a good place to post this, but I figure that Transgender Talk is as good as any. I have a lot of anxiety--both trans-related and non--in my life, and I'm looking for an effective method for dealing with it. Talk therapy is only so helpful. But I've done a bit of reading about biofeedback and get the impression that it might help. Maybe.

I would love some first-person accounts from people who have tried biofeedback for anxiety management.

[Laura_7]

Well you should watch how it works for you...
usually there are physical signs connected with it, like shallow breath, or sweating.
Those might be countered. For example by consciously breathing rhythmically and slowly.
Not getting too sweaty... rather taking off or opening a jacket... etc...

There are breathing exercises that might help. For example three minutes, twice a day, slowly inhaling, stopping shortly, slowly exhaling.
It should be watched if its beneficial, it might deepen emotions.
Its said to be healthy for the system since people tend to breathe more shallow.

Meditation might help. A few minutes of rest every day, no loud music, tv etc.
There are different methods, its individual which ones are better.

Consciously being in a nice moment might help. Watching a flower... a tree... a bird, and taking in the moment.
This moment can be recalled and used as a relaxing memory.

[Tysilio]

Building on what Laura said...

You might look for a therapist who does mindfulness/body-centered work. If you find someone who has some skill with this, it's an amazing way of exploring your feelings and learning to deal with them in a different way. It takes a lot of the "talk" out of therapy, and replaces it with allowing your body to tell you what's going on.

[Arch]

Thanks, but I'm looking for biofeedback info at this point.

I don't really think I can go through with it, though. I've spent my entire postadolescent life trying to ignore my body, and the idea of actively focusing on my body is just horrifying to me. I'm finally sensible enough to bundle up when I get cold and eat when I'm hungry--and I've gotten used to dealing with my sex drive--but all the other stuff...breathing, meditation, muscle relaxing...yuck.

In addition, I have extreme trust issues and do not easily show vulnerability to others. I am pretty sure that biofeedback would make me feel very vulnerable indeed.

My therapist knows all of this, and I can't think why he's recommending biofeedback to me, of all people. I guess he's getting frustrated with me.

[Jessica Merriman]

Biofeedback is to closely related to the L. Ron Hubbard Dianetics program for my comfort. It was primarily a 70s fad and was never proven to alter the underlying cause of the stressor. The "E meter" used in Scientology is just a version of biofeedback. Just my two cents.

[CarlyMcx]

My experience back in the days when I hung out on the anxiety and panic forums was that some folks there had some success with biofeedback in terms of learning how to recognize the symptoms of an oncoming panic attack, and using it to control their breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure in that order.

In my own case it turned out to be totally unnecessary -- when I learned that my anxiety disorder was cured easily by wearing women's clothing.

[Arch]

Some older studies seem to indicate that biofeedback might help with anxiety. However, I read an abstract of one scholarly journal article that seemed to say that although participants learned how to control breathing and heart rate and other responses, their anxiety actually didn't diminish. In other words, people with anxiety (not panic attacks or something similar) controlled some of the symptoms but not the underlying causes. I can see that biofeedback might help people to ward off attacks, but that's not what's happening with me.

I'm extremely suspicious of anything that even hints at woo, so I'm very resistant to the biofeedback idea in the first place. My therapist appears to be into some practices that have been debunked as nothing more than placebo effect or confirmation bias, and I tend to put biofeedback in the same category. Perhaps I'm wrong about some uses of biofeedback, but I do not see enough hard evidence that biofeedback helps with anxiety. My skepticism is probably yet another hurdle that might make biofeedback useless for me.

My therapist hit me pretty hard a couple of weeks ago with the biofeedback idea, saying that I should look into it if it might help me--REGARDLESS of the studies I've read, because it MIGHT help. I think that his positivity and my...positivism (haha) and skepticism are quickly arriving at an impasse. I don't really know what to do about him these days.

[Laura_7]

This is all an integrated system and different people react differently so it should be simply looked for what works and what doesn't.

That methods have been misused does not mean they are not of value.
And the placebo effect can also be used for healing purposes. The mind can be a helpful thing.

Things like breathing, muscle relaxing etc can be used to feel more at ease. This can imo be done without reaching too far into a body feeling. If you know you are breathing too fast and try to take a few deeper breaths, that might be a good start.
Some things are like a triggered response. So knowingly changing breath might take you to another road, where a more relaxed feeling might be possible.

Same goes for mental pictures. A place where you felt at ease, connected with the emotions there, might help.

If every day, a few minutes are taken out and used for some relaxing, without tv etc, this might be used for some kind of thinking...
there are a few meditation methods: one is to simply look what comes up, and deal with that mentally... what could be done etc..
the other is to purposely think about something, and see what solutions to that come up.
Not too long and not too much forced.
It might be advisable to have some kind of notepad ready.
You might ask your therapist what kind of meditation methods they would recommend.

Same goes for ideas that come up. Writers have for that purpose often a notepad ready, and write down ideas that flash up during the day, which might otherwise get lost.

[Laura_7]

@MugwortPsychonaut
synthetic d rugs numb your feelings.
This is not something to be taken lightly, and imo should never be done.

Aftereffects and lasting of effect are unknown. Apart from flashbacks. Some describe it as their brains being grilled.

If you really have problems go see a therapist.
They can evaluate if talking etc. helps, or if meds are necessary.
Talking etc should be preferred imo .
And there are alternative methods which might be tried additionally. Some of them have been around for centuries.

hugs

[suzifrommd]

LSD is fat soluble, meaning that the drug can be dissolved in your fat cells when you take it internally. When you get around to burning the fat, days, weeks, maybe months or years later, the LSD will once more enter your system in quantity. That's the reason why people get acid "flashbacks", signs of drug intoxication long after the last time they took it. Can have deadly consequences if you're driving, for example.

[rachel89]

I actually have anxiety/panic attacks sometimes. Sometimes it's related to a feeling of a lack of progress in my transition, or fears about passing, other times it's not entirely related, like being in fear about earning a living. Anyways, I think I need some way of dealing with it that doesn't involve lots of vodka when I have the "impending doom" feeling.

[Felix]

I have a little doohickey that I bought on ebay. It measures heart rate and displays data with flashing lights in various colors. It has programs where you're supposed to get into rhythm and keep your stress under control by trying to make the lights do certain things. It does help when I'm disciplined about using it.

The brand is emwave and it's about the size of an oldschool pager. I am happy enough with it that I want to buy a device that measures more and gives more feedback. It's not magic though.

[Laura_7]

I actually have anxiety/panic attacks sometimes. Sometimes it's related to a feeling of a lack of progress in my transition, or fears about passing, other times it's not entirely related, like being in fear about earning a living. Anyways, I think I need some way of dealing with it that doesn't involve lots of vodka when I have the "impending doom" feeling.

As Felix said, you could try some methods to calm down.
Like slow and deeper breathing and relaxing.

And then working with mental images, like positive outcomes, and places you like.

You could train this a bit. It then becomes more and more easy to access. Its like a road, one that takes you down, another that takes you to a calm place.

hugs

[MugwortPsychonaut]

LSD is fat soluble, meaning that the drug can be dissolved in your fat cells when you take it internally. When you get around to burning the fat, days, weeks, maybe months or years later, the LSD will once more enter your system in quantity. That's the reason why people get acid "flashbacks", signs of drug intoxication long after the last time they took it. Can have deadly consequences if you're driving, for example.

I don't want to keep up on something that's off-topic, even when I was the one who started it, and especially when I run the risk of disrespecting the forum's rules. However, the above is misinformation. LSD flashbacks are a myth. (source: http://io9.com/5951972/could-you-actually-have-an-lsd-flashback-decades-taking-the-drug)

[Contravene]

Biofeedback is to closely related to the L. Ron Hubbard Dianetics program for my comfort. It was primarily a 70s fad and was never proven to alter the underlying cause of the stressor. The "E meter" used in Scientology is just a version of biofeedback. Just my two cents.

Biofeedback actually has been proven to help with anxiety. When a person has an anxiety attack it's because their body is having a fight or flight response to something non threatening. That's the simplest way to describe it. So biofeedback helps by allowing the person to lower their heart rate which physically gets the fight or flight response under control. It's the other things people try using it for that I'm skeptical about, like supposedly using biofeedback to get rid of heart disease and such.

I was having severe anxiety attacks so my therapist did a pretty basic form of biofeedback with me. He taught me some breathing exercises to lower my heart rate when I was having an attack and some thought exercises to help my mind focus away from what was causing me anxiety. It helped a lot more than I expected it to and it wasn't as invasive as you might think. You don't need to be hooked up to all kinds of instruments to do your own biofeedback.

[Tessa James]

Lots of helpful and interesting perspectives here.  Arch you are right on about biofeedback devices helping us address symptoms but not necessarily helping us eliminate or identify the causes.  During my anesthesia training I took some courses on hypnosis and sometimes used biofeedback devices such as a heart rate, blood pressure and galvanic skin response monitor to evaluate our results.  They are a tool and so is the learned response we can utilize.  I share your cynicism about woo woo but recognize that we may never be able to anticipate or remove the causes of anxiety while we do have the ability to moderate our responses.

If i have the presence of mind to recognize the wind up or precursors associated with anxiety there are techniques starting with that deep breath that really do work.  Visualization techniques and practice help.  I worked with a pediatric expert, Dr Karen Olness, and she was able to help kids with everything from the anxiety of getting shots to those facing chronic conditions and multiple procedures.  Kids generally have better access to imagination and that guided imagery to a safe and secure feeling is part of the process.  Best of luck to you.

[Arch]

Unfortunately(?), I don't have anxiety attacks. I have consistent, everyday anxiety. If I had actual attacks, I might be able to use biofeedback in the way I describe above, to ward off or ameliorate the incipient attack. I am concerned that for everyday anxiety, managing the symptoms won't do squat to address the underlying issues. I suspect that this concern explains why medical professionals' first recommendation is talk therapy that supposedly addresses what's actually causing the anxiety.

I suspect that learning garden variety relaxation techniques would do at least as much for me as biofeedback. Before I can do either one, though, I have to get over my horror of tuning in to my body. Easier said than done...

[Tysilio]

I suspect that learning garden variety relaxation techniques would do at least as much for me as biofeedback. Before I can do either one, though, I have to get over my horror of tuning in to my body. Easier said than done...

Seriously, Arch, if you can find a therapist who is trained in this area, teaching you to tune in to your body is the first thing they'll work on, and they know how to deal with the horror.

My therapist is amazing with this stuff (and when I started I thought it was way too "woo-woo").  Drop me a PM if you'd like me to ask him for a referral in your area. He's well-connected.

[Contravene]

Unfortunately(?), I don't have anxiety attacks. I have consistent, everyday anxiety. If I had actual attacks, I might be able to use biofeedback in the way I describe above, to ward off or ameliorate the incipient attack. I am concerned that for everyday anxiety, managing the symptoms won't do squat to address the underlying issues. I suspect that this concern explains why medical professionals' first recommendation is talk therapy that supposedly addresses what's actually causing the anxiety.

I suspect that learning garden variety relaxation techniques would do at least as much for me as biofeedback. Before I can do either one, though, I have to get over my horror of tuning in to my body. Easier said than done...

I had every day anxiety, it started as soon as I woke up every morning. The "garden variety" techniques my therapist taught me helped lessen the everyday anxiety and actually prevented me from having full blown anxiety attacks most of the time. So for me it helped in both ways and I'm grateful for it. If you're skeptical about it or it makes you uncomfortable there are plenty of other things you can try. No use causing yourself anxiety over something that's supposed to help get rid of it.