I’ve noticed in my private practice over the years that most people with psychiatric conditions prefer to avoid taking medications unless necessary and that those who must take medication usually prefer to keep it at the lowest necessary doses.
Because I support these wishes, I try to keep my eyes open for ways to help my clients fulfill them. One promising way is to use an at-home biofeedback program.
Biofeedback programs report physiological data to the user in real time allowing the user to observe how thinking certain thoughts and engaging in certain behaviors like focused breathing exercises affect relevant physiological processes like blood pressure and heart rate. Through this real time feedback, the user can learn to optimize how they think and what they do to a degree that can potentially help them to reduce or eliminate the need for certain psychiatric medications or at least enhance certain positive effects already partially achieved by the medications.
Clients used to have to go to a biofeedback specialist to receive biofeedback treatment, but thankfully now there are some at-home biofeedback programs with proven results.
Inner Balance Coherence Plus
One at-home biofeedback program called Inner Balance Coherence Plus has been proven helpful for those wishing to reduce symptoms such as feeling overwhelmed, mood swings, emotional reactivity, sleep problems, always feeling tired, aches & pains, head pressure, digestive issues, and racing heart. It consists of a smartphone app connected to two small devices: one clips onto the ear and the other near the heart.
To purchase Inner Balance Coherence Plus, click here. To learn more about this product, click here, then search for and watch the video called “Inner Balance Sensor + HeartMath App”.
RESPeRATE
For those preferring to not deal with smartphone apps or computer programs, there is an at-home biofeedback product called RESPeRATE that consists of a standalone device connected to a sensor and a pair of ear buds. No smartphone. No computer. Just a simple device.
To learn more about and to order the RESPeRATE device, click here. The evidence for this suggests that it is efficacious in lowering one’s blood pressure over time, but I think that one could see much of the same results that have been observed in the Inner Balance Coherence Plus users.
I think either of these two items could prove helpful for those looking to reduce or eliminate the need for certain psychiatric medications and for those looking to get positive results that they have not yet achieved through medication alone.
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