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Q - I am a 20 year old female and have recently been promoted at my office job of almost a year to the customer service role. I have been doing this role for about 4 months now but I have been working in office jobs for the past 2 years straight. Since getting this promotion, I've changed so significantly my boyfriend is asking me to get help as it's putting a strain on our relationship.
I'm very irritable and my moods can change at the drop of a hat when I'm at home. I cry easily over silly things. I would rather go to bed at 8pm than sit up doing "nothing" in my opinion. I have so little friends and the friends I have kept, I very rarely see. I don't go out much; if and when I do it takes a lot to actually get me to WANT to go to the event.
I get angry at my boyfriend for the smallest and simplest of things and as I said before, it's taking it's toll on the relationship.
My question(s) is this:
I'm wondering if this type of treatment can help me or if I'm delusional in thinking I'm depressed (do I simply need to quit my job because of the stress level??)
My boyfriend thinks that working in an office environment for so long at such a young age has made me have the "maturity level of a 35 year old and need to make friends my own age"
Basically, should I make an appointment to try and treat this depression, should I go to my doctor and discuss this with him, or is it something as simple as quitting my job and working part time at a restaurant where I can meet people at my age level...?
Sorry it's a lot of information but I just want to be sure before I try and tackle this problem.
Thanks so much in advance for your help!
A - Without an assessment of brain activity it is difficult to offer more than a
guess about your situation. There are several possibilities. First, it is
possible that you have a condition that is associated with poor stress
tolerance. If this is the case then the added stress of your new and
challenging situation may be overwhelming and in turn triggering other
predispositions such as depression or emotional volatility. These conditions
are neurological predispositions and can be treated with neurotherapy. The
condition associated with poor stress tolerance also can be associated with
fatigue, poor sleep and anxiety. These conditions can be negatively
synergic in the sense that poor quality sleep exacerbates the poor stress
tolerance which in turn further degrades sleep. The first step is to have a
brain assessment to determine the neurological conditions that are
problematic and review some of the psychological variables that may also be
contributing to your difficulties. After the intake brain assessment we can
determine the exact nature of the problem and develop a treatment program.
It may also be that you simply don't like the situation you found yourself
in and hence there would be no neurological condition. This would also be
apparent after you have the brain assessment. |
Q - I have been diagnosed with bipolar type 2 rapid cycling and supposedly mixed states. A lot of my depression right now is that I sleep 12 hours and wake up fatigued. I'm on Clonazepam, Trazodone and Seroquel. I could barely get to a 4 pm appointment since I get out of bed at 2:30 pm at the latest and I am still in sleeping mode. I'm a writer so its very hard to go to sleep early. I have to lift light weights at night because of injuries. Right now I'm having trouble walking without pain in my feet. I'm having trouble coping and considering hospital. Have you ever treated anyone like me or anyone with mixed states and been successful? I don't usually play video games.
A - We see many clients with multiple co-morbidities and those on multiple
medications. First step is to have a brainwave assessment to determine the
exact nature and brain location of the problems. We have had considerable
success in helping clients with these conditions. Our success with clients
with these conditions is very good because we are able to precisely
determine the brain inefficiencies and to target these areas specifically. |
Q - What happens if the treatments do not work or help with any of my symptoms? I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 17, and I am still kind of skeptical as to how this can change that?
A - One of the advantages of neurotherapy is that you do not have to go through
many treatments to discover that it is not working for you. Noticeable
improvements are generally experienced within five or so sessions so you
know you are on the correct therapeutic path. Chronic bipolar conditions are
difficult to correct so you should expect to need thirty or so sessions to
correct the problem but, again, you should notice positive benefits of
treatment after about five sessions. |
Q - Hi, I am a 51 year old woman from Alberta. I have a history of depression that I refused to be medicated for, as I am able to function well most of the time, and the depression and mind fog is only bad for about a week or so every month. I have in the past 30 years, been on medication for a few months at a time, but could not stay with it once I got feeling better. As a child I suffered being molested several times and as a teen and young women I displayed very high risk behavior. I have sorted through many of these issues of the past and do not know if the depression is related still to that. The depression, for the week and a bit that I have it is very troublesome in that I isolate, and the mind freeze-ups are causing problems with my continuing education. I take Synthroid for an under active thyroid, and am also on Apo-medroxy and Premarin (which I hate taking). The question that I have for you is how long would it take to get in to see you and how long would I have to stay in BC for? Does your treatment help with menopause? I am a student and have no health care coverage besides Alberta Health Care. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
A - I note that you are in Alberta and fortunately there are several very good
neurotherapists in your Province. In Calgary Dr. Stuart Donaldson
(403-225-0900) and in Edmonton Dr. Hoerst Mueller (780-423-6633). I recommend you
contact one of these two individuals and discuss treatment possibilities. |
Q - What does it cost to have he brain mapping done and your further treatments?
Is it covered under health insurance like Blue Cross or BC Medical health services?
My wife has suffered from Clinical Depression for three years and is on LTD unable to work.
How can your treatment help?
Her Psychiatrist recommends Electrical Convusive Therapy(ECT)
How does your methods differ?
How is one know which treatment to pursue?
A - For conditions not associated with brain injury the intake assessment is
$180. Further treatments range from $105 to $170 per session depending on
the level of service required. Generally, for conditions such as depression
about 75% of the sessions are at $105 and the remaining 25% are between $130
and $170. We treat many forms of depression and our success rate is good.
The procedure we follow is to determine the exactly nature and location of
the inefficiency in brain functioning that is the basis of the depression
and then do neurotherapy to correct those inefficiencies. Long term
depressed clients also require some adjunctive therapy such as cognitive
therapy. Our treatments are not in any way related to ECT. The best way to
determine the efficiency of the various treatment options is to do your own
research on the internet. The relevant information on neurotherapy can be
found on my web-site, and on the web-sites of the professional
organizations, in particular www.isnr.org and www.aapb.org. Our services are
covered under most extended health policies up to the limit of your policy
for a registered clinical psychologist. Costs in excess of your policy cap
(limit) are tax deductible medical expenses. |
Q - I currently seem to be using psychic abilities, phenomena in my thoughts where I receive signals of things outside of my normal sensory view. Sometimes this skill seems like a gift but often a hindrance to stay focused on my immediate task. I'm interested in how neurotherapy would affect this psychic side of my thoughts. Has Swingle and Associates worked with others who have reported psychic tendencies, if so what were the results?
A - We have many clients who have psychic experiences. Sometimes these psychic
experiences are actually related to the psychological disorder for which the
person is seeking treatment (for example, delusional states). However, other
clients do appear to have bone fide psychic capabilities and from their
reports these skills were not compromised by the neurotherapeutic
treatments. |
Q - I have been on zoloft for almost twenty years, now also on clonazepam. Lately I've developed auto-immune disease symptoms such a thyroid problems and proteinurea.
Can neuro-stimulation solve my depression as well as the possible auto-immune problems?
A - Neurotherapy is certainly very effective for treatment of depression.
Auto-immune problems are more complicated. In general, we find that when
treating a condition such as depression immune functioning improves. The
specifics depend on the actual brain inefficiencies that we find in each
client, of course, but we know that keeping the Alpha brainwave frequencies
fast correlates with good immune functioning. Also, by normalizing the brain
activity in the occipital regions improves stress tolerance that in turn
often results in improved immune functioning. Additionally, it is also
possible that you long term depression has resulted in or is related to
compromised immune functioning so you may find improvements when the
depression is successfully treated and you are able to titrate off of the
antidepressant medications.
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Q - My 83 year old mother is suffering from very frightening hallucinations at night time. She lives alone, in Brisbane, Australia, but of course is convinced these hallucinations are "real" and has been calling the police quite frequently. She has been given ECT a number of times over the years to treat her clinical depression and is actually on lithium as well. Although she denies it, we are certain she has bipolar disorder, despite the fact that I have never actually known her to become manic - only deeply depressed. As well, she has also suffered from OCD in conjunction with her depression. Living all these miles away in Vancouver, how can I convince her she needs to seek psychiatric help for these hallucinations when she becomes hostile if anyone even hints that the problem is in her mind? Do you know of any neurotherapy practitioners in Brisbane? Thanks for any help you can offer.
A - It is often very difficult to encourage the elderly to pursue treatment.
Psychological treatment for some of these folks carries a stigma, they are
unfamiliar with the newer therapeutic technologies, and admitting to needing
help may open the frightening possibility that they are "losing it." I
usually introduce the treatment in the context of optimal performance/peak
functioning training. I tell them that as we get older we experience
age-related declines in brain efficiency. Fortunately, we have found methods
for delaying these declines by applying the same technology that is used by
elite athletes. I tell them that the World Cup Soccer champs, the Italian
Team, every member of the team did neurotherapy - it was considered their
"secret weapon" as reported in the press. I then tell them that an efficient
brain, just like an efficient body, has fewer problems so any difficulties
she might be experiencing such as poor sleep, low motivation and low energy
correct themselves. The conditions that you describe should be treated by an
experienced neurotherapist. Unfortunately, I do not know of any certified
practitioners in Brisbane. There is a practitioner of general biofeedback
(not EEG) listed in NSW but there may be some practitioners in the process
of becoming certified. I would contact BCIA (www.BCIA.ORG) by phone and
determine if they can recommend a contact person in the area where your
mother resides.
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Q - Can neurotherapy help a person who has been diagnosed as having dysthymia? If so, what would be involved? What would neurotherapy for dysthymia involve?
A - The treatment for dysthymia is similar to that for depression. The first step is to do a brainwave assessment to determine the areas of inefficiency in brain functioning. After the area(s) are identified, we do neurotherapy to normalize brain functioning. If there are any psychological issues such as trauma, we do some brief adjunctive therapy to help process. We also generally prescribe some treatments that you administer to yourself at home to speed up the process. The success rate for neurotherapy in treatment of dysthymia and depression is excellent. |
Q - I was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder at age sixteen.
Only recently did I find a combination of medications that
works for me. Will this technique help
me with my disorder and could I undergo treatment while on medication or should I be off medication while doing it?
Also, I have a friend who suffers from anxiety, depression
and PTSD. Apparently he is part of 10% of the population
who cannot properly metabolize antidepressants. Would he be
eligible for treatment as well? He is currently considering
taking cortisol blockers that are only in the early stages
of being tested on patients.
A - Although neurotherapeutic treatment generally takes longer for clients on medication, treatment can proceed while medicated. Usually our clients are able to eliminate medication or at least markedly reduce the amounts required for stabilization. We treat many forms of depression including the various forms of bi-polar.
Regarding your friend, we routinely see clients who have been unsuccessfully treated by many practitioners or with many combinations of drugs. As you might know, medicating trauma is not a viable long term solution to the problem for it simply masks the traumatic emotional content. neurotherapy releases the brain activity associated with the trauma after the brain's stress tolerance functions have been normalized. After having treated many clients with PTSD including combat veterans, it has become apparent that these people have a condition that compromises their stress coping capability. There is some controversy regarding whether this inefficiency predates the PTSD or whether the inefficiency is caused by the emotional trauma. In any event, this condition is always found in clients with PTSD. It is likely that your friend also has a neurological predisposition to depressed mood states. After experiencing the trauma the depressed mood state manifested and the poor stress tolerance resulted in severe anxiety. The treatment of this condition usually involves normalizing the brain's stress coping area as well as the areas associated with the trauma and predisposition to depression. The first step, of course, is to do a brain assessment to determine the exact nature and location of the brain inefficiencies. |
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