So many people ask, “Can you use neurofeedback and take ADHD medications?” The answer is yes. There are many studies that show, even for people who are on medication, their brain will still identify as using the ADHD adult pattern. This is seen visually when they have a qEEg brain map performed to diagnose or confirm that they have adult ADHD.
Watch the video I made for a quick explanation and keep reading below to learn more about the topic.
How Can I Tell If I Have ADHD?
Even if you’re on medication, the brain pattern for adult ADHD will show up on your evaluation. Science shows that the medication doesn’t work enough to mediate the results on your qEEG brain map. Thus, your brain map will show adult ADHD even if you’re on medication. Now you can perform your own brain map at home and have the results interpreted by the doctors at Leigh Brain & Spine over a private zoom meeting. Find out more about Home Brain Mapping HERE on Dr. Trish Leigh’s YouTube channel.
Does Neurofeedback Work if You’re on Medication?
Secondly, other studies show that even if you are on medication you can successfully use Neurofeedback brain training. Neurofeedback can be used to improve the underlying brain pattern that’s still driving behaviors and symptoms. Medication doesn’t change the brain pattern that causes ADHD, it is simply helping your brain deal with the symptoms. I liken medication to a band-aid of sorts. This is because a bandaid is a temporary solution for a cut. It doesn’t necessarily help the cut underneath, it helps alleviate some of the pain though.
RELATED: http://leighbrainandspine.com/what-adhd-does-to-the-brain/
How Is Neurofeedback Effective?
I like to think of Neurofeedback as stitches for that cut. If you were to get stitches for a wound, the stitches would not do anything to your body besides gently pulling the skin back together so your skin could heal itself. Neurofeedback acts in the same way. It doesn’t put anything into your brain. It gently helps the wound back together just like stitches. Essentially what happens is that Neurofeedback teaches your brain to make less slow processing speed and more of perfect processing speed for calm focus. When your brain uses better processing speed, ADHD symptoms decrease or can be completely eliminated.
Neurofeedback and Medication: What is the Interaction?
You can start training your brain even though you are taking medication. The medication may artificially lower the levels of slow processing speed in your brain making training easier to start off with. Then when you’re working with your provider, we monitor the levels of how your brain is performing with less medication over time. With every neurofeedback session, your brain produces a graph of brain performance. This way we can see the data from every single one of your sessions. I can see if your brain performance is improving within sessions and across the sessions. Therefore, it allows me to be able to see how much your brain is improving and how quickly. Of course, I’ll show all the data to you. This way you can see definitively, with your own eyes, how your brain is improving and how it directly impacts your ability to feel and perform better.
Together we look at how your brain is improving over time. There will be points in your brain training program when your brain is working better. This means that you could reduce your medication without feeling any difference in your behavior. Before your medication is reduced you will be encouraged to collaborate with your prescribing doctor to be able to make that decision. But, the data will help you make a wise decision. As you continue to wean off your medication you will feel stronger and healthier with improved abilities to calmly focus. However, you can still do the training on your medication and for many people, they’re able to reduce or even get off their medication once we heal the underlying brain pattern.
Get Started Today
If you’re interested in concurring with your adult ADHD, then please visit my website at drtrishleigh.com. Go under the personal neuro training tab, where I talk about my coaching programs that use neurofeedback in its most simple form. Or visit my professional website at leighbrainandspine.com.