The
Spirit-Mind-Brain-Body Connection
"Training
Our Brains for a 'Change'-
Adding qEEG to the equation for Improved Results"
Joe
A. Thomas, M.A., CCAS, CCS
Advanced
Neuro Therapy Services
Copyright,
2002, All rights reserved.
A
Personal and Professional Journey
In the early 90's
while working with legal offenders with addictive histories, I found
that novel approaches would interest even the most difficult ones.
Most seemed intrigued that the mind and body were connected and not
separate. It often helped to level the ideas that addiction was a
"mind thing that affected the weak."
Through the use
of indirect methods such as Bill Moyer's "Healing and the
Mind" addictions series, I found that I attained good results
from persons with addictive histories that typically would have spent
the duration of their treatment program avoiding, instead of addressing,
their alcohol and drug issues.
As I progressed
in addictions work, I watched and learned from each group and each
person that I worked with which helped me to find clues to unravel
the mysteries surrounding addictions and those struggling to recover.
It was during these periods that I began to explore alternative approaches
to treating addiction that operated from the Spirit - Mind - Body
paradigm. The experiences that I had at that time, and continue to
expand upon today, confirm my growing belief that treatment programs
have unknowingly missed opportunities to expand the numbers able to
get sober--with less attempts and more successes by using expanded
treatment approaches.
Treatment
Approaches Must Be Expanded
I have found that
addiction is not as cut and dry, as many believe it to be. I think
that many professionals would like to take a cookie cutter approach
to the field and boil it down to a series of steps and follow the
numbers approach. I think that this approach is a valid one for some
people. I cannot say what that number is but I have speculated that
it represents the category of individuals that would recover in any
program no matter what the duration or intensity.
The
Missing Link Is In The Brain
(the most difficult cases yield clues)
What has interested
me the most are the persons experiencing a number of addictive behaviors
that can be complicated by such things as depression, manic depressive
illness, attention deficit disorder and those suffering from chronic
pain conditions. I guess you could easily see from this listing that
it is a population that ranks among most helping professionals as
the difficult persons with which to work.
While some may
find these persons difficult and unable to work with effectively in
treatment, I believe that these are the ones that need the treatment
most. Continuing research has promoted this position and indicate
that these persons have biochemical markers such as dopamine deficiency
(Blum's Reward Deficiency Syndrome) shown in frontal lobe disturbances
noted in the neuroimaging studies of excessive theta and beta
clusters.
Providing
Evidence For Treatment Interventions
It is also in
these studies that I think that the disease model is finding renewed
support among the critics of this model. By noticeable cortical hyperexcitability
and disconnection of the frontal lobes associated with addiction,
we can now increase the strength of the implied connections that addiction
is not as different as one might think from other diseases such as
schizophrenia and even Alzheimer's.
Through the use
of testing such as QEEG's and neurocognitive testing, we can now identify
individuals that have abnormal EEG signatures that can contribute
to cognitive and motivation issues in their sobriety efforts. By
using this information in treatment we can expand interventions that
are stage specific to Gorksi's steps to recovery and involve these
persons with brainwave biofeedback and autonomic interventions to
shift the persons ability to get sober and maintain it with fewer
relapses.
Wishful
Dreaming?
Recent advances
in technology has made these tools available for use in treatment
programs. When combined with the "Memories to Change"ã
protocols, individuals have made changes and enhanced their quality
of life. The research dates to the work of Eugene Pennington conducted
at the Veterans Administration inpatient treatment centers for alcoholics.
He found that including EEG biofeedback with traditional treatment
resulted in an 85 to 90% successful completion rate of the program.
Furthermore, these persons were tracked by the Menninger Institute
for the next 36 months and they remained abstinent during this period.
That initial study was conducted in 1988. Continuing studies since
that time have sufficiently replicated these findings.
Resistance?
One would assume,
that with the advances that have been made by the studies above, that
there are people seeking out this treatment, right? Actually, the
inverse has been the case. It prompted associate editor and neurologist
Frank H. Duffy, MD., to make a commentary concerning this fact in
the medical journal Clinical Electroencephalography. He wrote "the
[research] literature which lacks any negative study of substance,
suggests that EEG biofeedback therapy should play a major therapeutic
role in many difficult areas. In my opinion if any medication had
demonstrated such a wide spectrum of efficacy it would be universally
accepted and widely used … It is a field to be taken seriously by
all."
I believe that
the approach that I am promoting to work with persons with addictions
from a spirit-mind-brain-body perspective will be taken seriously
by all looking for effective solutions to living a sober lifestyle.
See
also: Articles
- Addictions -"Looking
Holistically At Recovering From Addictiveness"
J. Thomas