PMS - Those three letters can strike a sense of dread into anyone who has to deal regularly with the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. The mood swings, cramps, and the general feeling of malaise, can really make for an unpleasant few days, not to mention the strain PMS can put on your relationships. Prescription and over-the-counter drugs can take the edge off, but they can also leave you feeling groggy and still not functioning at your full potential.
For some, these symptoms are mild and tolerable, but if you are one of those women who have very intense premenstrual symptoms, PMS is no joking matter. Especially when you multiply those few days per month by the amount of months you have left until menopause - that is a lot of time to spend feeling so miserable.
Then there is menopause, which is not really something to look forward to, either. Hormone imbalances you experience during pre-menopause and menopause can wreak all sorts of havoc on your mental and physical state.
PMS and menopause have many characteristics in common with depression. Not too surprisingly, many women get some relief from PMS with the use of antidepressants. However, as is often the case when using medication to manage symptoms, problems arise, once again, when the medication is discontinued. Medication, in this case, is doing little to alter the structure or the origin of the problem.
Clinical studies, however, have found that neurofeedback therapy can be nothing short of amazing for PMS. Conditions such as PMS, which are affected by stress, can be particularly responsive to neurofeedback treatment. In fact, in one study, after 24 sessions, 9 out of 10 women no longer suffered from PMS in a way that interfered with their lives. Some women were fortunate enough to experience no symptoms whatsoever after completing the 24 sessions of neurofeedback.
How Can Neurofeedback Therapy Bring Relief to PMS Sufferers?
PMS is all about disregulation; "out of whack" hormonal cycles that effectively introduce a further state of imbalance throughout many of the body's systems. Neurofeedback serves as a "regulatory committee" of sorts, allowing you to guide your cycles back into a state of balance.
During neurofeedback therapy sessions, you will be comfortably relaxed. You will spend each session listening to soothing musical sounds, watching pleasant imagery, or playing games. Through a variety of "exercises," your brain will receive positive reinforcement when the brain waves operate in the desired manner, such as causing a "spaceship" on a computer monitor to fly, or moving a "Pac-Man" icon. These changes in the way your brain functions will gradually become long lasting.
We are just beginning to understand the many different ways in which this discovery can be used, and how many situations it can successfully help. It is an exciting time in history, to be sure.
