Stress and Anxiety

“If you don’t think your anxiety, depression, sadness and stress impact your physical health, think again. All of these emotions trigger chemical reactions in your body, which can lead to inflammation and a weakened immune system. Learn how to cope, sweet friend. There will always be dark days.” – Kris Carr

The body’s stress response is designed to be temporary and infrequent. Stress is essential to life. It is good for you when it is in short bursts and happens only from time to time; at its most primal level it keeps us alive as well as increases our performance dramatically. However, chronic stress is a brain and body killer.

Modern lifestyle has helped create an epidemic of chronic stress and anxiety. The brain now receives overwhelming input that is in in a life or death situation throughout a normal school/work day. Anxiety goes far beyond “stinking thinking” and often becomes seemingly impossible for someone to simply “think positive thoughts” to stop the relentless feeling of butterflies in the stomach or tension headaches.

These physiological responses become habituated in the brain as network patterns; the brain simply has lost its flexibility to calm itself in the usual manner. Whether you or someone you love suffers from anxiety and/or panic attacks, proper nutrition and brain therapies might be able to get the source of the problem.

A healthy, balanced and properly regulated nervous system will produce the appropriate brain waves at the appropriate levels and at the appropriate time for any given situation. When your brain cannot do this, it is dysregulated. We can help balance your brainwaves and thereby improve the quality of your life.

Brainwaves and Neurotransmitters

Anxiety and panic attacks are associated with decreased alpha waves, increased high beta waves, and can be affected by low delta and theta waves. There is a delicate balance of the chemicals called neurotransmitters required within the body for best emotional and physiological health. Certain brain waves are related to the release of certain neurotransmitters. Alpha waves are associated with meditation and a sense of inner peacefulness created by the release of acetylcholine. Beta waves in the high frequencies can cause agitation and anxiety perhaps caused by too much dopamine release. Delta waves are produced during deep sleep and are essential to releasing human growth hormone and serotonin, both of which are essential to repairing the brain and body. Theta waves instigate the release of GABA which balances the brain by inhibiting over-excitement. It is the “calming” or “peacemaker” chemical in the brain. You need GABA to induce relaxation and reduce stress and anxiety. Anxiety and panic attacks are caused by more than fear and insecurities. They can be chemically driven states from an imbalanced and poorly regulated brain.

Brain = Behavior

As the health of our brain declines so does the quality of our behavior in the world. Talk therapy can be very challenging by itself to correct anxiety and panic when the networks and chemistry created from these dysregulated patterns are inflexible. By looking at your individual biochemistry and your brainwaves via QEEG brain imaging, we can discover if we can “turn off” the brain centers that are making your therapy efforts harder than they necessary.

BBS Solution is Neuroplasticity

The brain can change its structure and improve its function if it is properly trained to do so. This neuroplasticity of the brain is the basis of all learning. Just like there are tissue changes in muscle after exercise, the brain makes changes after brain training as well. Metabolism increases, oxygen flow increases, and new synaptic tissue connections are made between cells within the brain. The brain learns to improve its own self-regulation.