Sure, prescription medication seems like a convenient solution to suppress the symptoms of a Functional Brain Disorder. But do these drugs even work? And what about the risks and the side effects?
Is drug-free Neurotherapy with Neurofeedback Brain Training a better way to solve the underlying problems in the Brain?
Functional Brain Disorders are not infectious diseases that can be “cured” with pharmaceuticals. The effectiveness of Brain drugs for the suppression of symptoms is “debated” between experts.
Let’s agree that psycho-drugs in general are — at best — like crutches: They help you limp, hinder you walking and stop you from running.
That leaves us with Dependence, Side Effects and long term Risks. Studies show a significantly increased risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia for some Brain drugs; and it may be true for most of them.
When there is something wrong with our laptop or desktop computer, we call that a computer bug. We might even think that it’s a “real pest”, when our communication equipment isn’t working as designed.
And still, nobody in his right mind would expect that an exterminator could fix that with toxic chemicals. Everybody understands that a computer “bug” is faulty electrical activity — and not an infestation with living organisms like termites and cockroaches, right?
Functional Brain Disorders are faulty electrical activity in the Brain that cannot be fixed with medication.
When you are struck down by an infectious disease, you need to see a doctor. A laboratory test (e.g. blood, urine, stool) will identify the bug or pathogen (bacterium, virus, fungus …) and determine the diagnosis.
In contrast to bug-infested houses, people usually don’t get sprayed. Instead, “diseased” humans take • anti-bacterial • anti-viral •anti-fungal medication to kill the bug that caused the disease. Lucky for us, pharma medicine is quite good at “pestilence control.”
According to the so-called Medical Model, “Health is the absence of Disease”. Thanks to clean water, sufficient food and effective meds, hardly anyone in the Western world dies of Typhoid Fever or Smallpox anymore.
Running out of diseased customers, the pharma-medical industry now “encourages” doctors and the media to apply the Medical Model to any condition of human unwell-being.
So, it has become common practice to label every available complaint as a “disease” and blame it on “genetics”. That’s good for business, but bad for people with Functional Brain Disorders.
However, there are health conditions
• that are not caused by infections
• that don’t show up in lab tests
• that have more than just one cause.
When health is not in order, but there is no bug to kill with drugs, the condition is better named “Disorder”, for example:
• Body: Metabolic or Immune Disorders
• Mind: Personality Disorders
• Brain: Functional Brain Disorders
All our Abilities, Behaviours and Experiences are generated by electrical activity in our Brains. Faulty Brain activity leads to
• unwanted Experiences
• bothersome Behaviours and
• substandard Abilities.
Depression, Anxiety and the symptoms of PTSD are unwanted Experiences. Seizures, Tics and Migraine attacks are bothersome Behaviours of the Brain. Poor Attention and bad Memory are substandard Abilities due to deficient Brain function.
Problems with Brain Function are neither “Diseases”, nor “Mental Illnesses” but Functional Brain Disorders. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
CT-scans, MRI and DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging) show us the structure of the connections in our Brains, while QEEG Brain Mapping and LoRETA reveal the function of the networks which are the basis of our abilities, behaviours and experiences.
Therefore, instead of accepting stigmatising labels like “psychosomatic” or “mental illness”, patients and health professionals should rather understand that Functional Brain Disorders are caused by faulty electrical Brain activity that can be re-normalised with Neurotherapy and Neurofeedback.
Sometimes, drugs can be necessary to temporarily “manage” the symptoms of a Functional Brain Disorder.
However, patients should keep in mind that prescription medication does not truly “fix” the faulty circuits in our Brains that make us miserable.
Comprehensive Neurotherapy with Neurofeedback is the logical tool to re-train and re-normalise faulty Brain activity — safe, non-invasive and drug-free. Therefore: Why Neurotherapy? Because it’s the best therapy for Functional Brain Disorders — duh.
