r/Neurofeedback

I’ve had over 20 sessions and if anything I feel more anxious, but I wonder if it’s because of my lifestyle.

It seems like most people here have their life together, but what about people who don’t? I’ve had enough sessions of neurofeedback to expect a change but I don’t. But the thing is, I’m living with no direction, and am really behind from others in their late 20s, and sometimes it’s hard not to get anxious and depressed over what my future is like. I have had social anxiety since many years and it ruined every aspect of my life. I actually managed to calm myself but it’s through unhealthy coping mechanisms, like telling myself it’s ok that I’m so behind, thinking about how I at least have some savings, and basically removing my responsibility. But the older I get, the harder it is to avoid.

Should someone like me even expect an improvement from neurofeedback?

I'm an IT guy with some basic microcontroller experience and I've been dealing with insomnia for a while. Falling asleep isn't really the problem anymore – it's falling back asleep when I wake up at night. I want to try building a simple neurofeedback setup at home and I'm looking at the BioAmp EXG Pill with a small ESP32 board. The idea would be to train during the day and hopefully apply that state at night without any device.

A few questions before I buy anything:

• Is single channel EEG even worth it for neurofeedback or is it too noisy to be useful?
• What software would you recommend? I've seen BrainBay and OpenVIBE mentioned – is there something easier for a beginner?
• How does the audio feedback actually work in practice – is it literally just a monotone tone that gets louder when you hit the right brainwave state? Or is there something more to it?

Not expecting clinical quality, just want to know if this is worth pursuing before I spend money on hardware.

Thanks

How do caregivers actually find time to recover? It is not always just about workload. A lot of caregivers describe feeling like they never fully switch off, even when nothing is actively happening. There is this ongoing sense of being “on call” all the time, which slowly builds up over months or years.

That kind of constant alertness seems to make recovery harder than people expect. Even sleep or rest does not always feel fully restorative.

Some clinicians are exploring tools like neurofeedback and HRV biofeedback as possible supports for self-regulation along with more established methods like sleep and social support.

Do you see caregiver burnout more as a stress problem, or more as a recovery problem?

My practitioner told me it looked like I had high theta coherence during our session the other day, but I had to leave before we discussed it in detail. Can someone explain what that means? Could it explain why I have issues with DPDR?

Anyone INTPs have had a QEEG done as part of neurofeedback therapy? A (self-typed) INTP I know recently had one done, and the results were really interesting, especially the excessive alpha waves. His results lined up neatly with the INTP scans in Dario Nardi’s research.

This link takes you to a graphic of the various EEGs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mbti/s/RRGtVjuf74

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I am currently doing 5 minutes of a coherence protocol. It seems like my symptoms increase for a day or two afterwards, then settle. I have an extremely delicate nervous system due to chronic illness and a horrific past benzo withdrawal that gave me PTSD. I do Somatic Experiencing therapy for trauma as well, and I always feel more dysregulated for a couple days after a session, and then feel better.

Is my increase in symptoms a sign that my protocol (it was created by Dr. Robert Coben based off of a 32 channel qEEG) is wrong, or just that my brain takes some time to integrate new patterns?

I’m curious how people think about neurofeedback after they’ve had a good experience.

Do you see it more like physical therapy, something you do for a period of time until you reach a goal?

Or more like exercise or meditation, something you continue because the benefits are ongoing?

I’m interested in why you landed where you did.

I have ptsd since 4 years and I've done nearly 80 Neurofeedback sessions within 1,5 years in combination with other trauma therapies. I definitely feel improvements of my symptoms but when I look at my brainwaves at the end of each session, after all this time, not much has changed. My hi Beta is still incredibly high, my theta super low. Did somebody actually SEE the results on their brainscan after some time, have your waves actually improved?

Hey! I've been digging into the software that ships with consumer EEG headsets (Muse, OpenBCI) and a lot of it feels limited. For those who actually use these for research or biohacking: What metrics do you wish it had? What's the one thing existing tools get wrong? Genuinely curious to hear your thoughts.

https://preview.redd.it/5agddm1s689h1.png?width=4219&format=png&auto=webp&s=3ff500bde3047def363c3f4f34cddff84be8c836

I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the options. Is there a type of neurofeedback that is scientifically best supported? I was considering trying LENS neurofeedback since there is one near me, but I don't know if this would be best. Any advice?

For reference, I have a dysregulated nervous system related to a chronic illness.