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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
Neurofeedback tends to look decent while it is being delivered and then drift back, and the studies that followed people afterwards did not find lasting benefit. Practice at the task, the attention of a kind adult once a week and everybody's hope can all lift things for a while. So the durability question is worth putting to any treatment: if it only works while you are paying for it, what has it actually treated?
God does not change the condition of a people unless they change what is in themselves (Quran 13:11). Change that stays tends to sit in the person rather than in the equipment.
الرعد
لَهُۥ مُعَقِّبَٰتࣱ مِّنۢ بَيۡنِ يَدَيۡهِ وَمِنۡ خَلۡفِهِۦ يَحۡفَظُونَهُۥ مِنۡ أَمۡرِ ٱللَّهِۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوۡمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُواْ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمۡۗ وَإِذَآ أَرَادَ ٱللَّهُ بِقَوۡمࣲ سُوٓءࣰ ا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُۥۚ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن دُونِهِۦ مِن وَالٍ
each person has guardian angels before him and behind, watching over him by God’s command. God does not change the condition of a people [for the worse] unless they change what is in themselves, but if He wills harm on a people, no one can ward it off–– apart from Him, they have no protector
Qur’an 13:11read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In a triple blind trial with adults, EEG neurofeedback did no better than sham neurofeedback, which is the comparison that matters because the sham keeps everything except the active signal. That does not mean nothing happens in a session. It does mean that what people notice cannot be credited to the brainwave training itself.
Schönenberg M, Wiedemann E, Schneidt A, Scheeff J, Logemann A, Keune PM, Hautzinger M. (2017). Neurofeedback, sham neurofeedback, and cognitive-behavioural group therapy in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a triple-blind, randomised, controlled trial.. The lancet. Psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A real change in how someone functions carries on when the sessions stop, and a temporary lift does not.
Keep something to eat and drink within reach for hard conversations. Handing someone a biscuit and a glass of water often settles a room faster than any instruction does.
One senior researcher in this field is approached by ADHD app startups roughly once a month and no longer takes part, on the view that the companies are not seriously trying to build something that works.
Being told you are too sensitive is usually someone else's comfort talking. Feeling things strongly is not the problem to solve; what to do once the feeling has arrived is.