When you boil it down and strip the technical terms off of it, LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback System) is really just a way of nudging your brainwaves until they fall into healthier patterns. It's done gently and carefully, more light prodding than anything else. The results, however, can be remarkable. Presently there are conflicting clinical studies on the effectiveness of LENS, but a truly staggering host of positive case studies in the ten years the system has been in use.
The basis behind LENS is fairly simple. Through the course of their lives, people experience traumas: both physical impacts to the head and mental and emotional traumas. The loss of a loved one, or a divorce, or losing your job. All of these things hurt people, putting a strain on their minds and functioning. In the brain, this can be seen in the form of depressed brainwaves. If you imagine brainwaves as a wavy pattern, depressed brainwaves are much shorter, smaller waves.
A sample EEG of a brainwave.
LENS nudges those brainwaves toward more normal functioning. It's interesting to note that the brain will adjust to a more positive brainwave pattern, but not a more negative one. The body heals itself, or at least tries.
My personal experience with LENS so far has been mixed. Over three sessions, I've had a reduction of anxiety and an improvement in overall mood. Both these things have been unrelated to anything in my life changing. My job is still what it was, my living situation hasn't changed, nor have my bills and the amount of stress leveled on me by life. So to my understanding, something is clearly happening. Not everything is positive, though. I've had a marathon headache over Thanksgiving weekend, an oddity in my vision for a half hour or so, a night where I couldn't sleep very much, and a short-lived spike in my temper. All the bad side effects have gone away, given time, leaving the good ones for longer periods of time.
After each negative side effect, the doctor has adjusted the nudges to my brainwaves, so as not to provoke the same response. So far I've had no repeats of any bad side effects. I'm hopeful that the good effects will continue, and as we get to understand how my particular brain functions, the bad side effects will stop occurring.
I'm outwardly open and cautiously positive about this therapy.
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