What is Brain State Conditioning?

[Jebs217]

Hi,

A friend from Sacramento, CA did some "brain training" that is properly called Brain State Conditioning and had what he described as a huge decrease in PTSD symptoms.  I was wondering if anyone knows about this method or how it works?

Thanks,          Jebs

[Paxiled]

Yeah, let us know.  What I do know about PTSD is the treatment involves taking the person back to the traumatic event and relive it so it becomes demystified.

[thepixies]

Never heard of it but I know about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which sounds very similar, if not the same.

CBT is basically just a technique where you can do stuff to train your brain to work a bit differently. So if you are scared and anxious about social situations (like me), you fight your usual thoughts and replace them with different ones. So instead of standing there thinking, "OH GOD! Everyone is looking at me and judging me aargh!" you instead do numerous other things. You perhaps think of a really happy childhood memory, or a hilarious movie you saw, or a situation where you laughed really hard with some friends. Or you could think about a "safe place", just somewhere extremely peaceful and serene. Like a big cozy bed with fresh linen, or a beautiful gentle stream with birds tweeting and lush green grass. Also, instead of thinking about *them* looking at *you*, how about you look at them instead. What are people wearing? Do they have nice shoes? Do they they look tired? What is the room like you are in? Does it have nice lighting or bad lighting? Is the wallpaper peeling off?

Basically you just stop your brain from thinking "bad stuff" and you occupy it with other nicer things. It sounds kind of silly :)

But it works... For me, I am combining this with breathing exercises too, it can totally change my mood. I literally have just started this, and yet the other day I was talking to a friend and I was about to have a panic attack mid conversation... It was just all going crazy in my head and my heart started pumping and it was all about to go horribly wrong. So I started my nice breathing trick, then I briefly thought about some funny and happy moments, and then I quickly turned my attention on him and the room we were in. In literally 10 seconds my panic had stopped and because I was so pleased with myself... I actually ended up feeling quite happy! It was a very strange turn around but one that I really appreciate. I love it. I hope to get better at it the more I do it.

p.s.
If you are interested in this kind of thing, you can find books about it. The one my therapist suggested is called "Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness: By Gillian Butler". If you suffer from something different you could maybe get a different book, but the CBT philosophy will work in a similar way and will hopefully help you as well as it helped me.

[MRLEWIS]

If a friend told you about it, then why not ask him, then get back with us to lets us know how it works?