These days, it may seem like everyone has ADHD. That's actually not far from the truth, as numbers have been steadily rising over the past 20 years or so. In fact, an old measurement used to diagnosed ADHD is no longer valid since so much of the population fits that criteria (Arns et al., 2013)! We don't know exactly why there's been such a large increase in ADHD and ADHD-type symptoms. We can narrow down the potential causes, however, by looking at how people's lives have changed over the past 20-30 years. More screen time is the first thing to come to mind. As a result of constant phone or computer use, the brain needs more and more stimulation to keep it focused. Blue light can interfere with sleep, too, and poor sleep is another factor that worsens ADHD. Diet is most likely another culprit behind rising ADHD rates.

Addressing all of these things can help, but the brain of a person with ADHD or ADHD-type symptoms has gotten "stuck" in these kind of patterns. We need to help it shift gears, and a more permanent way of doing that is through the techniques neurofeedback.

Through state of the art technology, neurofeedback can monitor a person's brain activity and see what is causing those symptoms on a neurological level. For instance, ADHD is often associated with slow, daydreamy-type brain waves that move over the area of the brain used for problem solving. This is why people with the condition may often seem tired or "in another place." Medication can help address these brainwaves, but that's only a temporary solution - once the person stops taking it, the problem will just return. Furthermore, many people simply don't want to take medication!

Let's Talk About Headaches

Headaches can really ruin your day, and the various types seem do that in different ways: tension headaches, for instance, add stress to stress, making you feel even more worn out than you already were. Migraines, on the other hand, create a pulsating pain in one or more regions of your head and may have you feeling dizzy or even nauseous. The causes of each type may be different for each person. All you know for sure is that you want them to go away. Making headaches go away is exactly what we're going to focus on in this post. Below, we'll focus on the most common types of headaches, which are tension headaches and migraines.

Consider - there are at least two things that every highly-successful person has in common. First, they're motivated to succeed. Second, they have the ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Makes sense, right? Without motivation the person would never get started on doing what they want to do, and without the ability to hyper-focus on it they'd never get it done.

This simple fact probably has you asking, "How can I boost my motivation and concentration levels?" Well, we usually think of things like "motivation" or "concentration" as mysterious intangibles, something some people just while others don't. That's wrong. Neither motivation nor concentration are intangibles - they each have a biological basis in the brain in the form of physical, electrical pulses. Additionally, not everyone who is highly motivated and can hyper-focus on projects has always been that way. We know, because we've seen for ourselves the transformation that can take place when someone works on the biological source of these attributes - the brain.

At the Center of it All Lies the Brain

Let's talk about the brain for a second. It doesn't get enough credit! Our society often blames a person for their inability to concentrate, or their lethargy, or their difficulty in moving from one task to the next. These things are talked about like they're some kind of character flaw. Really, though they're all based in the brain. Would you say the way a person's brain behaves is that person's fault? Certainly not. If the brain is the source of these issues, can we somehow change the way the brain works, coaxing it in the desired direction? Thanks to modern imaging technology, the answer is yes. The Trifecta: Neurofeedback, Biofeedback, and Neurostimulation….

Mental and psychological problems are very difficult for those who experience them - that much is obvious.

What causes them to occur, however, isn't always obvious.

We know, at least, that they come from the brain and the mind. This is why those who want to help sufferers live better lives ask:

"How can we understand a person's mind?"

Traditional psychology answers this question with "written tests and assessments". They offer personality and behavior evaluations, clinical interviews, IQ tests, and even career or work planning tests.

Each test is useless on its own - the idea is that they all come together to provide a complete picture of a person's mental situation, which is why they have to take all of them.

The stumbling block is that each of these tests along with the interview can take 1-2 hours a piece. This means a person is sitting there in the office for something like 8 hours, not to mention they need to spend thousands of dollars for this service.

For all that time and money, there seems to be one very important thing these psychological evaluations are missing: the brain!

It's so obvious.

Neurofeedback is a relatively new technique in the world of mental health that's been making waves - in fact, we wouldn't be surprised if you've come across the term once or twice before.

But why is it such a big deal? Well, for one, neurofeedback works: it can help the brain recover from problematic conditions and behaviors. Yes, we're here to reassure you that there is hope, even for the most recalcitrant of disorders. Never give up!

Secondly, neurofeedback does this without any prescription drug use whatsoever. This is something parents worried about the effects medications such as Ritalin could have on their children are happy to hear.

It goes without saying that the human brain is an incredible organ - after all, it's at the center of what makes us human! The amazing human brain allows us to reason, learn, tell jokes, create stories and music, and communicate and receive complex information through speech or the written word.

The brain also filters our experience of the world around us. Think about that for a minute: everything you see around you, every reaction to every experience you go through, is regulated and communicated by the brain.