“Is biofeedback helpful?”

Yes it can be helpful if you work at it. It will not happen overnight, but if you stick with it you may find it a helpful tool in relieving stress in your day to day life.

Yes

Absolutely! It's a wonderful option that should be first string for everyone. Our bodies hold and convey our feelings to us, and if we can learn to listen to our bodies' sensory feedback and regulate our internal response, it changes our experience of things. It can make us go from agitated to calm, and when our bodies feel calm, we don't experience being stressed the same way. This is how we become in charge of our emotional experiences. Stress isn't a "thing" that exists independent of our response to it. Though there are commonly perceived pressures and stressful events, our interpretation of what is or isn't stressful is what lands in our bodies. Prior to feeling stressed and having to manage it, we can also learn how to interpret events differently, such that they don't affect us in the same way. For example, the more we feel in control of our internal experiences, the more we are able not to feel helplessly victimized by them, i.e., we can choose how to respond, and we can regulate our reactions. Learning to be sensitive to our own heart rate, racing thoughts, sweat, shakiness, etc., is important data that enables us to face stressful events with a sense of mastery. Too much stress can shorten the lifespan - biofeedback can literally extend your life!

Dear Sir/Madam:
 
Yes, biofeedback can be very helpful in releasing tension. As the title says, it is feedback from your body that brings awareness, helping you then in choosing a more relaxed state. You can also add exercise to your daily routine to let go of stress. And complement these with seeing a psychologist or a therapist so you can get to the root of what is inducing the stress and deal with it and release it.
 
Take care,
 
Dr. Sonpal

Absolutely!

Absolutely yes.

Yes, it can teach you how to modify your stress reactions. Nowadays there are many good portable, affordable, small devices (about the size of a mobile phone) which you can be trained to use on your own. Easiest is to go to a biofeedback specialist who can train you in a few sessions. They can tell you which device to purchase, or perhaps act as a reseller of one (without making a profit, just for your convenience). I have trained several people, including a temporarily stressed-out member of my family who was taking grad school exams.

Peace,

Marian

It can be very helpful or not as much. It looks like it won’t make it worse for stress, etc. Go for it or research and try to learn to let things go. Easier said than done, but we can at times learn to let it go no matter what. We all need that.

Yes for anxiety

Yes. Biofeedback monitors the stress response our bodies have, and can alert you to a decrease/increase in this response. So, its aim is to monitor this while you learn relaxation techniques to decrease your stress response (and of course your stress level).


Teresa Y. Chapa-Cantu, Ph.D.

Please keep in mind this answer is for information purposes only and does not constitute treatment.

I view stress as events occurring in your life and the lives of those close to you (both positive and negative) that put demands on your time, attention, and emotions. Even someone going through a very happy event like a new relationship or a big life transition like a wedding can feel happy and stressed at the same time. Events and circumstances that make us feel frequently worried and overwhelmed obviously are hard to manage also.

Biofeedback can't control the events that are stressing the person, but it is a good way to learn techniques to help control the physical reactions our bodies naturally have to stress. When done well, biofeedback interventions give more immediate and clearer information about our body's stress responses than we can get on our own. Hence the name.

Biofeedback is normally paired with an evaluation and interviewing to understand what stressors a person is experiencing, the unique ways that person's body reacts to the stressors, and specific techniques to calm down the stress response. The actual feedback information helps a person learn the best ways to apply those techniques (like deep muscle relaxation or hand/foot warming, self-talk to help control worry).

Biofeedback can't control stress, but it is a really good way to measure our stress levels and learn to manage them effectively.