ANXIETY

Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. Anxiety can be helpful, motivating us and pushing us to do better. But severe anxiety is debilitating, affecting everything, from sleep, attention, and memory to every aspect of our personal lives.

Gray Matters, located in both Westport and Greenwich, CT., works with both children and adults with anxiety. We use sophisticated brain imaging to analyze brain function, allowing us to see and measure the over-arousal that defines anxiety. We then use advanced, 3-dimensional neurofeedback to reward improvements and reduce symptoms - effectively, without medication, and with lasting effects. Subsequent recordings are compared to the initial assessment, allowing us to measure change.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 31.1% of U.S adults experience an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives, and 19.1% of adults had an anxiety disorder in the past year. Among adolescents and children, the figure is 31.9%, with 8.3% considered severely impaired. But anxiety in children and adults can appear differently, with younger children often unable to understand or express their emotions, leading to misdiagnosis. Two thirds of all children coming to Gray Matters with a previous diagnosis of ADHD have over-aroused brains associated with anxiety, rather than under-aroused, ADHD brains.