Bio Feedback?

Fear rips a screech from Dr. Jean Ann Craig as the sharply turning front tires of my bright red Toyota skid across the gravel shoulder, spreading marble sized stones across a neatly trimmed lawn. I straighten out the wheels and let the car coast down the road. The doctor, a retired school psychologist, and I met at a National Speakers’ Association meeting. She’s a retired school psychologist who did behavior modification bio feedback therapy with kids who acted out their anger in everything from angry outbursts to more subtle forms of anger expression.
My coasting car slows almost to a stop on the deserted residential street. I look at the pale doctor.

“Where did that clown come from?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” she said. “But he shouldn’t be driving!”

“Now what were you saying,” I ask eager to hear what she started to say, “about never hearing
of bio feedback being used on a person with brain damage?”

“That’s it. I wonder if bio feedback would work on a person with brain damage.

I smile. “Why do you ask?”

“I’ve noticed you seem to get mad fairly easy. Have you always been that way or have things been worse since your accident?”

“Things have been way worse since my crash. What I remember being told is that my brain damage ruptured my hypo thalamus gland, which controls your emotional responses to things happening around you. I was never real mellow, but I used to be way easier going than I am now. Why do you ask?”

“Have you ever had any bio-feedback?”

“No.”

“Would you be interested in trying it?”

“Yeah sure, if you think it’ll help.”

“I honestly don’t know, so I won't charge you. But there’s a chance that it will.”

“Could it make me worse?”

“It won’t make you worse.”

“Why hasn’t anybody told me about this before?”

“Modern medicine likes to stick with traditional approaches.”

“Stupid people! You mean I’ve been locked in this box of negative thinking and loud, angry responses to stuff and there’s possibly a way out?" It seemed unbelievable. "You mean my insurance pays for me to go to traditional counselors that obviously don’t work instead of suggesting we try something that might work?”

Dr. Jean Ann Craig shrugs.”

“The school district paid you to do bio feedback for years, so they obviously know it works on some folk. Why didn’t any of my doctors suggest it to me?”

She shrugs again.

I let an exasperated sigh escape. “Stupid people! I wish I could lock them in the box I'm in.”