Learn How to Treat Your Focus Problems

It’s normal sometimes to feel distracted, stressed, and overwhelmed enough that you can’t focus on the task at hand. But when focus problems impact your ability to get daily tasks and work accomplished, it might be helpful to seek treatment. 

At Abbey Neurodynamic Center, our team of neurologists uses a variety of treatments for focus problems that can help whether you have a disorder like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or whether there’s another reason why focusing is difficult. 

Our multimodal approach to treating focus problems can help improve impulse control and your ability to pay attention while decreasing symptoms of hyperactivity that make it hard to focus. Here are just some of the many treatments we offer.

Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback can improve the function of your brain by helping it to develop new neural connections. This treatment helps with focus problems by rewiring your brain to improve your ability to process information and sustain your attention. 

Using an electroencephalogram (EEG), we monitor your brain’s electrical activity while you participate in a variety of activities, like video games. Every time you focus on controlling your video game, for example, you get rewarded by the character on screen able to move faster. When you start losing focus, the character moves slower. 

When you reward your brain for healthy activities, like focusing on the video game, you start to learn new behaviors. With enough practice, these behaviors become automatic. 

Executive function training 

Executive function training can help improve cognitive skills like attention, processing speed, focus, and memory. When you have a hard time keeping and shifting focus, you can benefit from learning skills that help you maintain focus.

One of these skills is learning how to break a task or project into steps or subtasks. Through executive function training, we practice activities and do exercises that require you to focus on smaller tasks as a way to tackle a bigger one.

You might also enhance your focusing skills with activities like reading, puzzles, and math problems, all of which require concentration and focus to complete.

Counseling 

Focus problems are often the result of mental health issues like anxiety, depression, stress, feelings of being overwhelmed, or a traumatic life event. Working with a trained therapist or counselor can help you tackle these issues so you can better concentrate. 

When you feel less anxious, stressed, or depressed, it can bring you the mental clarity you need to focus on your daily tasks. Counseling can also help you learn to set boundaries so you feel less overwhelmed by taking on too much at home, work, or school. 

When you’ve experienced a traumatic life event, you may get easily distracted or find it hard to concentrate. The right kind of counseling can help you heal and learn healthy ways to cope so you can focus on whatever you need to get accomplished.

At-home strategies

While there are many treatments for focus problems that we offer in the office, there are things you can do at home to help improve your ability to focus. By not taking on more than you can handle, staying organized through lists and calendars, and following a regular meal, exercise, and bedtime routine, you can help yourself stay focused on day-to-day tasks.

Take breaks, meditate, and practice mindfulness to slow your body and mind. Making a point of giving yourself a mental break can go a long way to providing the clarity and stamina you need to focus.

To learn more about how you can treat your focus problems, call our office in Palo Alto, California at 650-210-7922, or send us a message online today.