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  • Driving while Distracted

    NeurOptimal® Neurofeedback for ADHDWhy is this post on the blog? It’s not directly related to NeurOptimal® Dynamical Neurofeedback® – or is it?

    Driving while distracted

    A few years ago, Jane E. Brody in her New York Times Personal Health column wrote an article called Keeping Eyes on Distracted Driving’s Toll.  Jane quoted Dr. Amy N. Ship of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ship wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine: “Driving while distracted is roughly equivalent to driving drunk.” Not good.

    Here’s another quote from Jane’s article:

    The National Safety Council estimates that at least 1.6 million crashes – 28 percent of the total – are caused each year by drivers using cellphones or texting. Sometimes those crashes are deadly. The National Highway Traffic Safety Commission reported that in 2008, approximately one in six fatal accidents resulted from a driver being distracted.

    Jane’s article starts by asking if you have ever done any of a list of activities while driving. Picking something off the floor. Turning to talk to someone in the back seat. Putting on make up. I doubt if any of us could say no to all of them. I know I can’t.

    We’re probably all especially aware of the problem of texting while driving. Thousands lose their lives NeurOptimal® Neurofeedback for Anxietyeach year, and hundreds of thousands are injured. Yet we keep doing it, along with other activities that are best done without having only one hand on the steering wheel of a 4,000 ton machine.

    One way that NeurOptimal® neurofeedback can be helpful with this and other risky activities is this: I have found over the years that my clients report that it’s easier to do what is good for them – nutrition, exercise, leave a bad job – and also easier to not do what isn’t good for them.

    Catherine Boyer, MA, LCSW-R
    New York Neurofeedback

2 Responses so far.

  1. Driving distracted with a vehicle is like waving around a loaded weapon. It’s a dangerous practice.

  2. 28% of total crashes occurring just for using cell phones means how much lives we can save if we ban cell phones from our automobiles.