So far, nothing. No effect, side effect, positive, negative. Just a little tingle when I use it.

Should I expect to feel some sort of difference at this point ?

Firstly, hello Internet 👋.

So, to give a bit of background. Mid-thirties, on my own, home owner, bit odd but functionally so, economically stable. Had what I now accept to be depression pretty much since I was a kid. Not in any danger, but let's say I've always been far from my own biggest fan. Always been fairly lucky in that I've been able to hide it pretty well from almost everyone around me though.

Until a few years ago, had a kinda deal with my brain that in a 14 day cycle I'd get two horrible days, about ten OK and two weirdly good. Not great, but bearable. Focus always been bad (but good masking has allowed me to elevate into well paid jobs), and I hate labels, but it's probably ADHDish.

About two years ago, went off to the big city for a work gig, had a mind-blowingly good time living in an amazing place, loads of fun parties, dates and exciting stuff. Burned through a decade's worth of my happy day allowance in about six months, and then ran out of work contract and had to come back to reality.

And for the last two years, the depression has bitten. Hard. I've become even more of a shell of a person than I was before I went away. Last year I gave up drinking completely as I was starting to use it as a bit of a crutch (a positive), but my energy levels are so low now that I've kind of killed off my social life. When I do socialise, it eats energy playing the loud energy-filled character that I've curated. I genuinely don't think the people around me see it though (thankfully).

Reached a point where I'm looking in the mirror and hate the person who looks back to be completely honest. And not just some of the time anymore, like 12 out of every 14 days now. The ratios have kinda flipped from before I went.

Anyway, functioning is now so bad that I've tried to do some positive things before I waste the minimal remaining grips of youth that I still cling to. I've been to a doctor and added myself to a waiting list for an ADHD assessment (a slow slow process), and more importantly bought a Flow headset.

I'm very hesitant about drugs, so this is a good option for me. I'm now almost at the end of week two, and nine sessions in.

The effects are really strange. I think it is doing, well, something. But it's sort of making the odd really good bunch of days more extreme (a few days ago I did about a month of work in a day), surrounded by days where I've literally led there until 11am fearing that I'm going to lose my job if I don't move but just not being able to energise myself to even face standing up.

I'm persevering. But I've read stories about people getting a real heavy low at the end of week three, and if I'm honest, I'm a bit scared of it. But. It's doing something.

So, I suppose if (like I was), you're reading every forum post you can, trying to find an honest review of how it's going. Here is one. It's not painful, it's not a sudden miracle, but it is better than the thought of feeling like this and wasting another 20 years.

Sorry for the disordered dump of thoughts. Today isn't one of the hyper good days, so I felt it more balanced to write here today. I'll try to update this as things hopefully change.

Hey everyone,

I've been researching PBM devices for a while now and I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on a Vielight Neuro. The science behind intranasal stimulation targeting the cribriform plate looks solid, and Vielight seems to be the only company with proper clinical trials behind them.

That said, $5k is a LOT of money, and I want to make sure the intranasal diode actually produces a well-collimated beam — not just a diffuse red glow like a cheap Amazon LED. Vielight markets their Vie-LED as having "laser-like irradiance," but I haven't been able to find any independent measurements of the actual beam profile anywhere online.

If you own a Vielight with the intranasal clip, could you do me a huge favor and take a quick beam profile photo? It would take about 5 minutes and would help me (and probably a lot of other people considering this device) make an informed purchase decision.

Here's a simple step-by-step protocol I put together. You don't need any special equipment - just a phone camera, a ruler/tape measure, a piece of white paper, and a dark room.

📐 How to Measure the Beam Angle (5-minute test)

What you need:

• Your Vielight with intranasal applicator detached from the nose clip
• A piece of plain white printer paper (matte, not glossy)
• A ruler or tape measure (cm)
• Your phone camera
• A dark room (bathroom with lights off works great)

Important note about 810nm light: The Vielight intranasal uses 810nm near-infrared. This is barely visible to the naked eye as a very faint deep red cherry glow - you might think it's not even on! But your phone camera can see it perfectly. Just point your phone at the lit applicator and you'll see a bright spot on screen.

Step-by-step:

STEP 1 - Set up the projection surface

Tape or lay a sheet of white paper flat on a table. Place your ruler on the paper so you can see centimeter markings in the photo later. The ruler should lie flat on the paper, running horizontally through where the light spot will land. This gives us a built-in scale reference in every photo.

  ┌─────────────────────────┐
  │      WHITE PAPER        │
  │                         │
  │   ───|1|2|3|4|5|───     │  ← ruler flat on paper
  │          ↑              │
  │     (spot lands here)   │
  └─────────────────────────┘

STEP 2 - Mount the applicator PERPENDICULAR to the paper

This is the most important step. The applicator diode tip must point straight DOWN at the paper at a perfect 90° angle - not tilted, not angled.

     ┃ cable
     ┃
   ┌─┨─┐
   │ ┃ │  ← applicator body  
   │ ┃ │
   └─╂─┘
     ┃
     ● ← LED tip pointing straight DOWN
     |
     |  (air gap — this is your "distance")
     |
  ═══════════  ← paper surface with ruler

Why perpendicular matters: If the led is tilted even 15-20°, the spot on the paper becomes an elongated oval instead of a circle, and all measurements become useless. Take a moment to eyeball it - the applicator body should look like a vertical column above the paper.

STEP 3 - Set the distance to exactly 3 cm

Using your ruler or tape measure, set the gap between the very tip of the applicator (the clear dome where light comes out) and the paper surface to exactly 3 cm (30 mm).

This distance is critical. Please be as precise as you can - even 5mm off will affect the result. Measure from the outermost point of the clear tip, not from the base of the clip.

STEP 4 - Turn on the device, kill the lights

Turn on your Vielight. Make sure the intranasal LED is actually firing (you should see a faint glow through the phone camera).

Now turn off ALL lights in the room. Close blinds/curtains. The darker the better - any ambient light will wash out the NIR spot and make it impossible to measure.

STEP 5 - Photograph the spot with your phone

Open your phone camera (normal photo mode, no flash, no filters, no night mode). Point it at the paper from above at an angle where you can see both:

• The light spot on the paper
• The ruler markings

You should see a bright pinkish-white spot on your screen (the 810nm light) with the ruler visible nearby for scale.

Take 2-3 photos. Try to keep the phone steady (lean it on something).

STEP 6 - Repeat at 5 cm distance

Now increase the gap to exactly 5 cm and take another set of photos. Same procedure: perpendicular, dark room, ruler visible.

STEP 7 (OPTIONAL but awesome) - Repeat at 1 cm distance

If you're feeling generous, also do 1 cm distance. This gives us three data points which makes the beam angle calculation much more reliable.

📊 What I'll calculate from your photos:

From the spot diameter (measured against the ruler in the photo) at a known distance, the beam half-angle is:

FWHM ≈ 2 × arctan( spot_diameter / (2 × distance) )

With spots at 3cm AND 5cm, I can cross-check the result and also determine if the beam is truly collimated or just diverging randomly.

What a good result looks like:

• Tight, well-defined circle with clear edges = good collimation (what we want to see from a $1,800+ device)
• Fuzzy blob with no clear boundary = poor optics, basically a bare LED
• Ring pattern or donut shape = interesting, would suggest a reflector-based optical design

Would massively appreciate it. Happy to share the analysis results with the community afterward - I think a lot of people would benefit from independent beam quality data on these devices. 🙏

Hi all

I’ve suffered with depression and anxiety for ms y many years and have been on all sorts of antidepressants- currently taking sertraline 100mg.

I’ve just ordered the Flow Headset from Neuroscience and it seems like I need a subscription and that it the schedules of treatment either expire or I cannot change them?

Is this correct ?

I’m on my second week, “activation phase”. I’ve been using it as per the app, 5 days a week and 30 mins a day. It’s 2mA for anyone that doesn’t have it. I place it high enough and the electrodes are on the right places.

Ever since starting using it last week, I’ve been so exhausted. Right after usage I also feel foggy/hazy. I tried using at different times of the day, it made no difference. Has anyone tried using it for 20 minutes instead of 30? Would adding more saline to pads help somehow?