Change Your Brain Every Day - Are ADHD & Anxiety Connected? with Jillian Michaels

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

In this week's throwback episode, Dr. Amen sits down with fitness mogul and New York Times bestselling author Jillian Michaels. Jillian discusses her past emotional history, growing up, and battle with organization, ADHD tendencies, and anxiety. Dr. Amen provides Jillian's brain SPECT scan results and a pathway for healing.   Want to schedule a visit? Our highly trained specialists can guide you through the process so you and your loved ones can get the help you deserve. https://www.amenclinics.com/     SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE BRAIN HEALTH NEWS & TIPS https://www.youtube.com/subscription_...   If you or someone you know would like more information about Amen Clinics, please call us or visit https://www.amenclinics.com/   Within the U.S., call 1-888-412-2713 Outside the U.S., call 1-949-266-3700   http://www.amenclinics.com/ https://www.brainmdhealth.com/

What did teachers say about you? Do you remember? Probably sweet. Jillian sweet. Then I went into junior high. And it was hell. I was heavily homophobic because obviously I was gay and it was the 80s. What a joy to meet you and to have you do this with us.

Our goal is to end the concept of mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health. And you're a pillar of health, and you have been for a long time. And lots of people get healthy. And so the idea that I can help your brain be healthy, that just excites me. See how you feel about this by the end of our interview talk. So on average, people come to see us, have failed six medicines, 3.3 providers, and they have four diagnoses.

So you don't scare. We'll see about that. All right. Goal. See about ADV with you. Yeah. And help you have the best brain possible. Memory, severe memory.

Which is interesting because your memory score on the test was nearly perfect. Because I know how to cheat it short term. I've learned hacks. Where did you grow up? Here, unfortunately. The Valley. Dad, I'm a Valley Girl. What was it like for your boy now?

When I was little, I was kind of, I had a little, some issues, always like seeing things all the time, like aliens and vampires and sharks were coming out of the bathtub, drain shit like that, which kids do. My mom got me into therapy, and the therapist was like, she's really pissed at her father. So I don't really remember a ton, but there was one episode where I love animals and I didn't have siblings. So animals and I had a dog named Blondie. And I did not name the dog. My mom named the dog.

Anyway, so that night I could see my parents' window down the hallway from my room. I was seeing things in the window, like cartoons, and, you know, they're talking the cartoons. I was five, I think. And then the cartoons started getting, like, angry cartoons. And they started getting scary cartoons. So I went downstairs and I was like, there's things in your window. And my parents freaked out and took me to the emergency room because they're like, fuck. You know, somebody laced the pizza with LSD.

She's seeing things. Took me to the ER. And I do remember this, which is interesting. because I never remember anything. And the guy had me, like, walk from here to here, whatever. And he told me, my parents, he's like, she just has an overactive imagination. She's not on anything. She's fine.

So I came to find out years later that that night, because I don't remember this at all, my dad, there was company over when my dad had picked up the dog by the scruff of the neck, and was tapping the dog on the nose. And I freaked out. It was like, put it down my fucking. Like, I didn't say fucking, but I guess I freaked out. I don't remember this at all. So I'm telling you what I've been told.

and he got mad at me because I was yelling at him, I guess, and sent me to my room. And how did you have a trauma reaction? You see your dad abusing the dog. He wouldn't even tell you he was abusing the dog. I don't even know. So what was it like to have a mom who is the psychoanalysts? Actually, I, I, kind of the best thing for me. And here's why is that I.

when I work with people who have weight problems, I understand it in a different way. So I'm not working with somebody who likes Twinkies. You know what I mean? I am dealing with a person who has an emotional hunger that they're feeding with food, and I understand that. So in my work, it allows me to help people much more effectively. But it's also combined with a martial arts background that is very like no nonsense, all empathy, but no sympathy. And I've learned that when you treat people like they are who they can and should,

be, they'll become who they can and should be. But it's not the all you, poor thing, just take the stairs. So my mom gives me that kind of healthy, empathetic ability to understand. But my martial arts background is like, I get it's hard, but get the fuck up, get off the ground, you know, stop whining about it and let's do A, B, C, and D, and E because you can and it's your obligation to yourself. So it's like a weird combo. What did teachers say about you?

before you were 12. Do you remember? Probably sweet, Gillian Sweet. Then I went into junior high and I went to Sierra Canyon. It was hell. And I was gay and did not realize I was gay. I was heavily homophobic because obviously I was gay

and it was the 80s. It was really not okay. It was grosser than gross. It was the only prejudice I ever experienced growing up in Los Angeles is everyone hated gays. And I started getting bullied. And my mom pulled me out of the school and put me in Portola, which was public. Then my parents divorced. And then I became like the loser kid.

And I would spend every lunchtime in this woman, Mrs. Cronstad's classroom, who was great. I loved her. Amazing teacher. Through junior high, my mom got me into martial arts. when I was 13. And that slowly began turning things around for me. Head trauma. So we talked about this.

You were not kicked in the head back. No. You were headed by a horse. Yes, but it was much older. I was riding a horse, and the horse reared up and knocked me in the eye. But it wasn't that bad. Yeah. Because your scan looks more like trauma than I did.

Right? Like injury? Yeah. Let me share. So we did a study called spec. I'm so happy we got it. Speck looks at blood flow and activity. It looks at how your brain works.

And it basically shows us three things. Good activity. You have lots. Too little or too much. And then my job is to balance. So if we're looking at your brain, typical in ADD brains, we see low activity in the front,

low activity in a part of the brain called the basal ganglia. That's where dopamine is produced and low activity in the cerebrone. Okay. Your brain shows right where you pointed to, left front side of your brain, is low. It got hurt at some point. But I was an adult when I got smack in the head. So that's why I asked you when. Yeah.

And you want to go, was there anything earlier? Car accidents, falls, bites, anything. See your temporal lobes right now? Yeah. It just, to me, it looks like a trauma pet. I've seen this so often. It's like, probably she had a concussion at something. And if you look here, it's like a lot here.

Here. Now, you have a beautiful. brain for your age, you know, a lot of really healthy brain activity. But your anxiety centers are working really hard. And your cerebellum is sleepy. And so I think losing things and getting distracted and getting overwhelmed is you don't have enough activity here. And that's going to be part of the goal. It's going to be fix this, which we totally can,

and calm your emotional brain and activate your cell phone. That's possible? Absolutely. Yeah. None of it's dead. None of it's permanently damaged. That parts, it's like a car. You're sort of like an Italian sports car.

It's not too quite right. So if we tune it, you'll be, you're already awesome. We're going to help you be more awesome. And then maybe remember more. The anxiety stuff is the shit that goes on in my life, unfortunately. The ADD stuff is... Always, always different. So I wrote a book called Heel and ADD, where I talk about seven different types.

of ADD, how it's not one thing. And some people riddle in Adderall miracles and other people, they're disasters. And for you, I would think they would help and hurt at the same time. But activate your frontal lobe, activate your cerebellum,

and make you tense. It's super tense and anxious and anxious and a headache. Yeah. So we need to calm your basal ganglia and find something else to stimulate. Okay. If you ever heard of the interactive metronome? No.

It's a treatment specifically to activate the cerebral. Okay. So I'll recommend. I don't know if you had brain stuff. Like you could ask me stuff about, I've ever heard about, you know, small particle LDL. I'd be like, yeah, yeah. You asked me with the brain stuff?

I'm like, no, I've no idea what you're talking about. that's why we should be friends I have something called brain and body power multiple vitamin fish oil brain boost but it's a powerful multiple vitamin

and a brain boost that works in six ways to help so it's my NFL formula I did the big NFL study oh yeah no I know I thought that now I can't even watch football without hearing you and my

so I think the package And then you could probably get rid of a lot of your supplements. Maybe you send me a whole list. Okay. And I'll like, oh, this is in the packets or this is in the packets. Okay, I got it. What do you do to relax?

Actually, as I've gotten older, if I move my body, I feel better. When I was younger, I would have told you that was all bullshit. I'd be like, oh, my God, I don't get any of that, like endorphin. It's all bullshit. I just do it to fit in my jeans. But now, if I don't move, I feel like, oh, God. Like, I think there's a psychology to it for me where, like, okay, I did something for me today. This is probably my wife with the kids, I'll check it.

But it does help calm me down a little bit. It's like, okay, it did something for me. I was proactive. There are things I love to do. Love traveling. I love animals. I love having adventures with my kids and seeing friends and date night with my wife and all that stuff. But to calm down, believe it or not, probably moving, calms me down now.

Have you ever meditated? Can you meditate? The single mind meditation stuff helps. Like the no mind shit, forget it. No, no, not happening. Like, clear the mind. No fucking way. But if you give me.

But the breathing I told you about last night. But there's something to focus on. So, like, if you give me one thing to focus on, yes, I can do it. It's like, okay. A guided meditations work great for me, because I'm so type A. It's like, now focus on your foot. So I have an app that you would like called Happy Brain. We have hypnosis audios.

You'd probably like these a lot. So anxiety, sleep, peak performance, stress, pain reduction. So there's all sorts of goals. That's amazing. Okay. Thank you. you, Doc. All right. What a joy. So I will,

we're going to send you home with the supplement and I'll email you the plan. Okay. So just think of me as somebody on your team. Thank you, Don't.