Change Your Brain Every Day - Are Decisions Exhausting For You? This Could Be Why

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

With all the uncertainties in the world today, it’s nice to get some answers from time to time. In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen answer some of your questions, shedding some light on pressing brain health matters. This episode features content on decision fatigue, havening, positivity bias training, traumatic brain injuries, and more. 

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to Brainmd.com. Welcome back. We've been talking about depression this week and natural strategies to help and how to know when you need to get help. But in this episode,

we're going to actually answer your questions. It's really important to us when you send your questions. It's how we get our material. It's how we communicate with you and stay connected. And we just love to do that. So if you would, please write it down at the end of this episode, something you learned and take a screenshot of it, send it to us and hashtag brain warriors way podcast. And if you go to brain warriors way podcast.com and leave us a question or comment or a review would be awesome. We will read those. If we read yours, it enters you into a drawing to get one of our books, either The End of Mental Illness or The Brain Warrior's Way Cookbook. Great.

So we have questions. Oh, wait, before you start, I want to read one. This is just a really good review. This is what I mean. This is an antidepressant. Yes, this is our antidepressant. So this is from Linz031, the best. I've read so many of Dr. Amen and Tana's books.

They're constantly putting out excellent research-based content. I've changed many of my daily habits based on their research and guidance. It's actually changed my life, exclamation point. I love all caps. This podcast, I look forward to the weekly episodes. Proud to say I'm a brain warrior. Thank you, Dr. Amen and Tana. I know this is selfish that we do this, but it's our dopamine. We're talking about antidepressant strategies and this is ours.

Question number one, I was hit in the head by a shot put. Ouch. As a child, could that have affected me long-term? You bet. You know, lots of us had accidents when we were young or had head injuries. They don't all stick around, but if you've noticed you have ADD or you have depression that doesn't respond to simple things, that could have a lasting imprint on your brain. If you ask me, hey, Daniel, single most important thing you've learned from almost 170,000 scans, mild traumatic brain injury ruins people's lives. And very few people know about it because very few people ever look at their brain. I have to read this one just because it's so personal at the moment. Could you discuss decision fatigue? I feel so worn out after work. Do you remember me yesterday? I was just laying on the bed at like eight o'clock and I couldn't

even talk. I was so tired between trying to get these kids' school figured out, which a lot of people are struggling with right now. Three of them schools can't make up their mind in my area. They literally have changed their mind. Like I don't even know how many times for all three of them, um, trying to get the house done for the PBS show. Cause we can't have a live audience in the houses. There were a hundred decisions. Like I had so many people reaching for me at the same time, finishing the book, interviewing people, the PBS show. I literally thought I was going to lose my mind by the end of the day because I couldn't keep up with how many things people were asking me to do. And my poor assistant is going through the same thing.

She was so exhausted because there was just so much happening. And I was just, I literally like spread out on the bed. So what's the answer? They want to know. Gabba. For me to know. Gabba. For me, it was Gabba. I literally told everybody no more questions. I closed the door and I just, I took Gabba.

And then you came in, but it's not fair because I have you. So you came in and you're like, what's wrong, honey? And then we just sort of slowly unwound it. But not everybody has you. But they have the podcast. So tell people about the podcast. It was just awful. So I empathize.

So let's talk about what they can do. Besides GABA. It's calming. That's why. So, no. And this is why you shouldn't do 400 emails at once. Especially not at bedtime. Because you get decision fatigue.

So pretty soon, you like for the first 10, you answer them thoughtfully. And then you just go, no, no, no. Because when you have decision fatigue, like if I said, hey, want to cuddle? You go, no. Right. Because your brain is empty, which is why sleeping, eating right, exercising, taking time for yourself. When you take time to meditate, to breathe, to work out, you're just like the easiest person on the planet for me. And when you don't, because the busyness overwhelms you, then you suffer and everyone who loves you suffers. But so what are some strategies for that? So for me, Gabba and having you and working out.

Are you farming me out? I am. Farming is a good word. I would have used a different word, but yeah. All right. So how do you deal with decision fatigue is actually the next question. Tips for a healthier brain.

Go through your day and ask yourself, is this good for my brain or bad for it? Positivity bias training. We're talking about depression this week. Start your day with today is going to be a great day. What went well today before you go to bed, take your supplements, multiple vitamin, fish oil,

brain boost. I mean, really nourish your brain and just know every hour, you should probably take a 10 minute break. So you don't have decision fatigue in a pandemic and the ICU is overwhelmed it's hard but it's more important then to eat right and sleep then you know people get off work and they go drinking and they don't sleep and they come back to work and their tank is not full and that's a good point because I remember being in the trauma unit and having that um you know one thing I want to point out here I I'm not going to lie it was very tempting to just have a glass of wine. I was so tempted because it's just one of those days where you're just like, I can't take any more and you just want to relax. But here's why I didn't. I took GABA instead because I knew today was going to be just as busy. And if I did

that, I was going to be tired today and unable to make decisions quickly and as effectively. And so the GABA really helped me sleep well. It didn't interrupt my sleep. And I woke up refreshed as opposed to waking up kind of foggy. So be careful about the decision you make in that moment. And I knew because I saw you stressed that I should go to a helpful place rather than a needy place. Yeah, but you're awesome. Not everybody's that awesome. I'm lucky. What do you think of EMDR? Oh, my life-changing.

And I can't really figure out why. It stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. It's a specific treatment for trauma. It's very effective. It's research specific treatment for trauma. It's very effective. It's research based. And there's also another similar technique called havening. So when you bring up a trauma, so if I have a hard interaction with the patient, and that bothers me because I want to have a good interaction with the patient. So I actually bring it up and I feel it and just make these little tiny circles with your hands. It actually sends signals to your brain to settle down. So don't avoid the trauma. Don't get drunk with the trauma. And you can look at it online at amenclinics.com. Our latest blog was on Havening. You can either stroke down on

your face. So it's alternate hemisphere stimulation, or my favorite one, stroking down from shoulders down to your forearm. I love it. And so, you know, my new book, I'm actually writing about my experience when I started EMDR. And I didn't make any, your first gift to me, which is really weird gift to give someone 10 sessions of therapy which made me feel really messed up but i was messed up but anyway but i didn't know it was the first i didn't know it was one of the first gifts um i didn't know what emdr was but so i've studied on what emdr is because i was really against at the time i was against um therapy now i'm not at all but i didn't want to like hear psychobabble and blah, blah, blah. And so when you got me EMDR, I was really trying to understand. I went in for a couple of sessions

and I'm like, whoa, I don't understand why this is working. It really didn't make sense to me. They say it's because the eye movements that going back and forth between the two hemispheres keeps you present while you're focusing on a traumatic event from the past. And then you slowly start, it lessens over time. Each time you think about it, it lessens. It also connects it to what was really happening in the past. But it keeps you present so you don't go backwards. No, that's not how I would think about it.

And I've thought about this a lot. What's happening is the trauma got stuck in your head. And so it's always there. It's like the past is infecting the future. When you bring up the trauma and then do this alternate hemisphere stimulation, what it's doing is it's integrating the left and right sides of the brain. And so the trauma goes up, but then it goes goes away and that's the beautiful part so many of those triggers that got stuck in your brain um they would just resurface and they can cause anxiety panic nightmares flashbacks and doing process, it helps your emotional brain to settle

down. And there's this great study where they did this alternate hemisphere stimulation, and they found it calmed the amygdala, the fear center in the brain, and it activated the prefrontal cortex, which is the brain's break. And it could keep a lid, if you will, on the trauma. Right. Does that make sense? Yes. So whatever it works, whatever it works, does post-concussion syndrome ever get better? And how? You have to put your brain in a healing environment. So critical. I did the big NFL study at a time when the NFL was having trouble with the truth about traumatic brain injury in football.

And 80% of our players got better. We put them on a brain healthy diet, brain warriors way cookbook, multiple vitamin with high doses of B vitamins, high dose omega- three fatty acids, and a brain boost that works in multiple ways. And that combination, which I later put into brain and body power max was helpful for 80% of our patients. And then for some people, hyperbaric oxygen really, really helps them, right?

Really helpful. And I'm just a huge fan of hyperbaric oxygen. Well, we hope this is helpful. Please send us your comments, questions, reviews, leave them on brainwarriorswaypodcast.com uh if you leave us a comment question or a review we'll enter you into a drawing to win uh one of our books also would you look in this podcast right at the uh post it on any of your social media sites and we'd just be so grateful if you hashtag BrainWarriorsWayPodcast. If you're enjoying

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