Change Your Brain Every Day - Brain In The News: The Neuroscience of Depression

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Dr Daniel and Tana Amen share experiences with depression and give tips on what you can do to combat it.

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 are here in the middle of our happiness challenge and talking a lot about question six. Am I noticing what I like about my relationships more than what I don't? Am I reinforcing what I like or dislike? And does it have eternal value based on clearly defined values, purpose, and goals? And as we try to do as often as we can, it's this thing Brain in the News, where we look at the news and we go, well, what relates to the brain? And more and more, we're going to go,

what relates to happiness and the brain? And just this month, a brand new book came out called The Neuroscience of Depression. And it's written by scientists all over the world, including me. How brain spec imaging informs the diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders with a number of my colleagues at Amen Clinics. So I'm very happy about that. And one of the things I write about is depression is like chest pain that has many different causes. And too often, and you know, during the pandemic,

depression tripled. From February, it was 8.5%. August, it was at 28%. I mean, truly horrifying. And the pharmaceutical industry was really the big winner of the pandemic in so many ways. But depression can be biological, can be psychological, can be social with the isolation, the loneliness, the fear, and can be spiritual where you feel disconnected. Right. And it's a good point because as we're talking about happiness and relationships, it's pretty hard to focus on making, you know, sacrifices of yourself and make focusing on a relationship and being happy when you're depressed. I mean, you talk to anybody who's depressed or been depressed and they'll tell you it is a pain like no other pain. It's an emotional pain that you can't get away from. So it's really hard to focus on other things when you're going through that. So that makes it pretty tough to focus on someone

else or something else. And so many things can cause it. So what if you've had a head injury, or you've had something, or you're emotionally, you know, you're depressed because of something going on in your life that's emotional. And now, you know, you can't, that's the reason you can't be happy. And when you can't explain the depression, then it could be your thyroid. It could be mold exposure. It could be you have Lyme disease. And that's why the imaging work we do at Amen Clinics is just so critical and so important that if you don't look, you don't know that we really have to stop this. And, you know, part of why we call the podcast, The Brain Warrior's Way is we're in a war for the health of our brains. And we really want to change the paradigm from making diagnoses based on symptom clusters. So when you were diagnosed

with depression, how did the doctor diagnose you? I really don't. He just talked to me for a little while. They prescribed Prozac. That's all I remember. I don't really remember. And you, if I remember right, actually went in. I went in telling him I wanted Prozac. Right. I didn't really.

Because you read a book. I read a book. I wanted Prozac. I was in so much pain. Was it listening to Prozac? Yeah, I think so. And I was in so much emotional pain that I just couldn't wait long enough. I just, I couldn't wait anymore. And so I went in there and he was like, do he house or this kid was so young. Um, he has a resident and I'm like, I know what I need.

Like I have a Prozac deficiency or something. I just, I need this. And so I was not really going to take no for an answer. I mean, to be honest with you. So, but he just asked me a few questions and wrote me a prescription like there was no like well let's talk about this like let's figure out what's going on like nothing even though you just had your thyroid and was going through radiation treatments and yeah and had lost my job and lost it you know i had to file for bankruptcy i dropped out of school my mother was going through brain surgery like all of that from our four circle biopsychosocial spiritual all of them it were bankrupt all of them all of them and so prozac you know maybe

can take the edge off no maybe numb you can take the edge off and actually disinhibit you which you will too much talk about in the relentless courage of a scared child. It's a great story. It could have ruined your life. And people just aren't taking this for circle approach. So if you think of anybody that has cancer, there's a biological effect of that chemotherapy on your brain. And the chronic stress hormones of just facing your own death, they're clearly psychological issues. You begin to wrestle with the death dragon and the grief and loss dragon, because at that time you've lost a lot.

The hopeless and helpless dragon so those are the dragons that drive depression and then socially from losing a job having to file for bankruptcy um and spiritually which is why is this happening to me and what does my well and i thought if there's if there's a god he doesn't love me because why would this happening to me and what does my well and i thought if there is if there's a god who doesn't love me because why would this happen to me like this makes no sense i've lived my life being a good person and this makes no sense and you know i mean now i'm very different view i'm much more mature but at that time at that age that's how it felt so and in man's search for meaning victor frankl would ask you, what's the blessing about?

Oh, now I always look for opportunity. Now it's like, okay, this terrible thing, what is the opportunity here? And you're right. What can I be grateful for? What can I learn? I always, I like automatically now, what's the opportunity?

I automatically do that now in a crisis. And that really does help me be more happy. And so getting well from depression is there's physical causes that we can see on scans often. There's psychological causes. And another physical cause for you that most people just aren't even aware of is your microbiome got damaged when you were a child because of the chronic stress and the chronic antibiotics and the chronic antibiotics led to changing the bug population in your gut i know it sounds weird uh that when that happens, chronic antibiotics in children lead to a heightened risk of anxiety and depression.

And nobody's talking about that. I mean, it's all over the scientific literature, but most doctors aren't thinking, oh, I have to get your gut right. And I'm sure the resident didn't talk to you about that at all. They literally asked me what was happening, how felt and they wrote me a prescription and then went next and then doubled my dose because that's how psychiatrists make money when i told him it wasn't working he doubled

my dose um and that's happiness occurs in those four circles. So in our challenge, we talk about what's the biology of happiness and it's good activity in your frontal lobes. What's the psychology of happening? It's positivity bias trainings. Notice what you like more than what you don't like. It's social, which is why our relationship is so important in the relationships I have with my team and with my extended family. And spiritual is believing my life has value, meaning, and I live my purpose with God, with the planet, with the past, which is my dad and my grandfather, and with the future, which is why I love spending time with my grandchildren. So how about for you?

What is it that you can do biologically? Just do one thing. I made you a shake this morning. And I went to physical therapy. Working out my shoulder and my neck is so helpful. Psychologically, socially, spiritually, just one simple thing every day will increase your level of happiness. The new book, The Neuroscience of Depression, makes me happy.

So many ways. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.