Change Your Brain Every Day - Could You Have Irlen Syndrome and Not Know It? With Helen Irlen

Episode Date: March 7, 2019

Although Irlen Syndrome is a common condition, it’s rarely properly diagnosed. In the final episode of a series on Irlen Syndrome, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen are joined by Helen Irlen for a final in-depth discussion on the process of diagnosing and treating Irlen Syndrome.

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 with Helen Erland this week. We're talking about the Erland syndrome and visual processing issues. Fascinating. And one of my favorite all-time stories is a woman came to see us at Amen Clinics who had what I call the Holy Trinity of Amen Clinics,

which is ADD, anxiety, and depression. We see a lot of that. And through our intake questionnaire, we went, oh, she probably has Arlen. And so we sent her over to your center in Long Beach. And just by random chance, if you believe in random chance, my sister was over there with one of my nephews

because there are a number of people in my family that has this. And I got a call. I'm in with a patient. And so I ignored the call for my sister. And then like a minute later, she called me again. And then when she called me again again I thought my mother had died and I'm like what and she said you can't believe what just happened I'm like what just happened she said this woman you sent over to the Erland Center when she put on the glasses the bookcase

came out from the wall the doorknob came out from the door. And she saw a guy walk by who had a pot belly. And she blurts out pot belly because she'd never seen it because she really wasn't fully seen in 3D. So her depth perception was off. And I'm like, wow. And so I called you and I then went, well, let's scan her tomorrow. And she had a very busy brain, especially I think where I have

sort of pinpointed the Erlen syndrome. It's the posterior insular cortex. So the insular cortex runs right between the frontal and temporal lobes. But the back part of it is involved in visual processing. But for her, her whole brain calmed down. And I'm like so excited because, you know, I love success stories. But a week later, she came back and she was clinically depressed. And I'm like, oh, my God.

And I didn't know the rest of the story that when she was 12 years old, she was a prodigy guitar player and she was really good and was giving concerts. But she couldn't learn to read music because whenever she would read music, the notes would move or dance on the page. And at the age of 12, she took her guitar by its throat and broke it and never played again. And this is 30 years ago. So now she's 42. And the reason she got depressed is she began to mourn the loss of what could have been if somebody would have known what she had. Now, that is not a Prozac moment. That's a moment to help her mourn the loss and then get to a place of gratitude for I'm not going to have to do this anymore. Suffer with it. My children aren't going to have to suffer with it and so on.

And I know you hear stories like that. It's interesting how many of our adults, when we get them in the right color and things calm down and they realize what it should be like, cry. And what they're crying is it's an immediate, just a physical reaction. They're mourning the loss of whatever it is is the career that they could have gone into um i had an just like you a musician who came in and i said what do you do and he says i tuned pianos and i said is that what you've always done he said no i was really gifted and i was even asked to go out on tour with Peter, Paul, and Mary. Those of you who are older don't know that. It's okay.

Yes, now we are. Anyway, and he said, and I had to give it up. I couldn't sight read music. And when I put his right color down, or the right color combination of olas down on a music page for him, he went, and I said, what? He said, you mean the notes aren't supposed to be moving in time to the music? And then he realized he has given, he gave up a whole career of his life, just like you said.

And the thing is that I'm like, so I'm having all these like things go through my head now. And I have no idea if I have this, but I'm beginning to wonder. So the thing is, is that I'm sorry. So for people listening, if you're a little like me, I'm like one of those people who's like extreme take responsibility type of person, hard charging, just do it, make it work. And so when something's not working perfectly, it takes me a little time before, cause I'm like, okay, just deal with it. But then like, even with ADD, which I just thought was complete nonsense

until I really realized what it meant and what it is and how much it can affect your life. And then I realized my mom has ADD from hell and how much different my life could have been. And then when I even saw my own, I'm like, I have a pretty successful life. But when I really realized, wow, that doesn't mean I met my potential.

Or even though maybe I did do some really cool things, it didn't need to be that hard. Yeah. It's how much extra energy to be that hard. I mean, I have girls especially who will put in that extra energy and effort. So they'll stay up till two, three in the morning in high school to get the reading done, to finish their homework. And then they get to college and they, by the first semester, they feel like they're a year behind because now they can't just stay up till two and three in the morning and work weekends. It's not enough for them.

And then they get misdiagnosed as having anxiety and depression. And then they end up on medications that can actually make it worse. And one last question. And then multiple medications because on medications that can actually make it worse. And one last question. And then multiple medications because it's not working. That's not working. So let's do more, right? So one last practical question for people, Helen, is when they come in to get screened and you're finding these colors for them,

do they need to come in with their own prescription already or do you actually test for a prescription as well? No, that we leave to the vision specialist okay we're not coming with their right they need to see their optometrist and ophthalmologist and have they've had to take care of their vision first remember but then we do because the brain that's why you have an occipital lobe right and the visual cortex that's because it has to read and process the visual information okay and so you just put the color over? We add it to the prescription if they were a prescription.

Got it. Okay, that's what I needed to know. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So what else do people need to know? So erlin.com, there's self-tests. If you're irritable, if you have reading problems, depth perception. You get tired.

Problems. Do you have problems with night driving. Night driving we hadn't mentioned. Absolutely. The lights bother you. Fluorescent lights bother you. One of my doctors has this. And whenever we're in, like we're going to go have lunch together afterwards.

And the room is going to be dark. And I'm like, put on your glasses. Oh, it drives me crazy when i go to my sister's house and it's completely dark yeah i'm like god because i need light so i'm like i'm the opposite i'm like oh my god i can't see anything but you have two profiles the majority of the population needs and works under dimmer lighting and prefers dimmer lighting but we have a smaller group that prefers and these brighter lights if you don't have the problem it doesn't matter whether it's dim light or bright light

i don't like fluorescent but i do need light yeah well and fluorescence is a big issue um and where do you go today that you're not under fluorescent lighting where and you think about all the triggers they're all environmental triggers that trigger this um that's the classroom environment you're reading on black on white. You're under fluorescent lighting. You have to do it for longer and longer periods of time to be successful. And they don't know to complain because everyone else around them looks like they're being successful. And it just affects so many areas of their lives that you talk about. Can you get contacts?

Yes. Okay. We do contact. Yes, you're processing all this. I can tell. And we only tint the center portion so it doesn't change the color of your eyes. Oh, interesting. So a lot of professionals choose to wear the contacts.

Yeah, I actually don't really like them, but I know a lot of people who would want contacts. Want to wear contact lenses. Especially children. Because a lot of kids, they don't want to wear glasses they don't want to be different how do you help them yeah it's harder with children part of it for me is the fact when there's a big difference between being successful and unsuccessful if you wear them you explain it so we like the children or the parent or someone to go in and explained it to the class. Everyone looks at it and goes, okay, I understand,

I get it. And they don't get teased anymore. I had one, well, one football player I saw on campus, and he must have been wearing orange lenses that were even brighter than these lenses. And I said, well, how do you deal with it? And he goes, nobody fools with me. So we have to teach the kids that this is really important. You know, sometimes I'll play with it and say, fine, use it at home. Use it to work to, you know, when you're doing your homework. And when you're taking tests tests if you don't want to

feel different um sometimes i put it back on the parent i had one child i saw three times without his erlin filters he read at a third grade level with his erlin filters he read where he was at a seventh grade level oh interesting you know that you can't play around with it's a medical issue yeah you can't deal with it so mom brought him back in and he wasn't wearing them and i said fine and he's kind of a chunky kid and i knew he liked to eat and i said well you know what i've seen you twice now for the same reason you refuse to wear your own filters we proved both times to you how significant it is um how would you like to come live with me because at my house if you don't wear your Erlen filters, you don't get to eat dinner.

I never saw him again. All right. Thank you so much for being with us. Go to Erlen.com. Learn a lot more about Helen's work. Do you have the Erlen syndrome? What you can do about it. They have contacts to centers all over the world.

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