Change Your Brain Every Day - Fear and Worry

Episode Date: December 9, 2016

Fear, Doubt and Worry, How to harness the worry monster lurking in your Brain. Master your thoughts to live free again and love your life.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to the Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amen. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well, then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amen.

Hi, I'm Tana Amen. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. We are here today to talk about fear and worry and how it affects your brain. Well, it's actually your brain that can cause the little ants in your head to get on the exercise wheel and go over and over on and on and torture and terrorize you. Which can then torture and terrorize people around you. Oh, no question that if you are struggling with anxiety, fear, and worry, it leaks. And so many women are warriors by nature. Guys too, no question. And brain warriors, they recognize it, but they go after it. They don't just settle for it. So that's one place I think I have a bit of a more masculine mindset. I like to be proactive and feel empowered. So we want to talk to you about that today. I think if you are proactive and moving

forward in martial arts, we have a saying, you know, prepare for the worst and expect the best. So if you're prepared and you're trained and you are constantly striving to improve, it can often alleviate some of that fear and worry because you're just constantly taking steps towards improvement. So there's a neuroscience to this. So there are three areas of the brain we should talk about. So there's the amygdala in the temporal lobes that are involved with the fear signal in the brain. There, the basal ganglia that are involved with anxiety and the cingulate gyrus, which is the brain's gear shifter. So let's just talk a little bit about them to get a baseline. So the cingulate helps us shift our attention.

It helps us go from thought to thought, move from idea to idea, be flexible, go with the flow. And when serotonin levels are low, and they are much lower in women on the whole than in men, people tend to get stuck on negative thoughts or negative behaviors. Doesn't it also get worse for women during certain times in their cycle? It does. Right. And so when that part of the brain tends to work too hard, people can be worried. What's that?

You get stuck on a negative thought. They can hold grudges. They get stuck on something that happened in the past. They can be inflexible. If things don't go their way, they can get upset. And on the surface, it can appear selfish. It's really not. It's more inflexibility. So you see young children acting like this and because their brains tend to be a little hotter in that area, correct? You do, but you see a lot of older people. No, no, I know. I'm saying I'm using that as an example. When you see kids that are like,

no, no, no, me, mine. The terrible twos. Right. Right. Continued. Right. And people can obsess, get the same thought over and over. They can have compulsive behaviors. They tend to be argumentative and oppositional. No matter what it is you say to them, they will argue with you. And the cingulate is a really interesting part of the brain because

it detects errors. When something's not right, it's your cingulate that talks to you and says, that's not right. And so if it works too hard, you might notice too many errors in yourself, you know, when you're looking in the mirror or in your children or in your partners. And so one of the ways, if you notice some of those symptoms apply to you, natural ways to boost serotonin are exercise, high carbohydrate foods. So you want to go after the ones that are good for you rather than sugar, bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice. Those will calm it down, but they're also pro-inflammatory and can make you sick. So sweet potatoes, hummus, or better choices for you, an apple with some almond

butter can be really helpful. So let's talk about a couple of the things that might trigger this. So when people tend to react a certain way, is it caused by, is it a template that's set because of their memories or like early in life? So that would be one. It could actually be not even in your life. So there are new studies. There's the study from Emory University where they made mice afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms. Yeah, this is interesting. And so whenever they would put that scent in the air, they would give them mild shocks. And then pretty soon, whenever that scent was in the air, they were just afraid. What they found was their babies were afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms, even though they'd never been shocked. And their grandbabies were afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms. And so fear was actually transmitted genetically or epigenetically.

And, you know, when I think of that, I think about how probably hatred can be transmitted. So if you think about what's going on in Syria today, or even in Germany. Civil War, the ISIS crazies, the chronic stress is even the babies that are born under chronic stress are likely to have babies who have a higher incidence of anxiety. Well, and by the way, babies here in Europe. So, you know, they hear. Right. But no, even the babies today are going to have babies that are raised with a higher vulnerability to psychiatric problems. Now, the opposite is also true. If you manage yours, if you deal with yours, you're changing your genes in a positive way so that your offspring is more likely to come out more resilient. So it's one of the reasons we say it's so important to be a warrior. So I know certain

things from my past I did not want to pass on to Chloe, our 13-year-old. So you have to take the steps, be a warrior, train, and break that cycle. Well, it's part of the essence and responsibility parts of mastery. In the book. In the book, The Brain Warrior's Way. Responsibility is really, it's my responsibility once I know this to pass it on in a healthy way. Be the best I can be. Right. Right. Because you don't want to keep passing on, you know, you want to pass on the good stuff. Right. And the basal ganglia, another interesting part, also the amygdala, the way you calm them down, if they've been kindled, if they've been stirred up, either your past or maybe not your past, your mom's past. And, you know, your mom certainly had plenty of trauma, right?

A little bit. And, and my mom had her own, for example, with her own mother. You know, they like fought like cats and dogs for a long time. And so, you know, you have that vulnerability, but you use things like hypnosis and meditation. Like they're my best friends. And deep breathing and neuro-linguistic programming as a way to calm that down. Right. So too many people, I think, reach for what are the pills I can take so I don't feel anxious as opposed to doing some of the training exercises. Well, and it's not that, but let's be clear, we're not anti-medication. We don't want to

make anybody feel bad. It's that we want you to not just have pills, we want you to have skills. So talk a little bit about that because we always get people commenting, well, I've been taking medication and it's working, or I've been taking medication and it's not working. It's not the medication. So when I was even when I was a medical student, I thought to myself, I want to build skills in my patients, not just give them pills. Right now, sometimes people sometimes they need medication. Right. If you have bipolar disorder or you have severe major depression or schizophrenia. But, you know, the medications haven't worked out as well as as we hope. Training is what's worked out better. stupid thought you have have been found to be equally effective. So we have a high school

course called Brain Thrive by 25, and we're so proud of it because we had an independent research group study it, and it found it decreased drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, decreased depression, and improved self-esteem. And it's just by giving kids skills. Right. So not opposed. But, you know, I guess, you know, the truth is I am opposed to some medicine. You going to your family doctor and in a five minute appointment leaving with medication without any other option. Well, and make sure it's someone who's skilled at what they're doing. But what I want to make sure we get across, because I've actually seen this happen. We want to make sure that you understand it's not that there's shame in taking it if it's working for you or you're happy and things are working

in your life. Or if it's not working and you do want to get off of it, be very careful and do it responsibly because I actually I've heard this happen at events that I was at and someone who does not have a medical degree was telling the entire group, literally thousands of people, to go off their medication because the medication was basically a sign that you were weak. And someone actually contacted me knowing who I was, knowing our clinics, telling me that she went off three psychiatric medications after that event and did it cold turkey without a physician helping her. And I just want to make it very clear, that's dangerous. Please do not do that. Do this in a responsible way with someone you trust. What would you say to that? to empower you, but based on your brain type, which is why we think that's so important. And

you know why I wrote Change Your Brain, Change Your Life in the Brain Warriors way. It really empowers people to know what are my vulnerabilities and what are both the natural ways to help. And then what are the medicines if I choose to go that route? So I have a question. There's a saying that men are warriors and women are worriers. Help me out with that. Well, not in our family. I know. But it's by choice. Because you're the warrior.

But it's by training. I mean, I'm a warrior as well. I'm just the peaceful warrior. But in all honesty, in my case, it's because it is fear-driven a little bit. So it is worry-driven that I'm that way. It's just my way of reacting to fear is to empower myself and train. So, but it comes from a place of a little bit of worry and fear. That's why I train. So why, where did this saying come from? Men are warriors, women are warriors. Well, you know, as we talked about in another podcast that women's

brains are wired differently than men and they have more anxiety. And because of that, they live longer because they don't engage in some of the high risk behaviors. Men have ADD, for example, five times more than women. So they have lower frontal lobes. So they're more excitement seeking, conflict driven. And what do we play as children? You know, I remember, you know, as we get to the holiday season, you know, I got my cowboy and Indian set. Right. And, you know, and another Christmas I got soldiers, you know, the little green things. So, well, I think it has to do with hormones, that boys are more aggressive and their play

is more aggressive, and it has to do with modeling. But if you're a worrier or you struggle with anxiety, some tips to do. Exercise. It just helps so many things. Hypnosis. Meditation can be really helpful. If you're with someone who worries, don't tell them not to worry. Oh yeah. That's really effective by the way. Not helpful. It's helpful to listen if they want some solutions. It's going, well, I might think

about it this way, but if you tell them how to think, they'll just, it'll, it's like they get Teflon and it just bounces off them. So I do all the things you just mentioned and and taking a proactive approach to like doing things where I do training or I'm planning things or that really helps me to settle me down, feeling empowered. So sort of like being like Branch. Yeah, I'm like Branch and Trolls. It's true. I'm prepared for the end of the world. I am. And that way I can relax. And I'm just amused by it. I know. He's Princess Poppy. No question. So yes. I always say your

brain is the happiest place on earth. It's like it's Disneyland. It's got Mickey and Minnie doing the waltz. Happiest place on earth. Nothing bad can happen. I'm envious, actually. Yes, it's amazing. Our goal for you is to have a happy place in your head. In fact, one of the things I do with my patients, I actually have them find that haven, that very special place, and I have them think about it a lot. Because the more you can meditate on it, the more you can find it. Yes, it's true. When you need it. Yeah, it's really helpful.

Stay with us. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen clinics. I'm Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.