Change Your Brain Every Day - How Do Violent News Headlines Affect Your Brain? (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 27, 2017

In part 2 of a discussion on violence and the brain, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen dig deeper into the 4 circles that influence a person’s behavior: psychological, biological, spiritual, and social. A significant lack in any of these circles can play a major role in inducing violent behavior, as seen in people such as former MMA fighter War Machine and Colorado shooter James Holmes.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the 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 nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We're back. We're talking about the four circles and violence, biological, psychological, social, spiritual. I want to read something from War Machine. So War Machine was a well-known mixed martial artist who was sentenced to 36 years to life in Nevada State Prison for kidnapping, beating, and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend, and also attacking someone else.

And he was convicted. And this is what he said at the trial when he was sentenced. Not a day goes by that I don't seriously regret all those things that I did. I was a very, very lost, empty person. Empty person. So that's spiritual. And to top it off, something's not right in my head plain and simple i've known that for a long time and i've hated it i've hated the way that i think

i've hated my impulses half the time i don't know why I do some of the things I do. And some of the things I do, things, and I don't even feel like I did them until they're already done. Smashing my face was like a sick form of therapy. It was the only thing I could do to prevent myself from killing myself. And I always wondered why mixed martial arts MMA fights are legal. Because we've scanned hundreds of NFL players. I've scanned world champion boxers like Muhammad Ali and Mike Weaver. And the level of brain damage is terrible so and and one of the things that's really important when in a

subject of violence is to talk about traumatic brain injury that it's one of the major causes of suicide homicide domestic violence and nobody knows that right because nobody's looking at the brains of people who do bad things except us. So before we go down that road, because when you read that quote, several things resonated with me. Now, I identify myself as the protector, not the hurt, the person who harms people. I'm not the predator. I am the person who is the protector. So I'm the sheepdog, not the wolf.

But I mean, I would go to extremes to protect the people I love. He somehow became the predator in that whole thing. But there were things I actually could relate to that you were talking about. I don't know what environment he grew up in or whatever, but something popped in my head. And we talked a little bit about free will in the last one. We touched on it. So when I was going through my health crisis, I mean, like I was really, really struggling, not only physically with my health, but because of

what I was going through with my physical health, I went through a severe depression. And that depression made me, no one can explain it. It's like a pain you can't explain. And I just wanted to die. I couldn't get out of bed. And so the answer when I went to the doctor was you need some Prozac temporarily. You need Prozac. And now that I know our work, Prozac was the exact opposite wrong drug to put me on. But that was the drug of, that was the popular drug at the time. That was what every rep was handing out. Without any biological data on you. Without any imaging data on you.

This is the new drug that's out right now. That's what they said. So this is like the miracle drug we have. And they handed me Prozac. And they put me on and I instantly didn't feel like dying. Okay, so that was a good thing. I didn't feel like dying. But the reality is I didn't feel like dying. Okay, so that was a good thing. I didn't feel like dying.

But the reality is I didn't feel much. Okay, so I didn't feel much. And then after a couple of weeks, I felt pretty numb. And I started to notice that I was impulsive. So when you were describing him, I'm like, oh my gosh, like the numbness and then the impulsive behavior. And then I went to the doctor and I'm like, something's notness and then the impulsive behavior. And, and then I went, I went to the doctor and I'm like, something's not right. I don't feel depressed. I don't want

to die. Like I never was suicidal. I never actually thought about killing myself, but now I don't want to die. However, something's not right. I knew, I knew something wasn't right. His answer was to double the dose. Now you, I don't even need to tell you what a disaster that was. Okay. So I became someone else during that very short time. Now, fortunately for me, I'm fairly smart as a person. My IQ is decent. So, so it was a very short time before I went, I don't like this person. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not behaving like me. I don't like it. I'm scaring the people that I love. Um, and I couldn't sleep right. And something wasn't right. I was, I was just not me.

And when you were reading that, I'm like, I completely identify with that. Not the violence. I was never violent, but I could identify with the impulsivity and the not being yourself and not knowing why you're thinking the way you're thinking. I didn't understand. And it's the common answer when people go to the doctor and say, I'm not feeling right. Right. So rather than look at their diet, look at their habits, look at their supplements it's on to this or that medication that may be more problems than they're worth right and it's because they're not looking also at your life in four four circles

like we talk about but but you had also had thyroid cancer. I did. And no one explained to me. And without your thyroid optimized. I didn't have a thyroid and I was on zero medication for several months. So I had no thyroid in my body. And that is one of the most common causes of depression. Right. I didn't have low thyroid. I had no thyroid. But I want to touch on something.

With his brain type and like my brain type, I can identify with certain things you're saying. Martial arts, people are drawn to that intense exercise. I'm drawn to extremely intense exercise. I practice martial arts. I have two black belts. I don't like getting my head hit. So I don't do that. But I practice the part I love just beating the hell out of something. Okay. Like I love to kick stuff and hit stuff. Not me. It's therapy for me. It's intense. It's like I leave there exhausted and spent and it feels so good. I could, but I don't like to get hit. Okay. I don't like to get hit in the head. Do I get hit? Of course, but I don't, it's not the goal for me and I don't get hit in the head. I rarely get hit in the head. So it's that I understand. And martial arts, the benefits of martial arts, we cannot, you cannot minimize them,

but not MMA, not when the goal is to bash somebody's head in. Does that make sense? So I just want to point out the benefits of that intense exercise, why people are drawn to it when you have that kind of a brain, and they can be extremely beneficial. But the level, so learning the complex moves has actually been shown in neuroscience studies to be good for your brain. And the empowerment and self-control. Getting hit in the head repeatedly is bad for your brain. So I want to, let's just get practical.

If someone has problems with their temper and they have dark, evil, awful thoughts, imaging can be so important because you can actually uncover some of the reasons for violence. Oh, if I had had this work when I went through what I went through, I hated psychiatry after that. And that's why I almost canceled my first date with you when I found out you were a psychiatrist. But when I really saw what you, right? I know, it's so unfair. It's not unfair. I know a lot of psychiatrists and I wouldn't date them either.

Right, but when I saw what we do, I literally, I felt like it was unfair that i hadn't had this opportunity like why why didn't somebody do this when i needed it like so and we're obviously very different uh we're trying to create a revolution and if we're right it means they're wrong right i wouldn't have been put on prozac no because they if we would have scanned you, we would have shown that Prozac would hurt you. Right. And when I first started doing imaging in 1991,

there was an article that came out from Harvard that on 30 cases where Prozac made them worse, often violent. This is too important. I have to explain why. Because people are sitting there going, why? Because if you're depressed, you're like you're wanting an answer.

Because my frontal lobes are a little sleepy. I have to explain why, because people are sitting there going, why? Because if you're depressed, you're like, you're wanting an answer. Because my frontal lobes are a little sleepy. I have mild ADD. You put me on Prozac and I get severe ADD, right? So it drops those frontal lobes and I end up, yeah, I don't want to kill myself. I just want to go do crazy things. So now I don't have frontal lobes, that forethought and judgment. But something like Welbutrin, or if you don't want to take medication, so something that boosts dopamine, right? Like SAMe. Right. Natural.

On the natural side, Focus and Energy, which we is a – tell them what's in Focus and Energy. It works beautifully for me. So it's green tea, rhodiola, ashwagandha, ginseng, and choline. It's a wonderful – And intense exercise. And exercise and fish oil and learning not to believe every stupid thing you think. So I do all of the above.

And when we first met, I introduced you to my friend Byron Katie. Yeah, and I'm like, oh great, more psychobabble. And changed your life. Changed my life completely. And it's one of the reasons I think we have such a great relationship. And now I teach it to everybody.

Because we invested in, you know, for me first, and then you, learning how to not believe every stupid thought you have. So powerful. So powerful. And one of the interesting things,

so if you don't know Byron Katie, she's the author of Loving What Is, and she's just a wonderful teacher. And she has the brain of a murderer. Right. Do you remember when I scanned her? And before I scanned her, she was crazy. She was kind of-

Well, not before I scanned her, but before she had her- Before she had her breakthrough. Her breakthrough. She was aggressive. She had dark thoughts. Her life was a disaster. She was suicidal. She had an eating disorder.

She had an addiction. And her brain looked awful. And even though she's one of the most peaceful, loving people you will ever meet, she had a terrible brain until I met her. But she was still peaceful. Why? That's because she walked it. Because biology is not the only answer to violence. It's part of the answer. So she had a brain that was vulnerable to violence, but she wasn't because her psychological, social, and spiritual factors helped. So it's sort of like software programs can help hardware problems. And she spent hours every day programming like

that bad hardware. And she said, every day programming like that bad hardware. And she said, I call it the work for a reason because it's work. So it doesn't have to be that hard. That's what I was finding. It doesn't have to be that hard if you have hardware and software that work well together. So to heal.

So if you have a tendency to be violent, so I always say, well, what kind is it? Is it impulsive violence where you just get a thought and you act without thinking? A lot of the violence we see is actually not that. It's compulsive violence. So it's you get a bad thought in your head and you can't let it go. So if you think about stalkers or workplace violence where somebody got fired three years ago and they come back. That's not impulsive. They've been thinking about that for a long time. And then there's temporal lobe violence. You just

have these bad thoughts. And often, like with Andrew, my nephew, there's some damage to the amygdala in one, typically the left temporal lobe. So knowing what type, because it then leads to treatment. If you're impulsive, maybe you have ADD, we'll treat that. If you're compulsive, you can't let things go, we need to raise serotonin in your brain. And we can do that with supplements or antidepressants. If it's your temporal lobe, because you had a head injury, we use anticonvulsants. And then we're always trying to repair your brain and get it to be the healthiest it can be. So we might, you know, when people have low activity, use hyperbaric oxygen. I mean, there's so many different things

to do. But if you don't look at the brain that's struggling, you end up throwing darts in the dark just like they did with you and you hurt people and that's just wrong when there is this technology out that that can help so i want to give one last example because i'm like yeah we've had a lot of arguments over how criminals should be treated in our house but But this goes to your point, okay? Because he thinks I'm kind of this like very intense person and I am. But when you put it through the lens of what we do. So Aurora, Colorado, right?

So the Batman shooter, right? That went into the movie theater and shot all the people. James Holmes. I still know people who like think that that should have gone differently. Right. That was a really horrific. They should have killed him. They should have killed him.

And normally I would be that person. But when you really understand, see now I know that now that I know the details of that story and I know what we do, I'm like, Oh, that's, that's actually a tragic story.

He tried to get help. His psychiatrist fired him. Right. He tried to get help. psychiatrist fired him right he tried to get help that's not fair like i but the profession my profession if i if if i didn't take myself off that medication and someone else then did something else that was different it can happen the craziest things can happen to good people if they try to get help and they're treated improperly and almost not quite but almost a hundred percent of psychiatrists would never have looked at your brain and so would have been throwing darts in the dark which is just stupid um and uh over the weekend, I was reading a book.

It's a great book. It's called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and it's like if I'm right, and I am, I know it, that means they're wrong. And they can't tolerate that. And I'm a double board certified psychiatrist, so I know exactly what they do with most people, and they virtually never look at the brains of the people who suffer. And because of that, they hurt people.

And I keep wanting to write this book, Flying Blind and the Raping of the American Mind. Because that's exactly what I think is happening. That your mind got raped during that time. You went for help and he hurt you. And that happens way too often. And in my mind, it's just unacceptable. So stay with us. We're going to keep talking about the brain warrior's way. We're so grateful you are on this path with us. We're going to keep talking about the Brain Warriors Way. We're so grateful you are on this path with us. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We have a special gift for you. It's an opportunity to win an evaluation at the Amen Clinics. All you have to do is

subscribe to this podcast, leave a review, and rate us on iTunes. To learn more about Amen Clinics and the work we do, go to amenclinics.com. You can also learn about our nutraceutical products at brainmdhealth.com. Thanks for listening.