Change Your Brain Every Day - How Substances Affect the Brain During A Pandemic Isolation

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen review studies on drugs' influences on the brain during the pandemic. They discuss how marijuana and other drugs can affect mental health by worsening bad habits, and how discipline can help maintain a healthy lifestyle in isolation.

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 everyone. This week, we're going to talk about COVID bad habits because there have been so many and some of the shocking statistics about substance abuse, about weight changes, especially in young people, are really just out of control. spring cleaning for your mind and now it's about forming different habits that serve you rather than hurt you and and it's been a hard time it's been a time of anxiety and worry isolation and being upset. Yeah. But, but there are ways to handle it and there are ways to handle it. Right. I agree with this. And substances are a big part of this,

the bad habits, but there are other bad habits. We're going to talk about those as we go along. So. Especially around food and. Well, and thinking. Right.

It's just allowing yourself to give in to to whatever um whim you have to comfort yourself it's it's actually when you allow yourself to do that you it's like giving in to a behaviorally disordered child. You wouldn't let a child run through your house like marking on the walls. So why do you allow your internal child, if you will, to just throw temper tantrums and get everything they want? And no, you got to put some discipline around it. I remember I have this patient and when I really got down to why he wasn't eating right and drinking too much, it was,

I want what I want when I want it. I knew you were going to say that. I wasn't, I don't even know what you're talking about, but I knew you were going to say that. I want what I want when I want it. But the truth is, do you really? Because then you get what you want when you want it and you're not happy. If you don't have discipline in your life,

I love Jim Rohn's saying, "'We all suffer from one of two pains, "'the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.'" And it's one of my favorite expressions because if you don't have discipline in your life, you are going to have regret, period. You guys should write that down. You either suffer from the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Yeah. He's got some of the best quotes I've

ever read. And that's one of my all time favorites. And then hashtag brainwarriorswaypodcast, post it on any of your social media sites. I know I talk about that a lot, but as we're growing this brain revolution, as we're growing the Brain Warriors Way podcast, it's just so important to spread the message. Well, and leave us a review. And if we read it, we will enter you into a drawing to win one of our books, either Your Brain Is Always Listening, a signed copy actually, of Your Brain Is Always Listening, or my book, um, the relentless courage of a scared child, which is my memoir. So one of these two books. Um, so yeah, share this, pass it on. We would just, you know, we'd love to hear from you guys. So let's talk, um, about marijuana. Uh, it's such a hot topic and we get so much hate mail when we talk about it.

Um, and I often say, I just have no dog in the fight. Uh, but we're not going into that. I have no dog in the fight. In fact, if you smoke, I'm more likely to see you than if you don't. So it helps business. It helps business. But using marijuana before the age of 18 significantly increases the risk of depression, suicidal thoughts, or suicidal attempts, and anxiety disorders in young adults. And if you're vulnerable, doesn't it increase your risk of psychosis like 400%? 450%. There's actually two studies out of Norway.

And so I just did a Dr. Phil episode of a girl who did marijuana and then just was never the same now it doesn't happen for everyone but if you're vulnerable and for me when i was a teenager and one of my best friends showed me grass for the first time um i've had a healthy dose of anxiety. And I'm like, why are you doing that? Well, how is that going to help you? Oh man, it'll help you feel good. And yeah, maybe feel good now, but not later versus now and later.

Well, I remember I tried it for the first time when I was a senior in high school and I got talked into it sort of, I never really had an interest because of the craziness in my family. And I ended up trying it and I was miserable. First of all, I sat like a bump on a log. People laughed at me because I guess I acted or looked stupid. I don't know which one it was, probably both.

But all I did was eat. And I'm like, why would I do this? Why would I want to sit here and eat all day no this is not happening it felt miserable like i i hated it but well and it doesn't mean they're not some medicinal 100 for marijuana for people who have cancer that helps them eat there's some evidence with glaucoma there's evidence with children who have seizure disorders. So that's not what we're talking about. But New York just legalized recreational use. And, you know, I'm not a fan of Xanax. I'm not a fan of alcohol. And I'm not a fan of marijuana and they all have the same reasons. But when I published,

I think the largest imaging study ever done on 62,454 scans, marijuana was the thing, was the lifestyle habit that prematurely aged the brain faster than alcohol, faster than nicotine, faster than anything else. It also disrupts the brain's maturation process during the teenage, the brain is undergoing rapid development. It's a process called myelinization where the nerve cells get wrapped with a white fatty substance called myelin. It's sort of like insulation on copper wires.

And smoking or ingesting marijuana disrupts that process. And often you'll hear in drug treatment centers that if a person started smoking pot or doing drugs when they were 16, even though they went into the treatment center at 30, emotionally, they're still 16. Certainly true with some of my family members who are addicts. Reduces blood flow to the brain. I published another study on a thousand cannabis users showed overall decreased blood flow to the brain. Now people go, but is it better than alcohol? And I'm like, why are we having this discussion?

Why are we comparing? Because they're both not good for you. And so now they seem both to be socially acceptable. There are a lot of bad things for you, including the hot fudge brownie. It is socially acceptable, but not good. If you're going to be- Sugar is actually one of the worst things for your brain. So let's be clear. If you're going to that sugar is actually one of the worst things for your brain so let's be clear a brain warrior right you're thinking what do i love that loves me back

i had to deal with family this week with a grandparent with dementia and it's like the chronic stress is just unremitting in that family and the woman just felt like she was a bad person because she couldn't no longer watch her 24 7 her mother and so she had to go into a care facility and she just felt awful. Yeah. And I said, the number one lesson that comes out of this is you need to take care of your own brain. So your children don't have the same experience you're having now, know better, do better. And during this period of COVID, I mean, anxiety is so high. It's not like we don't understand why people are struggling with, you know, increased alcohol, marijuana, you know,

it's not like we don't understand why it's happening. Even opiates are way, way up. The use and addiction to opiates has gone way up. It's not like we don't understand why. It's just, we want to talk about, you know, these bad habits that are happening during COVID. It's not like they're going to just go away when all of a sudden things open up. That's the problem. So it's not like you can just get away with, you know, most people cannot get away with like, oh, while I'm stressed, I'm going to do this and then I'm just going to stop doing it. That's not really how it works. So if you don't have a little bit of discipline around this or develop some other habits to

replace those bad habits, like do something else instead, then that's where you get yourself in trouble. When people are isolated and alone, what else can they do? So I'm a fan of like finding other things to replace it, like I just said. So find a tea that you really like. Learn how to meditate. I mean, these are things that you need to figure out. When it comes to, I mean, obviously when you're using substances, you're trying to alter your state. So really things like meditation are really helpful for that.

For me, exercise is huge. So when COVID first started, I was exercising like crazy. And then I felt myself starting to taper off and get a little lazy with it and like exercise with less intensity. And I felt my mood change. So when I, but I caught myself as you get more disciplined, as you have more structure in your life, you start to notice when those things happen. And that's what I mean by having some discipline around it, because how you move matters as well. When you move with intensity, when you move with purpose, when you do like burst type training, you're going to get a very different feeling in your body and in your mood than if you are just walking at like two miles per hour, not the same thing. Now, if walking at two miles per hour for you

is very strenuous, it's very stressful. It's the only thing you can do good. Then make that your thing. But if you're a healthy individual, you need to increase your intensity. So GABA calming could be an alternative. Absolutely. That's what I use that a lot. And it helps you sleep, be nicer and sleep and say no less and be nicer yeah well you like that i say no less for sure yes i do so when we come back we're going to talk about more of the covid bad habits uh leave us a comment question or review at brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. When you do, we'll enter you into a drawing to win one of our books. And write down what you learned and post it on any of your social media sites and hashtag brainwarriorswaypodcast. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast,

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