Change Your Brain Every Day - Learned Helpless: What is It? (And How to Reverse It!)

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Depression was at epidemic levels even before the pandemic, but once the quarantine period began, it quickly jumped to 28%. That’s more than one in 4 people suffering! As Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen explain in their new PBS special ‘Overcoming Anxiety, Depression, Trauma & Grief’, taming the Hopeless & Helpless Dragons that leave you feeling depressed can be achieved by recognizing patterns of something called ‘learned helplessness’.   Watch the brand new TV special from Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen "Overcoming Anxiety, Depression, Trauma & Grief" on PBS now! Check you local listings for showtimes.

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. In my new book, Your Brain is Always Listening, the first part is about the dragons from the past that breathe fire on your emotional brain and one of the most common dragons during the pandemic is the hopeless and helpless dragon and this is a dragon that is running wild around the earth the depression was already at epidemic levels before the pandemic happened and was at about 8%. Typically, you know, the 40 years I've been a psychiatrist, it's been around 6% of the population at any point in their lives struggled with depression. But it had been sneaking up. And when the pandemic hit, just a couple of months later, it was at 28%.

And we've got teenagers in the house and like not just ours but i mean they struggle with it off and on but they're friends and almost all of our daughter's friends have struggled with depression it's it's just it's really hard and come closer to me so we can see the boss dragon right here i like that i want i want a t-shirt this is boss dragon oh we're having dragon puppets made i want boss dragon for mine boss dragon yeah that would be dragon queen not queen of dragons but dragon queen and that would be correct so with all the dragons we talk about their origin story. So you know how this dragon sort of bit you in your early 20s.

And there's a term that I really love from my friend Seligman on learn helplessness. Right. And what that means is you try to feel better and it doesn't work. And you try to feel better and it doesn't work. And you try to feel better and it doesn't work. And pretty soon you say to heck with it and you stop trying. You actually learn that you're helpless or learn that you're hopeless. Yeah, it's funny how in, but families are so different and how some people don't stop trying and some people do. And part of it depends on their brain function. Yeah. I wondered how much of it's genetic or modeled. Well, I think it's all right. We always talk about the four circles that there

are biological factors associated with depression. So genes would be one, but head trauma would be another toxic exposure, mold exposure. All of those things can contribute to depression, but they're also psychological causes where you don't know how to manage your mind. They're social causes. If there's a pandemic. Or modeling. If. That go under social.

Social could go under modeling that people handle their problems by giving up. Like your parents are. And they're spiritual causes of depression. If you are not living according to your own values, your own sense of ethics, the origin can also be you're overwhelmed by stress and conflict that you don't believe you can have an impact on the negative situation that your thyroid is low right if you have thyroid cancer and they don't

replace your thyroid what happened to you all of a sudden you sort of feel depressed what triggers this dragon basically anything that reminds you of when you felt powerless and how does this dragon cause you to react you have something called a high negativity bias your brain just goes to the dark place quickly why are you looking at me? Because you're pretty. Oh, see, I thought that is an example of high negativity bias. I thought you were looking at me because you were like, I do that. Oh, that was classic. Yeah, it's hysterical. It's trigger, cause people to blame themselves, to blame others. You have a lack of self-efficacy.

One of your favorite terms is responsibility. But it's not about blame. It's about your ability to respond. It's about your personal power. to whatever situation that you're in. People respond to this dragon with depression, powerlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, social withdrawal, giving up easily. This is the dragon most closely associated to suicide. How do you take i remember being so depressed and thinking life is too hard it's not supposed to be this hard there's no point it's a really awful dark

ugly place to be so how did you get out of that besides it was a very long process but but i'm just you actually shared that in my book yeah your book which now has 57 reviews on amazon and it's like rated 4.8 out of 5 it's a great book i know i've been saying it you're going but you're her husband what would happen if you didn't say you're married to a redhead lord knows what would happen. Anyways, it's a great book. Good. Thank you.

I'm very proud of you. All right. So how do you tame that sort of the point of all of this if you've been struggling with depression? So we take this four circle approach. Did you know there is a linear correlation between the number of fruits and vegetables you eat a day and your level of happiness? So first thing you want to get your diet right. Tana's written a great book. It's been a really great seller for a long time.

The Brain Warrior's Way Cookbook. Every recipe, gluten--free dairy-free corn soy artificial dye preservative free um but they taste great so i so that speaking of which the brain warriors way um that was part of it was beginning to identify when i felt my weakest with being a warrior um was like how how do I, what is the opposite of me right now? Because this isn't working. What's the opposite of me? And it's a warrior. So someone who's, you know, strong, who's always training, who's prepared, who's, you know, doesn't give up. That was what I,

that's when I sort of adopted that idea of trying to focus on something that was different than I was. So mindset is really important. But under the biological circle, diet critical, exercise, head-to-head against antidepressants, walking like you're light for 45 minutes four times a week, found to be equally effective. Omega-3 fatty acids, head-to-head against Prozac in a study from New Zealand, more effective. And so exercise, lots of vegetables, colorful fruits and vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids. I'm a huge fan as all of my family is here of happy saffron, something we make

it BrainMD, saffron, zinc, and curcumin, all scientific evidence. It can boost your mood. Well, how simple is that? And if those things don't work, then antidepressants for sure can be helpful based on your brain type. Everybody's brain is different. Psychological circles, something we call positivity bias training. Tana was on the doctors last Friday. You can probably find the clip online. I was so proud of her. She did a great job and she talked about positivity bias trainings. You might want to talk about it. So our brains are hardwired to focus on what's bad, to focus on what's scary, what's threatening, especially if you grew up in a traumatic environment, right? It's what kept you safe is we've got those spidey sense, you know, the spidey senses that protect us. But they also

can ruin your day if that's all you're focusing on, if you're constantly focusing on the negative. So when you focus, positivity bias training is really simple. It sounds really simple and it is really simple. It's you wake up in the morning and you start training your brain to focus on what's positive. And you can say, today is going to be a great day. Or in my case, I like questions. Why is today going to be a great day? Because then my brain starts searching for why today is going to be a great day. Your brain doesn't have a sense of humor at all. Like it just does what you tell it to do. It tries to. So if you say, why is today going to be a great day all the time? Yeah, but that's not my brain. That's just me laughing.

So, but if you ask the question, why is today going to be a great day? Then your brain is going to start working to try to figure it out. And it sounds overly simplistic and it actually is. But then at the end of the day, we get together at dinner with the kids and we always ask, so what went well today? And as simple as those two questions are, by answering them, that simple act of answering them in the morning and at night, you begin to, it's not like you're going to lose your spidey sense. It's not like you're going to lose your ability to notice what's wrong. Trust me on this as somebody who does that, but you begin to now be able to focus on what's good also, because that's not our nature. It's not our nature. Also, when you get depressed,

your mind goes to what's wrong. I actually want you to write out a list of your strengths and your accomplishments. I think that's so important. I learned early on as a psychiatrist, I can make anybody cry, can make anybody feel bad by getting to focus on their failures and their fears and the times they didn't, you know, perform or act the way they wanted to. And, but, but I would never leave somebody there. I always want to know what went well, tell me about the best parts of your week. And I have all of my patients write down their top 20 happy moments. Socially, there's actually a treatment called interpersonal psychotherapy. It's been found to be as effective as antidepressant medication is work to make your relationships better. You are clearly an antidepressant in my life and and it's work right i mean we both work having a good relationship we know what we want kind caring loving supportive passionate relationship and we supervise right the things that come out of our mouths and the more you do it the easier it gets like anything else like working out or you know it's a discipline so important um and we have

control like i totally know how to make her angry at me and i choose not to do it and i totally know what makes her happy i make her latte in the morning i make her smoothie a little bit later i'm gonna make her brain healthy do you see this pattern here we serve each other yeah right because our relationship is important actually more important now that the 17 year old's going off to college. I'm going from number two in the family to number one. I always feel like Avis, try harder. Oh, stop it. And then there's spiritual treatments for depression.

If you read the Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, that living with meaning and purpose is an antidepressant plus you live longer um so what movies does the hopeless and helpless dragon like movies that fit your negative mood like the joker her million dollar baby schindler's list what dreams may come one of my favorite movies with robin williams for the green mile oh the green mile is great movie um if you're struggling with depression it is one of the most treatable illnesses um if you try these simple things and it's not working for you, call the clinics. Go to amenclinics.com.

Amen like the last word in prayer. Clinics.com. It is one of the most common. It's the most common reason people call us and we are very effective. But in order to treat depression properly, you got to get your brain right, your mind right, your relationships, and your deepest sense of meaning and purpose. We hope this is helpful. And if you order my new book coming out March 2, your brain is always listening. And you go to your brain is always listening.com. We have four free gifts, including a coupon for a free bottle of Happy 7-Eleven. See you soon. Thanks.

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