Change Your Brain Every Day - Q&A: Automatic Negative Thoughts, Vaping & Marijuana

Episode Date: October 3, 2019

It’s time for another Q&A! In this episode, the Amens dip into the mailbag to answer some of your questions. This episode features information and tips on automatic negative thoughts, brain injuries, Omega 3 benefits, and dealing with impulse control. If you’d like your own question answered on the podcast, visit brainwarriorswaypodcast.com and follow the instructions on how to submit.

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 going to read your questions. This is one of my favorite segments that we do during the week. So please leave your questions for us. You

can go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, go to the review section, and you can leave your questions for us because we really enjoy answering them. And before we get started, make sure that you go to that same website, brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. And if you do leave questions, it will enter you into a raffle to receive my cookbook, the Brain Warriors Way cookbook, which I'm really, I just love it. It's very practical. So we'll send you one of those if you win. And we've had all sorts of those recipes in the last couple of weeks. So the sesame kale salad recipe.

The shawarma. Which is just one of my favorite ever. That kale salad I could have every week. Crock-pot shawarma we had. The lentil soup. The chicken soup. It's so good. Yeah, the healing chicken soup.

Yeah, we had all kinds. The brownies. All right, let's get to your questions my son really struggles with ants uh automatic negative thoughts and self self-medicates with marijuana because he said it's the only thing that knocks out the ants for hours at a time do you have some better strategies to get rid of them? Other than exercise, since he already does a lot of that. I love your podcast. Thank you for all the great help you give people. We did an entire week on ants too, right? So we'll give you an answer here, but you can also go back and listen to our podcast on ants. Well, and I don't know how old he is, but even if he's a teenager or a young adult, you can also get him my book, Captain Snout and the Superpower Questions. Even though it's a kid's

book, it's practical, powerful. But here's, and share this episode with him. Whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control, I want you to write down what you're thinking and then ask yourself, is it true? Can you absolutely know if it's true? Because the problem with medicating the ants is the only, you know, when the marijuana wears off, the ants get stronger because they've been mating. And these stronger mutant ants, they come and attack, which then means because you have no skill in dealing with the ants, you have to smoke more pot or whatever, drink alcohol. Which is not actually making it, when you come down from it, it makes it a little worse because you're sort of damaging.

Your brain's ability to manage the thought. So when the ants attack, just be really clear. Write them down and then assess them. And in feel better fast and make it last or change your brain, change your life, there are whole sections on how to get rid of the ants. But it basically involves identifying them, right? Write down the negative thoughts and then ask yourself these questions. Is it true? Can I absolutely know if it's true? How do I feel when I believe it? And who would I be without it? And my favorite part of the whole process we teach is turning the thought

around to the opposite and ask yourself if the opposite of the bad thought running through your head is not true. So the example I like to give, if I think to myself, Tana never listens to me. Why do you always use that one? Because I've had that thought, Tana never listens to me. And so then I write it down and I'm like, well, is that true? And I'm like, no, she listens to me all the time. Right. You know, I make her, her special cappuccino in the morning and we all, we always sit for 20 minutes. But, but that's what people don't know, that thoughts that lie to you can hijack your life.

Because if you don't question a thought, you believe it. Right. 100%, and then you act out of it. One thing I like that you often say is you were really great at talking back to your parents when you were a teenager, but no one ever taught you to talk back to yourself. Right. So, and that's more important, way more important, actually. It'll get you in a lot less trouble.

It'll help save your life. And so by writing down the thoughts, you get them out of your head. You can then challenge them in the method that we give you, and you won't have to medicate them. And let's talk about a couple of practical things, okay? So a lot of people claim that so um doesn't a lot of people claim that magnesium makes them feel a little calmer so what about taking some magnesium like i have to take it to sleep i like i feel sleepy when i take magnesium magnesium is one

of our favorites actually brain md has a chewable so many people claim that magnesium helps. Love. GABA helps. Right. Aenine helps. So if he wants to use a substance, well, let's use something that we know won't hurt you. Because marijuana, the studies are actually pretty clear on marijuana. It makes you more anxious, more depressed, and a little bit paranoid. And so that's not a good ant killing prescription. One more thing. So one of the other things that I love for sleep, lavender and valerian tea really helps at night to calm you down. So between the magnesium, I take a little bit of melatonin and the lavender and valerian tea, like it just takes the edge off. Awesome. All right. Another question. Wondered if you could address brain injuries on your podcast. I'm coming up on a year since I had a serious fall. I did go to the emergency room,

but basically they just do a CAT scan for brain bleed and x-ray to determine if anything is broken. I've been healing little by little with lots of sleep and eating the best I can. Reading what I can find on concussions. I wasn't able to walk for almost four months, which has gotten better, but balance is still an issue. We'd love to get brain imaging done at your clinic, but insurance won't likely cover it. Although, you know, one of the things we learned is that about 62% of our patients get their services here, including the scans covered by insurance. Are there specific supplements? I really enjoy your podcast and a few book of yours that I've read from Bridget M. So before we get too far down

that road, we did an entire week on brain injuries. So make sure you go back and listen to that podcast. Look for Brain Injury Week. I don't know what it's called, but it has something about brain injury in the week. So you get a whole bunch of information. But then, now answer a question. Yeah. What did we call it? Skillet to the head or something like that. I can't remember, but it was- All right. If you've had a brain injury, what Bridget said is absolutely right. People go to the emergency room, just like when your mom, they do a CAT scan, they actually missed her- And she had a brain bleed and they said she was fine. Yeah. And that's appropriate. But the thing they don't tell you is because you've hurt your brain,

it is critical to now put your brain in a healing environment. It's a perfect brain warrior. If you had an head injury, you want to be a brain warrior. And so food really matters. Kill the sugar, kill the artificial dyes and sweeteners because they make it harder to recover, which is why it's insane to have Gatorade on the sidelines of football games and sporting events. So it's insane to have an insane drink on the sideline of an insane sport? And I'm a psychiatrist. You like insane. You specialize in insane.

I know insane when I see it, and that's insane. Also, you want to make sure you don't end up with the Erlen syndrome, I-R-L-E-N. Go to IRLEN.com and learn about it. People often have a head injury. Often after a head injury, develop a visual processing issue where they're sensitive to light, they have depth perception issues, reading becomes hard, they have headaches, they're irritable. And just going on psychiatric drugs is often not the answer because to treat Erlen, people often will wear colored filtered lenses

like blue lenses or yellow lenses or orange lenses or brown lens, depending on your brain, makes a monster difference. For our NFL study, we've done 300 NFL players, high levels of damage. What we did with them is taught them about brain health. And I think my book, Memory Rescue, there's a whole chapter on concussions and how to heal from them. But I love omega-3 fatty acids, multiple vitamin. We make something called Brain and Memory Power Boost. And we actually used our Neurovite Plus Omega-3 power, brain and memory power boost. And 80% of our players showed improvement in as little as two months. And so one of the things we talk about even in the Brain Warriors way is you want to be

assessed. We always treat according to your numbers, your assessment, right? You get your blood work done. We want to know what's low because you need the proper nutrients. You want to be doing stuff, obviously, to increase blood flow because most of us in this society do things that are not helping to increase blood flow. So that's what we want to be really focusing on, right, with head injuries. So two more quick questions. My teenage son has recently struggled with his mood and they have heard me talk about the benefits of omega-3 supplements. Can you explain why they may help with mood40 milligrams of omega-3s in the right blend to support your mood. So there's more EPA than DHA. EPA has been found to be helpful for mood and focus. DHA is more helpful for anxiety and memory, but we have a big slug of both of those. And 25% of what makes up

your nerve cell membranes in the brain are omega-3 fatty acids. So when they're low, inflammation goes up, communication in your brain goes down, and you're more vulnerable to cognitive impairment and mood issues. So head-to-head against antidepressants. There's a study from New Zealand. Prozac worked in 51% of the cases. Omega-3 fatty acids worked in 58% of the cases. And when they did both, it was almost in the 80% success rate.

One of the things I like about fish oil is a lot of the studies, there are a lot of doctors using really high-dose fish oil. Now, I'm not saying don't do that unless you're actually having someone follow you. But for healing, I know at A4M where I take my courses, there are doctors using up to like 15 grams a day of fish oil. But don't do that. Up to six grams a day of fish oil. Yeah, no, I think up to 6 grams a day is fine. And in Brain and Body Power Max, which is sort of our repair formula, we have four capsules

of omega-3 power, which has just about 6 grams a day. Right, which is great. Last question. Of the amazing supplements BrainMD sells, which do you recommend for people who struggle with focus and forethought and impulse control? And that's exactly why I made Focus and Energy. Focus and Energy has green tea, no caffeine, green tea extract, which has been found to be helpful for energy and focus, ashwagandha, which will actually calm you but help you focus. So rather than the stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin, they agitate some people.

Rhodiola, which helps with stress, ginseng, and choline, which helps with focus and memory. So it's a great combination product to be helpful. So those are the questions this week. Thank you so much. And don't forget to tag us on Instagram. If you've shared this information, if it's been helpful, go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, leave your questions or a review.

You can also go to Apple Podcast and leave apodcast.com, leave your questions or a review. You can also go to Apple Podcast and leave a review there. Thanks a lot. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're considering coming to Amen Clinics or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.