Change Your Brain Every Day - Sports, Mentors, And Social Environments – Part 4 of an Interview with Anthony Davis

Episode Date: April 20, 2017

In the last episode of this sports-centric discussion with former football star Anthony Davis, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana dive into the subject of social influence, and the impact it has on young athletes and impressionable youth. Anthony Davis shares his backstory, and how relied on discipline, focus, and teamwork to make the right decisions necessary to rise from less than ideal circumstances.

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. Welcome back to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I am here with Tana and our good friend Anthony Davis, Hall of Fame running back from USCc we are talking about brain health and sports uh but we're going to take a little detour on this one um in the last one we talked about the four circles of health and illness biological psychological social spiritual um i want to pick up on on where we were with the environments that actually both

grew up in the impact that had on your development and you know we'll also talk about the impact that has on brain health so talk to us about growing up and what that was like for you. It was really tough for me because I was a low esteem child. Once I found out I could play baseball, I put everything in that. I put everything in my athletics. Now, why did you have low self-esteem? Well, because my father said I would never be anything. He used to tell him, my brother and I did. before we were 20 years old, we'd both been in a penitentiary.

Oh, my gosh. Why was he negative like that? I really don't know to this day. I mean, all I know, he was a habitual alcoholic. He still lives. He's 90 years old. And I guess the genes, I think that might be the good thing he did. He laid out good

genes. His mother lived to 100. So that was my problem growing up. Low self-esteem, you know, no motivation in terms of that. And it's really funny, my brother's a criminal attorney now. Oh, wow. That's amazing. I have a sister who's retired who did well, and I have a baby sister who has some problems but I had a tough time just socializing because of that. You know, didn't know, didn't have that male image that can help push me through certain crises that I was going up as a kid and I had to grasp for people like my high school coach. My history teacher in high school was very influential on me and some of my decision making who would talk to me about

choice in schools and stuff like that. Didn't have it with my father. You know, it's interesting. I also didn't have, my dad was gone, just disappeared. His side of the family was pretty dysfunctional anyways. But my mother's side of the family was very dysfunctional, but my mom was a strong figure. She did the best she could. She was at least a strong figure. But my early memories were of my uncle being murdered in a drug deal gone wrong, my mom shooting a shotgun out our back window at someone who broke in our house,

or her attacking someone who had done something to me. Um, you know, she, and it was crazy. It was chaotic. But the one thing I will say is that for as crazy and chaotic as it was somewhere in my head, I still felt like, okay, there's someone here to protect me. Someone's standing up for me. Maybe not in the best way, but maybe not a great, you know, but there was at least, I think the thing that helped me pull through that, because I had very low self-esteem. I couldn't even read. I was in special reading groups when I was little. We were very poor. My mom was gone. I was a latchkey kid. But that idea that there was someone who would die for me, who would kill someone for me,

because in our environment, it was survival, right? You know what I'm talking about. It's a survival environment. And that idea that, okay, so this is not easy. This is really awful. But that person will die for me. Well, the same thing we have in common. My mother was a rock.

My mother was the daughter of a sharecropper. So she was the force. And I always told her, I said, Mom, you did the best you can in the situation. And I said, you're the best of the two evils because you were still in the environment. And so the environment put pressure on you. So that's the way you reacted to us from a disciplinary standpoint. So you did the best you can. I always reinforced that to her.

Yep, me too. Because, you know, sometimes there's some issues in the family. She said, if I could have done this. My mom too. Yeah. And my mom was a 16-year-old runaway. So when I think about where my mom came from and by, by the way,

she's highly successful now, I mean, really successful. So, and I think about where she came from, what we went through and how she managed to pull through that. That's a strong woman. So,

and that was my example growing up, that work ethic that, you know, and so when people think I'm intense, I'm like, Oh, you haven't met my mom. So you have not met my mom. If people think i'm intense i'm like oh you haven't met my mom so you have not met my mom if you think i'm intense so so your dad was not a positive

influence and he's erratic you know there's 30 million children of alcoholics in the united states today and it can leave lasting scars uh on how you feel about yourself and so on. Who helped you get out of the low self-esteem? Well, I mean, it was a combination of my natural ability as an athlete. When I found out that I was a local superstar, I built on that. And then that was my drug. That was my base. And then. So that was your drug, your feel good. That was my drug. That was my base.

And then I added to start doing that. It was teachers. It was coaches. It was other influences. So you really wanted a strong mentor. You just didn't have one. Didn't have one. Naturally.

And even the mistakes I made, like you said, long effects of alcoholism and whatever. The long effects of that affected me as a professional everything because i made mistakes i didn't have that guidance but i always tried to draw to those people who were really trying to help me and that's how i got out of it those tentacles of people out there i pulled on and so you were coachable yeah so you were looking for guidance and when you found someone you trusted, then that worked. Well, see, the thing, like I said, about the cloud,

EZ could have been a drug addict. EZ could have been homeless. EZ could have been an alcoholic. EZ could have been a criminal. That's the EZ thing. You see, because I was around all that all the time. I remember one time I was with my high school wide receiver. I was a quarterback, and somebody stole a car.

We knew it in the street. He went down to look at the car, and I went down the street with him, but I didn't get involved in the crime scene. And all of a sudden, the cop starts chasing us. So, you know, I'll run them. I'll run the cop. Because you were fast. Because you were fast.

So, you know, that kind of stuff I could have easily got into. And then the marijuana stuff, the drug stuff. We had a popular drug called, they called back in the day when we were going to high school, called Red Devils and Blue Havens, you know, was the choice of the drug of the kids of the day. I could have easily been caught in that. And so a lot of the times I saw great athletes around me who should have had success like me, didn't do it because they were in that cloud, never got out of it. I talk about a kid by the name of Tony Grace who went to the neighboring high school.

This kid was 14 years old, fastest 14 year old in the country. He ran like a nine 800 at 14. I mean, I didn't run that till I was a junior in high school. So, I mean, you know,

where everybody thought he was going to be the next superstar. I mean, amazing ability. You got to wonder why someone like Anthony Davis, who had the card stacked against him, pulls out of it and some of these other guys just can't do it. I mean, even in my own family. My half-sister, her life fell apart.

But you've got to wonder why some people do it and some people don't. So we should get practical. For people who are listening that grew up in trauma or drama, like both of you, my life was much better I mean my dad was amazing my dad and I would fuss but I mean there's always food nobody was doing little things at least that I knew about and your mom my mom is just the most consistently reliable person on the. But what are the steps to getting out of that traumatic,

those traumatic years? Because not everybody who grows up in that goes to jail or becomes a drug addict. No, my sister went the other direction where I went,

I went one direction, she went the other way. And so why do you think that is? And that's really a question for both of you. I mean, AD had his talent, but as you just said, not everybody with talent rises above the cloud. So first of all, not everybody has that talent.

And second of all, even the people who have the talent, not everyone's able to do it. That's right. So it's interesting. What I would suggest to a kid looking at me, I would say, if you're having issues at home, you go grab your counselor. You go grab a teacher that you like. Start talking to that teacher. Somebody that you think that makes you feel good, makes you happy, start having discussions.

That truly helps. That's what got me out of it. Because if I didn't have that support group like that, and I fell in it, not really knowing, but those people, those people are the reasons that I was able to get out. Was I fully loaded with things that I should have had? No.

I figured it out down the road. You had to do a lot of hard work. Right. So one thing I would say, and it's not always an easy thing to do you have to you have to step back and actually recognize it but i knew that as much as i loved my family i did not want to be like them so there was a point where i made a conscious decision that and i chose mentors so i don't want to i don't want to end up like this as much as i love them

i'm not going to end up like this so i made that conscious decision and i chose mentors now these weren't always mentors I actually knew. Sometimes I would create a vision of someone's life that I wanted to be like. I literally just started modeling myself. So in order to pull yourself out, it doesn't always have to be someone you actually know, but you do need to get some help. Well, the thing is with me,

I first saw Willie Mays play baseball in the Coliseum. And one rare time, my father and I were together. I saw Willie Mays throwing in the outfield. Well, 10 years later, I meet Willie Mays, who I wanted to be like. Yep. And he tried to convince me to play professional baseball as a top draft pick by the Baltimore Orioles. So that just— See, that vision.

Yeah, that vision. Yeah. And so that inspired me, you know, vision yeah and so that inspired me you know watching him and the bible says a man without a vision will perish well i had i had a lot of visions you know not imagine that that's what i had that's also helped me as well i had a fighting desire to do well sometimes i fought with it because of the environment but but i reached out to those people i understand so that understand so it's often what we say about health if you want to be healthy find the healthiest person you can stand and then spend

as much time around him or her as possible hang out with sick people you're going to get sick you hang out with drug addicts you're more likely to use drugs if you hang out with criminals you're more likely to be a criminal if you hang out with so so it's a visioning I'm hearing both of you say that visioning what you want for yourself and then finding people who are like that to spend time with and to have the life you want. But I didn't find the people. The athleticism that I had, they found me. And they saw some flaws in me that can derail my athletics of going forward. So that's how I'm telling people who are listening to me now, watching me.

You know, if you're having issues, you go find those folks that you care for you see that that makes you feel good from a foundation point of view that they can pull you in and help because i didn't have anybody telling me that it just they they were gravitating me because i was so talented in those sports but they saw some flaws that can derail that that's amazing yeah all right wow before we stop heavy on doctor it's awesome i became a psychiatrist because i love the stories of people's lives bonding over trauma let's let's just conclude this series with three of the most important things you've learned since you came to him in clinics and we became friends and started working on your brain so if I just said what's the three things. That's why I'm where I am today, 10 years later. He's a warrior. And since you called me the father of

the brain study, now I'm able really after 10 years to really solidify what this aiming clinic has done for me because a lot of people will say you know well that's Anthony Davis he's this he's that that's hokey pokey well with it the science is in the pudding go look at it and see where I've where I've come from 2007 to now and And those are my three. I love that. He's a warrior. Discipline, focus, teamwork.

You're not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better. We proved it. That's right. With you and with thousands of other people. See, I'm the only one, Doc, out there of the study who's been consistent for 10 years that now everybody can look at now they can't deny it now that's why when we build this program now we can really let everybody know in society that i'm the living witness of this program and we're proud of you thank you proud

to be your friends stay with us you're listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. 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.