Change Your Brain Every Day - What Causes Anxiety in the Brain?

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

In Dr. Daniel Amen’s new book “Your Brain is Always Listening” he describes the ‘dragons from the past’ that can breathe fire on your emotional brain. The most common of these is the Anxious Dragon, which has been especially dangerous during this pandemic. In this episode of the podcast, Daniel and Tana Amen discuss what triggers the anxious dragon, and what you can do to tame it.  For more info on Dr. Daniel Amen's new book, "Your Brain is Always Listening", visit https://yourbrainisalwayslistening.com/  

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. Hey, everybody. Welcome to a new week of the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We are diving deeply into the dragons from the past. In my new book, Your Brain is Always Listening, we have talked about the abandoned, invisible, and insignificant dragons, my primary dragon. We also talked about the inferior and flawed dragon that is driving the epidemic of teenage suicide. And today we're gonna talk about the most common dragon of all of them. It's the anxious. Especially right now.

Dragon that is breathing fire on your emotional brain. And it's always been the most common dragon I think as human right now they're having babies like lots and lots of babies because right now 2020 was just epic for a little anxious dragons oh no question. Well, people were at home. They had more time for a baby boom. And the anxious dragon is born whenever you felt the world was dangerous. And so anxiety is actually written in our genetic code. Because as humans, when we evolved, it was during a time of scarcity. And when, as a species, we're not strong.

We're actually pretty weak as a species. Right, we're just smart. But we're smart. But part of being smart is having enough anxiety that you save for the future, that you don't go up against a lion, right directly, that you get a herd, and then you develop tools and then walls and right and protection. So but for your life, the

anxious dragon, if that's one of your dragons, you can actually find out your dragons. We have a new questionnaire online, knowyourdragons.com. It's when you felt afraid, if your childhood was scary, like I was beaten up virtually every day of my life until I was seven. And so it was scary. If your childhood was unpredictable, you certainly know about this. Scary, unpredictable. Felt the world was dangerous.

Felt the world was dangerous. One of your early memories is your uncle being murdered in a drug deal. Yeah, my first three memories, almost drowning, being left alone and having no idea where an adult was when I was two and a half and my uncle being murdered and a drug deal. Yeah, my first three memories, almost drowning, being left alone and having no idea where an adult was when I was two and a half and my uncle being murdered. First three memories I can remember. Or if you had undependable or unpredictable caregivers and you actually had a babysitter that was pretty abusive.

I had two that were very abusive, but I can remember. I mean, best case scenario was I remember a couple that were just didn't really pay attention and care. That was much better. But I had two that were abusive. And when you were nine, we'll talk about how this dragon reacts. But you actually had a panic disorder. Which I never knew. When you told me that, I was like, really?

I mean, I think some people don't even realize it when, you know, like you told me, I didn't believe that either. But I think when we just, we learn to live with these behaviors and these things that go on in our lives and these patterns. And I think when people don't know, it's like, you finally put a name to it. It's like, oh, now I can do something about it. But I didn't even realize that that's what was happening. And so what triggers this to breathe fire on you,emic will certainly do it. Societal disruption, the political divide,

but it's really any reminders of past fears and anxieties. And so, like, for example, I talked in the book, and I never talked about it publicly. When I was young, I used to wet my bed. And every morning, I woke up panicked. Because you just never knew. Well, and you had a bunch of siblings and so that. Oh, and no one else had this issue. And so I was special in that way. And I remember the urologist, so my mom tried to get me help.

He basically said, make him drink a lot of water and then make him hold it. And it was torture. I still remember how upset that made me feel. I was chronically in pain. And so as a child psychiatrist, I'm actually really good at treating aneurysis or bedwetting. And it's a little hormone you give people called DDAVP that helps. And it's like, my goodness. But so anything that reminds you of, oh my goodness, somebody will find me out, that can drive anxiety. So what are your triggers? And how does it cause you to react? Panic attacks, fears, phobias, predicting the worst, nervousness, insomnia, headaches, trouble breathing, worrying about being safe.

And what we see on scans is their limbic or emotional brain works too hard. It's like it gets reset. So we call it limbic hyperactivity. And the treatment is to calm it down. And you can do it with diaphragmatic breathing. I teach my patients three seconds in, six seconds out. If you take twice as long to breathe out as you breathe in, it'll actually trigger a parasympathetic or relaxation response. I mean, it's like super simple. You do that 10 times. It's actually one of the things I do a lot that just sort of settles things down. Meditation, which you do a lot and you find it incredibly helpful.

Hypnosis is why I gravitated toward hypnosis when I was a young psychiatrist. I took a month elective in it and I just always felt calmer. Yeah. And you actually did scans and studies on people praying and meditating. I think of them very similarly. But you you've done studies on people praying and meditating. I think of them very similarly. But you've done studies on them, and it actually does settle down the emotional brain. And it activates the thoughtful brain, which is sort of like the perfect balancing act. Now, with all the dragons, there are good things about the anxious drag. If you have low levels of anxiety, you actually die early from accidents and preventable illnesses. I was

talking yesterday about the movie free solo, who is this guy that climbed half dome. Oh, his anxiety center with the amygdala he had no activity there oh so he no fear oh interesting which is why i could do that for me not in your lifetime am i going to climb the black face of half dome the funny thing is i have a lot of anxiety over certain things, especially childhood triggers from things that felt unsafe to me. And it's part of what, whenever I feel that anxiety, I want to challenge myself to do it, to get over the fear. So, I mean, anxiety can drive you to do those things too. It's like, no, I need to overcome

this fear. Well, one of my patients, actually the opening story in your brain is always listening. Jimmy, his father was the leader of the Mexican mafia, and he had this term, test your mettle. Right. Test your mettle. And that's kind of me. Like, I don't want it to rule me. So it's like I want to challenge it. I know that there are a lot of people who do that. For each of the dragons.

Oh, you can also use your five senses to calm your limbic hyperactivity. So whether it's music to settle things down, lavender as your sense of smell, nature and is a nutmeg of all things helps to decrease anxiety. The movies, the anxious dragons like, well, they hate horror movies.

I, I despise horror movies. My mother used to take me to see horror movies when I was like a little kid. I never, I still to this day, why would you take a nine year old to see hills have eyes? Especially when I already had a little kid. I never, I still to this day, why would you take a nine-year-old to see Hills Have Eyes? Especially when I already had a panic disorder. So to this day, I despise.

They tend to love funny, uplifting movies like Mrs. Doubtfire, Big, Chef, I love Chef, or the Disney movie Pollyanna. Oh my gosh. If I have to watch Pollyanna one more time,

everyone in the house has boycotted Pollyanna. You have to do it. If you're new to my family. Yeah, but you don't need to watch it over and over and over. And then the affirmations to say, if you have the anxious dragon, I am safe. I am secure. I am calm. I am protected. I focus on my breathing and centering myself. So, um, you have the anxious dragon. So one thing I tell myself when I don't feel those things is I've got this, I've got this. It's like, okay, I've got this, you know? So I'll, I'll, uh, so it's one of the reasons I take Chloe out and we do like survival training where you like sleep out in the wilderness and build your own shelter and stuff like that, because it scares me. Right. So, because it's like, this happened. What if I ever had to do this? What if, you know, like I always

have these thoughts in my head and I'm afraid of sleeping out in the wilderness. So I myself do that. And it's like the whole time I was like, couldn't go all. And I'm like, okay, I've got this. You've got this. Like, like I just keep telling myself that. Yeah, no, I did that in the army for me. Yeah, but I didn't have army. All right.

What did you learn? Do you have the anxious dragon? Write it down, post it on any of your social media sites. And I really love if you pre-order, if you're listening to this after the book is out, March 2nd, copy of Your Brain is Always Listening. If you go to yourbrainisalwayslistening.com and you pre-order the book, you can actually download some really great gifts, including a coupon for a free bottle of Happy South Park. Stay with us. 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 interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.