Change Your Brain Every Day - Why Is There a Stigma Around Mental Illness?

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

In Dr. Daniel Amen’s new book Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, he discusses how the discoveries made from SPECT imaging has changed the way he sees mental illness. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Amen and his wife Tana illustrate the importance of ending the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

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, everybody. We are continuing our series with Feel Better Fast and Make It Last. We're working on our BrainXL mnemonic. Got Gotta get your brain right, your rational mind, your attachments, your inspiration, your nutrition, and we're working on the X factor. You know, what are the big lessons we've learned from the world's largest brain imaging database?

We'll get to that in a minute, but we have more reviews. Keep leaving them. Thank you so much. This is from Soldier Christian, a happy listener from the United States. Love the information you put out on this podcast. I also listen, watch you on YouTube. Also listens to the Daily Hope because he heard about the purpose-driven life from work we introduced him to. Thanks a lot. Purpose-driven life, being purposeful. You live 11 years longer, right?

Matters. 11 years? I don't remember at the top of my head. I think it's 11 years. People who have purpose in their lives live 11 years longer. So let's talk about the big lessons we've learned from imaging. In the book, I put 10 lessons. Lesson number one, current psychiatric diagnostic models are outdated because they don't assess the brain. And I'm actually working on a new project called The End of Mental Illness. And in chapter one, I review- It's a pretty controversial and big promise.

It's a big promise. I hate the term mental illness. Yeah. I like that you're trying to change the way we say things and get rid of the stigma. Well, it actually stains people. Well, and it's part of why I almost canceled my first date with you. We've talked about that. We've joked about it. But the serious part of that is that I had been hurt by going to see a psychiatrist when I was depressed.

My grandmother was permanently hurt by going to see a psychiatrist. People in my family had been hurt. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he didn't have Alzheimer's. So these are reasons that people don't want to go. Not just because they get hurt, but because they get stigmatized for the rest of their lives. And it's hard. Well, and what we discovered is that when your brain works right, you work right. Your mood is better.

Your energy is better. Your energy is better. Your anxiety is less. And we needed a new way of diagnosing and treating. Well, and what I don't like is that when you get diagnosed with something wrong or you're treated wrong. Like I was clearly depressed. They treated me wrong with the wrong medication. And it doesn't work. You are the problem. It's your fault. And that's a problem. So depression, we think of it as a diagnosis. Oh, you're depressed. You're depressed.

Right. But in reality, it's a symptom that has many different causes. And I remember being on our first date and you were the first person I'd ever heard say that. And I was like, what? Like it was such a new concept for me. But it made so much sense. Well, I mean, if you just think about it, pancreatic cancer, one of the first symptoms is depression. And people who've never been depressed before, if all of a sudden you're depressed, somebody

should be looking at your pancreas. Thyroid. Thyroid. So, Hashimoto's disease. Testosterone. Right. Head trauma. Right.

Yes, you can have an emotional loss, but why are some people resilient to emotional losses? And some aren't. And other people aren't. It has to do with the physical functioning of your brain. So the second lesson we learned, and this goes along with what we're talking about, is psychiatric diagnoses like depression, ADHD, addictions, are not single or simple disorders. They all have multiple types. And so the show we did together on Healing ADD, we talk about seven different types. And I remember one of your best

friends, you actually got connected to would go over to her house, I started to get worried. I didn't, my daughter was younger than her son by three years. And I started to not want to go over there because, and this is a really sad thing and it's icky. I mean, so many of us as parents don't want to admit this, but we don't want our kids playing with other kids because we feel like they're going to get hurt. I mean, we feel like, and I hate that now that especially doing what we do, I've never liked it, but now, especially doing what we do, I know even at Chloe's school, there are certain kids that parents avoid. And that is so painful to those parents and those kids, but it's the truth. We feel like we know those kids are a

little different. We know they're violent. We know they have these temper outbursts and they behave differently. Right. And so even though we feel icky about it, the safety of our own kids comes first. And that's how it was with my friend. So I wouldn't go over there because after a while, because her son was three years older than Chloe and Chloe couldn't protect herself. Right. And so I'm like, wow, this kid is like, he's having these violent outbursts. And eventually it was bad enough that he was putting holes in walls and he was like really

breaking down. And we lost touch after a while. We just kind of went our own ways. Not because of that after a while. We just kind of went our own ways. Not because of that. Just we lost touch and kind of went our own ways. And then it's so interesting. All of a sudden I get this phone call. My number hadn't changed, but I hadn't talked to her for a very long time.

And she's apparently they saw me on PBS sitting in the audience and you introduced me as your wife. And she was like, wait, what, what happened? I'm so confused. And so she was so excited because she's like, I felt, she's like, I felt like maybe for the first time there was something that could answer the question. She had been to three psychiatrists. This kid was young. She'd been to, I think by then he was what, 10, nine or 10. Um, she'd been to three psychiatrists. This kid was young. She'd been to, I think by then he was what, 10, nine or 10. She'd been to three psychiatrists. He had been on several pretty heavy psych meds. And so she brought him in and she's like, she hated him. And they were going to put him on Risperdal, which is an antipsychotic medication.

And at 10, like 10 years old. To control him. This is crazy. Like 10, no, he wasn't even, he wasn't even 10 because Chloe was pretty young. And typically, you know, if you look at the research, ADD, he'd been diagnosed with ADD, is associated with low blood flow to the front part of your brain. But he didn't have the typical pattern, which is why he didn't respond to the typical medications. No, he got worse. He had the ring of fire. But you need to explain.

He got worse when they put him on the medications, which is why they were trying things like Risperdal, right? So when they put him on- Well, they hadn't put him on it yet. They were waiting to- No, no, no. My point is he responded negatively to the traditional medicines. He got much worse. And many people do. That's why psychiatric drugs are controversial. And they work for some people, they don't work for other people. And some people, they violent or suicidal. Right. He's putting the holes in walls. When we saw the ring of fire, it's like, oh, we have to calm his brain down, not stimulate it on supplements that we designed for him. So the first thing you did was take him off of meds, right? We took him off of his meds, put him on some supplements, did some lifestyle changes.

And within a year, he's on the honor roll. He's a good looking kid. He's like one of their star water polo players. So they ended up moving. This is a kid no one, he was socially sort of isolated. No one would have him over. He never got invited. It just broke her heart.

Never got invited to anything. Didn't have friends. They moved. No one would have him over. He never got invited. It just broke her heart. Never got invited to anything. Didn't have friends. They moved. No one knew his backstory. And suddenly he's one of the most popular kids in school. Right. And so his star water polo player and, and one of the- It changed the trajectory of his life. Yeah. So one of the hardest parts for her to change because she had three kids was the lifestyle portion, but she did it. It's when people say I can't, it's really frustrating to me because when your child's life basically is at stake, it's just one of those things. We know it's not always the easiest thing to do. It's not impossible. And it's just, it's necessary.

And there are ways, and that's where we can help you come up with those strategies. One more lesson and then we'll continue it in the next podcast is looking at the brain decreases stigma, increases compliance, and completely changes the discussion around mental health. Right. And, you know, as I'm working on the end of mental illness, really the idea for that book is nobody wants to see a psychiatrist. Right. No one wants to be labeled as defective or abnormal. Sometimes it ends up like ruining your chances at love because people don't want to date you sometimes.

I'm just kidding. Seriously. We're still there. 13 years later. It could have completely ruined. Like I think of where my life would be. It would be so different. How sad would that be? How sad for you? Right. And how sad for me. Right. No one wants to see a psychiatrist. No one wants to be labeled as defective or abnormal. I mean, when you got diagnosed with depression, how'd that make you

feel? Well, I was, I knew I was depressed. I mean, I would have done anything. There's not a feeling I can think of. I've been very sick in my life with a lot of different things. And I've had 10 medical surgeries, like actual medical surgeries. Not one thing was as bad as being depressed. Not one thing. It is the most hopeless, horrifying, terrible, rip your skin

off because you can't get away from it feeling. So anyone who's depressed, I, so there's nothing I would not do to get away from it. So I wanted to be treated, but I was treated wrong and it was just terrible. That was even worse. Well, so many times I've heard people won't get the help they need because they don't want to be diagnosed as crazy. Well, I didn't. And so, so many times I've heard people won't get the help they need because they don't want to be diagnosed as crazy. Well, I didn't. Or abnormal. So imagine you finally get to the point where it's bad enough that you do go get treated and they make it worse. That's even worse.

But, you know, one of the things we've learned is everybody wants a better brain. So what if mental health was really brain health? And if we can go down that road, people can just be so much better. Because they realize that the brain is an organ and it can be better by what you do for it. So stay with us. We're going to talk about more of the big lessons we've learned from imaging. Use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month. Thank you.