After looking at the brain, he's realized that "mental illness" aren't mental issues at all
They're brain health issues that steal your mind.
This idea changes everything -
people see their problems as medical and not moral
It decreases shame and guilt.
Increases compliance
Increases compassion and forgiveness.
No one is shamed for it, even tho they all have lifestyle contributions
The stigma comes from the fact that we don't think of it as brain health issues.
Mental illness places the emphasis on your mind - which is vague and hard to define.
The mind is created by the brain.
When your brain works right, you work right.
When your brain is troubled, you are more likely to be anxious or depressed etc.
If we never look at the brain, how can we care for it
No other medical specialist doesn't look at the organ that they treat.
Without looking at the brain, you come up with interesting theories about why people act how they do, but without information on the actual biology.
Take anxiety as an example., it could be because:
Your brain works too hard and you're anxious cos you can't settle it down.
It doesn't work hard enough, so it can't suppress the anxious feelings.
Or maybe there's a toxin or trauma.
Most people go to a therapist and talk through their problems.
They're working on the software
But what if there's a hardware concern?
How do you think about religion and that tie to the physicality of the brain/mind?
To think all of this evolved out of random chance, he thinks, takes more faith than believing in creative design.
What is the impact of prayer on the brain?
Studied the brain in different prayer states - praying for someone else vs someone who does prophecy vs speaking on tongues (channeling) etc.
Theory is - when you channel - you have to drop the function of your brain to become a vessel for the channel (like channeling the dead etc.)
Meditation fooled them
They expected less brain activity - which is true for the emotional part of your brain.
But the thoughtful brain fired up.
It increased gamma waves in the brain) super fast waves)
When talking about brain waves - they measure how busy the brain is.
Delta waves - 0-2 cycles per second
Happens when we sleep
Theta waves - 3-7 cycles a second.
Peope with ADD have higher levels of theta waves.
Alpha waves - 8-12 cycles a second.
People often train this to become in a more meditative, focused state.
Beta waves - 13-18
High beta - above 18
Gamma - above 40
Can train the brain:
Maybe you need less theta - to concentrate better
Or maybe train alpha?
Psychiatric drugs shouldn't be the first thing you think about in treating mental illness.
His upcoming book has details on which supplements (nutra-ceuticals) have A-level scientific evidence for treating what mental illness.
How do we train ourselves to be in a different state? (alpha, theta etc.)
When people meditate, the only feedback they're getting is from themselves
So they use instruments to measure this feedback and get a better sense
Then they can specifically set training protocols, with feedback, to hell train for a goal
For example:
They can teach you to warm your hands with your mind.
Warming hands relaxes people, cos stress makes your hands cold.
They can ask people to think of images that warm their hands (hands on front of a fire, holding coffee, holding your dog etc.)
Doing so, will warm your hands.
Children do it effortlessly, cos they don't believe they can't
Your body responds to every single thought you have.
Are these responses helping or hurting you?
You can learn to change your body often by changing where you let your mind go.
Why is hypnotism powerful?
It helps you tap into a natural state.
Like meditation, it activates parts of your brain.
Tends to activate the haply side of the brain.
We are in hypnotic states all the time.
If driving somewhere for a long time, feels like it takes less time - it means you've been in a hypnotic state.
It's helpful for sleep, pain, anxiety.
Some people are more receptive to hypnosis
Do we first have to train them to light up the part of their brain that makes them more receptive?
Everybody can be hypnotized
But for some, it takes training.
Then you can solve problems.
It changes your physiology.
Do you train people for self hypnosis?
Has an online programme called brain fit life.
Has 6 hypnosis audios
Begins by decreasing the outside world by focusing
Then focus on something above their eye level.
As he counts to 20, he'll suggest their eyes are becoming heavy.
Essentially, take their scattered attention to a spot and then the attention gets focused inward.
What he's trying to do is decrease the noise here.
Does diaphragmatic breathing.
Does at a specific rate - 3 seconds in and 6 seconds out.
This rate has been found to trigger a parasympathetic response.
Then roll their eyeballs up
Tense their eye muscles
Then progressive relaxation - imagine the relaxation is spreading from their eye muscles to the rest of their body.
Then a deep ending technique - may have them walk down a flight of stairs.
Then guided imagery - get them to see a place that is relaxing to them.
Then they do the work
Example of boy that had panic attacks.
Got him into a hypnotic state - then asked him the first time he had a panic attack.
He does it in that meditative state, cos it's safe
He'd had a traumatic event when he was 4
Dr Amen asks if there was anything before this
He went back to his birth and was born with his cord around his neck.
Could he have remembered a story? Doesn't the brain remove those memories?
He thinks we carry memories from other people.
Example of mice that were trained to be afraid of a cherry blossom tree for 3 generations.
Example of Dr. Amen's grandfather that had a traumatic experience in his youth which made him afraid/anxious of driving.
The anxiety the Dr. Carries may not just be his, it may come from the experiences of generations - a lot of it didn't start with him.
Other examples:
Children of holocaust survivors have a higher incidence of PTSD.
30% of children of soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD.
It's called secondary PTSD
These are ancestral dragons
What's the issue that actually may not be your issue.
That's why it's important to know about your ancestors (like your mum, grandfather etc.)
It's not just the genes we inherit, it's the scratches on them that turn these genes on and off that make anxiety and depression much more common in future generations.
Genes only load the gun, it's what happens to us that pulls the trigger.
To end mental illness
You put their bodies and brains into a healing environment.
Repairing that damage is critical to not continuing the cycle of psychiatric problems.
So what are the baseline things you do?
First it starts with feeding them right.
Use a hyperbaric chamber
This increases blood flow to the brain.
Example of Justin Bieber - who had low blood flow to the brain and after using this chamber, he has less anxiety now.
Don't believe every stupid thing you think
Some people have a lot of bad programming - their brains automatically go into the dark place.
So every morning, day "today's gonna be a great day"
Then your unconscious mind will think "well, why is today going to be a great day"
At the end if the day talk about what went well
This trains your mind, but also setting up your dreams to be more positive.
If your dreams are more positive, then you'll be in deeper rems state - which is a more healing state.
The mother of tiny habits, just ask "is this food for my brain or bad for it?"
If you can answer that with information and love, your brains gonna be better
Other tiny habits:
Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous or out of control - write down what your thinking and then ask yourself if it's true.
There's a process in his book to not believe every stupid thing you think.
When you're going to day something to somebody, ask whether it fits that relationship
The one page miracle - Write down what you want - your relationships, work, money, physical, emotional and spritutual health.
Ask, does your behavior get you what you want.
Example of having a ride thought towards his wife, but since he'd much rather have her in his life than not, he let's it go.
Cos being a jerk doesn't fit the goal he has for his marriage.
But it starts with telling his frontal lobe what he wants.
Tom likes this idea when talking to entrepreneurs
If you really want to accomplish something, you'll have to out in a ton of work.
But if you're not aiming that at the right thing, you're not going to make progress.
Everything you trying to accomplish should be so clear, it boils down to something you can do today.
All businesses have plans, but people rarely do for themselves.
Having one will clarify your goals.
How do you help people that don't know where to start with this?
His clinics, books etc.
Free stuff online.
We are creating mental illness
With the food we serve
The news - pitting one against another.
Social media
Letting kids hit soccer balls with their heads.
Juul is increasing nicotine usgae in teens.
What are things that are problematic for brain health? Toxins that people get on a daily basis that they may not realize?
Pesticides
We ingest it and it begins to damage our microbiome.
This correlates with anxiety.
Anasthesia
Children who have it have a higher incidence of learning disabilities and ADD.
Adults (specially around heart procedures) have a higher incidence of dementia.
After surgery, you may need to rehabilitate your brain, as if you played on the NFL.
What would people do to heal their brain?
Hyperbaric oxygen - may be extreme
Diet
Sleep
Ending social isolation you have - connecting to people.
Don't be fat
Over weight-Ness exposes you to 5 risk factors of stealing your mind.
It stores toxins
It increases inflammation
The blood flow to your brain goes down when your weight goes up.
It takes healthy belly fat (testosterone) and flips it into unhealthy cancer promoting forms of estrogen.
Blood sugar goes up.
We need to be eating in a way that is calorie smart and loaded with veges.
There's a linear correlation between the number of fruits and veges we eat in a day and our level of happiness.
The brain does what you allow it to do
Whatever habit/behavior you engage in, you're gonna do again.
Bad or good habits will get stuck in your brain.
It takes some retraining.
Example of restaurant offering alcohol before the meal - which makes you more likely to order more food and dessert.
Also refuses bread, cos that turns to sugar in your mouth -
increases serotonin in the brain, which makes you happy
But drops your frontal lobes, which makes you more likely to order more food and dessert.
Retraining is difficult in the beginning, cos your brain has to make new connections to say no to things.
Tom:
He uses bright lines - he either does this or not
People struggle with it, cos they make these lines too aggressive
But having rules is really underutilized.
People don't want to deny themselves things - but that's insane.
Drew Carey - eating crappy food isn't a reward, it's a punishment.
But that's a mindset - you have to really stop and think about longevity and clarity being important to you.
You have to know what you want
Or else you won't be able to control in those moments.
Plus if you get rid of these bad foods, an orange will explode with flavor
Cos these bad foods have been engineered to feel perfect.
With clarity you can say - these foods don't serve my goals (purpose, longevity, relationships)
What do you think the no. 1 thing society does that is eroding health span right now?
The one that's killing us is being
oblivious.
We're not reading food labels
We don't know what's in the products we put on our bodies
We're not thinking about our brains and our bodies.
Get your brain right and your mind will be better
Since your brain creates your mind.
In terms of ending mental illness, what's the no. 1 change people can make that would have the biggest impact?
You have to do it first.
Starts with that one question - is this good for my brain? Or bad for it?