Price: $9.28
Cheapest Place to Buy: Amazon.com
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Product Overview
As you will see on the cover of the book, Change Your Brain Change Your Life is presented as a program for “conquering anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, anger and impulsiveness”. The book is written by neuropsychiatrist Daniel G. Amen, and his recommendations are all based on his experiences with his patients.
Powerful Examples of How The Brain Affects Behaviour
Dr. Amen gives a number of very powerful scenarios of people who displayed acts of aggression, frustration and even violence and upon doing what he refers to as brain “SPECTS”, which are a certain scan of the brain, it was revealed that these people’s brains had been affected by either decreased or increased activities in certain areas of their brains. For people who abused substances such as drugs and alcohol, his SPECT studies showed where the brain had holes and were shriveled, which helped to rationalize the negative behavior in those people.
Dr. Amen also gave examples of people who initially had calm personalities but then became more aggressive following brain injuries. Even hormonal changes as a result of menstruation were seen to play a role in the violent and aggressive behavior of some of his patients.
The stories were overall quite powerful and left me feeling more inclined to an appreciation of viewing being calm and focused as the more natural state of being. In fact, his conclusion is along those lines. Previously I would justify reacting angry or frustrated, but this book seems to suggest that it is defects to the brain that results in certain behavior. He gives checklists for various brain issues that you can use to measure whether you have a high likelihood for those brain issues. Interestingly I discovered that I have a high likelihood for anxiety and cingulate issues.
Prescriptions that Change Your Brain and Your Behavior
I found it quite interesting to read the cases of people whose behavior dramatically improved as a result of taking some of the medications Dr. Amen prescribed for them. Marriages were saved and a few people were able to maintain their jobs as a result. Dr. Amen explained how even being on a junk food diet can cause people to behave in aggressive ways and would have reacted more calmly on a more health diet.
My only issue with these prescriptions is that medication is highly promoted, but I am more in favor of a natural approach. He does however, mention supplements that have helped such as St. John’s Worts, which I have also discussed in my article on Natural Anxiety Relief Supplements. St. John’s Worts along with a form of psychotherapy was helpful for anxiety as a result of post-traumatic stress. The medication or supplement prescribed was dependent on the specific scenario of the patient. He also gave other natural recommendations for managing difficult situations.
Great Price
It’s quite an affordable book, especially considering the knowledge it leaves you with about the workings of your brain and how it is affected by various substances. You have a variety of formats to choose from. I imagine the average person would purchase either paperback or kindle formats and those are both for less than $10.
Conclusion – great eye opener and great solutions
Overall, I found the book to be a great eye opener to the workings of the brain and how injuries, substances and hormones can affect our behavior. I also appreciate the solutions he offers. It shows that if people have issues with aggression, depression, anxiety and so on, there are proven prescriptions that can help to normalize how your brain functions so as to allow you to have a more fulfilling life. I definitely recommend this book for these reasons.
