The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience Is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders, and More

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Educate yourself and others– respond to misperceptions or negative comments by sharing facts and experiences. ALIZÉ (RIGHT) AND AMELIE Alizé and Amelie embracing side-by-side at the beach THIS BOOK IS YOUR BLUEPRINT The Washington Post called Dr. Daniel Amen the most popular psychiatrist in America and Sharecare.com named him the web's most influential expert and advocate on mental health. Self-stigma refers to the negative attitudes, including internalized shame, that people with mental illness have about their own condition. Dr. Amen's premise is that mental illness is a side-effect of damage to and disease in the brain, that many of us are living with low-functioning brains, and that we can fix it even without knowing which issues are by following his plan.

xxvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #93 with Dr. Momo Vuyisich on “Improving the Health of Your Microbiome, Preventing and Reversing Chronic Disease.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-momo-vuyisich-on-improving-the-health-of-your-microbiome-preventing-and-reversing-chronic-disease/ T: Toxins: “Toxins are one of the major causes of brain/mental health issues…and can increase the risk of depression, suicide, ADD/ADHD, learning problems, memory problems, brain fog, and temper outbursts.” [xxxiii]Dr. Amen makes the blanket recommendation to avoid products containing “chemicals.” This is a difficult recommendation to interpret, since literally all matter is made of chemicals. It seems that Dr. Amen is leaning into the vague idea of a “chemical” as something artificially created in a lab, which must, therefore, be dangerous. Public stigma involves the negative or discriminatory attitudes that others have about mental illness. Part 3 of the book offers strategies that can be used in schools and the workplace to end mental illness with a focus on brain health. Choose empowerment over shame - "I fight stigma by choosing to live an empowered life. to me, that means owning my life and my story and refusing to allow others to dictate how I view myself or how I feel about myself."– Val Fletcher, responding on Facebook to the question, How do you fight stigma?

Uchida S, Yamagata H, Seki T, Watanabe Y. Epigenetic mechanisms of major depression: targeting neuronal plasticity. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 2018;72(4):212-227. doi:10.1111/pcn.12621 Mitsutaka Takada, Mai Fujimoto, Kouichi Hosomi, Association between Benzodiazepine Use and Dementia: Data Mining of Different Medical Databases, International Journal of Medical Sciences 13, no. 11 (October 18, 2016): 825–34. Julia Velten et al., Lifestyle Choices and Mental Health: A Representative Population Survey, BMC Psychology 2, no. 58 (2014): 58.This was such a fascinating read. I’ve followed Dr Amen for a long time, and while I don’t necessarily agree with all that he says, he is the most informative and interesting Doctor when it comes to brain health. Interestingly, Dr. Amen leaves cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), a landmark, evidence-based form of psychotherapy, out of his overview of the history of psychiatry. He does go on to mention CBT as part of the treatment offerings of the Amen Clinics, which could leave the lay reader with the incorrect impression that CBT is a treatment unique to Amen Clinics. Similarly, at one point Dr. Amen writes about “what I call automatic negative thoughts.” This phrasing could confuse readers who might not know that automatic thoughts are a concept endemic to CBT. An evidence-based revolution in the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions is improving outcomes for the first time in decades, and Daniel Amen, MD, neuroscientist and double board–certified psychiatrist, is helping to lead the charge.

Part 2 of the book explains the BRIGHT MINDS acronym which is a guide for well-being with the brain in mind. We will cover the BRIGHT part on this episode. Even though I have loved being a psychiatrist for the past 40 years, I am not a fan of my professional label because psychiatrists are often dismissed as unscientific and scorned by other medical professionals and the general public. In 1980, when I told my father, a highly intelligent and successful entrepreneur, that I wanted to be a psychiatrist, he asked me, Why don’t you want to be a ‘real’ doctor? Why do you want to be a nut doctor and hang out with nuts all day long? At the time, his words upset me, but 40 years later, I have a deeper understanding of why he was concerned. In a similar vein, I’ve heard countless patients say, I’m not going to see a psychiatrist because I’m not crazy. Stigma reigns. I prefer the term clinical neuroscientist to psychiatrist. REIMAGINING MENTAL HEALTH AS BRAIN HEALTH CHANGES EVERYTHING I have been given many WRONG Dx’s over the last 3 decades, by doctors across many DIFFERENT fields of medicine (so has author Jordan Peterson btw, his case became so critical, that he almost died . . .and over about a year of doctor after doctor ‘guessing’ wrong here in the USA . . . he was finally able 2 get the help he needed . . . in some 2nd world country near the USSR).A 2020 national survey of 14- to 22-year-olds found that 90 percent of teens and young adults experiencing symptoms of depression are researching mental health issues online and most are accessing other people's health stories through blogs, podcasts, and videos. About three in four young teens seeking information online about depression said they were looking for personal anecdotes from people who had suffered in the past. Twenty-three percent of women between the ages of 40 and 59 are taking antidepressant medication. [10] The stigma of mental illness is universal. A 2016 study on stigma concluded "there is no country, society or culture where people with mental illness have the same societal value as people without mental illness." Harmful Effects of Stigma and Discrimination This one opens strongly, citing daunting statistics around mental illness and calling for change. From there, Amen paints a historical picture of how our approaches to mental health have changed over time, then introduces his “BRIGHT MINDS” framework / acronym to outline the subjects he’ll discuss in the book.