Anxiety takes up a lot of your brain’s precious resources. When anxiousness fills the corners of your mind with worrisome thoughts and fears, it’s akin to something researchers call cognitive overload. That’s when your brain is bombarded with too much information to be able to process it all effectively.
When stress and anxiety hit, your brain is so busy processing those nervous thoughts that it drops the ball on the other cognitive tasks you need to handle. It makes it hard to concentrate, difficult to pay attention, and gets in the way of memory formation. This leads to feeling spacey, being easily distracted, and being forgetful. And that’s a recipe for brain fog.
Brain SPECT Imaging, Anxiety, and Brain Fog
Brain SPECT imaging shows that people with anxiety tend to have a very busy brain with too much activity in areas such as the basal ganglia (the anxiety centers of the brain). Overactivity floods the emotional circuits in the brain diverting resources away from important mental processes.
In addition, being plagued by chronic stress causes the hippocampus—a brain region that is critically involved in memory formation—to shrink. In the healthy brain, about 700 new neurons, or nerve cells, are formed each day in the hippocampus. However, when your brain is under attack by a constant flood of stressful thoughts, this process can be disrupted, resulting in fewer new neurons. This is bad news for your memory and can be a major contributor to an inability to recall information.
Imaging the brain can be helpful in determining if worrisome symptoms of brain fog are a sign of dementia or related to anxiety, exposure to toxins, or other factors.
4 TECHNIQUES TO CALM ANXIETY TO CLEAR THE BRAIN FOG
1. Use hypnosis, guided imagery, or progressive muscle relaxation.
When stress and anxiety get out of control, hypnosis, guided imagery, or progressive muscle relaxation can quickly decrease the stress response. Here are the basic steps of you can do this on your own:
Sit in a comfortable chair and stare at a spot on the wall that is slightly above eye level. Let your eyelids close slowly.
Breathe deeply. With each inhale, imagine taking in peace and calmness, and with each exhale, blow out all the tension. Notice a calm come over you.
Squeeze the muscles in your eyelids, closing your eyes as tightly as you can. The let them relax and feel that relaxation travel down your face and body.
After the tension has left your body, imagine yourself at the top of an escalator and ride down while counting backward from 10. By the time you reach the bottom, you should be experiencing a sensation of relaxation.
Enjoy the tranquility for several moments, then ride the escalator back up counting from 1 to 10. When you reach the number 10, open your eyes, and enjoy feeling refreshed and alert.
2. Practice diaphragmatic breathing.
When people get anxious, their breathing typically becomes shallow fast, causing a decrease in oxygen to the brain and body and an increase in toxic carbon dioxide. This can lead to feelings of confusion and disorientation, which are associated with brain fog. Deep breathing—inhaling for about 4 seconds and slowly exhaling for about 8 seconds—reverses that, increasing oxygen to the brain and helping eliminate carbon dioxide to calm panic and restore clarity in the mind.
3. Say a prayer or meditate.
Prayer and meditation have been found to calm stress and quell anxious thoughts. But that’s not all. They also improve focus and memory, and brain imaging shows they enhance activity in the prefrontal cortex. There are many effective techniques, including reading, memorizing, or meditating on Scripture; writing out a personal prayer; reading classic spiritual writings; focusing on gratitude, or meditating.
4. Listen to soothing music.
Music can help you relax, calm anxiousness, and improve focus. In a fascinating study in the journal Brain and Cognition, research subjects rated Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos (K. 448) and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata as happy and sad, respectively. Listening to happy music (Mozart’s piece) increased activity in the brain’s left hemisphere, associated with happiness and motivation, and decreased activity in the right hemisphere, often associated with anxiety and negativity. Beethoven’s piece did the opposite. Create your own playlist to counteract times of stress and anxiety and to increase focus and energy.
Anxiety, chronic stress, brain fog, and other issues can’t wait. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834or visit our contact page here. Your brain is very soft—similar to the texture of soft butter—and it floats inside your skull, which is very hard and has many bony ridges. Can you picture what could happen to your brain when you get hit in the head?
That delicate organ between your ears gets forced into those knife-sharp ridges which can cause bleeding, bruising, tearing, and scarring to your brain. Even wearing a helmet cannot stop the cascade of injury to the brain, although it does help to protect you from cracking your skull.
Now imagine what happens in professional contact sports, such as football, rugby, and ice hockey—or even soccer where heading the ball is part of the game. Day after day, year after year, those athletes are sustaining hits to their heads. And even if they don’t lead to concussions, the repetitive trauma to the brain is likely setting the stage for changes in how their brain might function in the near or distant future.
What Exactly is CTE?
The term CTE—chronic traumatic encephalopathy—was largely brought into the public’s awareness through the movie Concussion (which stars Will Smith) based on the work of Bennet Omalu, MD. He is a neuropathologist who did the autopsies of several former NFL players and found excessive deposits of abnormal tau protein in their brains.
Healthy tau is something we are supposed to have. Tau proteins are found inside brain cells and provide the structure, like train tracks, to help cells clear unwanted and toxic proteins. However, damage to the brain from injury—like a concussion—or a disease such as Alzheimer’s can cause the tau proteins to become abnormal and interfere with cell functioning.
This phenomenon was actually first identified back in the 1920s, when the term “punch drunk syndrome” was used to describe some boxers, who eventually developed changes in personality, psychiatric symptoms, memory issues, and behavior problems, which are similar to the issues faced by some athletes who have had careers in other professional contact sports, such as those mentioned above.
CTE is a progressive degenerative disease and the exact underlying mechanisms that lead to the abnormal tau proteins are still being researched. There is no blood test for it—it can only be diagnosed by autopsy—but just because a person has a history of head injury, it does not mean their brain can’t get better.
In fact, at Amen Clinics, we know it is possible for injured brains to improve because we have seen it time and time again with our patients.
At Amen Clinics, we know it is possible for injured brains to improve, because we have seen it time and time again with our patients.
Several years ago, the research team at Amen Clinics, in collaboration with scientists from three major universities, conducted one of the first research studies on reversing brain damage in former NFL players. As part of the study, the players underwent cognitive testing and quantitative EEG studies, along with brain SPECT imaging to assess blood flow patterns in the brain. These measures were taken before treatment started and then again at the end of the study.
The results from the pre-treatment brain scans revealed that more than 90% of the players had damage to multiple areas of their brains, especially in these:
The prefrontal cortex, affecting judgment, planning, forethought, and impulse control
The temporal lobes involved with learning, memory, and mood stability
The cerebellum affects mental agility and processing speed
The treatment protocol for the men included weight loss (for those who needed it) and taking prescribed amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, a high-potency multivitamin, and other brain-supportive supplements.
Dr. Amen and his colleagues watched over the progress of the players, and at the end of the study, found that 80% of them had improvements, not only on their cognitive testing but also on their brain scans which indicated that blood flow in areas of the brain got better!
You are Not Stuck with the Brain You Have
So it really is possible to change your brain and make it work better—even if you’ve done bad things to it—or it’s been decades since a head injury has occurred. But in order to do this, it’s important to put your brain in a healing environment. In other words, you must start avoiding things that hurt your brain, including:
Untreated psychiatric disorders, such as depression and ADHD
And instead, engage in things that help your brain, like these:
Eat a good diet with plenty of fresh produce, clean protein, and healthy fats like avocados.
Practice stress-management.
Take simple daily supplements, including a multivitamin, omega-3s, and vitamin D.
Get control of your automatic negative thoughts.
Engage in new learning.
Maintain a healthy weight and exercise regularly.
Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.
Seek treatment for any mental health conditions.
Simple lifestyle changes like these—which are very doable—can really add up to helping you feel better, think more clearly, have improved energy and focus, and make better decisions each day.
When you take care of your brain, you take care of yourself, your goals, your relationships, and all the things that provide a sense of meaning in your life. You can do this!
Concussions and mental health problems shouldn’t wait. It’s important to get assessed and treated as soon as possible. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. For decades, ADD/ADHD was primarily viewed as a disorder in boys who couldn’t sit still. Over time, it has become clearer that girls and women with the condition often have different symptoms and face special challenges. But what about adult men? They have to cope with unique struggles too. At Amen Clinics, we have treated thousands of men with ADD/ADHD, which brain SPECT imaging shows is typically associated with low activity in the prefrontal cortex and is also linked to low levels of the neurochemical, dopamine.
Over time, it has become clearer that girls and women with ADD/ADHD often have different symptoms and face special challenges. But what about adult men? They have to cope with unique struggles too.
Here are some of the most common issues adult men with ADD/ADHD face.
1. Work Challenges Faced by Men with ADD/ADHD
For many men, work defines their identity, and any struggles in this arena can create problems. Look at Bill, for example. At age 32, he got fired from a job he loved. He knew it was his fault, but he just couldn’t organize his time to do the work that was expected. He missed deadlines, seemed to drift off in meetings, and he was often late to work. He knew that his wife would be angry with him. This was the third job he had lost in their 3-year marriage. As a child, Bill had taken Ritalin for troubles in school, but he was taken off the medication when he was a teenager. His doctor told him that all kids outgrow the problems he was having. That was bad advice. As an adult, Bill’s work was suffering from the effects of ADD/ADHD, and it left him with a sense of shame and failure.
This is common in men with ADD/ADHD. When a supervisor or manager puts more pressure on them to perform, they often fall off in their work. The boss then interprets this decreased performance as willful misconduct and serious problems arise. One man with ADD/ADHD who came to Amen Clinics was a ship welder. He said that whenever his boss put pressure on him to do a better job, his work got worse (even though he really tried to do better). When the boss told him that he liked his work, he became more productive.
Other ADD/ADHD-related traits include distractibility, forgetfulness, impulsivity, disorganization, being late for work, and having trouble with follow-through. This makes men with the condition more vulnerable to getting fired, demoted, or not achieving the success they desire.
2. Common Relationship Problems for Men with ADD/ADHD
For many men, ADD/ADHD causes trouble in their relationships for a variety of reasons. For example, males with this condition experience difficulty expressing their emotions. This can be frustrating for their partners, who say that there is little meaningful talking in the relationship. “He seems turned off when he comes home” is a common complaint.
Relationships can also suffer due to temper outbursts, which occur in up to 70% of adults with ADD/ADHD, according to research in BMC Psychiatry. Emotional dysregulation makes those with the condition prone to irritability, frustration, and anger, and it is especially common in men.
Conflict-seeking behavior is also common as a way for those with ADD/AHD to stimulate activity in the brain. In relationships, this leads men to play a game of “Let’s have a problem,” in which they create drama to build excitement. This can be detrimental to any relationship.
3. Sexual Issues in Men with ADD/ADHD
For men, performance in the bedroom is key to self-esteem, but having ADD/ADHD can get in the way of a fulfilling love life. A lack of focus can make a man’s mind wander during sex and can make it harder to achieve orgasm, which can make him feel like a failure. The need for novelty and thrill-seeking behavior, which is common in men with this condition, can lead to bad habits, such as extramarital affairs or regular use of online pornography. These can cause major rifts in relationships. A penchant for risky behavior and the thrill of the moment is also a recipe for engaging in unprotected sex, which can have serious consequences, such as exposure to STDs and unplanned pregnancies.
4. Men with ADD/ADHD are Less Likely to Seek Treatment
In our society, men are brought up to be the “strong, silent types,” and are encouraged to “tough it out” whenever they have a problem. The stigma surrounding mental health issues makes men less likely to ask for help when they need it. This means they are more likely to suffer in silence needlessly. If they don’t seek treatment or get a brain scan, which has helped the psychiatrists at Amen Clinics identify 7 types of ADD/ADHD, they won’t know which type they have or how to target treatment to their type.
ADD/ADHD and other mental health issues can’t wait. During these uncertain times, your mental well-being is more important than ever and waiting until life gets back to “normal” is likely to make your symptoms worsen over time. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834or visit our contact page here. Are you one of the many millions of people trying to cope on your own with symptoms of anxiety, depression, or another mental health challenge? Perhaps you have friends with whom you can talk about what’s going on—and they do their best to support you. But even when you feel better for a little while, the worries, sadness, out-of-control stress, and other issues always seem to come back around.
You know things aren’t right, yet you feel like you should be “strong enough” to deal with your problems. Even when those who are close to you have suggested you reach out for professional help, you always find a way to justify not doing so.
If this sounds familiar, there are plenty of other people who think the same way—and they continue to suffer unnecessarily too.
7 Reasons Why People Avoid Mental Health Treatment
Do any of these excuses or beliefs prevent you from reaching out for help?
1. It’s stigmatizing and embarrassing.
Do you think that going to therapy implies something is wrong with you and that people will look at you differently? First of all, having mental health issues is nothing to be ashamed of—they are not due to some kind of moral failing or character flaw. Needing help is much more about your brain being out of balance, and with the right treatment, you can greatly improve your symptoms. Furthermore, if you don’t want anyone to know you are getting help, don’t tell them. You have every right to keep your personal information private.
2. You’re too busy to see a therapist.
It’s easy to overbook your calendar, but chances are you have a little wiggle room to prioritize self-care. Generally speaking, most counseling appointments are less than one hour, once per week. Plus, many therapists and doctors are available through telehealth, which can be really convenient. You probably can give up a little time spent on social media or watching TV each week to attend an appointment that will help you work through the symptoms and problems that are holding you back.
3. You feel guilty because others have it worse.
In life, there will always be those who struggle more than you do, as well as people who struggle less. Professional help is there for everyone. There’s a reason you are struggling now but diminishing your own needs doesn’t help you—or anyone else—even if they seem to be having harder challenges. It’s OK to give yourself permission to reach out for the support you need. You deserve to take care of yourself.
4. People go to therapy to complain about their lives.
And you can’t stand people who complain. If you’re unhappy with things in your life, are burdened with painful memories, have constant anxiety, or are feeling hopeless about your future, these are not complaints. These are real issues that are interfering with your ability to feel better. Try to recall how you learned that talking to someone about your problems was akin to whining and that no one wants to hear it. It might be old messaging from your past.
5. Been there once, and it didn’t work.
If you have sought treatment for your issues before and it wasn’t helpful, you’re not the only one. At Amen Clinics, many of our patients had similar experiences until they were successfully treated by us. Before coming to one of our clinics, they have already gotten an average of 4.2 different diagnoses, failed 3.3 providers, and tried 5 medications—and still have symptoms. That is why Amen Clinics incorporates brain SPECT imaging as part of a patient’s evaluation. This technology lets the doctors actually see what is going on in the brain. Being able to identify the underlying biological cause of a patient’s symptoms allows the doctor to create an individualized treatment plan specific to each patient’s unique brain.
6. It’s too expensive to get treatment.
While yes, mental health treatment isn’t free, having untreated mental health problems can be far more costly in the long run. It can interfere with school performance, the ability to hold down a job, ruined relationships, physical health conditions, and substance abuse—all of which can be devastating financially. According to a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, healthy respondents earned an average of $38,851 while those with serious mental illness earned just $22,545. So rather than being deterred by the cost, consider ways you can rearrange your budget and set aside the money for the treatment you need. For example, take your lunch instead of eating out and plan free activities to do with friends or family rather than going to places that cost money. Investing instead in your mental health and well-being is worth it!
7. You don’t want to be judged.
In reality, you’re probably the only person judging yourself for having some mental health challenges. One of the things you might not know is that most mental health professionals are very accepting and offer a non-judgmental environment to help you work through your issues. They provide a safe space for you to explore whatever it is that’s troubling you, and rather than being judgmental, most of them are compassionate and understanding.
Sometimes, it can be hard to take that first step to get the treatment that will help you feel better. It’s not uncommon to have some initial hesitancy—some people have concerns about feeling too vulnerable. However, a skilled mental health clinician knows how to work at a pace that makes you feel comfortable as you address your symptoms and issues and move forward toward your goals.
If you or a loved one is struggling with anxiety, depression, or another mental health issue, it’s important to get support and treatment. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. When you think about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), does it conjure up images of people who wash their hands until they’re raw, check locks repeatedly, or arrange items in very specific ways? If so, you would be correct because behaviors like these are quite characteristic of this condition.
Symptoms of OCD are generally diagnosed in late adolescence, and affect about 1 in 40 adults in the U.S, although 1 in 200 children are diagnosed with it each year as well. This disorder causes recurring thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions) that temporarily “neutralize” the distressing thoughts.
While everyone has disturbing thoughts on occasion, such thoughts are usually transient and can be easily dismissed. What differentiates people who have OCD is that the thoughts are persistent, unwanted, and intrusive, but won’t go away. The rituals or behaviors that help to decrease the anxiety generated by the thoughts can become so time-consuming that a person’s entire day might revolve around them. Thus, the obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors can interfere with many aspects of someone’s life, including relationships, work or school, social activities, and family.
In OCD, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors can interfere with many aspects of a person’s life, including relationships, work or school, social activities, and family.
Beyond the more obvious ways OCD shows up in many people, there are some unusual—even weird—symptoms and behaviors that are equally distressing, including these:
1. You Can’t Stop Worrying About the Way You Breathe…or Blink…or Swallow
While all of us pay attention to signals from our bodies, some people with OCD are obsessed with specific body parts or certain bodily functions. This type of body hyperawareness is referred to as overactive interoception monitoring and involves constantly monitoring normal bodily sensations for any problems.
For example, you may be obsessed with your breathing and pay constant attention to every inhale and exhale, wondering if there’s something wrong with the number of breaths you take or if your lungs are working properly. This weird sign of OCD can also involve being overly concerned about your blinking, swallowing, the way your heart beats, how much body hair you have on your arms or back, or the size of your ears. The inability to stop yourself from focusing on it and worrying about it leads to a great deal of distress and anxiety.
The journal, Psychological Medicine, published a study that compared the cognitive sensitivity to heartbeat monitoring in subjects with OCD or panic disorder and healthy controls. Those with OCD outperformed the other two groups, and at the same time had less awareness of doing it as well as less confidence in their ability to correctly focus on their heartbeat. This reflects a common OCD trait which is having doubt that they did something properly or well enough.
2. Being Afraid You’ll Steal Something…or Hit Someone with Your Car
On occasion, everyone has transient dark, violent, or perverse thoughts. They might pop into your head for one reason or another, but they are easily dismissed and most people—thankfully—don’t act on them. What differentiates this from someone with OCD is that not only are the thoughts disturbing, but they won’t go away—you cannot turn them off which, of course, causes considerable anguish.
For example, you might obsess about actions such as:
Suddenly losing your sensibility and committing a theft, then regaining composure and having to live with the consequences of bad behavior.
Acting out gory or horrifying thoughts on someone in public.
Although people with OCD are less inclined to intentionally do something wrong, a person who struggles with intrusive and disturbing thoughts like these may stay home as much as possible to minimize their concerns of losing control and inadvertently harming someone.
3. Being the First One to Arrive at Work…and the Last to Leave
What’s so weird about showing up to work early and being the last one out of the office? It’s a sign of out-of-control perfectionism. Doing things well is considered a virtue in most cultures—and for good reasons. It can lead to the achievement of goals, meaningful accomplishments, and a sense of pride in having put your best foot forward—and the sense of satisfaction that comes with that. Perfectionism likely has some components of obsessiveness that drive the intense focus, but in and of itself it does not meet the criteria for OCD.
However, perfectionism and OCD often do go hand-in-hand. A research study published in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic noted that OCD and perfectionism are, in fact, closely correlated, especially in patients whose subtype of OCD is arranging things in order.
What separates perfectionism in people who have OCD versus those who don’t is the degree to which perfectionistic behaviors are taken. Those with the disorder go all out to ensure there are no flaws in their job or school performance, relationships, or other pursuits. For instance, they might go into work early, stay late, and go to an extreme in checking to make sure everything they have done is absolutely perfect.
They believe their value as a person is predicated on not making mistakes. Unfortunately—and because of this distorted belief—if someone points out that they’ve made an error, it can be utterly devastating. They are likely to quit whatever it is they were doing, even if it is something they love because they feel like a complete failure. In their mind, things are only black or white.
OCD can be a devastating mental illness, but most cases are treatable. With a combination of psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, to address the abnormal and often “magical” thinking processes, and medication and/or brain-directed nutrients to help balance brain function, a person can develop healthier ways to manage their thoughts and behaviors.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other mental health problems shouldn’t wait. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. If you drink alcohol, have you ever noticed how that first drink can make you loosen up a little, and after the second one, you’re practically a stand-up comedian? But… a little while later, your tongue starts getting heavy, you trip over your own feet, and that person across the room you thought might be interested in you is clearly unimpressed. Then the next day you wake up bleary-eyed and thirsty, with a pounding headache.
Sounds like fun…NOT!
How Alcohol Plays Tricks on the Brain and Mind
As soon as you start sipping alcohol, it enters your bloodstream and moves through your organs. And, because it’s in your blood, it can cross the blood brain barrier and get into your brain cells, where it starts to affect your thoughts, emotions, movements, and sensory functions.
Many people find that having a few drinks helps them to unwind and become more social, which is why after an hour or so of drinking most people become more animated. It’s not so much that their hidden personalities have emerged, rather it has much more to do with how alcohol plays tricks on the brain and makes us think differently and do things we might not normally do.
Here are 5 ways booze outsmarts your brain—regardless of how intelligent you are!
1. You forget your future.
Your prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the part of your brain that is your personal CEO. It’s involved with really important things like judgment, insight, empathy, forethought, and impulse control. When you drink, the reason you can’t think clearly is because all of these functions are diminished, which then makes it easier for you to:
Disregard or forget about the consequences of your actions
Say and do stupid things that you’re going to regret
Feel happier, angrier, or more emotional than normal
When your decision-making process is impaired, you’re more likely to ignore the ramifications of your behavior as well as the price you’re going to have to pay down the road for doing things you wish you hadn’t.
2. You feel invincible.
Alcohol tricks your basal ganglia—the brain’s idle—that normally helps you maintain a healthy level of anxiety to prevent you from hurting yourself. When the function of this part of your brain slows down, you’re more likely to throw caution to the wind and engage in riskier and more dangerous behavior that could be potentially harmful, such as doing something that might cause a concussion or other type of injury with potentially long-term consequences.
3. You think you’re a really good dancer.
While you’re out there cutting a rug and having a grand ol’ time, your cerebellum is likely to trip you up—literally. This is the part of the brain involved with coordination and reflexes, but booze makes both of these functions slow down and you’re more likely to lose your balance and stumble. You’ll want to hope no one is recording your smooth moves on the dance floor.
4. You fall in love easily.
The euphoria you experience after a drink or two comes from an initial surge of brain chemicals, like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins that help you feel happy and good. When you combine this with the loss of inhibition from lower PFC function, you’re less likely to be using your best judgment about a potential partner. Plus alcohol helps you think you’re a studmuffin, however, your performance won’t match your mindset, because alcohol actually slows your sexual response system.
5. You had a great time but can’t remember most of it.
Your hippocampus is like a memory bank; it’s where memories are recorded. When you drink, this part of your brain also starts to go offline, and the more alcohol you consume, the less you’ll be able to recall the details of the night. Excessive drinking can even cause almost complete amnesia about the events from the night prior. What is the point of having a fun evening with friends if you’re going to forget what happened?
Alcohol Is Not a Health Food
Although drinking alcohol is part of many cultures around the world, the health consequences of heavy alcohol consumption can be very serious. According to The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, it can lead to:
Alcohol is essentially toxic to our bodies and brains, and while occasionally imbibing a small amount is not likely to cause harm for most adults (unless they are in recovery or are allergic to it), drinking regularly can definitely take a toll on you.
In addition to the risk of addiction, the more alcohol a person uses, the greater the chance for long-term damage to the brain and body. Despite what some people tout about the benefits of drinking, alcohol is definitely NOT a health food. It is absolutely possible to go to parties and social events without imbibing and still have a great time. Being able to stay in full control of your faculties, and not having to worry about embarrassing yourself is definitely well worth it.
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction or another mental health issue, it’s important to get support and treatment. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. Helmet-to-helmet tackles in football. Knockouts in boxing. Explosive blasts in combat.
These are the types of incidents most people associate with concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). But you don’t have to be involved in a skull-crushing incident, and you don’t have to lose consciousness to cause damage to your brain. In fact, many people have what the medical field calls a “mild TBI” and in these cases, you may not even realize that you’ve suffered a brain injury. This is bad news because suffering a mild TBI can cause a host of lasting psychiatric, behavioral, and cognitive consequences.
Suffering a mild TBI can cause a host of lasting psychiatric, behavioral, and cognitive consequences.
Statistics on head injuries don’t tell the whole story. According to the CDC, there are over 2.8 million TBIs in the U.S. each year. But that’s only counting the people who visit the emergency department, are hospitalized, or die from their injuries. There are millions of others who experience a blow, bash, or bonk to the head but never seek medical help because they don’t think their injury is serious enough. And there are countless more who endure repetitive bangs to the head, such as hitting a soccer ball with your head, who don’t think they require treatment. These people are never diagnosed with a concussion or mild TBI.
Surprisingly, many people forget they’ve had a significant head injury in childhood or as an adult. That’s why at Amen Clinics, patients are asked multiple times if they have suffered any type of head trauma. Even if patients initially answer “no,” their physicians at Amen Clinics will keep digging, asking a series of probing questions: Have you ever fallen out of a tree, fallen off a fence, or dove into a shallow pool? Did you play contact sports? Have you ever been in a car accident?
It’s shocking how many people think their head injuries were too insignificant to mention. For others, they simply do not remember the incident, as amnesia in head trauma is a common occurrence. For example, one Amen Clinics patient had insisted multiple times that he had not suffered a concussion, but after being asked a fifth time, he put his hand on his forehead and said, “Oh yeah! When I was 5 years old, I fell out of a second-story window.” He isn’t the only one. Many other people forget they went through windshields, fell out of moving vehicles, or were knocked unconscious when they fell off their bicycles.
Have you suffered a head injury? Think back in your own history to see if you recall experiencing any of these common causes of mild TBIs:
Falls—falling out of bed, slipping in the bath or shower, falling down steps, falling off ladders
Motor vehicle-related collisions—involving cars, motorcycles or bicycles; also, pedestrians involved in accidents
Violence—caused by gunshot wounds, assaults, domestic violence, or child abuse
Sports injuries—besides football, they are common in soccer, boxing, baseball, lacrosse, skateboarding, hockey, cycling, basketball, and other high-impact or extreme sports
Explosive blasts and other combat injuries
If you don’t remember any of these events, ask your parents if they recall such an incident. They may remember something you don’t.
What Happens to the Brain in a Mild TBI?
Suffering a concussion or mild TBI can impact the brain in many harmful ways. Here’s why. Many people think the brain is rubbery and fixed within the skull, but it isn’t. Your brain is soft, about the consistency of soft butter, tofu, or custard—somewhere between egg whites and gelatin. It floats in cerebrospinal fluid and is housed in a very hard skull that has many sharp bony ridges. As such, it is easily damaged. Whiplash, jarring motions (think Shaken Baby Syndrome), blast injuries, and blows to the head can cause the brain to slosh around, slamming into the hard ridges inside the skull.
Here is what happens in the brain after physical trauma:
Bruising
Broken blood vessels and bleeding
Increased pressure
Lack of oxygen
Damage to nerve cell connections
Ripping open brain cells that spill out proteins like “tau” that cause inflammatory reactions
On top of that, the pituitary gland (which regulates your hormones) sits in a vulnerable part of the skull, so it is often hurt in head injuries, causing major hormonal imbalances.
In many cases, the brain heals over time after an injury. In other instances, lingering damage remains. On brain SPECT imaging, which measures blood flow and activity in the brain, one of the most common findings in people who have experienced head injuries is low blood flow in certain regions within the brain.
Often, in people who have suffered a TBI, the brain region nearest the point of impact isn’t the only area where damage is seen. For example, if you get into a car accident and your forehead hits the steering wheel, it can injure the front part of the brain, but that’s not all. As your brain sloshes backward after impact, it can also cause damage on the opposite side. This is called a contrecoup injury. On SPECT, this is suspected when there is low blood flow on opposite sides of the brain.
Low blood flow on SPECT has been seen not only with TBI, but also with depression, suicide, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADD/ADHD, hoarding, murder, substance abuse, seizure activity, and more. Low blood flow is the number one brain imaging predictor that a person will develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to research in Nature Communications.
TBI, Mental Health Problems, and Cognitive Dysfunction
Anyone who is experiencing psychological or cognitive symptoms that aren’t getting better with standard treatment may want to investigate if a hidden mild TBI may be contributing to those issues. For these people, following a concussion rescue protocol to heal the brain can make a significant improvement in symptoms.
Undetected, untreated, or misdiagnosed head injuries can’t wait. During these uncertain times, your mental well-being is more important than ever and waiting until life gets back to “normal” is likely to make your symptoms worsen over time. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. Recently, Prince Harry has bravely been hitting the airwaves and opening up about mental health in a very personal and meaningful way. After stepping away from royal duties in 2020, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have revealed intimate stories about their own psychological struggles. In the AppleTV+ television series “The Me You Can’t See” that he co-produced with Oprah Winfrey and in sit-down interviews with the media mogul and others, Harry has spoken from the heart about issues he’s faced.
In addition, he has shared the fact that he’s been going to therapy, and he’s discussed some powerful therapeutic techniques that he uses in his own life. Opening up about personal struggles in such a public way takes tremendous courage, and his efforts to bring mental health issues out of the shadows of our minds should be applauded.
In this new conversation about mental well-being, Amen Clinics would add one more element—the brain. Our brain imaging work—over 170,000 brain scans related to behavior—reveals that “mental health” is really “brain health.” SPECT, the brain imaging technology used at Amen Clinics, measures blood flow and activity in the brain and reveals 3 things: areas of the brain with healthy activity, too little activity, and too much activity. Abnormal activity in the brain is often associated with symptoms of mental health issues. The human brain is an organ just like your heart and all your other organs, and you can only be as mentally healthy as your brain is functionally healthy.
In light of the brain’s role in psychological, cognitive, and behavioral well-being, here are 5 takeaways from Harry’s recent revelations about mental health and how the brain is fundamentally involved in each of them.
5 Takeaways From Prince Harry’s Recent Revelations About Mental Health
1. Destigmatizing mental health
Harry has been championing the importance of talking about mental well-being for years since he and his brother, William, The Duke of Cambridge, and his sister-in-law Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, launched Heads Together. This initiative encourages people to stop feeling ashamed and start speaking up and asking for help when they are having issues related to emotional well-being. “Sharing your story in order to be able to save a life or help others is absolutely critical,” says Harry in the documentary series.
What’s happening in the brain: By labeling anxiousness, depression, and other issues as mental illness or psychiatric illness instead of brain health issues, people suffer in silence because of the shame they feel. No one is shamed for heart disease, cancer, or diabetes. No one should be shamed for anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Brain SPECT imaging helps destigmatize mental health issues. When people see a scan of their brain, it helps them view their problems as medical, not moral. This makes them more likely to talk openly about their struggles.
2. Addressing past trauma, grief, and loss
Harry shares that he was devastated by the death of his mother Princess Diana in 1997 in a car crash in Paris. Only 12 years old at the time, Harry recalls feeling “so angry with what happened to her.” But following his mother’s tragic demise, he wasn’t able to work through those feelings or discuss his grief with many people. He admits that in his 20s, he began drinking heavily and doing drugs as a Band-Aid to cover up the emotions that threatened to bubble up. “I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something,” he says, adding, “I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling.”
What’s happening in the brain: When we bottle up our grief, our emotional brain becomes inflamed. In order to heal from trauma, grief, and loss, people need to work through the pain rather than numbing it with alcohol or drugs.
3. EMDR therapy
In the third episode of the series, Harry reveals that he’s benefited from a psychotherapeutic therapy called EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). This technique can be a potent treatment for people who have experienced emotional trauma as well as those who have developed PTSD. During the episode, Harry allows viewers to watch him as he undergoes the treatment, which involves eye movements (or other alternate hemisphere stimulation) to dampen the emotional charges associated with distressing thoughts and upsetting memories about the trauma. Harry says, “For me, London is a trigger, unfortunately, because of what happened to my mom and because of what I experienced and what I saw.”
What’s happening in the brain: Research suggests that EMDR activates mechanisms in the brain that allow you to reprocess distressing memories and emotions in a healthier way. The human brain is naturally wired to overcome upsetting events. A number of brain regions—including the hippocampus (memory-making center), amygdala (fear center), and prefrontal cortex (behavior center)—communicate with each other to effectively process the memories associated with these events. For some people, trauma disrupts the healthy flow of communication between these brain regions and disturbing memories get stuck. EMDR restores the healthy neural communication process so you can get unstuck.
4. Havening to soothe anxiety
In one of the episodes, Harry demonstrates a self-soothing technique called havening that can be helpful when feeling nervous or experiencing a panic attack. Developed by Ronald Ruden, M.D., havening is surprisingly simple. You can slowly rub your hands together as if washing them, slide your hands down from your shoulders to your elbows as if hugging yourself, or run your fingers from your forehead to your chin as if washing your face.
What’s happening in the brain: From a neuroscience perspective, havening is a form of bilateral hemisphere stimulation, meaning it activates both sides of the brain while you mentally bring up a stressful thought or past trauma. This touch technique generates delta waves in the brain, the brainwaves that usually occur during sleep and that help calm anxious feelings. At the same time, special nerve endings in the areas of the body being touched sends signals to the amygdala (the brain’s fear center) that indicate safety and security.
5. Recognizing ancestral trauma
In an interview with Dax Shepard on the actor’s Armchair Expert podcast, Harry revealed that he faced trauma that was passed down to him. The Duke of Sussex assured that he wasn’t placing blame on his parents, but he says, “If I’ve experienced some form of pain and suffering because of the pain or suffering that my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on.”
What’s happening in the brain: Sometimes your mental health issues are not your own, but rather they have been passed down to you through the generations from your ancestors. These irrational fears, anxieties, and worries are “ancestral dragons” that breathes fire on the emotional centers of the brain. Recognizing these dragons and learning to tame them can calm the brain’s emotional centers.
Going Beyond Mental Health to Brain Health
Kudos to Prince Harry for tackling these important issues! What a magnificent ambassador for emotional health and well-being.
Here’s to delving even deeper to show people how the brain is the ultimate key to mental health. Reframing the discussion from mental health to brain health changes everything. It decreases shame and guilt and increases forgiveness and compassion from their families. Reframing the discussion to brain health is also more accurate and elevates hope, increases the desire to get help, and increases compliance to make the necessary lifestyle changes. Once people understand that the brain controls everything they think, feel, say, and do, they want a better brain so they can have a better life. In multiple studies, including one in BMC Psychology, improving the physical functioning of the brain improves the mind.
Get your brain right and your mind will follow.
Anxiety, depression, emotional trauma, and other mental health issues can’t wait. During these uncertain times, your mental well-being is more important than ever, and waiting until life gets back to “normal” is likely to make your symptoms worsen over time. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. Imagine this. You’re a bright woman with a strong social circle, a meaningful career that’s on the rise, and a passion for swimming. You meet a new man and hit it off. As you get to know each other, you find yourself spending more time with his friends than your own. You skip out on work-related networking events to attend his business dinners. And your Saturday mornings in the pool morph into taking lessons in his favorite hobby—golf. Over time, you’re gradually giving up who you are to fit into his world. This is known as deselfing.
What is Deselfing?
Deselfing is a detrimental process that occurs when a person relinquishes important aspects of their “self” in order to please someone else or to develop or maintain a relationship. Deselfing is not a new phenomenon, and it can occur in women or men, although it is more common in women. It isn’t the same as compromise, which is something that is required for a healthy relationship. When two people in a relationship compromise, they each give a little for the betterment of the couple. With deselfing, it’s primarily one person relinquishing too much of themselves for the other person’s benefit. It’s giving up your sense of identity, values, and interests in an effort to maintain the relationship.
Deselfing is a detrimental process that occurs when a person relinquishes important aspects of their self in order to please someone else or to develop or maintain a relationship.
This subtle erosion of identity may not be noticeable to you at first, but over time, it can lead to trouble. You may feel disconnected from friends and family. You may experience a sense of grief and loss for the activities you once loved. You may feel like you can’t be your authentic self in your partner’s presence. And constantly catering to your significant other’s needs rather than your own can be exhausting. It all adds up to feelings of resentment, repressed anger, depression, and burnout.
People who deself are also likely to start blaming the other person for the way they feel. This sets the stage for marital conflict, negativity, and unhappiness. The first step to turning things around is to take a hard look at your life and admit that you’re deselfing.
7 Signs You’re a Deselfer
Answering yes to more than a few of these questions indicates a strong chance that you are deselfing in your relationship.
Are you hiding parts of yourself from your significant other?
Do you feel like you aren’t living your life fully because of your partner?
Do your friends say they miss you?
Do you skip family events?
Do you say no to work-related invitations?
Are you spending less time doing things you used to love?
Do you alter your daily routine significantly to fit into your significant other’s routine?
4 Ways to Re-Self and Regain Balance in Your Relationship
1. Learn to assert yourself.
This is a key component of re-selfing. Being assertive means expressing your thoughts and feelings in a firm yet reasonable way; not allowing others to emotionally run over you; and, not saying “yes” when you mean “no.” Note that being assertive doesn’t entail being angry, mean, or aggressive. It’s best to be calm, firm, and kind. And don’t think you need to practice assertiveness 24 hours a day. If you assert yourself all the time for unimportant issues, it invites oppositional behavior. Choose to assert yourself on important issues, such as when you feel like you’re being railroaded into doing something you don’t want to do.
2. Remember who you were pre-relationship.
Take some time and really think about all the things you have given up for the sake of your partner. You may not even be aware of some aspects of your personality or everyday life that you have relinquished until you start writing down a list. Be prepared for this to be an emotional experience for you that may dredge up feelings of anger or sadness.
3. Gradually re-engage with friends, family, and activities.
Begin reacquainting yourself with people you may have grown apart from and consider re-introducing yourself to hobbies you once enjoyed. However, don’t expect to pick up where you left off. For example, if you used to do a weekly dinner with a friend, start with a simple text to say hi and slowly rebuild the connection. If daily swims were the norm for you, start setting aside pool time once a week and increase from there.
In some cases, navigating the re-selfing process may require professional help. You may benefit from seeing a mental health provider to rediscover your true self and to learn strategies to help you reconnect with your partner in a healthier way.
Relationship problems and other mental health issues can’t wait. During these uncertain times, your mental well-being is more important than ever and waiting until life gets back to “normal” is likely to make your symptoms worsen over time. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here. Most men would rather do anything—even cleaning the toilet or mowing the lawn—than go to the doctor. This is one of the findings of a 2019 Cleveland Clinics survey, which also showed that 65% of men who have health symptoms or an injury wait as long as possible to go to the doctor. We all know avoiding the doctor can negatively impact men’s physical health. But what many men don’t realize is that a routine blood panel can also reveal hidden causes of mental health symptoms like depression, anxiety, attentional issues, and memory loss.
Avoiding the doctor can negatively impact men’s physical health. Many men don’t realize a routine blood panel can also reveal hidden causes of mental health symptoms like depression, anxiety, attentional issues, and memory loss.
Here are 5 things the blood panel at an annual physical can tell you about men’s psychological and cognitive health.
1. High Blood Pressure
Hypertension has long been associated with an increased risk of stroke or heart disease, but that’s not the only downside. High blood pressure also impacts blood flow to the brain, and low blood flow on brain SPECT imaging has been seen with depression, suicide, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, traumatic brain injury, hoarding, murder, substance abuse, seizure activity, and more. In fact, low blood flow is the #1 brain imaging predictor that a person will develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to neuroimaging research in Nature Communications.
2. Low Testosterone
Men may associate low testosterone levels with sexual dysfunction, such as a dwindling sex drive, problems getting or maintaining an erection, and low semen counts. But the effects of decreased testosterone levels can also impact a man’s mental health. Common symptoms like moodiness, anxiety, depression, and difficulty concentrating may be related to low testosterone.
3. High Blood Sugar Levels
High blood sugar is an indicator of pre-diabetes or diabetes, which is associated with a vast array of physical ailments, including increased risk of stroke, heart disease, vision problems, and numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. Less well-known is the fact that high blood sugar is associated with a smaller hippocampus, an important brain region associated with mood, learning, and memory. Blood sugar issues are linked to symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability, anger, trouble concentrating, and schizophrenia. And diabetes puts people at greater risk of developing vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, according to research in the journal Diabetes Mellitus.
4. Abnormal thyroid levels
The thyroid gland, which is located in the lower neck, plays an important role in keeping the body and brain healthy. When thyroid levels are abnormal, it can have a major impact on physical health, including fatigue and weight gain (hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid) or faster heartbeat and weight loss (hyperthyroidism, or overactive thyroid). Imbalanced thyroid levels also contribute to psychiatric and cognitive symptoms. For example, hypothyroidism has been linked to depression, difficulty concentrating, attentional problems, psychosis, and memory problems. Hyperthyroidism is associated with anxiety, irritability, racing thoughts, mania, psychosis, and more.
5. High C-Reactive Protein Levels
Elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood are an indicator of chronic inflammation, which is associated with a wide range of physical illnesses, such as heart disease, arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, persistent pain, and cancer. What men may not realize is that scientific research points to a link between systemic inflammation a host of psychiatric and neurological issues, including depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Research has also found a connection between elevated inflammation and suicidal behavior.
Treating Men’s Physical Health Issues for Better Mental Health
Getting a comprehensive blood panel at an annual physical isn’t just good for your physical health, it can also be beneficial for a man’s mental well-being. That’s provided you see a doctor who has a deep understanding of the links between bloodwork results and psychiatric and cognitive issues. Unfortunately, many traditional doctors and primary care physicians aren’t aware of the connection between biology and psychology. That’s where integrative medicine comes in.
Integrative medicine physicians, also known as functional medicine doctors or integrative psychiatrists, can be especially helpful in finding the biological root causes of psychiatric symptoms or cognitive problems. These highly trained healthcare providers are well-versed in knowing which diagnostic blood tests are the most valuable to order, and they are skilled in using the most effective and least toxic treatments. Addressing any biological contributors to psychiatric and neurological disorders can provide powerful help for a man’s mind, moods, and memory.
At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. Our integrative psychiatrists and functional medicine doctors can partner with men to optimize your physical health, mental health, and brain health. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834or visit our contact page here.
