ARCHIVE

Face it, everyone’s stressed and anxious these days. With the election, the pandemic, job losses, distance learning, and relationship issues, it’s no wonder we’re feeling stretched to the limit…or beyond. You may be experiencing headaches, a pit in your stomach, muscle tension, and trouble sleeping. These symptoms are all associated with stress, but they’re also linked to anxiety. How can you tell if you’re just feeling the effects of stacked stresses, or if you’re struggling with an anxiety disorder?

Here’s how to put your symptoms to the test to tell the difference.

1. KNOW IF IT’S EXTERNAL STRESS

Stress is rampant. According to the American Institute of Stress, 77% of people feel the physical effects of stress, and 73% experience psychological symptoms. Approximately one-third of all Americans say they’re dealing with extreme stress (and these numbers are pre-pandemic). Stress occurs when a person perceives excessive demands on his or her emotional or physical resources. It typically represents a response to external forces—a pressured deadline at work, a fight with your spouse, or a fender bender, for example. Once the situation has been resolved the stressful feelings subside, and you feel like you can relax again. In some cases, however, the pressure is relentless and leads to chronic stress. It reaches toxic levels when we feel things are out of control.

2. KNOW IF IT’S INTERNAL ANXIETY

Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in the U.S., typically affecting approximately 40 million Americans each year. Since the pandemic, however, those numbers have skyrocketed, with 31% of Americans reporting symptoms of anxiety/depression, according to the CDC. Anxiety’s origin is internal. It plays a role in how you respond to stress, but it can also be present when there are no external stressors. People with anxiety can be filled with dread, panic, or a feeling that something bad is going to happen in any situation, even ones that should be fun or joyous. Anxious people can feel nervous and uncomfortable in their own skin at the beach while on vacation, at an amusement park, or even while sitting on the couch in the comfort of their own home. People with anxiety can be filled with dread, panic, or a feeling that something bad is going to happen in any situation.
Click to tweet
There are multiple types of anxiety disorders, including:

3. RECOGNIZE HOW STRESS CONTRIBUTES TO ANXIETY

What makes it more difficult to distinguish everyday stress from anxiety is that the two are often intertwined. Dealing with difficult life circumstances—such as a stressful election, pandemic, divorce, job change, or the death of a close family member—elevates stress hormone levels, which makes us more vulnerable to mental health issues, such as anxiety disorders, depression, and more. In 1967, U.S. psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe studied the effects of stress on health, surveying more than 5,000 medical patients. They asked them to say whether they had any of a series of life events in the previous 2 years. Their study showed that the more events someone had the more likely they were to become physically or emotionally sick. In addition, today’s society is waging social warfare on our brains. Negative news cycles create an us-versus-them mentality, pitting political, racial, and other groups against each other. A 2017 survey from the American Psychological Association found that 56% of adults said following the news causes them stress. And research in the British Journal of Psychology shows that just 14 minutes of negative news has been found to increase both anxious and sad moods. Take account of the stressors in your life to see if they’re stacking up and contributing to anxiety that’s out of control.

4. CHECK IF YOU’RE INCREASING OR DECREASING YOUR BRAIN RESERVE

There’s something else at work with stress and anxiety—the amount of “brain reserve” you have. Brain reserve is the extra cushion of brain function you have to help you deal with the stresses life throws at you. In general, the more brain reserve you have, the more resilient you are and the better your brain can handle stacked stresses to keep anxiety and other mental health disorders at bay. When brain reserve falls too low, that’s when anxiousness, depression, or other issues are more likely to develop. The decisions you make on a daily basis and the habits you engage in are either boosting your brain’s reserve or stealing it and are either protecting you from mental health issues like anxiety or depression or making you more vulnerable to them. Take stock of your daily habits and ask yourself if they’re hurting your brain reserve or helping it. Things that lower brain reserve include: Things that increase brain reserve include:

5. LOOK AT YOUR BRAIN

Your brain is also key to determining if you’re experiencing temporary stress or lasting anxiety. Brain SPECT imaging, which measures blood flow and activity in the brain, can be helpful in determining if your brain is “stressed” or if you’re suffering from anxiety. And it can be especially useful in identifying your anxiety type. Amen Clinics, which has built the world’s largest database of functional brain scans—over 160,000 scans and growing—has found 7 different brain patterns associated with anxiety (and depression). Knowing your type is critical to getting the right treatment.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT CHRONIC STRESS AND ANXIETY

Whether you’re having trouble coping with unrelenting stress or you’re struggling with anxiety, you need to address it. And the earlier you seek help for chronic stress, anxiety, or panic attacks, the better. There are several natural strategies that can reduce symptoms associated with these conditions, including the following: Anxiety, panic attacks, chronic stress, 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. If you’re someone who’s been following Amen Clinics for a while, you may consider yourself a Brain Warrior. Brain Warriors are in a fight for the health of their body, mind, and spirit. As a Brain Warrior, you’re equipped with a toolkit of techniques and strategies to combat stress and promote calm and relaxation. But with the avalanche of stress upon us now—COVID-19, economic uncertainty, homeschooling, isolation, loneliness, frustration—that toolkit may not be enough. Too many people are suffering from “pandemic stress disorder” and need next-level coping mechanisms. Have your stress-management techniques failed you recently? If so, it’s time to bring in the Brain Warrior Special Forces Unit. Have your stress-management techniques failed you recently? If so, it’s time to bring in the Brain Warrior Special Forces Unit.
Click to tweet

THE DANGERS OF UNBRIDLED STRESS

Most people are aware that chronic stress can be harmful to your physical health, increasing the risk of heart disease, hypertension, and stroke. You may even know that ongoing stress can also wreak havoc on your mental health, leading to issues like depression, anxiety, or personality disorders. But few people are aware that uncontrolled stress is also associated with cognitive problems, such as having trouble thinking clearly or memory loss/dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia). Chronic exposure to stress chemicals, including cortisol, can damage the brain’s memory centers. Research shows that overexposure to cortisol shrinks the size of the hippocampus, an important brain region involved in forming memories. Chronic stress in midlife has been associated with memory problems later on, as evidenced in a 2014 study in BMJ Open. Experiencing stress is considered a normal part of life when it is occasional and temporary, such as feeling anxious and stressed before an exam or a job interview, but when it becomes frequent or chronic, as in a prolonged pandemic, you need to take action.

THE BRAIN WARRIOR’S WAY OF COPING WITH ANYTHING

If pandemic stress is taking a weighty toll on you, it’s time to get serious and rise to the ranks of the Brain Warrior’s Special Forces Unit. This involves pulling out all the stops and attacking stress from every angle. Here are 12 research-proven tips that work to lower stress and boost your level of happiness and overall mental health. Try them all to combat PSD. Chronic stress, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, 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. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk. Think we’re living in an unprecedented time of fear? Consider the following passage from CS Lewis’ Atomic Age from 1948 and replace “atomic bomb” with “COVID-19.” In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb (COVID-19). “How are we to live in an atomic age (COVID-19)?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.” In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb (COVID-19) was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world that already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty. This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb (COVID-19), let that bomb (virus) when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs (viruses). They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that), but they need not dominate our minds. CS Lewis could have easily been describing life in the current pandemic. The same fears and anxiety people felt about the atomic bomb are replaying today. The atomic bomb isn’t the only example from history that relates to what people are feeling in the pandemic. Look at the following quote: “The hospitals will be stormed, traffic will cease, the homeless will shriek for help, the city will be a pandemonium.” Sound like a description of life today during the pandemic? It’s actually a quote that appears in Erik Larson’s book The Splendid and the Vile from a British military planner about the World War II bombings in London. Other officials during that time predicted that British civilians would sink into undisciplined mobs, widespread panic would take hold, and people would be driven insane, according to research in the Journal of British Studies. To prevent the German bombers from being able to identify cities as targets for air raids, the British government imposed strict blackout restrictions. Citizens covered the windows of their homes and businesses to keep any light from filtering out. Car headlights and streetlights were turned down. And people hunkered down in underground shelters during nighttime air raids. Despite thousands of lives lost and many buildings destroyed during the Blitz, the Brits showed true grit and resilience. They carried on. The overwhelming fears we’re facing today echo those that Londoners felt about the WWII bombings, as well as those that people faced during the atomic age, those people faced when the Black Death plague swept Europe and took the lives of 200 million, and so on and so on. Like so many past generations, we’re facing fears about losing our lives, losing our loved ones, and losing our way of life.

Fear in the Brain

Fear is deeply ingrained in the brain and is a useful emotion in terms of survival. However, when fear is disproportionately high compared to the actual danger at hand or when it is prolonged, it leads to mental health issues such as anxiety. When researchers look at the brains of fearful and anxious people, they often find a number of areas of the brain with heightened activity, including the: Brain SPECT imaging shows that when areas such as these are overactive, people are more likely to be overwhelmed by stressful situations and may have a tendency to freeze or become immobile in their thoughts or actions. If your brain is overactive and you’re filled with fear, anxiety, or panic, you can calm your brain to reduce anxious feelings with a variety of natural therapies, including: In addition to these techniques, you can also benefit from some of the strategies that helped the Brits fear during WWII.

What You Can Learn from the Brits in WWII on Coping with Fear and Anxiety

You don’t have to let fear rule your life or fill you with anxiety, even when you’re faced with dire situations like a war or pandemic. The following strategies that helped British citizens overcome fear and anxiety during WWII can help you today during the pandemic. Take action: During WWII, the British government and its citizens were taking actions every day that provided some sense of control over their situation. The Royal Air Force was carrying out missions, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was firing off memos with red “Action This Day” labels for his staff, and citizens were doing their part to contribute to the efforts. Pandemic strategy: In the face of fears, look for things you can control, no matter how small they may seem. You may not be able to control the virus, but you can take responsibility for your own health by shoring up your immune system, eating brain healthy foods, and exercising to Stay connected: During the Blitz, Londoners huddled together in bomb shelters, building community and a sense that “we’re all in this together.” Unfortunately, this is much harder for people to accomplish with the pandemic. Pandemic strategy: Take advantage of technology to stay socially connected. Video phone calls, online meetings, and virtual events can help you feel more connected to others. Laugh more: The Brits were able to find humor in their situation no matter how dire it was. Pandemic strategy: You may not think there’s anything funny about the threat of COVID-19 or being in lockdown, but you can seek ways to laugh a little. Watch a comedy on TV, watch funny videos on social media, or listen to a humorous podcast. Laughter also supports the immune system, boosts moods, and gives your brain a healthy dose of the feel-good neurotransmitter oxytocin, as shown in a brain imaging study in The Journal of Neuroscience. Develop a sense of purpose: During the war, civilians felt a tremendous sense of purpose in fighting for a common cause. Pandemic strategy: In our fractured society today, it’s hard to find common ground. However, knowing your own purpose in life can give you the resilience to withstand challenging times. According to Dr. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and World War II concentration camp survivor, and the father of Logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy based on the idea that humans are strongly motivated to live with purpose, “We find meaning as a result of responding genuinely and compassionately to life’s challenges.” Frankl believed there were three ways to create meaning: Anxiety, panic attacks, excessive fear, depression, and other mental and behavioral health conditions—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. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk. A powerful documentary featuring Daniel G. Amen, MD, is set to be released November 10, 2020, on Amazon (DVD and SVOD). Based on Adam and Andrew Marr’s bestselling Tales from the Blast Factory, EMMY Award-winning director Jerri Sher’s latest documentary Quiet Explosions: Healing the Brain tells the compelling story of veterans and others whose lives were shattered after suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI), but who eventually made miraculous recoveries.

THE TBI/PTSD EPIDEMIC

Did you know 16.8 U.S. military veterans commit suicide every day? Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are underlying factors in many of those deaths. Every year, over 2 million Americans—military and others—sustain a TBI. Even when it doesn’t lead to suicide, TBI and PTSD can ruin a person’s life. Head trauma is a major cause of psychiatric illness, but very few people know it because most mental health professionals never look at the brains of their patients. Research shows that TBIs increase the risk of: Head trauma is a major cause of psychiatric illness, but very few people know it because most mental health professionals never look at the brains of their patients.
Click to tweet
At Amen Clinics, brain SPECT imaging shows that 40% of patients have experienced some form of head trauma. Many patients don’t remember experiencing a head injury, or they never connected the incident to their emotional, behavioral, or cognitive symptoms. Following a head injury or traumatic event, some people develop PTSD, which affects an estimated 3.5% of U.S. adults. With the pandemic, however, research is showing that rates of PTSD are likely to rise. Some of the symptoms associated with PTSD include distressing memories, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, feeling emotionally numb, guilt, shame, problems sleeping, anger, and irritability. All of these can keep you from living the life you want.

AMEN CLINICS PATIENTS FEATURED IN QUIET EXPLOSIONS

Among the people featured in the documentary, Quiet Explosions are Super Bowl XXVI MVP Mark Rypien, famed “Notre Dame Killer” running back from USC Anthony Davis, and big-wave surfer Shawn Dollar—all of whom received treatment at Amen Clinics. Each of these world-class athletes had brain SPECT imaging scans performed at Amen Clinics. SPECT is a nuclear medicine tool that measures blood flow and activity in the brain. It shows three things—areas with healthy activity, areas with too much activity, and areas with too little activity. Each of their scans showed signs of brain trauma. Dollar says his brain scans showed he’s suffered “hundreds, if not thousands, of concussions.”

DISTINGUISHING TBI FROM PTSD

Many of the symptoms seen in PTSD are also seen in people with TBI. Unfortunately, most healthcare professionals never look at the brain with functional brain scans, so they can’t detect the brain patterns associated with TBI and PTSD. This results in too many people being misdiagnosed and given the wrong kind of treatment. Getting the wrong treatment can make your symptoms worse, which leads to more unnecessary suffering. Functional brain imaging with SPECT can help. The research team at Amen Clinics, in collaboration with other scientists, has published two groundbreaking studies showing that brain SPECT imaging can distinguish TBI from PTSD with 94% accuracy. This research was named in Discover Magazine’s Top 100 science discoveries of 2015. This is important because MRI or CT scans, which show the brain’s structure, often find that people with mild TBI or PTSD have “normal” results. This leaves people who are suffering feeling like they’re imagining their symptoms and that there is no hope for recovery. This is wrong. TBI and PTSD can be treated effectively.

TREATING TBI AND PTSD

Each of the three TBI survivors who visited Amen Clinics got their lives back with treatment protocols that are ignored by most traditional healthcare providers. At Amen Clinics, concussion rescue treatments may include: These are in addition to a comprehensive concussion rescue brain-body approach that also includes brain healthy nutrition, lifestyle changes, targeted nutraceuticals, and more. For PTSD, treatment may also include EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), a powerful, non-invasive therapy for overcoming emotional trauma. The documentary Quiet Explosions explores the treatments that helped Rypien, Davis, Dollar, and several other remarkable people get their lives back. It may give you or a loved one hope for healing. TBIs, PTSD, and other mental health conditions 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. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk. Going through emotional trauma or grief—both of which are being experienced by millions of people these days—can leave a lasting imprint on the brain and can cause a laundry list of symptoms. You may feel sad, unable to concentrate, edgy, anxious, or irritable, and may have trouble sleeping. Often, grief is mislabeled as depression, ADD/ADHD, panic disorder, or other psychiatric conditions. And post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which affects many people who experience trauma, is often misdiagnosed as a traumatic brain injury (TBI) because they have overlapping symptoms. This is problematic because if you’re misdiagnosed, psychotropic medications can get in the way of healing and in some cases, can prolong grief and emotional trauma. If you experience lingering symptoms related to trauma or a loss, consider doing grief work before taking medication.

BREAK THE BONDS OF THE PAST

One of the most powerful “feel better fast” techniques to overcome emotional trauma or grief is called “breaking the bonds of the past.” It stems from the belief that negative feelings and behaviors are often based on past memories that are either toxic or misinterpreted. This technique requires only 5 simple steps. One of the most powerful techniques to overcome emotional trauma or grief is called “breaking the bonds of the past.” It stems from the belief that negative feelings and behaviors are often based on past memories that are either toxic or misinterpreted.
Click to tweet
Whenever you have a painful or disruptive memory or feeling, write out the answers to the following questions:
  1. When was the last time you struggled, had the painful or disruptive memory or feeling, or felt suffering? Write down the details.
  2. What were you feeling at the time? Describe the predominant feeling.
  3. When was the first time you had that feeling? In your mind, imagine yourself on a train going backward through time. Go back to the time when you first had the feeling. Write down the incident or incidents in detail.
  4. Can you go back even further to a time when you had that original feeling? Write down the details of the original incident.
  5. If you have a clear idea of the origins of the feelings, can you disconnect them by reprocessing them through an adult or parent mindset, or reframe them in light of new information? Consciously disconnect the emotional bridge to the past with the idea that what happened in the past belongs in the past, and what happens now is what matters.
Here’s an example of how this can work.

HOW A TEEN LEARNED TO LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND

Nate, 15, came to see me at Amen Clinics because he was suffering from panic attacks. He had several episodes a day when he felt like he was choking or drowning. His breathing became shallow, fast, and labored. His heart raced, he broke out in a sweat, and he felt as though he was dying. Nate hated these episodes, and the fear of having them became so overwhelming that he stopped going to school. During his second session with me, I went through the following steps with him.

1. When was the last time you had a panic attack?

Nate said it was the day before. He was eating dinner when all of a sudden, he felt like he was starting to choke. He couldn’t get air, his heart started to race, he was sweating, and felt as though he was going to die.

2. What you were feeling at the time? Describe the predominant feeling.

Nate said he felt as though he was going to die.

3. In your mind, imagine yourself on a train going backward through time. Go back to a time when you first had the feeling that you were going to die.

The teen sat there for a minute and then started to choke. It looked like he was having a panic attack right in front of me. I asked him to breathe slowly and tell me what was going on. He slowed his breathing, wiped his brow, and told me about a time when he was 6 years old. He was sitting at a lunch table at school and accidentally swallowed a plastic wrapper from a candy bar. He started to choke on the wrapper. Initially, no one saw him. He said he started to turn blue. He couldn’t breathe, and no one noticed. He thought he was going to die. After what seemed like an eternity, a teacher saw him and did the Heimlich maneuver on him, dislodging the wrapper. Nate said he had forgotten about the event until now.

4. After he settled down and composed himself, I asked him to go back even further in his mind to see if there was an earlier time when he had the feeling he was going to die.

He closed his eyes and said he remembered a time when he was very young. He was coming out of a very dark place into a place filled with bright lights, lights that felt hot. People were moving around. He felt fear. He couldn’t breathe, and something awful covered his face. He felt as though he was going to die. To my amazement, Nate had just described a birth experience. When he opened his eyes, I asked him if he knew anything about his birth. He said no, no one had ever talked to him about it. I invited his mother to come into the room and asked her about his birth experience. She told me that he was a meconium baby, where the infant’s feces get into the amniotic fluid, which is very dangerous for the newborn. He was born blue and had to be resuscitated by the doctor. His mother said she had never talked about it with Nate. She didn’t want to worry him.

5. Break the bonds of the past through an adult or parent mindset or reframe them in light of new information.

With Nate’s mother in the room, I took him back to both of those times. First, with the birth experience, I had the grown teenage Nate go back and explain to the baby what had happened. The baby was in trouble for a short time, but the doctors helped clean him up so he could breathe normally. I then took him through the candy wrapper incident and had the teenage Nate tell 6-year-old Nate that he is grateful to the teacher who helped him and that he is alive, well, and healthy (and he needed to stop eating candy wrappers). After that session, Nate’s panic attacks disappeared. I saw him a few more times, but essentially disconnecting his present symptoms from the past sensitizing event took care of them.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM BREAKING THE BONDS OF THE PAST?

I have seen this technique work with people who have experienced all kinds of emotional trauma or grief and who are suffering from symptoms, such as panic attacks (like Nate), anxiety, PTSD, alcoholism and other addictions, and even sexual impotence. Be aware that this process can dredge up painful memories. If they don’t go away in a short period of time, seek professional help from a licensed psychotherapist. Emotional trauma, PTSD, and the bothersome symptoms they cause 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. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk.

So many couples end up in therapy looking for a way to save their relationship. If only they had asked themselves this one question before they got hitched, they might have known if they were compatible for life or doomed for the psychiatrist’s couch. What is this insightful question?

Are you the person I’d be happy to be stuck with during a pandemic?

During the months and months of quarantine due to the pandemic, millions of couples are finding out whether or not they picked the right partner. With stay-at-home orders and business closures, you can’t escape each other by playing golf for 5 hours, going shopping, or hitting the local bar. Some couples are feeling blessed that they have a spouse who is loving, caring, and kind and whose company they enjoy. Others are discovering that spending more time together is shining a harsh light on major problems and fueling marital conflict.

Before getting married or getting engaged, you and your significant other should think about how well you would do being stuck together nearly 24/7 for months on end in a high-stress, high-anxiety situation. If you both think you’d like the other one by your side under these dire circumstances, then you can feel more confident that your union is built to last.

Create a Marriage One Page Miracle

A good way to gauge if you and your partner are marriage material and if you could survive—and thrive—in challenging situations is to write out your relationship goals. This exercise is called the Marriage One Page Miracle, and it has proven to be very insightful in pre-marriage counseling and in marital therapy. Here’s why.

The simple act of sitting down together to talk about your future is an opportunity to connect on a deeper level and make sure you both want to head in the same direction. It also lets you identify possible challenges so you can address them rationally before it’s too late and they become a problem. It also cements the idea that you are a team and that your decisions should always benefit the team, not just one individual. Goal setting together also helps you encourage each other along the way and provides accountability.

Here’s how to create your Marriage One Page Miracle. Before you sit down together, take the time to think about your individual goals for the following areas of your future life together: marriage, kids and parenting, finances, health, and spirituality.

Once you’ve thought about your individual goals, make an appointment with your significant other to see where you mesh and where you have differences. If your goals are wildly different, take it as a red flag that you don’t want the same things out of life and that you may want to rethink a future together. But don’t expect to see eye-to-eye on everything either. Having some differences doesn’t mean your relationship can’t last.

Use this time to come up with a shared plan on how you will address any differences. If you’re able to communicate effectively and come up with solutions together, it’s a good sign that you’ll be able to deal with challenges that arise in the future. And remember, your marital plan isn’t set in stone. Re-visit it every year and update your goals.

Marital conflict, anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, addictions, 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. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk.

Why do people go to therapy? You might think the top reason is that they have depression, anxiety, phobias, ADD/ADHD, addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or some other mental health issue. Wrong!

After over 30 years of clinical practice and tens of thousands of patients at Amen Clinics, it has become abundantly clear that the #1 reason why people go to psychotherapy is to deal with the people in their lives who won’t go to therapy. It’s often the family members, friends, coworkers, and loved ones who don’t get the help they need for mental health problems (which are really brain health problems) that make everybody else’s lives so challenging.

When someone in your life has an undetected or untreated condition, it can make you want to get a divorce, quit your job, or take some other life-altering action. This can have a lasting impact on your own mental well-being and on your future. This is why going to therapy is important for anyone who’s in a relationship—whether it’s a romantic, work, or friendly relationship—with someone with a psychiatric illness.

Here are 5 things you can get out of psychotherapy if you have a relationship with someone with a diagnosable condition.

5 TAKEAWAYS FROM PSYCHOTHERAPY

1. Learn what to expect.

Going to therapy can help you understand the symptoms and behaviors associated with various mental health issues. When you understand that the things other people say and do—or don’t do—are related to a condition, it can help you be less judgmental, less frustrated, and less hurt by them.

2. Discover how to communicate better.

If you’re married to, work with, or are friends with someone who has a psychiatric condition, going to therapy can give you tools to learn more effective ways to communicate with them. For example, let’s say your spouse has ADD/ADHD. You routinely ask them to do the dishes after dinner and they say they’ll do them, but when you wake up the next morning there’s still a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. You get frustrated and irritated and snap at your spouse, which leads to a full-fledged argument. Not the way you want to start your day.

In therapy, a mental health professional might teach you that when asking someone with ADD/ADHD to complete a task, it can be more effective if you:

As another example, let’s say you have a coworker with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). These individuals tend to have rigid thinking and to say “no” a lot. With these people, it’s best to offer them options. Instead of asking, “Do you want to set the meeting for Friday afternoon?” try asking, “Would you prefer to have the meeting on Friday, or would another day work better for you?” With options, people with OCD are less oppositional.

3. Don’t take things personally.

When you’re around someone with mental illness, it can be hard to look at their words and actions objectively. You may take things personally and feel like their behavior is directed at you or that it is somehow your fault, which can make you feel bad, mad, sad, or defensive. In therapy, you can learn that their actions aren’t necessarily a reflection on you, which helps you maintain your self-esteem and a positive mood.

4. Learn about treatment options.

Going to therapy can introduce you to numerous beneficial lifestyle changes that can make a big difference for you and your loved one. A therapist who has expertise in integrative psychiatry can offer suggestions for foods, mental exercises, supplements, and other strategies that can help minimize symptoms commonly seen in mental health conditions.

5. Practice self-care.

Many people who go to therapy have devoted so much attention to their loved ones that they have neglected their own well-being and exhausted their inner resources. But if you’re emotionally and physically depleted, you’re more likely to get irritated, frustrated, or fatigued, which may exacerbate your loved one’s issues. This can lead to a downward spiral that doesn’t serve anyone. A trained therapist can help you stop feeling guilty about dedicating time to take care of yourself. In fact, going to therapy is often a first step to regaining a sense of control over your life and feeling like you deserve to be happy and healthy. And that’s an attitude that is beneficial to everyone in your life.

Anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, addictions, 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. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk.

Pop quiz! On a scale of 1 to 10, where is your anxiety level these days? How about your significant other? And what about your kids? Are you a 9 while your significant other is a 4 and your kids are a 2? Do you feel safer at home, but your partner keeps prodding you to hop on a plane for a little vacation, and your kids are begging you to let them visit their friends? Or are you on the lower end of the scale itching to host a party while your family’s fears are holding you back?

If you’ve got an anxiety level mismatch in your home, it can escalate tension, ramp up fear, fuel frustration, and irritability, and wreak havoc with your relationships.

At Amen Clinics, many patients have been struggling with mismatched anxiety levels within the home. Here’s how Amen Clinics helped them and what you can learn from their experience.

How Anxiety Imbalances Can Sabotage Relationships

One couple named Sarah and Shawn contacted Amen Clinics for help saying this has been the most difficult challenge they’ve gone through in their entire relationship. On the anxiety scale, Sarah’s a 9—actually, closer to a 9.5—and Shawn’s hovering around a 3. She feels safer cocooning at home, having groceries and meals delivered, and disinfecting everything multiple times a day. Shawn, however, thinks he’s invincible and is one of those “don’t worry, be happy” types. He doesn’t see any danger in going out to restaurants, visiting friends, or hitting the gym.

Whenever he sets foot out of the house, even if it’s just to go to the grocery store, Sarah unleashes a tirade, telling him about all the frightening statistics she’s seen that day on social media. She tells him he’s putting himself and her at danger of contracting COVID-19 and thinks that means he must not love her very much. He counters that she’s overreacting and too much of a worry wort who needs to lighten up. It’s led to some marital conflict that has left them wondering if their relationship will survive.

Another Amen Clinics patient had a similar problem with her teenage daughter. Amy’s teen daughter Olivia said she was done with the quarantine and needed to go visit her boyfriend and other friends. Hearing this, Amy felt waves of anxiety wash over her as she imagined her daughter contracting the virus and having to be put on a ventilator. It conjured up painful memories of Amy’s own mother years earlier who had gone into the hospital for cancer surgery that led to complications, including being put on a ventilator and suffering a blood clot stroke that ultimately killed her.

For Amy, her past anxieties related to her mother’s death came roaring back to life with the threat of COVID-19. She was so terrified that her daughter might get sick, have to be put on a ventilator and die as a result. Her daughter’s cavalier attitude infuriated her and filled her with dread.

With therapy and treatment at Amen Clinics, these two families were able to develop better communication and understanding to align themselves more equally and strengthen their relationships during these challenging times. Here’s what they learned that you can draw from if you’re also in an anxiety mismatch.

6 Things You Can Learn from These Amen Clinics Patients

1. Avoid the 4 Horsemen.

When communicating, avoid what renowned author and marriage therapist Dr. John Gottman calls the “4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse”—contempt, criticism, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Contempt implies that you know better than the other person. Criticism goes beyond criticizing specific behaviors and attacks a person’s character or personality. Defensiveness is when you flip things around to be someone else’s fault, effectively making you a victim who is powerless to change anything. Stonewalling is when you shut down and refuse to engage in any conversation or in any effort to find solutions. For Sarah and Shawn, changing their conversations from contempt and criticism to mutual respect and shared responsibility made a dramatic difference.

2. Share the reasons behind your anxiety.

If there are reasons for your heightened anxiety, like Amy’s experience with her mother’s death, share that with your family member. When others understand where your angst is coming from, they are generally more willing to work with you to come up with solutions you can all agree on. When Olivia learned about how her grandmother died, she softened her stance and became more willing to find solutions that worked for both her and her mom.

3. Don’t be too controlling.

Making ultimatums and attempting to keep others in lockdown can backfire. Teens tend to rebel when parents are overly controlling. For Amy and Olivia, this meant allowing her Olivia to visit her boyfriend as long as she agreed to wear a face mask, maintain physical distance, and stay on the patio at his parents’ house.

4. Create clear goals.

Have each member of the family write down their goals for this extraordinary time and share with the others. Is your goal to keep everyone healthy? To keep the home humming with positivity? Sarah and Shawn found ways to create shared goals that helped them feel more united.

5. Help lower high anxiety.

Shawn learned that rather than attacking Sarah for her fearful feelings, it is more helpful to encourage rational thinking and healthy behaviors that reduce anxiety. He discovered how to help her talk back to the frightening ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) that infested her mind. He bought and prepared anti-anxiety foods that help fight nervousness and keep blood sugar levels balanced. He joined her in doing some gentle exercises like yoga that reduce stress. He also checked into natural supplements—such as GABA and magnesium—that help calm busy minds. In your family, if someone’s anxiety levels go through the roof, consider seeking professional help and offer to accompany them for moral support.

6. Encourage healthy anxiety.

Having some anxiety is good for you. According to research, the “don’t worry, be happy” people die the earliest from accidents and preventable illnesses. When you or a family member fall at the bottom of the anxiety scale, it can be a sign of underactive frontal lobes, which is associated with impulsivity, risky behavior, and poor decision-making. This is often seen in people with ADD/ADHD or undetected head injuries. Shawn’s brain scan showed “sleepy” frontal lobes and with treatment, he developed healthy anxiety levels and took fewer risks. In your family, brain imaging can help determine if extremely low anxiety is related to underlying brain dysfunction.

Anxiety, depression, 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 888-288-9834. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk.

 

by Shane Creado, MD

If you work with people who are trying to lose weight, build lean muscle mass, or improve athletic performance, it’s critical to talk to them about getting adequate rest. Let’s look at just some of the many ways sleep can impact the ability to reach fitness goals.

1. Sleep deprivation tanks testosterone levels.

Anyone who is trying to build more muscle or get leaner needs healthy testosterone levels. Testosterone is an anabolic hormone that promotes muscle growth and strength in both men and women. It also plays a role in fat loss and preventing fat gain. For example, research shows that the testosterone levels of obese men are about 30% lower than those in men at a healthy weight.

Lack of sleep lowers testosterone levels. In a trial with healthy young men, sleeping just 5 hours a night for a week caused testosterone levels to decrease by 10-15%. Sleeping less means less testosterone, which results in less lean muscle and more fat.

2. Lack of deep sleep decreases growth hormone.

Deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormone. Many of the body’s cells also show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep. Since proteins are the building blocks needed for muscle growth, repair of damaged tissue, and bone-building, deep sleep is critical for athletic achievement and recovery from tough workouts. It is also vital for healthy growth and muscle development in children and adolescent athletes.

Unfortunately, 69% of high school students in the U.S. do not get adequate sleep. Because of this, children and teen athletes may potentially suffer from stunted growth as well as other direct impacts on sports performance.

Additionally, when a child or adolescent has growth hormone deficiencies, concentration and reaction times can be affected (frontal lobes), math and art skills can suffer (parietal lobes), and memory centers (temporal lobes) take a big hit.

3. Sleepless nights spike stress hormones.

Physical activity increases the production of cortisol and testosterone. Cortisol plays a central role in the body’s response to physical activity and the regulation of the immune system. The balance and timing of the release of anabolic (testosterone) and catabolic (cortisol) hormones are considered essential to muscle adaptation, especially muscle growth.

Sleep deprivation can lead to more cortisol production, which can worsen stress, accelerate muscle breakdown, and further contribute to insomnia/excessive wakefulness, setting up a bad feedback loop.

4. Poor sleep can make you fat.

If hormones are the gatekeepers of your cells, then sleep deprivation is a Trojan horse. Short sleep duration is one of the strongest risk factors for obesity. In one massive review study, children and adults with short sleep duration were 89% and 55% more likely to become obese, respectively.

Possible mechanisms include:

To quantify this, approximately 4 hours of sleep deprivation results in a perceived deficit of 900 calories, which means your body will think you need 900 more calories for every 4 hours of sleep you lose. Eating an extra 900 calories can quickly add up to excess fat on the body.

Many of the patients I see tell me that they rarely lose 4 hours of sleep in a week. But I explain to them that the brain needs 9 hours of sleep a night, so even if someone is getting what they think is a “healthy” 7 hours of sleep a night, at the end of the week, it adds up to 14 hours of sleep deprivation. When you help patients or clients think about it this way, they begin to see how their lack of sleep may be holding them back from reaching their fitness goals.

It’s our job as clinicians to help people who are trying to lose weight or trying to build muscle understand that getting quality sleep is just as crucial to their fitness goals as nutrition and exercise.

About the Author: Shane Creado, MD, Amen Clinics Chicago 

Dr. Shane Creado is a board-certified sleep specialist, who works not only on the treatment of sleep disorders but also on perfecting and optimizing sleep. He is the host of the Overcoming Insomnia course, which teaches the best evidence-based strategies to improve sleep. Dr. Creado is also the author of Peak Sleep Performance: The Cutting-Edge Sleep Science That Will Guarantee A Competitive Advantage, available on Amazon.

This book is primarily geared toward coaches, trainers, and elite athletes, but this step-by-step guide to sleep optimization can also be beneficial for anybody who wants to boost their brain health and productivity. For updates about the book, free sleep tips, as well as special offers, follow @peaksleepperformance on Instagram.

 

Celebrity moms from Chrissy Teigen to Gwyneth Paltrow have spoken openly about their struggles with postpartum depression. But there’s another condition that affects new moms that hasn’t gotten the press it deserves—postpartum anxiety.

Having new-mom jitters is normal, and it’s completely natural to have some anxious thoughts when bringing a new baby home. Does that cry mean they’re sick, or is it just a dirty diaper? Am I doing this wrong? Should I check again to make sure the baby is still breathing?

In some women, however, these fearful thoughts become unrelenting and eventually interfere with the ability to enjoy motherhood. And the condition is more common than you might think.

In a study of 4,451 postpartum women, 18% reported having symptoms of postpartum anxiety. Other studies have found that up to 28% of women experience anxiety within the first 6 months of their baby’s life. That’s over 1 in 4 women!

Signs and Symptoms of Postpartum Anxiety

Postpartum anxiety disorder can show up in a variety of ways, and in some women, it may start during pregnancy. Some of the more common symptoms include:

In addition, postpartum anxiety may be associated with some physical issues, such as:

If you’re suffering from any of these symptoms, it could be a sign of a disorder that needs investigating.

Other Forms of Postpartum Anxiety

Generalized postpartum anxiety is the most common form of the condition, but there are other specific types of anxiety that can affect postpartum women.

Postpartum Anxiety and the Brain

Having postpartum anxiety does not mean you’re a bad mom. It isn’t your fault. Brain imaging studies show that there are biological brain-based reasons for the way you’re feeling. Here’s what brain scans using a technology called SPECT have found about the various types of postpartum anxiety.

Hope for New Moms

As you’ve seen, the number of women struggling with various forms of postpartum anxiety is significant, and those numbers could be even higher because many women suffer in silence and don’t seek help for their symptoms. This is a mistake because postpartum anxiety can affect your ability to bond with your baby and can get in the way of your parenting.

Because of this, it’s vitally important that you have an open and honest discussion about any symptoms you’re experiencing with your healthcare provider. With the proper treatment, you can optimize your brain health to heal the underlying brain issues so you can start feeling better about yourself and your little bundle of joy.

At Amen Clinics, when we use brain SPECT imaging as part of a comprehensive evaluation to identify various types of postpartum anxiety. Importantly, we believe in using the least toxic, most effective forms of treatment that work for moms who may be breastfeeding.

If you want to join the tens of thousands of people who have already visited Amen Clinics and enhanced their brain health, overcome their symptoms, and learned how to feel better fast, speak to a specialist today at 888-288-9834. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk.