The mandate is to shelter in your home,
but how is that affecting your mental health?
Joining me today is Doctor Amen,
a leader in brain health and neural imagery,
and New York Times best-selling author.
Now his new book is, "The End of Mental Illness,"
and it is out now and I highly, highly recommend it.
Now Robin just popped in because she, like me,
is a big fan of Doctor Amen's and as folks may
or may not know, it's not been too terribly long
since Robin lost her sister, very tragically,
Sad.
and early, and Doctor Amen's book,
"Feel Better Fast and Make It Last," was a real help
to you during that time, right?
Yes, yes it really was
and I was a fan before, but, really loved that book.
So Doctor Amen, say hello to Robin.
Hi Robin, thank you so much.
Hi.
Thank you, Doctor Amen, I'm so thrilled
to be visiting with you right now
through this terrible time of course
and been a huge fan for a long time.
Doctor Amen we were talking before we went on the break
about how the brain is affected and stressed,
and can actually cause people to compromise
their immune system, describe this for people so they
understand how this connects up because your quarantine
checkup is really good and I want people to know
how these things connect.
So I was on the radio in London, and there was so much
anxiety and fear and one of the callers said
we have a global amygdala hijacking.
So the amygdala is the part of your brain that responds
to fear and anxiety, and when it goes up,
your frontal lobes, that protect you,
they're involved with things like focus,
and forethought, judgement and impulse control,
they go down and it's that disconnection that is
driving so much panic and fear.
So we need to avoid things that drop frontal lobe function,
like not sleeping, alcohol, marijuana,
I know people don't wanna hear that,
but that's what our research shows, sugar,
and we need to do things on a regular basis
to calm our amygdala, calm the anxiety and fear.
Write down your negative thoughts,
There's a very specific breathing pattern that helps
calm down anxiety and what it is,
three seconds in, deep breath,
and then six seconds out, so taking twice as long to
exhale as you inhale actually will trigger a relaxation
response throughout your body, so simple things.
Don't believe every stupid thing you think,
get control of your breathing,
and then connection is so important.
So the checkup you are talking about is,
we get sick, or well in four circles.
So biologically, got to take care of your brain,
psychologically, don't believe every stupid thing you think,
socially, who we're connected to and now,
because there's a lot of anxiety, you want to be
the leader in mental hygiene in your home because other
people then will follow your lead and one thing most
psychiatrists never talk about, which is spiritually.
Which is why the heck do you care?
Why are you on the planet?
What is your deepest sense of meaning and purpose?
Because purposeful people, where you're volunteering,
now not out, but doing things online.
I get to, like you, FaceTime with my grand-babies,
I'm staying connected and purposeful,
which is why I've always loved you,
because that's what you do, you're a helper
and we get to help in this time of need which strengthens
our immune system, so how can your viewers
help other people, because when you get outside of
your head and you become helpful things are less terrible.