"Psyched" Book Review: "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" by Daniel Amen

by Joshua Packard, Fullness of Happy

This is the first of a regular column I intend to write called "Psyched".  The entries will deal with books and other media having to do with psychology, psychiatry, mental health and illness, neurology, and basically anything having to do with the mind and what makes it work healthy or fail to work.  I am considering going back to school to study Psychology, because I want to do something that contributes to the improving and well being of those who suffer from mental illness and those who care for them.  Let me know if there are any books or other media which you think I should read and possibly review here.  With that said, here is the first entry to my "Psyched" column.  

I want to recommend that anyone in the area of psychology, psychiatry, therapy, neurology or any other field dealing with the brain and mental health read the book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" by Dr. Daniel Amen.  I will just get straight to the point about why this book is a must read for anyone who may be diagnosed with a mental condition or seeking to improve the mental conditions of their lives.  Dr. Amen does not just focus on cataloging symptoms and attempting to make a diagnosis that fits the criteria compiled in a non brain connected guidebook such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  Dr. Amen makes use of brain scans called SPECT in identifying what kind of brain activity (or lack of it) is going on in patients who are referred to him.  Dr. Amen makes the connection between the brain and mental illnesses or disorders or behavior problems.  His use of brain scans, while not the only factor in diagnosing and treating various conditions, makes psychiatry into an actual physical science of the brain.  It is no longer subjective guessing game where the only evidence used to identify what is going wrong is through external behavior.  Dr. Amen can show a patient the difference between normal brain activity and the abnormal activity, or hyperactivity, of various parts of the brain involved in different kinds of mental and emotional and physical behavior and health.

The praise I give this book is simple.  If my experience with the psychiatric and mental health fields had involved brain scans such as Dr. Amen does, and connected the brain difficulties and mental symptoms I have to something physical in the brain, I would not have been so resistant to getting involved with psychiatrists, therapists, and psychiatric medication.  Today's psychiatrists claim that mental illness is a condition of the brain, but do not use any kind of scan or test or brain imaging to help identify what exactly is going wrong with the brain, what areas of the brain are overactive, or not active at all.  Psychiatrists should look into Dr. Amen's work, and try to incorporate brain scans into their diagnostic considerations and also in determining what treatments, and medications are best to promote optimal brain health for their patients.  I would not have been so resistant to taking medications if the criteria and methods used for determining my diagnoses and what regimen of treatments and medicine were based on brain science and actual evidence of what is wrong with my brain.  Today's psychiatrists don't do that.  They base everything on externals, such as behavior or symptoms, and do not actually look at what is actual going on, or not going on, in the brain.

If you work in the psychiatric or mental health field, read this book.  If you or someone you know has a mental illness, and especially are resistant to working with psychiatrists, therapists, or taking medication, read this book.  This is a book anyone concerned with having a healthy brain should read and recommend to the other people in their lives to read.  Get a copy, get 10  copies, and give them to your doctors, therapists, friends, family, church leaders, etc.  I can't recommend this book any more highly than I do.  I plan to read Dr. Daniel Amen's other books as well.  Hopefully, I will be able to write reviews for them, as well.

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