Do you panic at the thought of walking into a room full of people you don't know? Do you feel as if a cloud of gloom is always hovering over your head? Do you have the same negative thoughts over and over? Are you so easily distracted that you often can't finish a project? Do you fly off the handle at your spouse for no good reason? Do you have trouble connecting meaningfully with other people? If you've been struggling to overcome a problem like these without success--perhaps you've even tried therapy but given up--it probably isn't for lack of trying, thinking, or motivation; you just didn't have the right answers or the right tools. Now you do.

In his pioneering new book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Dr. Amen explains how you can "optimize" your brain to achieve your fullest potential. Using state-of-the-art brain imaging technology, Dr. Amen has spent the last decade helping thousands of patients understand how the way their brains are wired can affect their thoughts and emotions. He explains which brain systems are associated with particular problems, gives detailed checklists to help you pinpoint your problems, and offers specific yet simple "brain prescriptions" (cognitive exercises, nutrition, medication, and more) to help actually enhance brain function and heal each problem.

Many of the difficulties associated with anxiety, depression, excessive worrying, anger, and distraction are related to five specific systems in the brain. Dr. Amen explains how these systems work and how malfunctions can affect your behavior. If you've always believed that you were just going to have to live with the way you are, you'll be amazed by the vivid before-and-after brain scans of some of the thousands of patients that have been successfully treated at the Amen Clinic--visual proof that the right treatment can help you. You certainly don't need a brain scan to understand the basis of your particular problem or implement the correct solution, but these striking images will inspire you to make meaningful and effective changes. Seeing is believing!

Brain Prescriptions That Really Work

See the Anxious Brain *  See the Depressed Brain *  See the Angry Brain *  See the Impulsive Brain *  See the Worried Brain

In this breakthrough book, you'll see scientific evidence that your anxiety, depression, anger, obsessiveness, or impulsiveness could be related to how specific structures in your brain work. But you're not stuck with the brain you're born with. Here are just a few of neuro-psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen's surprising--and effective--"brain prescriptions" that can help heal your brain and change your life:

To quell anxiety and panic:

Follow the 18/40/60 rule
Use simple breathing techniques to immediately calm inner turmoil
Learn which foods calm anxiety


To fight depression:

Learn how to kill ANTs (automatic negative thoughts)
Build a library of wonderful emotional experiences
Surround yourself with antidepressant fragrances


To curb anger:

Follow the Amen anti-anger diet
Learn the nutrients that can calm rage
Let Mozart calm you


To conquer impulsiveness and learn to focus:

Develop total focus with the "One-Page Miracle"
Use lights and sounds to stay focused
Get coaching from a professional organizer


To Stop obsessive worrying:

Learn the nutrients and foods that help
Follow the "get unstuck" writing exercise
Do simple problem-solving exercises


When your brain doesn't work right, you can't work right. With its easy-to-follow program and compelling evidence that you can actually retrain your brain to work more optimally, this breakthrough book will help you make lasting changes.
In this age of do-it-yourself health care (heck, if the doctor only sees you for 10 minutes each visit, what other options are there?), Change Your Brain, Change Your Life fits in perfectly. Filled with "brain prescriptions" (among them cognitive exercises and nutritional advice) that are geared toward readers who've experienced anxiety, depression, impulsiveness, excessive anger or worry, and obsessive behavior, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life milks the mind-body connection for all it's worth.

Written by a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has also authored a book on attention deficit disorder, Change Your Brain contains dozens of brain scans of patients with various neurological problems, from caffeine, nicotine, and heroin addiction to manic-depression to epilepsy. These scans, often showing large gaps in neurological activity or areas of extreme overactivity, are downright frightening to look at, and Dr. Amen should know better than to resort to such scare tactics. But he should also be commended for advocating natural remedies, including deep breathing, guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and biofeedback for treating disorders that are so frequently dealt with by prescription only.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Get Help With Insight From This Book
Comment: This is a good overview of how certain parts of the brain can affect your actions and moods. Each chapter about a part of the brain is followed by recommendations to improve the brain's function and in turn your life.

Yes, one recommendation is usually medication, but the other 10 or so can easily be incorporated into your life. If you could use a little help, this book and recommendations are certainly worth the low selling price.

Enjoy and good luck.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: well-organized
Comment: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life contains much information. It is good to read the whole book, but then you must choose which parts apply to you. Each chapter has symptoms, medications and alternative aids. You decide. It has been very helpful.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: In the process...
Comment: This book was recommended by a friend who had brain surgery. I am trying to recover from a traumatic brain injury. This book, though very technical, has given me practical ways to help change areas of my thinking and move forward with my healing.
I highly recommend this book for recovering brain injured patients, drug addicts, thinking disorders, or if you just need to adjust your thinking.
It also explains the importance of the bonding processes in children. Great book for teachers and/or parents.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent + Two Other Great Ones
Comment: This book and these other two listed below (one by Davanloo and the other one based on Davanloo's work are probably the three best books on the subject.

Tao Cycle Therapy: Natural Happiness via Self Directed Cure for Chronic Anxiety & Depression [Updated 2008 3nd Edition]

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy: Selected Papers of Habib Davanloo, M.D.

D.Gilbert

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of my Two Favorites:
Comment: As far as practical anxiety & depression books, you can't beat these two:

Tao Cycle Therapy: Natural Happiness via Self Directed Cure for Chronic Anxiety & Depression [Updated 2008 3nd Edition]

You're Welcome (trust me, you'll understand),
Mary Ellison

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