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Location: Home > Dog Books > Anxiety Disorders > Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness

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Author: Daniel G. Amen
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$15.00~~
Buy New: $8.52
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

164 reviews
Sales Rank: 155

Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7

ISBN: 0812929985
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.89
EAN: 9780812929980
ASIN: 0812929985

Publication Date: December 31, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 164

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Nothing life changing December 27, 2008
Got this for my husband. He just "had" to have it after watching a PBS special. He enjoyed the book, and found the brain scans pretty fascinating. The best thing he got out of it is figuring out that he probably has ADD. This is not new news around here.
He finished the book, then moved on.

2 out of 5 stars

Change your BRAiN (sic) - faith based psychiatry? December 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The following is my opinion.

Amen introduces detecting and manipulating over and under stimulation of specific brain structures to effect mood or behavior. Also includes common psychological "homework" techniques to develop awareness of an individual's internal psychology.

Actual critique:

He could have done better suggesting ways to help ADD / OCD / etc sufferers through his mood therapy techniques, and omitted the implication his work has anything concrete to do with less-severe problems.

Cons:

One word critique: extremes. Longer critique: Shilling his radioisotope + SPECT scanner to diagnose ails.

The best audience for this book is people with serious brain problems. In the case studies the patients he talks about are people with serious problems: brain cysts, ADD, OCD, stroke, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, severe panic attacks, clinical depression, suicidal tendencies.

Unfortunately for that audience, he doesn't present enough hard correlative evidence for many of his unique assertions. Sways in the direction of "trust me" or faith-based logic, suggesting psychological problems will go away with use of pills as determined by SPECT scans, and positive self-talk. The disturbing use of the authoritative word "to heal" in this context. Extrapolating: sing your way to better temporal lobe health curing your memory and temper problems. The mood correlations to brain structures seem too loosely proven to be advanced by this book: cats are to verdant forests as dogs are to deserts, therefore think happy thoughts to be like a cat.

Feels like a collection of notes vaguely associating physiological brain structures with mood and behavior.

The internal-awareness stuff is generally helpful but has already been covered elsewhere and in more detail: (Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy http://www.amazon.com/dp/0380810336); Amen sadly does not to my standards tie this material to his discussion of brain structures. His mood therapy talk switches abruptly from deep breathing, to suggesting using Valium or Xanax. Dietary treatment is mentioned, but its inclusion like mood-therapy's inclusion seems inappropriate given the book's apparent SPECT-promotion goal.

Firm statements like "Stop worrying about what other people think about you." are offensive as they're wildly simplistic.

The gaudy cover design.

The book's title appears to have a one-inch tall formatting error: "BRAiN". The lower-case i may be an attempt to relate the word brain to the all lowercase "life" through their letter in common. This effect is almost cute but to me in the end it's distracting.

Editing error, completely missing the "prefrontal cortex prescription #5", there is a #6, and #4 is embarrassingly on the topic of staying organized

The compelling quack-watch critique: http://www.quackwatch.org/06ResearchProjects/amen.html

More illustrations of brain structures earlier would be helpful, should be copied into first chapter's brain structures introductory paragraphs; can be found in later chapters.

The religious focus:

Reference to treatment prescriptions as miracles.

The silly fact his name is Amen, more seriously that he graduated from Oral Roberts University, and his commercial clinic's website's use of religious-invoking (fantastic rays of light, etc) imagery.

The revealing fact of his shock when he realized there's physiological relationships to human behavior long after completing medical school: "Seeing these scans caused me to challenge many of my basic beliefs about people, character, free will, and good and evil that had been ingrained in me as a Catholic schoolboy."

He limits his religious prescriptions to the Catholic or Christian sphere.

Pros:

Discourages self-blame for psychiatric and psychological disorders, encourages hope in medical treatment for easing various sufferings

L-tryptophan nutritional information relating to moodiness via serotonin

Useful but repetitive and derivative mood therapy information.

Conclusion:

It's a sales pitch for his clinic, drop his material. Seems to be the same thing with the rest of his books. Look for other more concise books elsewhere, or for serious problems visit several psychiatrists & pick one that you think will be best for you.

4 out of 5 stars

Interesting Read December 22, 2008
I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and provided some insight into the complexities of the human brain. If the author's findings are basically sound, it gives the reader an additional tool for understanding why some people behave as they do and also offers self-help techniques for those who see themselves in the pages of this book. If the techniques work on some level, readers can perhaps at least alleviate the worst of whatever brain irregularities they may have. Only those who try will know if they work. This book provides food for thought, and I found it worth reading.
Pain Banishment, Not Pain Management:Non-Invasive Treatment for RSD/CRPS and Other Chronic Pain: Such As Neuropathy, Migraines, Arthritis, and Fibromyalgia ~ EVEN WHEN NOTHING ELSE WORKS ~

3 out of 5 stars

Change your Brain Change your Life December 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a good thoughtful book for anyone with concern over any problem you have that could conceivably be by effected the brain...which is almost anything. Even if you don't have any of the major problems, you probably know someone who does...or you know someone who acts in ways that are difficult to deal with. It helps you understand where that may be coming from and gives some good examples of how to handle them in easy, non-interfering ways.

5 out of 5 stars

Very Good Book! December 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

How many people today suffer from depression, anger, worry, impulsive and excessive behavior? It seems to be everywhere you look. `Change your brain change your life' tries to help people deal with these problems through meditation, self-hypnosis and biofeedback. It's a prescription taking society and Daniel Amen is trying to help people through these tough times without the prescription drugs. I believe it will help some people. But I believe there's a better way of living without fear and anxiety. Read "The Enlightenment, What God Told Me After One Million Prayers: A Message for Everyone" by John H. Eagan all your fears and anixieties will disappear.

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