Rating: 
Summary: A fine book
Review: Dr. Daniel Amen, MD is a pioneer in the up and coming technology of functional neuroimaging. Using SPECT scans, functional MRI and PET scans Neuro oriented psychiatrists such as Dr. Amen are finally beginning to be able to see in images what mental illness looks like. Thanks to the computer and high technology, this sort of thing is possible for the first time ever. Dr. Amen should be commended for his vision and imagination. He is trying to go against the grain of mainstream psychiatry by trying to improve diagnosis of serious mental illness via SPECT scans. This is a courageous thing that takes grit and guts. He is, for the first time ever trying to get psychiatry to actually look at the brain to diagnose. This book takes Amen's experience with functional neuroimaging and allows him to make recommendations other psychiatrists cant really do. Because Amen diagnoses so differently, it can result in more precise and individualized psychiatric diagnosis, with more personalized treatment plans. Only SPECT scans can provide this sort of approach. Read this book and demand that psychiatric services in your area begin incorporating functional neuroimaging into their diagnostic procedures. You will probably be impressed by the results.
Rating:
Summary: Your Brain on TOAST!
Review: Fascinating book, looking at physiological and functional problems in the brain due to trauma or drug use (both legal and illegal) - the SPECT images are *scary* !! Useful for self-examination as well as understanding odd behavioral patterns in others.
Rating:
Summary: Your Brain on TOAST!
Review: Fascinating book, looking at physiological and functional problems in the brain due to trauma or drug use (both legal and illegal) - the SPECT images are *scary* !! Useful for self-examination as well as understanding odd behavioral patterns in others.
Rating:
Summary: A self-help book for Depression!
Review: Finally there is help out there for people who suffer from Depression. I have been on medication for some time with little results. This book has helped me change my way of thinking to help better myself. I have also been able to help others deal with depression an anxiety. This book is a "MUST READ!"
Rating: 
Summary: Dorky Title, but *GREAT* Book!
Review: First I read the Newsweek story about Dr. Amen, then I requested "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" from the library. It was good enough that I then requested his 2001 book "Healing ADD." It was so good that I immediately ...ordered a copy for myself and my friend! HOW'S THAT FOR A RECOMMENDATION??
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Summary: Life changing -- and affirming!
Review: For years I fought all the symptoms of depression but never knew it. I blamed my moodiness, fatigue, anger, withdrawal, and lethargy on PMS (a convenient catch all). Not until reading Dr. Amen's book did I realize that what I had been suffering for years (and especially after my daughter was born) was depression. Within one chapter (actually, midway through the Preface) I realized my symptoms were not me, and that I did not have to live with them any longer. I immediately made an appointment with my doctor who confirmed my clinical (atypical) depression, and since then I'm a changed person. Medications may not be necessary for everyone, of course. But the book is! It will change your views and perspective and may just change your life, or the life of someone you love.
Rating:
Summary: A good book that everyone should read
Review: I found this book very easy to read. It enlightens my fascination about the human brain. This book offers insights to abnormal behaviours as well as human social interactions. The SPECT photos make the relations of behavioural problems to abnormal brain activities crystal clear. I would suggest this book as supplementary readings for anyone who is learning or interested in the brain.
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Summary: Powerful stories, amazing images.
Review: I just finished reading Change Your Brain. It is so exciting to learn that I can actually change the physical functioning of my brain by what I think and eat, and how I behave. There are so many ideas, based in science, that I have to rethink many of my day-to-day behaviors. Since I read the book I have stopped caffeine, started to meditate, and started cleaning the house of ANTs (my automatic negative thoughts). I showed the marijuana brain to my best friend who always says marijuana is medicine and no big deal (yet he is worse now than when we were in high school). I showed the drug brains to my teenage kids -- they paid close attention. Overall, I found this book easy-to-read, moving, and very helpful. Thanks Dr. Amen!
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Summary: In the past 3 weeks I have lived the title of this book.
Review: I read this book three weeks ago and am performing as an actor in a stage musical for the first time in over a decade. I have to admit that I first took it from the shelf in the "new books" section of the library because it struck me as having (my apologies to the designer) the ugliest cover I had ever seen! In spite of my having been on Prozac since 1996, I have experienced continual mental problems which resulted in periods of severe depression. The first sentence on the inside cover grabbed me: "Do you panic at the thought of walking into a room full of people you don't know?" I checked out the book. I am, as I write this, in the process of ordering my own copy and one to send to my sister. I am a 45 year old male teacher/ actor/writer. I hold a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater Arts and have previously made my living as a working actor as well as having had books, plays and songs published since 1976. My spouse of twelve years died in 1994. Suicidal, I returned to my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, after living fifteen years in New York City and Los Angeles. I have not been able to work on a regular basis since. Going back on stage and working as an actor was not even a consideration. Since 1995, I have only been successful at doing sporadic tutorial work with English Composition students at local colleges and universities. The suicidal tendencies I was suffering stopped with the administration of Prozac, but I have spent the past two and one-half years wondering what was wrong with me because I could not focus long enough to complete any of the dozens of projects I would start. I had no patience and could not even keep still long enough to attend a film. I have been in grief counseling during this period, but have not seen a psychiatrist (poor insurance). Fortunately, my regular physician is very receptive and listens to his patients. I did not know adults suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. I thought it was something children suffered but outgrew (I have no children, but have four out of nine neices and nephews on Ritalin). I took the test for Cingulate problems at the end of Chapter 9 in Dr. Amen's book by asking myself what I had been like, before I began taking Prozac, compared to my present state of mind. I went from almost all 3s and 4s, indicating serious problems with worry and obsessiveness, to 0s, 1s, and 2s. This was an obviously improved state, and very much in line with Dr. Amen's findings. I read the entire book in two nights, and did the remaining four checklists. I had very few 3s and 4s with the exception of a huge majority of those numbers on the Prefrontal Cortex Checklist. Not only did I discover adults can have ADD, but that there may be a genetic tendency. I spoke with my Mother who said the pediatrician had her give my brother and myself coffee in the early sixties before sending us to school and it seemed to help, to a small extent, with our behavioral problems. I immediately made an appointment with my doctor and showed him where Dr. Amen had used the combination of Prozac and Ritalin. He prescribed Adderall and I began to see results in only two or three days. My doctor immediately ordered a copy of the book from Amazon.com. He was going to have his daughter read it. Her son is on Ritalin. She is on Prozac, but suffers many of the same problems I described. I began taking the Adderall with the Prozac three weeks ago. During that time I have submitted lyrics to the composer with whom I had written songs, but not been in touch for several years. I have completed a play upon which I began working in 1992, and it is being produced at the local University in May.. I had been offered a number of stage roles by local directors since my return to Birmingham, but turned them down. As previously mentioned, I have just agreed to perform in a musical this summer for the first time since 1988. Dr. Amen offers many, many suggestions for ways to change your brain and your life which have nothing to do with prescription medication, but he convinced me to explore every possible avenue available, without any of the reservations I originally had about going on Prozac. Just knowing my debilitaions can be physiological instead of "all in my head" has made me view my total self differently than at any time since realizing I was "different" around the age of twelve years. I have, at this point in time, had the most productive, fulfilling three weeks of my adult, possibly entire, life. I am literally able to maintain a peace of mind I truly believed impossible. Dr. Amen's writing style is most accessible to the "lay-reader". The book is a blessing. Anyone who has ever doubted his or her "sanity" should read this work, and find a doctor willing to listen to its message!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I suffer from all of these disorders. I have been to therapists but it seems to me that it only has increased my obsessiveness, anxiety, etc. Dr. Amen gives you techniques to help you deal with the brain chemicals that get released when you are in the throes of these ailments. I would like to read other books in this vein. This seems like it is a new issue, yet it is extremely important. Dr. Amen gives "prescriptions" (non-medicinal) and also does recommend medicinal prescriptions from dr.'s as well. In my case I would prefer not to be on any psychological medications, so the non-medicinal advice is greatly appreciated for these ailments.
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