Brain Thrive | Be Authentic

Brain Thrive by 25

Is a practical brain science course and curriculum created by Psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen M.D.

outline

There is a very good online course called Brain Thrive by 25 which talks about the teenage brain and its development. The course debunks many myths around brain function and is very interesting.

Here are the outlines of the simpler, less scientific videos in the course.

CHAPTER ONE - Brain Basics

#1 Your brain is involved in everything you are

Everything you think, feel, act, or interact
Your intelligence, character, every decision you make
Your brain dreams, thinks, directs your body, stores your

memories. It is your personality, it is your problem solver.

It determines what you eat, how you feel, your spirituality,

your heartbeat, everything.

#2 Your brain is the most complicated organ that we know of.

It has 100 billion neurons and trillions of supporting cells
There are more connections in your brain than there are stars in

the universe

It is 2% of your body weight, but it uses 20-30% of your calories
It gets 20% of your oxygen and blood flow
Information within your brain travels at up to 268 mph
A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand has 100,000

neurons talking to each other

Your brain has the storage capacity of 6 million years of the

Wall Street Journal

#3 Your brain is not fully developed until 25 for females and 28

for males.

Everything that you do either helps or hurts your development.

#4 Your brain is very fragile, like soft butter.

It is housed in a skull with numerous hard, bony ridges.

Brain injuries matter!

Protecting your brain is protecting your future abilities.

#5 When your brain works right, you work right.

When your brain is troubled, you have trouble in your life.

#6 Normal is a myth

51% of the population will have a mental health issue at some point

in their life.

If you struggle with attention, focus, sadness, anxiety, worry,

flexibility, stubbornness, or impulsivity, welcome to normal.

#7You can change your brain and change your life.

CHAPTER TWO - The Brain Before 25

Statistics:

1 in 4 adults have brain struggle in a given year
76% of mental health issues begin before 25
80% of children who struggle with mental health are unidentified and receive no treatment
50% of students with a mental health issue drop out of school
65-75% of jailed teens have a mental illness or brain injury
Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in teens
86% of teenagers know someone who has a mental health issue
86% of teens say mental health is an important topic
84% of teens say there is a stigma surrounding mental heatlh

Fact - Multitasking is not good for your brain

You are not more productive
Leads to more distractions
Inefficient use of time
Decreases performance
Gray matter (brain cells) shrinks with too much of it
Listening to music while working can be a good thing, but it depends on the music

Results of multitasking, according to a Microwoft study:

In 2000 human attention span was 12 seconds
In 2018 human attention span was 8 seconds
Goldfish attention span is 9 seconds

Hewlitt-Packard study found that people who were obsessed with their phones over a year lost 10 IQ points.

Fact - What you do today impacts tomorrow.

Brain robbers:

Alcohol, drug use, environmental toxins, caffeine, excessive computer use, excessive cell phone use, excessive technology, fear of failure, negative thinking, high stress, head injuries, poor diet, not challenging yourself, not enough sleep, not enough water

Don’t do things that will hurt your brain; do things that will help your brain.

Brain enhancers:

Great diet, exercise, mental exercise, meditation, sleep (8-9 hours), limited screen time, intention, gratitude, appreciation, protecting your brain from injury, adequate supervision, deep relaxation techniques, positive thinking, challenging yourself, Mozart and Strauss, staying hydrated, keeping a healthy weight, healthy routines

CHAPTER SIX - Impact of Drugs and Alcohol

Drugs damage your brain and your ability to do your best

SPECT imaging shows that good blood flow and activity are evident in a healthy brain; limited blood flow and activity in a struggling brain

You can choose which brain you want

Drug/Alcohol Use

Drugs and alcohol (legal and illegal) change how the brain functions
They can damage your brain
The younger you start, the worse the damage and the longer it lasts

Your brain is the organ of learning, loving, and behaving. During youth, it is undergoing wild development. Toxins can delay development. Your emotional age can be severely delayed into adulthood and beyond.

Ecstasy and meth damage the brain similarly to a brain injury.

Drugs can cause cell death, memory loss, learning difficulties, and even a stroke.

Inhalants are the worst!

Use before 25 is the worst
Can decrease thinking, memory, learning functions, life satisfaction, mental health, and cause relationship problems.
It has been linked to psychosis, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and addictions
Does not enhance brain development,
DOES delay brain development
Decreases blood flow to the brain

Why do people use drugs and alcohol?

Fun
To fit in, be accepted by peers
Decreases social anxiety
Modeled by parents
Cultural
Numbs emotions
Genetic vulnerability
Self-medicate anxiety or depression
Self-medicate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Head Trauma (especially PTSD)
Most teens don’t use drugs and alcohol for the first time because of peer pressure, most volunteer to do it without peer pressure because they want to fit in.

Reasons NOT to USE

Stalls development, maybe permanently
Isolates you
Smaller brain
Alcohol dehydrates brain
Takes away control
Makes you hate yourself (you have to lie about doing it, causes internal conflict)
Keeps you from learning how to cope with your feelings
Prevents you from knowing yourself
Bad decisions
Changes your genes
- Epigenetics-new field of study that finds that your habits can turn on/off certain genes, making illnesses more or less likely in your children

Good thoughts make us feel good. Every happy, positive, hopeful, loving thought releases chemicals that make us feel good. Hand temperatures warm, sweat gland activity decreases, heart rate slows down, breathing rate is slower and deeper, and muscles relax.

Thoughts are automatic. They just happen. They are based on complex chemical reactions and memories from the past. HOWEVER

Thoughts lie to you.
Thoughts can fool you, scare you, tease you, and be mean to you.
Just because you have a thought doesn’t mean that it is true.

Thoughts are not FACTS!

You can learn to correct your thoughts.

Challenge your negative thoughts
Correct them when they are not helping you
Learn to take control

ANT Species:

All or none

Everything is all good or all bad.
Especially when applied to your self-perception.
“I failed that test, I’m not any good at math.”

Always thinking

Words like always, never, every time, everyone go with all or none
Focusing on the negatives keeps you from seeing the positives!

Fortune telling

Predicting the worst.
This is a primary driver for panic attacks.

Mind reading

You know what someone else is thinking?
You don’t know this unless they tell you!

Labeling

Using negative terms on yourself or someone else

Guilt Beating

Using words like “I should have or I must”.
Change it to, “I want to”

Blame

Blaming others for your problems makes you a victim-instead, ask what you can learn from your mistakes

Killing the ANTS

You need an anteater in your head to learn how to take control

Kill the ANTS that steal your happiness and make you fat, depressed, and feeble minded.

Write down your ANTS
Label them as to their species
Talk back to them! Argue with them! You know how to do this, you do it with your parents all the time
Don’t believe every stupid thought you have
ANT killing is a big part of getting healthy mentally

Every day, start the day by saying, Today is going to be a good day.

Appreciate one person, send them a message telling them that you appreciate them.

(Gratitude makes your brain work better.)

CHAPTER TEN - Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTS)

Every time you have a thought, your brain releases chemicals that change your brain and your body.

Thoughts have the power to immediately change how we feel.

Each thought brings changes in brain wave patterns, hand temperature, sweat gland activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and muscle tension.

Bad thoughts make us feel bad. Every bad, mad, sad, angry, hopeless, or helpless thought releases chemicals that make us feel bad: hand temperature gets cold, muscle tension increases, sweat gland activity increases, heart rate speeds up, breathing is faster, but more shallow.

Natural tendency is to be negative, it was part of our survival instinct. We have had to live through famine, disease, natural disasters, and predators. Negative thoughts were an advantage, but not so much any more.