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

"While it's true that no one has put such information into printed form for the layman before, everyone should realize up front that brain function is still largely a blank area in our map of the body.
Five centuries ago maps were made with a convention designed to discourage travel into areas that had not been mapped (very cautious, those cartographers). It usually went something like this; the cartographer would engrave "Here there be Tygers" or a warning in words of like meaning into the center of the blank area on the map plate before it was printed. A similar warning should be emblazoned across the cover of Dr. Amen's book.
Nothing in the book is misleading, as far as I can tell (not being a neurologist, but a safety engineer), and it is written in a very readable style. It's even funny and lighthearted where that is permitted by the subject matter. I really enjoyed the book, which I found to be somewhat more detailed and marginally more technical than the Doctor's PBS television program.
The problem with this book is that Dr. Amen actually gives advice on changing someone's brain function for fun and profit (well, okay, perhaps not for profit, except the personal gain of a different, and perhaps more tractable [wife, son, father] to deal with). He does not give instructions on dosing them with Welbutrin or Ritalin, but he does say that if you change your diet, or exercise more some of your brain function may change, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing - all of his examples were very successful and relieved problems that were in a few cases of some decades' duration.
This is the good side, and as far as I can see, it is truly well-intentioned. If everyone can stick to this approach, it should be possible to bring tens of thousands of people out of problematic behavior and restore them to the way they were before, or bring them out of problems that they have had since childhood and offer them what amounts to a new world.
The other side of Dr. Amen's approach is that it is possible to read his book and then make someone's brain function worse simply by going against the doctor's advice. I ask you to note that I bought this book with the idea that I could change some of my own behavior and that on the way there I found that the advice in the book could be perverted. I still rated the book four stars out of five. Nevertheless, purchasers of this book should remember that as I said earlier, brain function is still a largely unexplored area of the body, and meticulous care is advised when tampering with it. "
~ Written on 2008-07-05

"The information on brain function was easy to understand, and interesting. The exercise prescriptions and self-tests were very helpful. Excellent book."
~ Written on 2008-07-02

"This was a worthwhile read, but I would recommend Thinking Your Way to Better Health by Dr. Andrew Goliszek, which in my opinion offers a wealth of new information on how to use the mind-body connection for health and self-healing."
~ Written on 2008-06-28

"This is an excellent book. I'm only halfway through it presently and it is the best of its type I have ever read. Anyone interested in human behavior should read Change Your Brain Change your Life."
~ Written on 2008-06-20

"Dr. Amen's book is more than a catalog of brain scans. Yes, it has brain scans and some pretty scary ones at that. But the scans are a way to show problems in brain functioning in concrete terms. We can then recognize how anxiety, depression, OCD and even anger can influence the brain.

Thankfully Dr. Amen doesn't just stop here by showing us the problem. He presents many interesting solutions from breathing, visualization, meditation and hypnosis. This is the best part of the book: Dr. Amen offers alternative therapies that can change our brain patterns and we can see the effect of these treatments also in scans.

This is an awesome book! Even better with "Nexus" by Deborah Morrison & Arvind Singh which looks at the journey of Logan Andrews through depression and finding spiritual healing at a spiritual retreat. "Nexus" nicely compliments Dr. Amen's book in offering an experiential journey of people overcoming personal pain.

Both books are a must read for anyone looking to transform their life! "
~ Written on 2008-06-06