The information on brain function was easy to understand, and interesting. The exercise prescriptions and self-tests were very helpful. Excellent book.

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.

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.

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!

Dr. Amen is the real deal. He's passionate, articulate and deeply committed to the betterment of lives. I've owned this book for a number of years and believe me when I say I have more than a few books on the brain, wellness and personal improvement in every area... and Change Your Brain, Change Your LIFE is by far the most tattered, dog eared, referenced book on the shelves. I've read it over and over and referenced it many more times than that.

As an expert in nutrition and fitness who is keenly concerned and interested in the connection between mind and body I've learned volumes from this book about the correlation between what you eat, how you think, your energy, your mood, etc... in fact I've levered much of this science to help in the creation of my Premium Nutrition Shake, Full Strength and in my nutrition guidelines for energy that you'll find in Strength for Life: The Fitness Plan for the Rest of Your Life.

If you struggle with focus, have wondered if you have ADD, could use more energy or just feel like you're less "on" than you could be, don't walk... RUN to get this book and read it cover to cover, now. It's brilliant and a lifetime resource!

Great book! It was insightful and empowering. Dr. Amen's writing style is easy to follow and his conclusions are supported by numerous case studies. I am recommending this book to everyone, regardless of whether they are in counseling. The ideas and prescriptions presented would be helpful to anyone.

Dr. Amen provides a succint, excellent presentation about how the brain works and the problems incurred when it malfunctions. As a person with bipolar disorder I definitely benefitted from this book. I encourage all people to read this book.

I watched a program 0n TV in which the author Daniel G. Amen discussed this book and and that is why i ordred it.So far I am enjoying reading it. As a person who has suffered from anxiety all my life, I was searching for answers and Dr.Amen's theories interested me very much.So far I am fascinated by his theories and hope to find value in them for me..I have not finished the book but will review it as soon as I have.

While the notion of brain evaluation to heal psychological conditions is very appealing to all of us, this is yet another "prophet" (more like profit), whose time has not come. The theory and research behind this work are idiosyncratic. Dr. Amen is the author, the theoretician, the writer and the prescriber of formulas for success in, what is simply, way too broad a range of areas to be meaningful. His research has not been replicated by anyone outside of his office and his theories are not supported by the scientific community at large. He has created an approach that looks and sounds too good to be true, and is too good to be true. I hope that the underlying intent of his work is to help and heal others and if that is the case, would expect him to begin collaborating with universities and research laboratories that are genuinely independent and able to evaluate his assessment tools and his diagnostic approaches on their own, and thereby help to hone what he is doing, so that it can be determined whether there is more to his approach than smoke and mirrors. I'm not especially comfortable being this caustic about a fellow professional's work, but I've seen the "breakthroughs" purported by many others along the way, and have dealt with the consequences of disappointed patients and family members, who have often spent substantial amounts of time and money, only to be more frustrated and confused than ever afterwards.

I was made aware of Dr Amen from a PBS show. I decided that I had to have his book, but I did not want to pledge what they wanted. So I shopped Amazon.com and really got a great value. The information in the book was right on target and the changes in nutrition are sound. This is one of the most valuable books I have purchased in the last 3 monthsChange Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness.

Fascinating. Links abnormal activity levels in certain parts of the brain to specific mental disdorders. Provides a vast array of treament options from self-help to surgery.

I loved this, I now have Mr Instability for my career problems and a quick laugh and this book for all others..great week!

I really enjoyed reading this book. The insights into other people's issues and how Dr. Amen helped them were fascinating. I really appreciated the fact that Dr. Amen did not just prescribe medication for eveything, sometimes therapy and other non-medication practices can be very effective in helping people. Just looking at the pictures of people's brains when they have abused their body and mind with drugs and alcohol is enough to make most people think twice about how they live their life. This is a very practical, insightful and easy to read book that I would highly recommend.
Angela Coldwell - Author of 100 Essential Steps to Less Stress and Anxiety

While Dr. Amen's brain scans are controversial, the premise is intriguing and provides good theories about brain health. The personality traits and behaviors associated with the different parts of the brain are especially interesting.

this book was not very helpful to me. It is more clinical than anything and hard to understand. I would not recommend it. I bought for anxiety issues and it was a waste of time and money.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK TO HELP A PERSON UNDERSTAND THEIR BRAIN AND BE ABLE TO USE IT TO ONE'S ADVANTAGE. IT'S GREAT IN HELPING ONE TO FOCUS, PLUS MANY OTHER THINGS.

Another title of this book could be "Your Brain: How to Make the Better use of it. The suggestions are supported with interesting actual case studies. It is an easy and entertaining read.
Well worth the cost of the book.

"Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" is one of the best book on self-help for people going through depression, anxiety and ADD. I've experienced depression over the years and I found this book totally helpful.

It offers practical exercises that will help you to change your mental state. Definitely buy this book if you or someone you know is going through depression....You'll be glad you did!

"Nexus: A Neo Novel" and "Change Your Life" together are even better. "Nexus" offers an inspiring journey of Logan Andrews from the depths of despair to learning to overcome his personal pain. I could relate his experiences to my own with anxiety and depression.

I recommend that you buy both books!

This book is worth the money and the time to read it. As you read, people you know pop into your consciousness, often yourself. I wish I could have read it years ago, it would have made everything so much easier...! The tools included for changing things are remarkable - such as describing the ANTs and how to feed your anteater. It realy, truly works!

The content of the book is very practical and easy to read, however the print is quite small and the paper is newsprint quality. Overall I would recommend the book due to it's helpful content.

This has got to be the most informative, helpful book I have ever read. I have personally experienced depression, and have seen others suffer from other disorders. It's amazing to see why we do what we do, and understand, especially with PMS, it's not who we really are. Its the chemistry and "faulty wiring" that makes us respond and react the way we do. The key is to know you have something going on and you search for the help. This book will help you see that, if you know someone or know yourself that there are problems. I also have a grandparent with Alzhiemers. I highly recommend this book.

This book shows you how behavior is explainable in a biological medical way by studying SECT scans of brain functioning. Dr Amen, gives informative advice to change your life and no longer feel that you are damaged or crazy. I give this book four stars mainly because much of the information is also covered in his other books and at times is repetitive. For a new reader of Dr. Amen's studies it is perfect. Anyone who thinks they may have any of the symptoms or has been diagnosed with any of the disorders discussed in this book would be very pleased with this and other books by Dr. Amen. It allows the reader to really understand the workings of their brain. It provides guidelines for self diagnosing problems in order change your own brain and be the best person you can be. You are the best person to diagnose your problems, because only you know how you really feel. This book is really easy to read and helpful with exercises, nutritional advice, and supplement advice as well. I recommend this and the other books by Dr. Amen if you or someone in your life is struggling with behavior problems.

Links the physical brain and the mind in a new and interesting way. Shows how specific mental disorders can be overcome. When psychology improves there are unique changes in the brain as shown by photographs using nuclear imaging techniques.

I don't know about 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. One can only imagine why people in the world are so screwed-up. Alcohol, drugs, depression, psychosis, bi-polar-mania, skizoid Freud. Will this book treat and cure us? Will this MD show us the way to faith and posterity? Drug freedom is merely a dream, doctors advocate drugs for anything and everything. Without drugs and changing your brain, will that change your life? Will that conquer anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, anger and impulsiveness? Perhaps, perhaps not. Enjoy what you have before you give it away or it is taken away from you.

I'm the author of the book KISSING FREUD, a facinating psycho comedy/drama, and the book DUBROVNIK, a thrilling spy/adventure story in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Both books are available here at amazon.com/books. Enjoy.

The substance of this book and many of the reviews of it remind me of own experience with a serious health problem I had when it reached a very critical state twenty years ago this time. I started treatment at the hospital and followed it at home(total parenteral nutrition)as a means of bringing the illness under control. Well, a few weeks after doing my own administration of this, I felt absolutely fantastic and in fact was eating even though I wasn't supposed to. When I later consulted the GI specialist, he didn't have an explanation for the "miracle" but his assistant did when he simply said "You have a good attitude".

In other words, anyone who is strongly motivated to do something positive enough about a problem DOES experience an improvement, though more often than not(as in my case)it's unfortunately temporary at best(in fact, again in my case the X ray evidence showed NO change at all so it had to have been the effect of endorphins kicking in following my taking the pro-active approach I did).

The OTHER problem with this book has to do with what I'd call the creation of false or mythical constructs which arises from Dr. Amen's classification of ADD/ADHD into six discernible "types." This reminds me of astrologers who attempt to link character traits with specific "rising signs". So when I hear that the reason I'm stubborn is because my sign is Taurus what does that say about a Capricorn or Leo who's also stubborn? My friends who subscribe to this are only to quick to "twist the facts" and respond that the others' "rising signs" are in Taurus in an attempt to "explain" away the stubborn trait.

One need to be very leery about those such as this author who are only to willing to provide answers to fit their own preconceived ideas about essentially complex or unproven phenomena.

Dr. Amen should have his medical license taken away. I spent $5,000 going to his clinic for supposedly severe ADHD, ingested a radioactive solution, performed mental agility tests, and then went under an MRI machine. The purpose was to show where my brain was deficient and take certain drugs to cure these deficiencies. Over the course of 3 years in San Francisco, I must have ingested 12 to 15 drugs to help me though none of them did.

Thank god I came back to NYC and saw a Columbia-trained psychiatrist who not only said that I was mis-diagnosed with ADHD but had anxiety which he immediately alleviated with Lexapro and ordered me to stop taking the other meds. He politely chuckled at the photos of my so called brain deficiencies and explained that the brain does not work that way. Also, he showed me numerous articles published in psychiatry journals and textbooks to support what he was saying.

Dr. Amen is a quack who scares desperate people with his book and treatments to make money. Sure, you read the book and say "yeah, that's me" or "I have that." It human nature to want to understand what your problem is and there is certain relief when you find certain symptoms that match yours. His book has these syptoms. If I could have given the book a zero especially in hindsight, I would have. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't have a zero rating.

I recommend That's How the Light Gets In: Memoir of a Psychiatrist by Susan Rako, M.D. The title comes from a song by Leonard Cohen: "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Rako's book is extraordinarily insightful, gracefully written, and an overall great read. The writing just flows.

I've read just about every book on cognitive psychology as it applies to the so-called healthy brain, and seeing that this book is number #1 in the subject of health on Amazon demands that the author make an appearance on Bill Maher or the Daily Show so the author can publicly be challenged by someone with commonsense and street smarts. If you need to read a book that explains that to lay off alcohol, tobacco, avoid pollution, get quality sleep, and reduce stress in order to optimize your mind and thinking, I'd have to question what's inside your skull besides air. The only difference this book has to promote its veracity is the unproven use of spect imaging to prove it is true. But do you need a super expensive diagnostic tool that no insurance company will pay for to get diagnosed to verify that you feel crappy? Here is another conspiracy of the experts to strike fear into the laity to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw. It also is a conspiracy of marketing. Just sign up for Dr. Amen's 'newsletter' and you'll get a daily helping of the latest findings in brain research that will tell you that putting 7 teaspoons of sugar in your morning coffee is not a salubrious habit.

Note that Dr. Amen now has three 'clinics' two in the highest per capita zip codes in California and now a new one in Reston, VA, one of the more affluent areas of No. Va., where life is pretty much recession proof with most of its inhabitants working for Beltway corporations or the feds and that possess the highest per capita counties and lowest employment rates of any region in the U.S. Is that a prime place to provide services for the cognitively challenged or is it prime real estate because you're assured an affluent clientele since insurance doesn't pay for such pseudo-science? These clinics are primarily to test which of the 6 forms of ADD you have (according to Amen). If you need inspirational stories about people with ADD who have 'made it' to make you feel good, you can just do a google search. Not spend your hard earned money on Dr. Amen's snake oil. Now, if you have ADD and such stories inspire you, let's face it, you ain't going to be one of the case studies. You can take Dr. Amen's test to detect if you have ADD and which of the six types of ADD. Now I took this test and discovered I was highly likely to have four of the six, and lo and behold the interventions for one type were counterindicated for another. So I guess if you score as I did, you can try killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, take the recommended nutrients for one type, and then throw up so as to disallow those same nutrients/diet from exacerbating the other type. Other revelatory things you'll learn--here and in updates: Playing football can cause brain injury. No kidding? So can boxing! What a revelation! This book is so paltry in anything of note that it could be condensed in a little brochure and published by your local Department of Health. Now I'm sure Dr. Amen is convinced he is providing a service for America. So, for example, if you're being shipped off to Iraq, follow Dr. Amen's advice, and don't get a concussion from a roadside explosive. If you drive on a highway don't get hit by an 18-wheeler. You know that you really want to, but Dr. Amen will show you the error of your ways.

Let's have some truth in advertising at least. Let's change the book's title from 'Change your Brain' to 'Get A Brain' and let's alter the second imperative that forms the tail end of the book's title, which is currently 'change your life' to 'change "my life"' meaning Amen's life so he can feed his ego. And if you take this stuff seriously without doing in-depth research on brain functioning, sorry, but I just can't say 'Amen.'

Kidding slightly aside, Amen has his metaphors all wrong. He advocates--besides a healthy diet and other obvious positive habits--to work out the brain. But the brain isn't a muscle. It's an organ, and what makes someone excel in most any endeavor is not the brain, it's the mind. The brain doesn't get 'stronger' by working out. There has never been any valid scientific study that has even suggested that it does. Such methods were tried about 50 years ago. They fell under the category of behaviorism. Do you know anyone with autism cured through training or anyone with Tourette's syndrome who has? Not even dyslexia is improved much by 'training.' What matters a lot more is encouragement and love, and with those two 'techniques', you can change just about anything. There may be methods like meditation and yoga to give you a more balanced disposition, but consider that people who engage in these practices are motivated to do so, which means a) they probably don't feel so good to begin with; and 2) the specific method of 'training' is not what is important. It's the fact that you have a motivation to change. Which, if you decide to read this book, is probably where you are in your life. So, if you need some hope, I guess this is as good a book as any to read in a couple of hours. But being more generous with hugs is a lot more effective.

As a clinical psychologist with 32 years of practice,I was amazed at the faulty science that Dr. Amen used to try to prove his theory. I will not go into great detail but I will attempt to make several points. Brain imaging studies have never shown any psychiatric pathologies. For example, several years ago, an NIMH researcher tried to show that there was a particular lesion in in the stratial area of the brains of almost all ADHD diagnosed boys. It later turned out that these children were all recieving stimulant drugs for an extended period of time. It is well known that those very drugs CAUSE those lesions in the stratial area of the brain. What Dr. Amen is selling in this book is "junk science" that even main steam psychiatry has rejected. His conclusions are not supported by science.

Dr. Amen states that depression is caused by a neurochemical deficit. First of all, there has never been a research study that has even come close to verifying this. Secondy, all human beings have felt depressed at some time in their lives. Does this mean that we all have a chemical imbalance? Feeling depressed usually is caused by the things that happen to us in our lives, and then the chemicals in our brains are modifed as a reaction to this. They don't cause it. Blaming the brain for everything that happens to us is not only simplistic but it removes the humanity from us in a reductionistic way so that we don't have any responsibility for our own lives or what happens to us.

Finally, Dr. Amen suggests that utilizing drugs stops bad behavior very efficiently. Well, if we proceed with this distorted logic, we should give everyone a chemical lobotomy. I would like to inform Dr. Amen that a bullet to the head would stop bad behavior even more efficiently than his drugs. If Dr. Amen were treating Einstein or Edison for their behavior I wonder if we would have ever heard of them.

This book should be more accurately titled: "Making Money With Pop-Psychiatry and Junk Science: The Diary of a Snake Oil Salesman"

Lloyd Ross, Ph.D., FACAPP.

I've read every book on ADD, cognitive psychology, and research report on the subject of a so-called healthy brain, and seeing that this book is number #1 on Amazon demands that the author make an appearance on Bill Maher or the Daily Show so the author can publicly be challenged by someone with commonsense and street smarts. If you need to read a book that explains that to lay off alcohol, tobacco, avoid pollution, get quality sleep, reduce stress in order to optimize your mind and thinking, you must be guilty of all these 'sins' to begin with and have a muddled head. The only difference this book has as its 'gimmick' is the unproven use of spect imaging to prove it is true. But do you need a super expensive diagnostic tool that no insurance company will pay for to get diagnosed to verify that you feel crappy? Here is another conspiracy of the experts to strike fear into the laity to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw. It also is a conspiracy of marketing. Just sign up for Dr. Amen's 'newsletter' and you'll get a daily helping of the latest findings in brain research that will tell you that putting 7 teaspoons of sugar in your morning coffee is not a salubrious habit.

Note that Dr. Amen now has three 'clinics' two in the highest per capita zip codes in California and now a new one in Reston, VA, one of the more affluent areas of No. Va., where life is pretty much recession proof with most of its inhabitants working for military related gov't contractors. If you need inspirational stories about people with ADD who have 'made it' to make you feel good, you can just do a google search. Not spend your hard earned money on Dr. Amen's snake oil. Now, if you have ADD and such stories inspire you, let's face it, you ain't going to be one of the case studies. You can take Dr. Amen's test to detect if you have ADD and which of the six types of ADD he claims exist. Now I took this test and discovered I was highly likely to have four of the six, and lo and behold the interventions for one type were counterindicated for another. So I guess if you score as I did, you can try killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, take the recommended nutrients for one type, and then throw up so as to disallow those same nutrients/diet from exacerbating the other type. Other revelatory things you'll learn--here and in updates: Playing football can cause brain injury. No kidding? So can boxing! What a revelation! Now I'm sure Dr. Amen is convinced he is providing a service for America. So, for example, if you're being shipped off to Iraq, follow Dr. Amen's advice, and don't get a concussion from a roadside explosive. If you drive on a highway don't get hit by an 18-wheeler. You know that you really want to, but Dr. Amen will show you the error of your ways.

Let's have some truth in advertising at least. Let's change the book's title from 'Change your Brain' to 'Get A Brain' and let's alter the second imperative that forms the tail end of the book's title, which is currently 'change your life' to 'change "my life"' meaning Amen's life so he can feed his ego. And if you take this stuff seriously without doing in-depth research on brain functioning, sorry, but I just can't say 'Amen.'

I read this book, grabbed a hacksaw and a some salad tongs and, believe you me, my life HAS changed!

Absolutely fantastic and engaging. The most important thing this book has to offer is hope and I am for any and all books which offer realistic hope. I have suffered through a lot in my life and have overcome nearly as much, but book after book left me wanting. This book did not. It delivered. I have always needed improvement for my brain - I have ADD, suffered from PTSD and Depression.

Bryan

I am the author of:

One Boy's Struggle: A Memoir: Surviving Life with Undiagnosed ADD

The scans in this book are frightening! You get a close and uncomfortable look at the brain of people who have Depression, Anxiety, ADD, OCD or are just filled with anger.

Dr. Amen's intent behind these scans is not to scare you but to map out the brain for readers. He shows how different parts of the brain work when healthy and what happens to those parts when they malfunction. Before and after scans graphically show that with the right treatment people can heal themselves...and that's the positive message of this book. We can take ownership of our mental health and find ways to restore health.

In the end the images actually inspire you to create meaningful changes in your life.

A great book from anyone going through a Mood Disorder or Learning Disability. I also recommend "Nexus: A Neo Novel" an inspiring story of Logan Andrews struggle with anxiety and depression.

This book may save my relationship with my boyfriend and our joint-owned business. My boyfriend has been sleeping 10-14 hours a night, is very distracted, has poor short-term memory, and a host of other bothersome symptoms/behaviors. I have nagged, cajoled, mothered, anything I could think of to get him motivated to get out of bed and go to work. Thanks to this book I now know he has ADD. He went to a psychiatrist and has been prescribed Adderall XR and Wellbutrin XL. It has only been a few days but I already see a difference.

This book breaks down the brain into its main functional areas and describes what can happen when one of those areas isn't working properly; and offers treatment options across the spectrum for each condition. It's very informative and easy to understand. I highly recommend it to anyone baffled by a loved one's (or their own) behavior.

"Please sit on the couch. How was your childhood? What was your relationship like with your mother growing up? I want you to try some breathing exercises and start setting boundaries for yourself. Come back in two weeks and we'll evaluate whether the medicine is helping or making things worse."

This line of questioning and advice would only go so far to treat kidney stones. But it's acceptable to treat emotional and behavioral problems by tapping into memories and childhood phobias without even considering the physical health of one's brain?

Amen does not throw the baby out with the bathwater though. He praises the benefit of talk and behavioral therapies. But he seeks to make a clear diagnosis before jumping into treatment. He views the brain as a physical component of the body which is prone to injury, infection and malfunction much as any other bodily organ. And he points out that similar symptoms of an illness like depression in patients may actually have separate root causes and need different treatments to be successful.

Proper diagnosis means that your doctor can quit guessing about what's the best medicine, dosage and/or course of therapy for you. There are several patient stories in the book that give hope that proper diagnosis and treatment can bring about positive brain function.

If you're suffering and playing the loop in your head, "Why can't I just feel normal?" Or if you wonder why a loved one can't just snap out of it, this book offers a unique perspective.

Dr. Amen's book is a classic. He helps us to understand the way in which the body and mind are interconnected. As a long time sufferer of anxiety his book and FREE YOUR MIND by Anthony Stultz, helped me to lead a new life free from neurotic worry.

This is the most important book I have ever read. I feel that if everyone read this book the world would be a much better place. I feel Dr. Amen is a very talented insightful man. I will recommend this book to everyone that will listen. I am even buying another one to share with others !!!!

If you just read the book, it is easy to get hipped up and excited about all the stuff this guy says. A word of caution, do your homework before you spend your good hard earned money. A doctor where I live, giving a two year, indepth study of the brain course, heard about Amen from a pamphlet someone in the class had found and shown him. His interest was peaked and on the surface it looked promising. He recommended giving the clinic a call. He had not done any homework on him or it yet.

I have nor the time or patience to spend detailing this persons experience but to say, number 1 - if you haven't studied the recent information and studies by the leading hospitals in the country, it is hard to know better. SPECT scans are not even being used in current studies anymore, they are becoming antiquated, rather PET Scans and Amen is marketing his business, that is what it is, on theory and SPECT Scans. Just go to his website and you will see he is raking in big bucks public speaking, writing books, promoting his wonder theories and tests. Then call one of the clinics and talk to the people there. It didn't take 2 minutes to figure out what they are up to. I even called back a second time to give them another chance and they failed miserably. After that, talk to people who have been there and spent 3,000.00 on a Spect scan (which you must do first before you can see anyone and get any help) that is basically useless and ask them how they are doing, what they were told and what the think and know about this. {NONE OF THIS IS COVERED BY INSURANCE, another warning flag}

You owe it to yourself to spend your time, online, researching all this and it takes a lot of time and a lot of study. The majority of people who go there are sick and in need of help and even desprite for help and he prays on that. They have not done their homework or research and after they spend all the big money upfront to even get to see a therapist, it's too late. Oh, and when you call, don't forget to ask about the therapists and who you actually get to talk to, more insight. Or you can spend your money and go there and you might even get lucky and get some kind of help that you could have gotten in your own backyard without a SPect Scan and spending all that money. Nuff said.

I was very disappointed to see a book which appeared to have gotten wet a one point in time and later dried. The condition of the book is poor at best.


a very disappointed customer.

After reading this book, I tried some of the prescriptions which seemed to fit me. They do work if you are serious about doing them. Reading this book has made a difference in my emotional health.

There is precious little solid science here. Amen would seem to be suffering from "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" -- a term coined by Prof. Stephen J. Morse -- where people read much more into brain imaging than is warrented, simply because they have, well...have impressive images to show their clients.

Actually, it would appear impossible to say much about the behavior of any particular individual based on brain imaging, because the research to date has shown there to be substantial overlap in the results between controls and experimental subjects. Diagnosing by imaging at this point may have more to do with reading tea leaves than it does with science.

I admire Dr. Amen's ability to explain the complex interworkings and relationships between different parts of the brain. I also appreciate his ability to relate these concepts to practical everyday problems and common psychological pathologies such as anxiety, ADD and depression. He even talks about some case study information on relationship dynamics.

While Amen is a controversial figure in some ways, he still has much to stay about keeping your brain healthy and he has the credentials and clinical experience to go along with fact that he has scanned more brains than anyone else. This does not make him infallible, but it certainly makes him an important player in pushing the frontiers of knowledge forward. On the other hand, he seems to have a bias toward SPECT scans that is not fully warranted based on other scientist and clinician's work. It's difficult to reduce the functioning of the brain to an in the moment scan or even multiple scans over time.

Suprisingly, this book is very readable for the average layman and equally fascinating. It has a number of quizzes and checklists for determining the strength of functioning of various areas of the brain and useful supplement suggestions. While this book is about 10 years old, it certainly contains lots of useful information. If you want an updated version of this, then I recommend his other book Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance. This book is aimed less at pathology and more about what you can do to improve and take care of your brain in general. While not brain specific, Andrew Weil's book Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being is a nice compliment to both of these books and focuses on the health of the entire body.

I have found this book to be a great resource for me as a neurofeedback clinician, both for my own use and my clients'. It's easy to read, has lots of SPECT images to reference, and provides helpful checklists for various behaviors associated with problems in different brain regions. Dr. Amen is a rarity in the psychiatric profession in that he's open to looking outside the box and being open to various treatment methods beyond simply writing prescriptions. While he does discuss the benefits of medication a lot in this book, he also mentions neurofeedback training several times as well and provides many cognitive behavioral techniques to aid with various issues.

Most books on this subject are very dry and clinical. Daniel Amen inserts some humor into this very serious subject. I have read articles about Daniel Amen saying he is a quack simply because other professionals have not adopted his mantra that mental health issues are caused by physical problems in the brain. Change Your Brain Change Your Life identifies the component parts of the brain and maladies caused by overactive or under active functioning of the component parts. Dr. Amen prescribes remedies from diet changes to cognitive therapy to psychotropic drug therapy in an informative, thought provoking, easy to read format. This book is an enlightening account of the brain and its functions.

This is among my top 5 most recommended books of all time!! Readable, simple and comprehensive..I have devoured it several times over. I have a better sense of self-awareness and can pro-actively work *with* my doctors instead of feeling like a guinea pig. Many options beside meds are listed including nutritional and interpersonal relationship skills. I am learning how to support others without taking on thier problems. I am so glad I found this book!

The studies of the brainwaves are interesting, but if you are looking for a solution to mental illness, all this man offers is more drugs.

Dr. Amen's book is a superb resource filled with exceptional information, tools, and techniques for personal and professional transformation.

The 21st century world we live in is extremely stressful: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits are stressed to the extreme on a daily basis by an increasingly toxic environment. Ironically, because of the human nervous system's remarkable capacity to adapt, when you experience significant continuing stress you become acclimated to the point where living in stress is felt as 'normal'. But 'normal' doesn't necessarily mean 'natural'. As a result, millions of people are quite unaware of just how deeply stressed they are until it's too late and they lapse into serious mental or physical illness. Many others aware of their high stress level, simply endure their situation with quiet desperation or, worse, self-medicate with short term solutions such as drugs, alcohol, junk food, etc., that have long term negative effects.

If only folks knew there are simple things one can do to change and enjoy their life a great deal more.

Enter 'Change Your Brain, Change Your Life'. It is filled with fascinating and easy to understand information about biochemistry, neuroanatomy, nutrition, supplementation, and rapid cognitive-behavioral (RCBT) mental rescripting techniques to help you along in your journey to greater health and well-being.

As a professional life and business coach, I recommend this title to all of my clients, and I recommend it to you wholeheartedly.

Dr. Amen's book, 'Healing The Hardware Of the Soul' is also highly recommended for those with a more spiritual inclination.

Happy reading!

I read change your brain change your life 5 years ago, then took my 16 year old daughter with depression to the clinic a couple of years later. She had been on medication after medication and nothing was working. I read this book and it all started making sense: How do you know unless you look? When I brought my daugther into the clinic she had a very thorough evaluation and the doctor weened her off her meds and started her on supplements. Now my beautiful 18 year old little girl is not on meds and is the happiest teenager I know. Thank you Dr. Amen for writing Change Your Brain Change Your Life. You saved my little girl and my family

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life was the most facinating and liberating book I have ever read. It really gave me insight to my real problems and assured me that I can change. I would reccommend this book to ANYONE!!!

Not just for people with those conditions listed on the cover. It has helped me interact with everybody better. The book helped me to recognize people's strengths and weakness that may or may not be related to brain injuries but more realted to Dr. Amen's physciatric practice and expereince. I played soccer for 12 years I now I'm wondering if my brain has been affected in a negative way from the ball hitting my head so hard. Though it is just a possibility this book gives me some tools to recognize that possibility and take steps on my own to adjust my behavior to work with my own brain misgivings.