Low Moods, Dark Thoughts? Why Your Brain Needs More Than a Pill

Change Your Brain Every Day

Dr Daniel Amen

Braintrauma, Healthtips, Sleep, Obesity, Anxiety, Braininjury, Depression, Ptsd, Mentalhealth, Mood, Brainhealth, Health & Fitness, Energy, Disease, Addiction, Mental Health, Healthadvice, Adhd, Memory, Focus

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Feeling stuck in low moods, negativity, or the never-ending “blahs”? It’s not just in your head—it’s in your brain. Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen expose the hidden biological, psychological, social, and spiritual mood stealers that quietly hijack your happiness. Tana opens up about how a cancer diagnosis—and the wrong antidepressant—sent her spiraling into darkness, and the life-saving strategies that helped her fight her way back. Plus, find out how an everyday spice—saffron—could work as well as antidepressant medication, backed by decades of research.

00:00 Intro

00:57 Mood is a Brain Function

02:45 Your Physical Brain Function Affects Your Mood

05:48 The Physical Causes of Mood Disorders

09:00 Taking the Wrong Medication

11:50 Psychological/Social/Spiritual Factors

13:46 Mood Robbers

17:49 Sponsor

18:30 Mood Enhancing Fakers

24:53 Saffron

31:53 TMG/SAMe

35:16 Wrap Up

https://brainmd.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	So it started when I was 23 and I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
0:04.0	And treatment for thyroid cancer back then is different than it is now.
0:07.0	But I went through two surgeries, two radioactive iodine treatments,
0:11.0	and they took me off of all my thyroid medication back then.
0:14.0	That's what they did in order to give you the testing and the treatments that you needed.
0:18.0	And that eight weeks of being off my thyroid medication,
0:21.6	no one explained to me that, oh, I wouldn't die,
0:24.6	but I'd wish I was dead.
0:25.6	So no one told me that part.
0:27.6	They didn't tell me that I was going to have no energy.
0:30.6	I would be, I could get really depressed.
0:33.6	It was really awful.
0:34.6	I couldn't climb out of my own skin. It's not like anything you can explain, and it's just the darkest place you can be.
0:45.3	Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day.
0:57.5	Welcome to the Change Your Brain Every Day podcast. Today we're going to talk about the war for
1:04.7	your mood. And mood matters. What steals your mood, what fakes your mood up, but then brings you down on how to truly fix it.
1:18.7	I know a lot about this topic. So very excited to talk about it and share.
1:24.3	So your mood isn't just a feeling. It's a brain function. And when your brain works
1:29.9	right, you work right. And when it doesn't, your emotions can spiral. And so many people are
1:38.9	struggling when they don't have to. And there's like a whole list of mood disorders
1:47.0	from major depression to dyshthymia,
1:51.0	which is sort of like a chronic, low level sadness,
	...

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