#daniel amen

I was listening to one of my favorite podcast guests, Dr. Daniel Amen. He was telling a story about taking his son to a Sea World type park. This story has impacted how I parent and I want to share it here so that I always remember it, but also that it might help inspire others. Dr. Amen took his son to the aquatic park where they enjoyed sea lions and dolphins, and his son asked to see the…

AO3 Warnings: nonfiction, theoretical medicine.

I understand that books written by scientists are held to a different standard. But this book was a little rough.

Dr. Amen's premise is that mental illness is a side-effect of damage to and disease in the brain, that many of us are living with low-functioning brains, and that we can fix it even without knowing which issues are by following his plan.

Unfortunately, his plan is not particularly well-presented. After getting you on board with his idea of brain imaging and mental health risk factors, he writes a chapter for each risk factor — eleven, total. However, his book is written in a way that seems like it should be for kids — there's an evil king trying to steal your mental health and a good king trying to save it — and for advanced readers — he doesn't explain some medical terminology and concepts that adult readers may not understand. He also has numerous appeals to emotion; while I understand starting each chapter off with a story to explain what can happen if you fix this particular issue, the chapters inevitably end by saving his nieces, who he names. It feels kind of gross to be so blatantly exploiting their story when they're still teenagers.

However, the real problem with this book is the readability. Not only does it not explain important things, it also doesn't lay out how to fix or mitigate certain issues in a sensical manner. Much of the chapter was anecdotes about patients, with very little devoted to why that particular topic was a risk factor and what could be done. On the other hand, each chapter had two or three different ways to explain what could be done, though not in any straightforward manner.

Then there was the fact that many chapters referenced issues with other chapters. I recognize that with health, issues overlap (sleep issues can cause obesity, obesity can slow blood flow, low blood flow can cause low immunity, and so on), but it doubled back over certain topics so many times that I couldn't tell whether we were still on the same risk factor anymore.

The book was hard to get through and hard to retain because so much of it was unhelpful drivel. The concepts are interesting and helpful to apply, but the editors and reviewers should have been more judicious with what they allowed out the door.

How to Beat Burnout

Burnout appears in many different ways. It encompasses everything from physical exhaustion to deep cynicism to escape into sin. Now, you may be asking yourself why I’m addressing burnout on a blog about small groups and discipleship. Some of you are burning yourselves out, and it’s completely unnecessary. Here are some ways to beat burnout: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Start with Your…