The Brain in Love: 12 Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life by Daniel G. Amen Read Free Book Online Page B

complains for feeling bad a lot (headaches, stomachaches).
He won’t deal with conflict.
She won’t deal with problems head on.
BASAL GANGLIA (BG) SUMMARY
(the anxiety center)
BG Functions   
Excessive BG Activity Problems   
Integrates feeling,  
Anxiety/panic  
thoughts and  
Hypervigilance  
movement  
Muscle tension  
Sets body’s idle  
Conflict avoidance  
Smooths movement  
Prediction of the worst  
Modulates motivation  
Excessive fear of being judged by  
Mediates pleasure  
others  
   
Tendency to freeze in anxiety  
   
situations  
   
Shyness or timidity  
   
Tendency to bite fingernails or  
   
pick skin  
   
Excessive motivation  
   
(can’t stop working)  
   
Low BG Activity Problems   
   
Low motivation  
   
Attentional problems  
   
Excitement seeking  
   
Tremor/movement problems  
    D IAGNOSTIC P ROBLEMS A SSOCIATED WITH E XCESSIVE BG A CTIVITY
Anxiety disorders  
Workaholism  
Physical stress symptoms,  
Insecurity  
such as headaches,  
stomachaches  
    D IAGNOSTIC P ROBLEMS A SSOCIATED WITH L OW BG A CTIVITY
Movement disorders  
Attention deficit disorder (ADD)  
Low motivation  
    W AYS TO C ALM H IGH BG A CTIVITY
Body biofeedback  
Cognitive therapy to kill the bad  
   
thoughts  
Hypnosis, meditation  
Relaxation training  
Relaxing music  
Assertiveness training  
Limited caffeine/alcohol  
    High BG supplements , such as GABA or valerian root
    High BG medications (if appropriate), antianxiety meds such as benzodiazepines (low dose, short time), Buspar, antidepressant meds, anticonvulsants, blood pressure meds such as propranolol
    W AYS TO S TIMULATE L OW BG A CTIVITY
Intense aerobic exercise  
Stimulating, exciting behaviors  
Stimulating music  
Low BG supplements, to boost dopamine, such as L-tyrosine
Low BG medications (if appropriate), stimulants such as Adderall or Concerta
    Temporal Lobes (TLs)—Memories and Moods
    The temporal lobes, underneath your temples and behind your eyes, are involved with language (hearing and reading), reading social cues, short-term memory, getting memories into long-term storage, processing music, tone of voice, and mood stability. They also help with recognizing objects by sight and naming them. Called the “What Pathway” in the brain, it is involved with recognition and naming objects and faces. In addition, the temporal lobes, especially on the right side, have been implicated in spiritual experience and insight. Experiments that stimulate the right temporal lobe have demonstrated increased religious or spiritual experiences, such as feeling God’s presence. Orgasms have been found to activate this part of the brain as well.
    The hippocampus, situated on the inside aspect of the temporal lobes, encodes new information and stores it for up to several weeks. When these areas are damaged, you can neither store new experiences nor retrieve experiences learned within the past several weeks. The hippocampus is one of the first areas damaged by Alzheimer’s disease.
    In front of the hippocampus on the inside of the temporal lobe is an almond-shaped structure called the amygdala. The amygdala coordinates your emotional responses. Strong emotions can improve the encoding process of hippocampal neurons and make it easier to retrieve the experience. This is useful because it allows you to more easily remember events that were “emotionally stimulating,” such as being mugged, having good sex, or recalling a fascinating fact you recently heard. I remember a taxi ride in 2005 from Manhattan to JFK airport like it was yesterday. I even remember the cab number, 4118. The cab driver had on very irritating music, talked loudly on his cell phone, paid little attention to the road, and nearly got us into two accidents. My emotional response to this terrible ride to the airport got his cab number stuck in my head. By emphasizing