“Drip Dopamine, Don’t Dump It”: Dr. Daniel Amen on the Neuroscience of Lasting Brain Health

Your brain is the most expensive real estate in your body. Brain health, not your mindset, is the root of mental well-being. Here’s what’s damaging it and how to start healing it. “Love What Loves You Back”: Dr. Daniel Amen on the Real Science of Feeling Good From dopamine traps to trauma rewiring, why brain health—not positive thinking—is the missing piece in your happiness puzzle What if your anxiety, brain fog, or low mood isn’t a mental illness—but a brain health issue you’ve never been taught how to fix? In his third appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose  podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen—psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and founder of the Amen Clinics—offers a deeply practical framework for feeling better. Forget mindset hacks. This is about your actual brain: what feeds it, what breaks it, and how to finally feel like yourself again. With over 200,000 brain scans under his belt, Amen’s message is clear: most of us are unknowingly sabotaging our brains daily through diet, dopamine addiction, trauma, or lack of movement. And we’re trying to fix it all with quick fixes and affirmations, while neglecting the organ that makes every thought, feeling, and decision possible. “If your brain’s not right, your mind’s not right. That’s the truth. And we can change that.” —Dr. Daniel Amen FACT: Low Brain Blood Flow = High Alzheimer’s Risk 🧠 Boost Blood Flow = Boost Brain 📌 Sitting is the new smoking—pick up a racket. Racquet sports beat running for longevity. Your brain thrives on circulation. Inactivity starves it. Brain scans show low blood flow is the top predictor of Alzheimer’s. Aerobic sports like pickleball or ping pong improve oxygen flow and extend life. “People who play racquet sports live the longest,” Amen says. “More than runners, more than walkers.” FACT: TBIs Are a Hidden Cause of Depression & Addiction 🚨 Protect Your Head at All Costs 📌 Ditch headers, wear helmets, revisit past injuries—your brain remembers every hit. Mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) from childhood, sports, or falls often go unrecognized—but the brain doesn’t forget. “From ADHD to homelessness, we’re seeing the aftermath of undiagnosed TBIs,” says Amen. Physical damage can manifest emotionally decades later. FACT: Dopamine Overload Wrecks Joy Centers 🔁 Drip, Don’t Dump 📌 Swap fries & binge shows for sunlight, movement, and micro-joy moments. Quick hits—junk food, alcohol, porn, viral posts—spike dopamine. Over time, they wear out your brain’s pleasure centers. “You want to drip dopamine,” says Amen, “not dump it.” Instead, look for micro-moments of joy: a hummingbird, a handhold, a walk outside. FACT: Half of People on Antidepressants May Not Need Them 💊 It’s Brain Health, Not Mental Illness 📌 Before meds, fix sleep, food, trauma, and daily habits. Start there. Antidepressant use has skyrocketed, but Amen says many of these issues are physiological, not psychological. “The pharmaceutical industry is winning,” he warns. “But healing starts with the basics—movement, nutrition, trauma healing—not a pill.” FACT: Food Fuels or Fractures Brain Health 🍽️ Eat for Energy, Not Escape 📌 Choose blueberries, saffron, avocados—ditch sugar that crashes your mood. Every bite changes your brain. Foods like frozen blueberries and saffron enhance mood and memory; refined sugar and processed carbs spike and crash your energy. “You’re not cheating on your diet—you’re cheating your brain,” Amen says. “Love food that loves you back.” FACT: 4+ ACEs = 1200% Higher Suicide Risk 🧠 Heal It, Don’t Repeat It 📌 Take the ACE test, try EMDR—trauma is trackable and treatable. Trauma literally reshapes the brain. The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score links early pain to later depression, addiction, and disease. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one of the fastest, most effective ways to process it. “You don’t have to live controlled by an 8-year-old’s pain.” FACT: One-Size Happiness Doesn’t Fit All 🧩 Know Your Brain Type 📌 Diagnose your type—customize food, supplements, and routines to match. Amen’s research shows we each have a brain type—Balanced, Spontaneous, Persistent, Sensitive, or Cautious—that shapes how we respond to diets, habits, and even supplements. “What works for your partner could wreck you. One-size-fits-all happiness is a myth. I want to feel good now and  later. That’s not hedonism. That’s strategy.” —Dr. Daniel Amen The takeaway? You’re not broken. You just need to treat your brain like the command center it is. And once you do, every thought, feeling, and habit you’re trying to fix will start falling into place—for good.