Quote · The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
The No.1 Brain Doctor: "This Parenting Mistake Ruins Your Kids Brain!", "Alcohol or Marijuana Will Destroy Your Brain!", "A Stagnant Career Can Increase Your Chance Of Alzheimers!" - Dr Daniel Amen
Where this was said
Is ADHD Increasing in Our Population?
At 1:35:45 · chapter starts 1:35:01
If Dr. Amen could change one thing about the world, it would not be a policy or a drug approval. It would be a question: whatever I'm doing right now, is it good for my brain or bad for it? Asked honestly and consistently, this question reframes every decision — what to eat, whether to drink, how to parent, what to watch, who to spend time with — through the lens of the organ that controls everything. He imagines a 15-year-old with this question in their mind: knowing their frontal lobes aren't finished until 25, they'd be less likely to pour poison into a brain that's still being built. At 60, stressed about their football team, they'd reach for something other than a beer. The question is aspirational rather than punitive, rooted in love for the brain rather than fear of damage. Amen believes this is his life's purpose: to shift the global conversation from reactive psychiatric treatment toward proactive brain stewardship.
New love floods the brain with dopamine, making breakups feel like coming off cocaine — painful but manageable. Lasting love is opiate-driven; losing it is neurologically similar to heroin withdrawal. This is why grief after a long relationship can feel physically unbearable.
ADHD is real and has a strong genetic component, but society's digital habits promote its expression. The side effects of not treating it — school failure, incarceration, bankruptcy, divorce — are far worse than the side effects of medication. Dr. Amen's own daughter went from Bs and Cs with enormous effort to straight As after a tiny dose of Ritalin normalized her brain scan.
