Posts by Dr. Mike Brooks

18 Aug 2010 Some Cautions Regarding Herbal Supplements No Comments

I’ve blogged about the use of herbal supplements previously. In a nutshell, there are some out there that truly do have health benefits, but it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Since herbal supplements & vitamins are not regulated by the FDA, the manufacturers’ claims don’t have to be substantiated by rigourous research. So, there’s a lot of “snake oil” out there. Not only do many people waste their money on costly and unnecessary supplements, some of these can actually cause serious health problems.

CNN posted an article written by the Mayo Clinic entitled “Herbal Supplements: What You Need to Know Before You Buy” that is a must-read. Also, Consumer Reports magazine published a cover story article in the September 2010 issue entitled “The 12 Most Dangerous Supplements,” and their list includes the following 12: aconite, bitter orange, chaparral, colloidal silver, coltsfoot, comfrey, country mallow, germanium, greater celandine, kava, lobelia, and yohimbe. You can read their article for greater detail, but avoid these 12 supplements!

Alarmingly, Consumer Reports also printed an article in their July 2010 issue in which they presented their findings that many popular protein supplement drinks contained contaminants that have toxic effects on the body. These contaminants include mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Yikes! I think I’ll get my protein from other sources, thank you!

A very fascinating documentary entitled Bigger, Stronger, Faster, which takes an honest but critical look at steroid and performance-enhancing drug use in America, depicts how easy it is to create and distribute supplements while making false claims about them (even showing how sellers can manipulate/doctor  ”before & after” images to portray “gains” made).

With supplements, the old adage that “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” really seems to hold true. I think we often waste our time, effort, and money trying to find shortcuts that will give us an edge in life. For the most part, I think we are better off focusing on the basics – eat a healthy, balanced diet, get plenty of sleep and exercise, and put time & effort toward developing and maintaining strong social relationships. True happiness won’t come in the form of a supplement. In fact, more harm than good can come from using them indiscriminately.

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Posted in Happiness & Well-Being

8 Aug 2010 “You Are Not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier (book recommendation) No Comments

Jaron Lanier is a pioneer in the computer field…a true trailblazer. For instance, he helped to create and popularize the field of virtual reality. He is also a renaissance man to boot, as he is accomplished in diverse fields such as mathematics and music. He is an absolute Genius, and I’m capitalizing the word because he deserves it.

I don’t think it exactly counts as an irony (too many people use that word inappropriately - yes, I’m talking to you, Ms. Morissette), but I listened to the unabridged audiobook version of You Are Not a Gadget on my iPod. DOH! Still, the reader was excellent, and I found myself highly engaged in this book. Be warned – it is fairly dense and, like me, you’ll probably read/listen to this and bemoan to yourself, “Oh how I wish that I was as smart as this guy!”

Undoubtedly, the line between us and technology is blurring…as I blog about this, ahem. In this “manifesto,” Lanier, who clearly loves technology overall, expresses concern over “Web 2.0,” or at least how some enthusiasts (or technologists) view it as inherently good. Web 2.0, in brief, includes more recent technologies such as social media/networking, user created content, information sharing, and so on. It is the difference between Encyclopedia Brittanica Online and Wikipedia.

Lanier presents compelling arguments as to why we should be careful about where Web 2.0 is taking us (or we are taking ourselves with it?). Despite his many protestations and caveats, I did get the sense that Lanier has a tinge of that common phenomenon in which the older generation views the newer generation as…I dunno…inferior. “Back in my day, we used dial-up to get onto the Internet, and it would take us 20 minutes to send an email…and WE LIKED IT!!”

Okay, I’m jesting a bit (my apologies, Jaron!). Lanier understands that people may have perceptions that he is glorifying the past and diminishing aspects of current/emerging technologies. Nonetheless, the fact remains that most of his arguments still have great merit. There are dangers woven into the technologies that we are using.

For instance, I hate to admit this, but I fear my attention span has diminished because of my iPod, iPhone, the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, email, texting, gaming, and so on. Maybe having 2 young kids partly contributes to this drop, but I believe that technology has crept into my life (and the lives of billions of others) and is at least partly to blame.

As I’ve written before, technology isn’t good or bad, it just is. However, unless we are careful…unless we truly step back from technology and ask what whether it is enhancing or diminishing our lives…there is a very real danger that it can make our lives worse and not better. We don’t want to lose the qualities that make us most “human” as we lose ourselves in the technologies that we have created to enhance our lives. Indeed, we are not gadgets, and Lanier is trying to make damn sure that we don’t lose track of this fact as we keep forging ahead at a breakneck pace. I say this as I finish my blog at 12:10 AM on Sunday morning. Hey, I guess this is ironic.

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Posted in Book & Media Recommendations, Cyberpsychology - Book & Media Recs, Cyberpsychology - Technology and You

1 Aug 2010 Laughter is Good For Us, But Best If Shared No Comments

Research has shown that laughter reduces the levels of stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine, increases the levels of beneficial hormones such as endorphins, can break up negative cycles of thinking, broaden our perspective, and enhance social connectedness. In fact, much of laughter’s benefits might come through (or be significantly enhanced by) the improved social connections that it facilitates.

To that end, I’m posting a YouTube video that a good friend of mine sent me. This well-done video is of a young lady who has never seen the Star Wars films but is trying to retell the story as best she can. Her friend provides some great visuals to go along with her “retelling” of the saga. It should give you a good laugh – especially if you have seen the films or are a fan. In a way, she does a surprisingly good job of retelling the story for someone who has never seen the films – that shows how much Star Wars as permeated our culture!

And it is done in a playful manner and is not mean-spirited. I think we must be wary of humor that is at others’ expense. Fortunately, this video comes from a pure place…the young lady seems to have a good time trying to tell the story, and we can all laugh guilt-free.

So, enjoy this video but try experiencing it with others. Like me, you’ve probably been with a group of people before and know how much fun it can be to share videos and the laughs together. I’m a firm believer that positive social connections are one of the primary keys to happiness in life. In fact, I’m going to watch this video again right now with my wife because she hasn’t seen it yet!

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Posted in Happiness & Well-Being, Negative Moods & Emotions, Relationships

17 Jul 2010 Revisiting the “The Catcher in the Rye” No Comments

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is one of my favorite books of all time.  I read it my junior year of high school and loved it immediately, which I can’t say for many of the other books which I was required to read (yes, I’m talking to you Silas Marner).

If you haven’t read it already, in brief, the book follows the teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield over the course of several days after he got kicked out of a prep school just before Christmas vacation. One of the reasons that I liked the book so much as a teen was because I could really identify with all of the “phoniness” that Holden could see in the world. He viewed people as shallow, fake, and depressing…he was very disenchanted with the world. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was a fairly happy teen and didn’t share Holden’s extreme cynicism about people and the world in general. Still, I could see where he was coming from and felt like I could relate to him. I was the same age as Holden when I read the book – 17.

Knowing that The Catcher in the Rye was one of my favorite books, I thought it curious that I had only read it once…over 20 years ago. So, I ran across it on my book shelf and decided to read it again…with a different set of eyes.

You know how sometimes you reminisce about when you were younger and would wistfully think, “Times were so much simpler then” ? Well, it struck me that just about everyone does that and, it is not necessarily that life was simpler then, it was that we were simpler then. I mean, the brains of kids and teens are not as complex as those of adults…who have many more years of life experience and growth to interpret world events, make connections, inferences, deductions, and so on. Plus, our brains aren’t fully developed until about 25, so we literally were “simpler” when we were young. So, as adults, we naturally view life with greater complexity than most kids & teens. This isn’t always a good thing, in my opinion. There are plenty of adults who get jaded by cynicism over the years and would really benefit from looking at life from a fresh perspective…through the eyes of a child.

Back to Catcher in the Rye – Here’s what surprised me most about my reread of the book. As a teen, I could (at last partially) identify with Holden’s cynicism of the world. After all, it is pretty easy to look around and find plenty of things to be cynical about! But at my second read, I was surprised to find I had a much different perspective – perhaps because I’m an adult and, I’m sure to some extent, because I’m a psychologist. Upon my reread, I didn’t view Holden as a cynic who is disillusioned by the phoniness in the world. Instead, I think he was suffering from depression. He talked about feeling sad, lonely, isolated, and several times wished he were dead. What seems so clear to me now is that Holden was depressed because his beloved younger brother, Allie, had died of leukemia a couple years prior to the events in the book. Somehow, as a teen when I read the book, I didn’t not make this connection (or perhaps I had and then totally forgotten about it. I don’t know which is worse that I never made the connection to begin with or I had totally forgotten about it!).

When I reread The Catcher in the Rye, I felt tremendously sad for Holden. The way he described his brother, his reactions to his death, his bittersweet memories of him…I can’t imagine the level of pain he was experiencing during this time in his life – not to mention how his whole family must have been devastated. I just wanted to relieve Holden’s suffering – to make him feel better.

It is kinda funny. Just as Holden wanted to be a “catcher in the rye” – to prevent  children from falling off a metaphorical cliff, losing their innocence into the evils of adulthood – I lost my more simplistic, perhaps more innocent, interpretation of The Catcher in the Rye as I read it through my adult eyes. And you know what? It is still one of my favorite books.

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Posted in Book & Media Recommendations, Happiness & Well-Being, Happiness & Well-Being - Book & Media Recs, Negative Moods & Emotions

7 Jul 2010 The Aftermath of Discipline on DadLabs 2 Comments

I recently was one of two psychologists interviewed for a segment on Dad Labs regarding how, as a parent, you should interact with your child after he/she has been given a consequence for misbehavior. As parents, we have to deal with the aftermath of discipline all the time, so this is some helpful information that any parent can use.

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Posted in Parenting

24 Jun 2010 Pot Smoking Increases the Symptoms of Schizophrenia No Comments

I recently ran into this article on MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37779968/ns/health-addictions/

I know pot smoking is quite common…particularly in Austin! Now, I’m a believer that things in life are mainly in shades of grey – there are very few things in this world that are black or white. With regard to drug use, there many people out there who fall at one extreme or the other when it comes to pot use: either it is inherently bad or it is inherently harmless (or even beneficial). I’ve personally heard many people extol the virtues of pot and downplay any possible side effects. As described in the MSNBC article, these researchers from the Netherlands found that people with schizophrenia seem to be especially sensitive to both the positive and negative effects of cannabis use. In fact, for persons with schizophrenia, cannabis use tended to increase the symptoms (e.g., hallucinations) rather than alleviating them (as many users believe).

My personal belief is that people must be very cautious about taking any drugs, and mood-altering drugs are no exception. Such drugs, including marijuana, have an effect because they affect the circuitry of the brain. While mood-altering drugs may not always lead to harmful consequences, if one already has a predisposition to fragile circuitry in the brain (e.g., bipolar disorder, schizophrenia), then there is a danger that mood (and thus brain) altering chemicals can prove to be the tipping point for some users.

One might argue that prescription medications, such as Prozac, Paxil, and Xanax are mood altering drugs as well. I agree! Such prescription medications should not be used indiscriminately as well!

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Posted in Brain & Neuroscience, Happiness & Well-Being

15 Jun 2010 Do Supplements Help Relieve Depression? 1 Comment

I ran into the great article on CNN’s website “Supplements for Depression: What Works & What Doesn’t” by Ray Hainer of Health.com. Long ago…well, September 19, 2006 to be exact, I blogged about whether supplements work for depression and anxiety. While I didn’t go into specific details of which supplements have the greatest research evidence supporting them, there are some important bases that I cover in that blog, so please check it out.

You will need to refer Ray Hainer’s article for the specifics about which supplements appear to be most helpful for depression, but I’ll summarize a few crucial points of interest:

1). Some supplements do seem to help with depression.   2). However,they are not regulated by the FDA.    3). Many false or exaggerated claims can be made about the effectiveness of supplements to treat various conditions, including depression.  4). Consult your physician before using any supplements (or, if you are already using supplements, please consult your physician immediately).

Although many supplements have proven to be helpful, they can have dangerous side-effects and drug interactions, so we should be very cautious about any supplement usage.  Supplements are still drugs…our brains don’t know the difference between man-made drugs and naturally-occurring ones. So, we need to do our homework before taking any medications or supplements that can affect our noggins.

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Posted in Brain & Neuroscience, Happiness & Well-Being, Negative Moods & Emotions

12 Jun 2010 Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Book & Media Rec) No Comments

I recently finished the unabridged audiobook of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink (read by the author). Although much of the information I had run across from other sources, Mr. Pink does an outstanding job of explaining how much of what businesses, educators, and parents have been using to motivate people is antiquated and even counterproductive. This is truly one of the best organized books I have ever read, which made it a pleasure to read (er, listen to). Also, Mr. Pink is an excellent voice narrator, which isn’t usually the case with authors reading their own books.

Mr. Pink eloquently debunks the commonly held belief that “Motivation 2.0″ (which is basically using rewards and punishments, or carrots & sticks, to modify behavior) is the best method to “incentivise” behavior. It’s not that there’s never a place for rewards and punishments to obtain desired behaviors. Motivation 2.0 works very well for repetitive, menial, and rudimentary tasks because those tasks don’t have an inherent appeal that can naturally motivate people. However, using rewards and punishments can actually decrease or undermine performance for tasks that are more complicated and/or require more conceptual, creative thinking.

Psychologists have been publishing such findings for years but, despite these findings, business practices have been largely tethered to the Motivation 2.0 approach. However, as these findings are replicated by more psychologists, top economists, and sociologists, the word and implications are slowly spreading. As an alternative, Motivation 3.0 capitalizes on deeper, more powerful, and sustaining motivators that lead to better performance and greater personal satisfaction. These Motivation 3.0 factors are: autonomy (self-direction/choice in the work/educational environment), mastery (a chance to improve with challenges), and purpose (working for something with a larger, more meaningful purpose). Mr. Pink makes a compelling case (citing many examples from studies and real-world business outcomes) that creating work and educational environments based on Motivation 3.0 rather than 2.0 leads to more positive outcomes (at least if the work is of a more complicated nature and requires creative thinking).

Mr. Pink reviews the potential dangers of Motivation 2.0, the benefits of Motivation 3.0, and gives specific, practical tips and strategies for businesses, educators, and parents to utilize in order to achieve better outcomes (e.g., long-term sustained business growth, improved employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, greater educational gains). As a bonus, Mr. Pink lists a number of books he recommends and why – a very handy tool if you would like to learn more about some of the concepts covered in Drive. Finally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in a book before, but he does a chapter-by-chapter recap of the book – just so you can have a useful refresher.

So, check out Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink. You will find countless ways to apply the concepts from this book to improve your work, management, parenting, and life-satisfaction.

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Posted in Book & Media Recommendations, Happiness & Well-Being, Happiness & Well-Being - Book & Media Recs, Parenting, Parenting - Book & Media Recs

1 Jun 2010 Looking for Something? Get “Lost”! No Comments

Perhaps this seems odd to give a plug to my favorite TV show, ABC’s Lost, on this website . What on earth does this have to do with psychology & well-being, you ask? Well, let me explain myself.

First, I have to say that I’m pretty bummed that Lost has concluded. I loved the finale. I’m still thinking about it! The main writers of the show, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, along with creator J.J. Abrams, have given us a spectacularly thought-provoking, deeply satisfying, and wonderfully entertaining experience.  I think it will be talked about for years to come, and its success may never be replicated on television.

Now, I have to admit that I did not watch Lost from the first episode in 2004. I had heard that it was good, and many friends implored me to watch it, but I resisted. I’m not sure why…maybe because they were pressing on me so hard about it. In social psychology, that’s known as “psychological reactance” – when we perceive that our freedom is infringed upon, we tend to act in ways to maintain our sense of freedom and control. Thus, when people insist we “must” do something, a part of us kicks in that says “you can’t make me!” As John Locke, a character in Lost would put it, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” Anytime a person would try to tell Locke he couldn’t do something, he wanted to prove them wrong. So, it sort of was like this for Lost with me.

Then what happened was a number of clients began recommending that I see it. “I probably will someday,” I would promise. I think I must have said that for a couple of years. I did intend on giving it a try…one day.

Then about two years ago, one of my longtime clients, with whom I shared many book & movie interests, kept giving me a hard time for not at least watching an episode or two. Week after week he would ask me if I had gotten around to seeing an episode. Sheepishly, I kept replying, “Uh, no. Not yet…”

Undaunted by my procrastination, he persisted, “Just try an episode or two…give it a chance. I guarantee you will love it!”

Well, a little over a year ago, I finally started watching Lost with my wife (we have about the same taste in TV & movies, fortunately). We were hooked within the 10 seconds. We eagerly watched 5 years of episodes within several months. Now, Lost has a voracious fan base. While I am a big fan of the show, I wasn’t posting to forums, reading blogs, dissecting every aspect of each episode, etc. So, I’m not sure whether I qualify as a “Lostee” or not. Maybe the fact that I’m now posting about it, I am!

This brings me to the reason that I’m posting about Lost. The show weaves very heavy subject matter within the story – about freedom, choice, faith, fate, philosophy, spirituality, religion…you name it. I’ve never seen or experienced a show that has so boldly, deftly, and successfully tackled such subject matter. The writers are clearly extremely brilliant…and well-read!

But at the heart of the show, I would say that the relationships among the characters are front & center. I’ve posted about how our relationships with others are inextricably linked with our own happiness and well-being. How does watching a TV show enhance our relationships with others, you might ask? As these characters in Lost grow and change over time, you come to really care about them…and what happens to them. There is such mystery in the show…layers upon layers…that, as a viewer, you want to connect with others and talk about these things.

For people who insist that all TV is dumbing down viewers…well, they probably haven’t watched Lost. My mind was doing cartwheels as I tried to do figure out aspects of the show. But I didn’t do this alone…millions of others were experiencing these same feelings.

In a way, the impact that Lost has had on people is not about the show itself. It is about the relationships with others we have in the real world that are strengthened as we connect with them about these mysteries and our favorite Lost characters. We share our ideas, hypotheses, frustrations, joys, and sorrows about the show. Lost has created endless fodder for conversations amongst viewers. Thus, like the relationships that are the heart of the show, we connect with other fans of the show, causing our own relationships to grow in the process. Happiness resides within our relationships  - none of us are truly lost when we are connected with one another.

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Posted in Book & Media Recommendations, Happiness & Well-Being, Happiness & Well-Being - Book & Media Recs, Relationships

17 May 2010 Video Games: Do They Help Train the Brain? No Comments

A recent article was published in the April 20, 2010 online journal Nature called into question the idea the video games can enhance cognitive functioning. In the study, 11,430 volunteers between the ages of 18-60 participated in this online study.  Participants were randomly divided into one of 3 groups and practiced a series of online tasks for a minimum of 10 minutes a day, 3 times per week, for 6 weeks. Group 1 worked on activities associated with reasoning, planning, and problem-solving – abilities that are correlated with general intelligence. Group 2 did activities that are associated with short-term memory, attention, visual-spatial abilities, and math – exercises often found in commercial brain training games such as Brain Age and Big Brain Academy. Group 3, a control group, used the Internet to find answers to obscure questions.

Prior to the start of the study, the researches conducted baseline measures of cognitive abilities and then after the 6 weeks of study participation. They found that all groups made marginal performance gains, but the groups performed similarly – there was no advantage to practicing with the brain games.

Interestingly, these study results seem to be counter-intuitive at first. Doesn’t the brain work like a muscle? Isn’t that what the researchers from the field of neuroscience are finding? I’ve blogged numerous times on this subject, including one in which I touted the benefits of brain games, and I also reviewed books such Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain in which science writer Sharon Begley covers the latest research on neuroplasticity.

I don’t think I’m going out onto a limb to say that I think video games can enhance cognitive functioning in some respects. There are shortcomings to the study in Nature that leave this possibility quite open. Merely playing a brain game a few minutes per day a few times per week is unlikely to enhance cognitive functioning. It would take a lot more practice time than participants did in the Nature study.

Imagine that I had a number of people in a study designed to enhance athletic prowess (e.g., speed, power, agility, flexibility, endurance, strength). Let’s say I take a physically active group of people (akin to people who already use computers, the Internet, and play video games in the Nature study). I take this active group and have them practice playing tennis at least 10 minutes per day, 3 times per week, for 6 weeks. Then I try to see if that tennis practice improved the group’s overall athletic prowess. I seriously doubt that it would.

To improve at anything, it takes practice – lots of it. To improve something like overall cognitive functioning, much more than 30 minutes per week for 6 weeks would be needed to find any improvement. Now, I don’t see video games as a some panacea for improving our cognitive development. In fact, I think there are a lot of false claims being made about brain games and their potential to enhance cognitive functioning. Watch out for snake oil! Think of all of the millions of parents who bought Baby Einstein videos with the belief that this would turn their 6 month old into the next…well, Einstein. We have to be careful not to put the cart before the horse.

I’m quite certain that other research will be published that shows that video games and certain types of brain training software does improve cognitive functioning. Indeed, well-documented research exists already that some brain training software does improve working memory (e.g., Cogmed).

I think a balanced view is in order here.  Brain games are likely to help some, but which ones, how to use them, with whom, and what results to expect is still open to debate. In the meantime, if you want to improve the cognitive functioning of you or your children, here are the foundational activities that are sure to pay off:

1. Get plenty of sleep.

2. Have a healthy diet.

3. Exercise regularly.

4. Get lots of positive, connecting time with friends and family.

I know these are “too” basic, but they are often overlooked in favor of a more entrancing solutions. I doubt anything will ever be found to improve our cognitive functioning that can match these 4 fundamentals.

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Posted in Brain & Neuroscience, Cyberpsychology - Technology and You

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