Dr. Daniel Amen joins to discuss violence in the United States and the effects on mental health and wellbeing.

Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, explains that frequent exposure to violent videos on social media can trigger emotional responses in the brain while diminishing rational thinking. He notes that this repeated exposure may lead to increased fear, polarization, and a numbing effect towards violence, particularly among young people.

Dr. Amen points out that early access to cell phones and social media is linked to higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behavior in youth. He references a study showing a significant portion of students view violence as sometimes acceptable, raising concerns about empathy and decision-making. Dr. Amen advocates for addressing these issues through improved brain health, including better sleep, nutrition, and reduced screen time.

Are we becoming numb to online violence?

and joining us now to break down what this means for us and our brains and more importantly what we can do about it is Dr. Daniel Amen. He is a double board certified psychiatrist founder that is of Amen Clinics and BrainMD as well as a nine-time New York Times best-selling author. Dr. Amen great to be with you today. So when we see you know violent videos spreading instantly on social media tell us what happens to us inside of our brains and can our brains actually distinguish you know what's real and what simulation? Well what happens is our emotional brain flames and our thoughtful brain begins to go offline and so if that happens over and over and over again we get begin to be run by fear rather than by rational thinking and so if you take the polarization in our society mix that with the stinking thinking that's going on people are labeling people as fascists and Nazis it's a very bad prescription and that's on top of the biggest brain and mental health epidemic in history and that was true before COVID and then COVID made everything worse. Yeah and we're seeing you know not just adults but children as young as 10 being exposed to videos we showed all the images of the Ukrainian woman who was tragically stabbed on that train as well kids seeing that and Charlie Kirk. What does that do to the developing brain you know how does that exposure to violent media impact things like sleep ability to think and even relationships? Well you know I always think of my patients in four big circles it's so what's the biology what is this actually doing to your brain and your body what's the psychology how do you think how is it impacting your development what's the social circle and we're actually more connected but lonelier than ever and the circle that very few people are talking about especially psychiatrists is the spiritual circle just why do you care and young people 58% of young people factors and brand new study out kids who get cell phones early have a much higher incidence of suicidal behavior and for those who are 20 have suicidal thoughts or behavior I mean it's really crazy the connection between cell phones I think violent video games social media which is why Australia banned social media for kids under the age of 16. It's we have all these toxic factors that go after shooting I mean the week that Charlie got shot there was a shooting at the naval academy there was a shooting in Colorado and that just begins to numb people to this horrific violence. Yeah and quickly I want to mention this you mentioned those shoes there was a survey that recently came out said 34% of students say violence is accept acceptable at least sometimes what does this tell you about our young people what's going on with them? Well it's deeply troubling that so many young people see violence as an acceptable way to silence speech and it's it's become we don't know how to talk to each other we don't know how to listen I'm actually working with the White House faith office on creating a national brain health revolution because I see this mental health crisis as a brain health crisis if we get our brains healthy our empathy is going to be better our decision making is going to be better in my clinics we do brain imaging and I've studied 300,000 brains and what I learned is most psychiatric problems are not mental health issues they're brain health issues get your brain healthy your mind will follow so that means food and exercise and sleep and turning off these gadgets that are stealing this generation's mental health. Such a fascinating conversation I wish we had more time I'm going to have to have you back Dr. Amon thank you so much appreciate it. Thank you.

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