Your Brain Is Always Listening: Tame the Hidden Dragons… (2025)

In the introduction the author talks of helping Mikey Cyrus since the age of 18, discusses going on her Instagram show with her 1o5 million followers, and goes downhill from there. When you start by plugging your celebrity "clients", which frankly I couldn't care less about, except that I don't think she is a sterling example of anything you'd want someone to brag about. That's as far as I got. I know I've read other books by Dr. Amen, I thought they were interesting, but I think his starry eyed celebrity friends are ruining whatever message he might have. I don't understand anything more than one star for this. Unless the readers think maybe they'll be Tick Tock influencers after reading this.

This is my first book from Dr. Amen and I'm wondering if the others are better? The best parts of the book were the brain scans. Those were brilliant.
The content was:
1. Surprisingly short and heavy on the supplement sales/set up for mass marketing of goods (or joining their online community) made it highly disappointed.
2. Similar to a lot of the work that is already out there. See: Shawn Stevenson, Angela Duckworth, Bessel Van Der Kolk, Peter A Levine, Viktor Frankel, Josh Davis, Robert Wright (in his study of the impact of meditation on the mind), Mark Divine, among others.
3. A 12-step program rework, really?

I'm not sure why I expected more from him. It might have been that I saw several interviews that were really interesting. But, this particular book reads like many of the other recycled mass market material and that was disappointing. The dumbing down of the material into Dragons and Ants slayed me. (Not in a good way.)

I read this to give Dr. Amen’s works another chance, after disliking what I had read so far. Like his other works, this book is light on content and he could have used the 250+ pages to explore the concepts more fully. Also like his other works, the goal seems really to sell his supplement range, promote his brain scan clinics and his celebrity brand. I like his overall messages of reducing stigma around mental health, and recognising the role of the brain in treatment. However, he has little of substance to add after the first introductory pages. It’s all just too simplified and not critical enough. Readers would get more out of reading around CBT, trauma theory and Jungian theory directly.

The Miley Cyrus story at the start was such a turn-off that I almost didn’t continue. I know that I have a strong negative reaction to name dropping, so I continued despite my contempt for the first bit. It turned out to be basically cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) in accessible layman’s terms. Helpful imagery of dragons was thankfully substituted for CBT’s concept of ‘cognitive errors’, a dreadful term for people already depressed and anxious. Slaying or taming dragons is much more appealing than managing errors. I also greatly appreciated the acknowledgment of the positive side of these errors/dragons, further flipping the negative slant of CBT on its head. I’ve found the concepts of CBT very helpful in managing my mental health. I probably could have avoided stumbling on the shame of my cognitive errors... if I had known I was taming dragons instead. 💕

He has good advice as a therapist. I have seen his ted talks and promotions before, and I think Dr Amen is pretty cutting-edge, yet still grounded. His greatest strength is normally in adjusting clients' lifestyle factors to decrease inflammation and improve brain health, but those are not fully included here (only topically addressed.) This book is more about mindset / affirmations / recognizing + attending to your "dragons" as they are called.
What I didn't like: so, so much tooting of his own horn (yes, you are therapist to all the stars and a maverick, we heard it!) and over-the-top references to the Big Pandemic (like, every page, leave it be)
What I like: Dr Amen is wise, kind, gracious and merciful to people who behave badly (due to his belief that they all just have bad brain health.) That ideal could be overly applied - some people are just jerks and need to take ownership, not get their therapist to blame it all on past trauma or their mama, so to speak. But that is where the entire field of psychology-as-idealogy gets wonky, so Dr Amen gets a pass. He is doing far more good than harm... and everyone needs grace, regardless.

Love how Dr Amen is promoting brain health! His concept of ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) is very helpful. Some of the “dragons” he discusses felt a bit repetitive.

I want to put this book on my read-again shelf. So, so good!

Here are some highlights:

Lists of affirmations (to combat dragons from the past)

Methods of recognizing when other people’s dragons are spitting fire at my own dragons

Ways to tame the thoughts that feed the dragons

ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) that infect the brain

“Just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether it is true.”

Learning to recognize and eliminate bad habit dragons

“When your dragon tamer (prefrontal cortex) is weak, you are much more likely to be visited by bad habit dragons.”

There’s a section on addictions and how to better recover from them.

Instructions for strengthening your Dragon Tamer (prefrontal cortex) to make good decisions:
* know what you want
* clearly and concisely define the goals for your life
* ask every day: Does my behavior get me what I want?
* by not asking the question, behavior is often driven by scheming dragons

The PFC helps you match your behavior to get to what you want. "Your brain makes happen what it sees. If you focus on negativity, you will feel depressed. If you focus on fear, you are likely to feel anxious. If you focus on achieving your goals, you are much more likely to reach them. Too many people are thrown around by the whims of their dragons, rather than using their brains to plan their lives and follow through on their goals. Many dragons are happy to decide what you should do with your life."

Simple language and the use of Dragons and ANTs to represent adults emotional problems was insulting to my intelligence. I have read 3 early books by Dr. Amen and found them helpful and interesting. I recommended this, with changes to Young Adults with little information about psychology and brain health. Dr. Amen has joined the food supplement pushers and sells his own mixtures of untested herbs and spices. None of them are FDA approved. I don’t recommend this book for adults with serious mental health problems or brain damage. Read any of his earlier publications.

Starts off strong but putters out. Definitely an interesting concept but too many "dragons" makes it confusing. There were parts I wanted to skip over because they didn't pertain to me. I tried keeping my dragons on my brain at work today and just ended up roaring at my coworkers, which was entertaining.

I love how this book normalizes basic human struggles, through the use of brain science and personal examples. It is filled with tips and tools for better mental health.

"Just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether it is true."- Daniel Amen

If you want political agenda pushed under the guide of education, this book is for you. For those who want an apolitical, helpful book focused on your well being with guided assistance to understand emotions, psychology, etc - find a different book.

Love Dr. Amen!

Got bored with it about half way through. There were just too many dragons to read about and felt repetitive.

Se me hizo muy interesante este libro.. El autor es un psiquiatra que tiene clínicas en USA y algo muy interesante es que usa brain-imaging/scans con sus pacientes. El enseña como en la mayoría de los casos que el trata de adicciones, depresion, ansiedad, etc. el cerebro físicamente se ve diferente y tiene más actividad en ciertas partes.. El argumenta que tienes que conocer y ver el cerebro para saber cual es el mejor tratamiento para el paciente y eso es parte de lo que hace en sus clínicas.

En el libro da muchos tips y estrategias para lidiar con heridas del pasado (dragons) y también da estrategias de como tener menos ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) y romper malos hábitos. Hay muchas estrategias que me gustaron mucho!! Muestra varios brain scans de pacientes y eso estuvo muuy interesante.

Le iba a poner 3 estrellas porque puso muchos dragones y hay partes del libro que quería saltarme porque no eran relatable (tipo mucho de adicciones o dragones muy específicos), peeeero siento que hay muchas estrategias muy útiles que si usaré jajaja y también me gustó mucho que le da mucha importancia a tener BRAIN health físicamente para alcanzar paz emocional y en todas tus esferas de la vida. Habla de la alimentación, ejercicio, head traumas, la importancia de los suplementos y muchas cosas muy valiosas. En mi opinión el libro no es el mejor en cuanto a como está escrito porque se puede volver tedioso y hay varias partes non-relatable. Pero los research-based facts, las historias y los scans de sus pacientes y las estrategias para cada dragon si lo hicieron muy worth the read. Haré un resumen si alguien lo quiere :)

„I hold on love and let go grief”.

Câteva dintre lecțiile pe care le-am învățat citind această carte:

Aleg să țin aproape iubirea și să dau drumul durerii.

Aleg să stau departe de suferință și să-mi protejez creierul de ceea ce îi poate zdruncina liniștea.

Creierul ascultă cu atenție semnalele pe care i le transmitem.

Nu putem schimba ce am lăsat în urmă, dar viitorul încă nu a fost scris. Putem alege oricând lumina. Putem trăi frumos. Putem să rămânem sau să plecăm în căutarea adevărului din povestea noastră. Putem să facem orice dacă îi transmitem creierului semnalul corect. De acolo începe magia…

Great information! Full of helpful ways to support brain health.

Nagyon-nagyon örülök, hogy rátaláltam erre a könyvre egy Libriben bolyongás alkalmával, egyúttal kicsit sajnálom is, hogy ez nem előbb történt, illetve hogy egy percet is vártam az elolvasásával.

Nagyon tetszik a mindennapi blokkjainkra, gátlásainkra, egyéb problémáinkra használt sárkány metafora, és annak is külön örülök, hogy a negatív automatikus gondolatokra (NAG-okra) használt angol kifejezést (automatic negative thoughts – ANTs, azaz hangyák) is sikerült a szövegbe csempészni.

Rengeteg új hasznos információt sikerült szereznem Dr. Amen könyvéből; nagyjából a felénél éreztem, hogy most azonnal szükségem van egy füzetre, amelybe kiírhatom a felismeréseimet, a technikákat, és amelyben a gyakorlatokat is el tudom végezni.
A könyv és a hivatkozott tesztek segítségével felismertem a saját múltbeli sárkányaimat (mind a jelenleg tombolókat, mind azokat, amelyek az eddigi önfejlesztő munkám során már többé-kevésbé megszelídültek), rájöttem, melyek nem az enyémek, megtaláltam a hangyáimat, és azonosítottam az agytípusomat is, mely utóbbinak segítségével még célzottabban fogok tudni segíteni magamon. Nem beszélve arról, hogy az agytípusom meghatározása megerősítette bennem a már korábban is sejtett okát annak, hogy miért is vagyok cukorfüggő. Ki fogom próbálni a leírt technikákat és egy kicsit belenyúlok az étrendembe is, viszont a néha junk foodért sóvárgó nemtörődöm sárkányomat nem szeretném kiiktatni. Ugyanígy az agytípusomhoz ajánlott étrend-kiegészítőknek is utánanézek, mennyire elérhetők idehaza megbízható forgalmazótól – ez meg már a szakmai ártalom. :)

Dr. Amen képeket is csatolt jónéhány páciense agyáról, kezelés előtt és után is; megdöbbentő különbségek látszanak. Gyógyszerészként én is támogatom azt az elképzelést, hogy bármi gond van, ne rögtön a legkeményebb gyógyszerekkel essünk neki a kezelésnek, mert lehet, hogy egy kis életmódváltással helyre is pofozható a probléma – az agyunk esetében a képek engem meggyőztek, hogy tényleg így van. Természetesen, amikor valóban szükséges, igenis legyen szorongásoldó, antidepresszáns is ezek mellé, de tényleg nem mindig kell.

Két dologgal nem értek egyet a könyvben: az egyik az istenhit bevonása, de ez nem keresztényként az én egyéni problémám; van, akinek valóban segít az ima, és ha beismeri az ő felfogása szerinti istennek, hogy gondjai vannak. Ugyanúgy, az egészséges életmód méltatásával számomra kissé túlzásokba esett Dr. Amen; nem mindig vagy nem mindenáron fenntartható az, hogy mindenre találjunk egészséges alternatívát. Nálam az élet élvezetéhez hozzátartozik némi junk food, egy kis édesség, vagy egy pohár bor; teljesen nem szeretnék ezekről lemondani.
A többivel viszont nagyon is szeretnék foglalkozni és rendbe tenni, amit csak lehet. Nagyon várom, hogy milyen eredményeket sikerül majd elérnem a változtatásokkal.

Egyúttal szeretettel ajánlom ezt a könyvet mindenkinek. Tényleg mindenkinek.

Easy to read and understand. The author breaks down how our past experiences, triggers from others, and manipulative machinations of corporations/advertisers/etc. can drive our thinking and keep us stuck in old patterns. He does have some interesting information about brain health and brain scans to share, although it is not always clear how he "healed the brain" for the people he worked with. I agree with some others that the Christian overtones are unnecessary, but aren't overly overt. For each dragon (negative pattern) or ANT (automatic negative thought) he gives some suggestions for ways to combat them. I think this is a good place to start if you've never thought about how your past or others can trigger your own negative patterns. Since this was written in 2020, the author talks a lot about how the pandemic and lockdown triggered a lot of old stuff for people. Since I also saw this in the work I do, I can certainly attest to the truth of this. Of course, I don't think that simply looking at this from the lens of brain health is sufficient for everyone. It is, however, a reasonable perspective to consider. This feels like a pretty good entry-level book for people new on the topic.

This book is mostly name dropping, questionable science about depression and ADHD, and the usual advice (i.e. sleep more, eat unprocessed foods, etc.).

I listened to the audiobook and most of the last 12% was an exact retelling of the examples he used throughout the book. It sounded like copy and paste word for word from the time he was on Dr. Phil’s show to that time a woman kept asking him if he wanted something to eat.

Even if there is some sound advice in this book, there have to be better books to find it.

Daniel Amen and his book are arrogant, unethical, fat-phobic, and bogus. Always be wary of “celebrity doctors” who hawk supplements and treatments that claim to be cures. Besides the nauseating name dropping he does from page one in this book, it should noted that his psychiatric peers continuously call him out for his flawed work and often refer to him as a snake oil salesman. You’d be better off reading the work of a respected psychiatrist and not someone who makes money off people’s fears and illness.

I actually couldn’t bring myself to finish this - so so many scientific errors - what I found particularly distressing is the multiple times he asserts that adhd is caused by being overweight and or eating sugar. What a load of rubbish - avoid

[1.5/5]

It’s astonishing how quickly I turned on this one. I was able to get through the corny name-dropping, that doesn’t bother me as a hook. The first section seems like a basic introduction to some CBT concepts, although it never goes in depth on any of the proposed solutions. Essentially, my main problem is with the structure of this book, which reads like a long list of “dragons”, the term Amen uses to describe the bad thoughts/influence that “breathe fire” on your attempts to live a satisfying, healthy life. I was taking a few tidbits here and there, but mainly bored. Had I stopped in the first few hours of the audiobook it would been a three, average self-help territory. However, the further I got, the more flags started going up.

My first flag was when he talked about how anger and generational dragons impacted the amount of protests after George Floyd’s death. He does mention that not all protestors were destructive, but I found this whole assumption dismissive. Amen offers no space for societal impact on action, it just seemed to lack the nuance that the topic required. I moved past this, because I figured, maybe this is an older man, who is not Black, trying to explain how anger can have an impact. And, to an extent, he’s right, people protest because they are angry. But seeing anger as a negative attribute is simplistic. I, in general prefer a DBT approach, we can see the anger and ask ourselves what the most effective way to deal with it is. And guess what, protesting can be an effective outlet.

Nevertheless, I moved on, hoping for more brain facts. For those of you who DNF’d in the first half, you didn’t get to where we really got cooking. Which was the infuriating approach to food. Essentially, Amen seems to be writing a guide to orthorexia. He dismisses almost all enjoyable food. And explicitly says that “everything in moderation” is a lie that will lead to you getting diseases. He dismisses the genetic components to weight, diabetes and other diseases. He goes on about the toxins in everyday items and how they negatively affect the brain. He even mentioned chemotherapy in this section as being toxic…it was at this point where I started to wonder if this man is just some sort of anti-vax psychopath. Because he provides no room for nuance AT ALL. There is no statement about balancing toxins with good choices. It’s just fearmongering about how your lipstick could kill you.

Science without nuance and context feels meaningless. And much of this book feels like it refuses to admit that some joy in life comes from allowing us to give into some temptations. I feel this level of rigidity would be very hard for a client to keep up. I would be very interested at the type of person who has endured trauma and is able to live a lifestyle Amen prescribes. While the introduction to some concepts could be helpful, I just know that there are better, warmer books to introduce newcomers to taming their difficult emotions and thoughts.

I didn't realize this was the Brain Scan Doc until I was almost halfway through the book. Daniel G Amen is controversial. Also pretty famous. And both those aspects come through in this book.

I don't know why Amen thought of dumbing down his readers with all this Dragon talk. Come on. It seems to be a compilation of stuff that you already know or can find on YouTube or elsewhere, with very few insights. He doesn't seem to offer much apart from telling you:
Take Vitamin D
Sunlight
Supplements
Slay your Dragons (duh)
Watch for the ANTS (Negative thoughts. Simple CBT)

That's it. Do this. You are on the way to better mental health. Oops. Wait. Not mental health, because according to Amen, there is no such thing. Better brain health.

Definitely gave me a lot to think about and work on. Got a little dry at times — I often have a hard time reading all the examples for things that don’t apply to me. (I recognize I could skip, but I don’t like skipping things in books for learning.) But Dr. Amen’s experience studying brains always shows in his books.

Additionally, for me personally, I like that there were consistencies with other things I am studying now or have been looking into recently.

It's just gimmicky, I guess. It's like very dumbed down psychology, and he name drops his famous clients-- a lot. His personal stories were not enlightening, just a little cringey.
Maybe helpful for some, but I don't know who that would be. I did give up about halfway through, so maybe I missed the really good part.

Nice read but I prefer the chimp paradox.

dnf super repetitive

DNF. I could not get past his constant bragging and promoting his clinic and his supplements. Screams snake oil salesman. There is no independent research to back up his claims.

The idea of those internal dragons was interesting, but not exactly new.

Starting a new job means my time is officially precious, which is terrible for my hobbies but great for my DNF stats. I actually mean it this time when I say if the book ain’t doing it for me, there’s no point in forcing myself to finish.

This book hit that threshold mostly because the content wasn’t anything new or fresh from what I’ve read in other psychology/trauma exploration books. Add in the fact this guy was categorizing the specific movies ppl with certain “dragons” (aka trauma) would like, and I’m out. I like 10 Things I Hate About You but not because I’m anxious (probably).

This book enable us to understand "dragons" that exist in everybody. If we understand it we can overcome it. Honestly, this is very helpful in order to become better!