Killing The ANTs and Little Lies
Killing The ANTs and Little Lies with Orlando Vargas
Dr. Daniel Amen talks with special guest Orlando Vargas about how the little lies we tell ourselves can justify actions that will damage brain and body health.
Transcript:
Killing The ANTs and Little Lies with Orlando Vargas
Interviewer: Welcome back. I’m here with Orlando Vargas. We’re talking about ways to beat an addiction. Orlando’s, the Director of Research at the House of Freedom in Florida.
Interviewee: How long has the House at Freedom been around Since 1991, so close to the time where you started dealing with brain spec imaging according to the book.
Interviewer: Yeah, now that’s the year I started; we just had our 30-year anniversary. So, I guess House of Freedom did as well.
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: And one of the things I learned a long time ago, is the quality of your thoughts really matters. And thoughts come from all sorts of places. they’re actually written in our genes, that fear can be transmitted generationally. thoughts come from how your parents talk to you, what your siblings said to you. You know, if you grew up in church, the messages you got their thoughts to come from the news, from music, from your friends, from your enemies, from your coworkers. And just because you have thought has nothing to do with whether or not it’s true, whether or not, it’s helpful.And so many of my patients are infested with ANTS what I call Automatic Negative Thoughts, the thoughts have just come into their mind automatically and ruin their days. So, and House of Freedom, how do you get people to have their minds healthier?
Interviewee: Well, you know, you’d be surprised, you know, we do a lot of psycho-educational therapy. And when we were researching for a curriculum, that would target a lot of the things that you talked about, we couldn’t find one. So, what we did was we actually implemented the on-chain, your brain that 10 steps into our treatment program, and every single person that comes here, get exposed to that curriculum. And step number seven, it’s x.
And it’s funny that you say that, because I always tell my patients, that if that’s the one step, that they can conquer that step, they’re way ahead of the competition, you know, they’re way ahead of that, that journey. Because, you know, our, our battle, a lot of times, it’s in our mind. And when we’re constantly thinking negatively, and those automatic negative thoughts are infested in our brain, I always tell them that, you know, the more you do something, the better you get at it, usually. So, if you’re constantly thinking negative, negative, negative, well, guess what, you’re going to be really good, I think negative.
So, we have to, you know, number one, identify the different types of ANTs, which we have, you know, like the fortune teller or different ones that, you know, we have been able to identify in the book. And, you know, once they start putting two and two together, they say, “Well, these are irrational thoughts. You know, it’s true, I don’t have to believe every single stupid thought that comes to my mind because a lot of those thoughts are not true ”. So, once we start changing those thoughts, then the associations okay, because associations in recovery are really, really crucial, right. I mean, if you always associate one thing with substance use, that we need to sort of change that and allow you to practice and enjoy sobriety without that counterproductive behavior. OKAY.
So, utilizing the Unchain the brand curriculum that we sort of, like, you know, you use here from your book, we’ve actually been able to teach clients about step number seven about the ANTs, and the importance of changing that because, you know, I always tell my patients when you have a negative thought or a positive thought, it’s not magic. There’s actually neurochemistry behind that. And you know, you can’t continue thinking that way. If you are going to be a new version of yourself, you know, we have to work on the thought pattern, so that this person can start you know, again, learning from it. Aptness, learning how to love, learning how to obtain dopamine and reward in a healthy manner. And that’s really, you know, a fundamental aspect of recovery. and the importance of changing that because, you know, I always tell my patients when you have a negative thought or a positive thought, it’s not magic.
There’s actually neurochemistry behind that. And you know, you can’t continue thinking that way. If you are going to be a new version of yourself, you know, we have to work on the thought pattern, so that this person can start you know, again, learning from it. Aptness, learning how to love, learning how to obtain dopamine and reward in a healthy manner. And that’s really, you know, a fundamental aspect of recovery. and the importance of changing that because, you know, I always tell my patients when you have a negative thought or a positive thought, it’s not magic. There’s actually neurochemistry behind that. And you know, you can’t continue thinking that way.If you are going to be a new version of yourself, you know, we have to work on the thought pattern, so that this person can start you know, again, learning from it. Aptness, learning how to love, learning how to obtain dopamine and reward in a healthy manner. And that’s really, you know, a fundamental aspect of recovery.
If you are going to be a new version of yourself, you know, we have to work on the thought pattern, so that this person can start you know, again, learning from it. Aptness, learning how to love, learning how to obtain dopamine and reward in a healthy manner. And that’s really, you know, a fundamental aspect of recovery. If you are going to be a new version of yourself, you know, we have to work on the thought pattern, so that this person can start you know, again, learning from it. Aptness, learning how to love, learning how to obtain dopamine and reward in a healthy manner. And that’s really, you know, a fundamental aspect of recovery.
Interviewer: And along with the ANTs come the little lies that we tell ourselves, like everything in moderation, which I actually think is the gateway thought to relapse. Or I want what I want when I want it, is the four-year-old that often runs the addict’s life. Or it’s Friday, I deserve them. Or Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Christmas, or Easter, or Halloween, or there’s just always a reason to hurt yourself if you’re not serious. Drew Carey the comedian that lost a whole bunch of weight and kept it off for a long time. He’s just said it perfectly. He said, “Eating crappy food isn’t a reward. It’s a punishment ”.And when I read that, I’m like, oh, he’s going to stay well, because when I first got healthy, I would like Miss Rocky Road ice cream or brownie or donut. And it was’ t until I saw the little lies, and like I deserve it. And I began to see those things like weapons of mass destruction, that I was able to stay healthy. So, what other little lies do you think you’ve heard from your patients?
Interviewee: Well, you know, one of the biggest ones that we, you know, they talk about it, well, “I don’t have an addiction issue, like day habits”, “You know, I only drink alcohol”, “You know, I don’t do cocaine, or I don’t do you know, opioids.” And that’s one of the ones that we hear a lot because they always try to minimize, you know, their addictive behavior. And, you know, it’s funny, I talked to my patients, just this last week about a study that recently came out from stain if I’m not mistaken about alcohol use. And basically, the outcome of the study was that there’s no safe amount of alcohol, you know, those participants who drank a little bit, during the week with the less white and gray matter in their brain.And as we know, when it comes to the brain, right, size matters, right? SW, we want to have the most you know, gray matter white matter as possible. So, you know, minimizing their negative behaviors to justify them. It’s one of the things that we see most often for people to give themselves permission to engage in just behaviors.
Interviewer: Size Matters. Send me that study.
Interviewee: Okay, I will.
Interviewer: And, you know, I’ve been fighting against the alcohol is good for you, for a long time. Last year, the American Cancer Society came out against any alcohol. And I wrote a blog that was our best blog last year. It was called, I told you so. And I start the blog when I dated Tana, my wife 15 years ago, she told me, “I’ll never tell you, I told you so”. She lied. It’s her favorite thing to say. And, and yeah, I told you so. You know, I’ve been saying for 30 years ever since I started looking at the brain, alcohol is not good for you and then to have the American Cancer Society come out against any alcohol because they said any alcohol increases your risk of seven different kinds of cancer.That you just go “Why is it so popular?” Do people really feel so bad that they can’t find another way to calm their anxiety, diaphragmatic breathing, meditation, hypnosis, gab, magnesium, thinning?
There are so many ways that you know, the right music, smelling lavender, looking at relaxing images, getting a massage, taking a sauna. All of these things work. It’s just people develop habits, and we are habitual creatures. And you know, the question really is do your habits serve you? Or do they hurt you? And the ones that hurt you identify their work to break them. the question really is do your habits serve you? Or do they hurt you? And the ones that hurt you identify their work to break them. the question really is do your habits serve you? Or do they hurt you? And the ones that hurt you identify their work to break them.
Orlando it’s been such a joy to talk to you How can people learn more about you in the House of Freedom?
Interviewee: Well, yeah, I mean, they can certainly go to our website which is HOFrehab.com. Also, we have a House of Freedom commercial website. And they can also call us you know, at 407-957-9077 but the best way again, it’s going through our website House of Freedom.com. We have a YouTube channel or Facebook channel as well on Instagram. And we always are uploading a lot of good content and educating the community in English and Spanish, which you know, there’s a large population of Spanish speakers also suffering from all the things that we talked about today. And sometimes there are not enough resources for that community. So that would be the best way to be able to reach us.
Interviewer: Thank you, my friend. You’re listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast.
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