The UltraMind Solution (5 page)

Do you see your relationships breaking down because you are mentally and emotionally absent or numb?

Perhaps you struggle to focus so you can help your children with their homework and guide them through life, but feel sure you aren’t living up to your duties as a parent.

Do you lie awake at night, tormented by the grief and pain of living half a life, and then worry about how you will find a way to wake up early in the morning just so you can get your kids to school?

Do you forget to meet friends or go to appointments, and then can’t figure out how in the world you forgot?

If so, you aren’t alone. You have been affected by the broken brain epidemic, a terrifying and life-threatening chronic illness that has been largely unaddressed by the medical community, leaving millions of people to suffer alone, trapped in their deteriorating minds.

Obesity is obvious. You can’t hide it. But mental illness and memory loss are suffered silently, hidden from view. Yet they touch nearly everyone either directly or indirectly; personally or through family members and friends.

Our broken brains cause many problems—anxiety, depression, bipolar disease, personality disorders, eating disorders, addictions, obsessive-compulsive
disorder, attention deficit disorder, autism, Asperger’s, learning difficulties, and dyslexia.

Broken brains take many shapes, including psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and mania, as well as all the neurodegenerative diseases of aging, especially Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease.

In addition, there are brain dysfunctions that fall on the lighter side of the broken brain continuum. While many psychiatrists and neurologists wouldn’t qualify these problems as treatable diseases, they still cause unnecessary suffering for many. These include chronic stress, lack of focus, poor concentration, brain fog, anger, mood swings, sleep problems, or just feeling a bit anxious or depressed most of the time.

Broken brains show up in two major ways: psychiatric disorders—problems that most blame on emotional trauma—and neurological disorders— problems most consider to be caused by neurological impairment, not emotional malfunctioning.

Whether you suffer from a psychiatric disorder like depression or a neurological disorder like Alzheimer’s, the simple fact is this...

Our brains don’t work well.

We suffer from bouts of depression that darken our days and make our lives feel empty and meaningless. We have irrational fears that torment us day in and day out. We live under the constant pressure of stress that never seems to cease. We lose our grip on reality. We can’t focus at work. We can’t remember what we are taught in school. And our memories just get worse and worse every day.

Because they are so pervasive, broken brains are one of the primary issues keeping many in today’s society from being optimally healthy and feeling vitally alive—an experience I call
UltraWellness
, which is something you are going to learn how to achieve in this book.

If you think this isn’t a serious problem or it only affects a few people, think again.

Psychiatric disorders affect 26 percent of our adult population or more than 60 million Americans.

More than 20 percent of children have some type of psychiatric disorder.
³
,
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More than 40 million people have anxiety.

More than 20 million people have depression.

One in ten Americans takes an antidepressant.