Podcast Summary

Podcast: Change Your Brain Every Day
Episode: Breaking Your Doom Loop Right Now
Hosts: Dr. Daniel Amen & Tana Amen
Date: November 24, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode kicks off a series centered on Dr. Daniel Amen’s latest book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain. Dr. Amen and Tana Amen explore the intricate relationship between physical and emotional pain, how pain becomes imprinted in—and perpetuated by—the brain, and tools for breaking out of the “doom loop” of suffering. The conversation blends neuroscience, personal revelation, and practical strategies, while emphasizing hope, healing, and empowerment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pain Isn’t Just Physical—It’s a Brain Process

• Dr. Amen highlights that all pain is processed in the brain; chronic pain isn’t simply a body issue.
  • “Pain for any reason activates the suffering pathway, leads to this invasion of ants and negativity…” (00:00)
• Brain SPECT imaging showed Dr. Amen that pain circuits become overactive in those with chronic suffering, validating pain’s psychological reality.
  • Example: “I saw that pain actually begins in the brain… his anterior cingulate gyrus… was the hottest one I have ever seen. He gets stuck on the thought of pain.” (06:39)

2. The "Doom Loop": How Suffering Perpetuates Itself

• The Doom Loop is a cycle Dr. Amen conceptualized, where pain (of any kind) activates suffering, triggers negative thoughts, nervous tension, and harmful habits, culminating in a persistent “quagmire” of pain.
  • “The star of Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain is something I developed called the Doom Loop.” (01:15, 27:24)
• Pain → Suffering pathway → Automatic negative thoughts (“ANTs”) → Nervous tension → Harmful habits → Quagmire/quicksand of pain.
  • “You get an invasion of ants—automatic negative thoughts... Your muscles start to get tense... you hurt because you're living with this dynamite.” (28:10–31:53)

3. Personal Stories Validate the Pain-Brain Connection

• Tana’s Story: Debilitating back injury labeled as “bone on bone” and “not recoverable”—she resisted surgery and tried alternative healing rooted in brain health.
  • “I crushed a disc, it wasn’t bulging, it was gone. Bone on bone. They said, there is no coming back from this… I wanted to try everything else first.” (03:20)
• Sam’s Story: Police officer with chronic back pain, addiction, and multiple surgeries, whose “gear shifter” brain region was overactive. With targeted intervention, he improved dramatically.
  • “He said, you know, I still hurt, but I don’t think about it all the time. And it was a huge win for him.” (09:10)

4. Emotional Trauma, Childhood Adversity, and Pain Sensitivity

• Early trauma makes brains much more sensitive to pain.
  • “‘Our research shows 70% of chronic pain patients have untreated emotional trauma… Hurt brains sense more pain in your body.’” (14:47)
  • High Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) scores correlate with chronic illness, pain, and even shortened lifespan.
    • “If you are a six or higher, you actually die 20 years earlier.” (20:37)
• ACE score explained: Scale of 0-10 for adverse childhood experiences (abuse, neglect, etc.). Both hosts disclose ACE scores of 8. (20:01–20:17)

5. Three Pain Pathways in the Brain

• Feeling Pathway: Detects pain and its location (spinal cord to thalamus to parietal cortex).
• Suffering Pathway: Emotional reaction to pain (anterior cingulate, insula, basal ganglia).
• Calming Pathway: The brain’s ability to dampen pain (prefrontal cortex).
  • “If it’s healthy, it can damp down the pain. If it’s not healthy… it can’t turn it off.” (17:14)
• Mental health variables (depression, trauma, ADD) weaken these pathways, making pain harder to control. (15:14–18:05)

6. "It’s Not All In Your Head"—But The Brain Is Central

• Both hosts emphasize: pain is not “fake” or imagined; it is physically lodged in brain circuits.
  • “It was physically in my head. Physically, biologically stuck in my head.” (11:03, Tana Amen)
• Acknowledging the brain connection is vital for both validation and empowerment.

7. Social, Psychological, and Spiritual Layers of Pain

• Pain isn’t just biological. Isolation, unstable relationships, and spiritual wounds (moral injury) can intensify pain.
  • “One of the biggest causes of pain is emotional instability in a relationship… There’s spiritual causes to pain.” (21:56)
• Meaning and purpose act as buffers against suffering.
  • “People who have a deep sense of meaning and purpose, they do better when they have pain syndromes than people who don’t.” (23:18)

8. Negativity, Repressed Rage, and Pain

• Negativity bias—deep pessimism—dampens the calming brain circuits.
  • “The more negative you are, the less frontal lobe function you have... then you can’t turn off the pain.” (29:25)
• Chronic pain often masks (or is worsened by) repressed rage—especially in high-achieving, people-pleasing individuals (“goodism,” perfectionism).
  • “When people are, especially women… we’re taught to be polite… The more you have been taught that, sometimes the worse it is for you when it comes to feeling pain.” (25:12)
• Rage journaling is highlighted as a valuable tool. (25:12–26:24)

9. Hope and Agency: The Brain Can Heal

• Even with structural injuries, the brain and body can adapt and heal—if given the right inputs (mindset, movement, emotional processing).
  • “Your body was created to heal. So if 80% of people my age who have no pain have abnormal backs, it could be your body figures out ways around it.” (32:33)
• “Every single day, I can make it better or I can make it worse.” (33:33, Tana Amen)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dr. Daniel Amen (00:00):
  “Negativity is hard on your brain, and then it becomes hard on the brains of the people you care about.”
• Tana Amen (03:20):
  “I crushed a disc, it wasn’t bulging, it was gone. Bone on bone… they said, there is no coming back from this… I wanted to try everything else first.”
• Dr. Daniel Amen (06:39):
  “I saw that pain actually begins in the brain… His anterior cingulate gyrus… was the hottest one I have ever seen.”
• Tana Amen (11:03):
  “It was physically in my head. Physically, biologically stuck in my head.”
• Dr. Daniel Amen (14:47):
  “Our research shows 70% of chronic pain patients have untreated emotional trauma. It’s a tango. Hurt bodies hurt your brain. But hurt brains sense more pain in your body.”
• Tana Amen (20:37):
  “If you are a six or higher [ACE score], you actually die 20 years earlier.”
• Dr. Daniel Amen (25:12):
  “One of the big ideas from John Sarno’s work… is that chronic pain is often an expression of repressed rage.”
• Tana Amen (33:33):
  “Every single day, I can make it better or I can make it worse… Now I do Pilates every day. I do strength training every day.”

Important Timestamps & Segments

• Effects of Pain on Brain Health: 00:00–03:15
• Tana’s Back Injury Story: 03:20–04:09
• Fear & Dread After MRI Findings: 04:09–06:39
• Sam’s Case & SPECT Imaging: 06:39–09:49
• "Is Pain All In My Head?" Conversation: 09:49–11:51
• The Three Brain Pain Pathways: 15:14–18:05
• Adverse Childhood Experiences & Pain: 19:07–21:08
• The Four Circles of Pain: 21:56–23:51
• Repressed Rage, Perfectionism, and "Goodism": 25:12–26:24
• The Doom Loop Cycle Explained: 27:24–31:53
• Tana’s Healing Without Surgery: 33:01–33:58

Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Chronic pain is both a physical and brain-based phenomenon—understanding this opens avenues for healing.
• Breaking the doom loop requires addressing not only the body, but also automatic negative thoughts, emotional patterns, behavior, and meaning/purpose.
• Trauma and negativity bias can “prime” the brain to experience more pain; shifting this is possible with awareness and new habits.
• You have agency: “Every day you’re making it better or worse.”
• The episode is the first in a series; subsequent episodes will delve deeper into tools for rewiring your brain out of pain, including the “relief loop.”

For more details, pre-order bonuses, or tools mentioned, visit changeyourbrainchangeyourpainbook.com.