Episode 55: Psychiatry 2.0 - A New Paradigm for Mental Wellness

In India, Dr. Aruna was taught that since there is no way to know exactly what causes mental illness, it is necessary to always look for medical neurological causes first. In the U.S., however, the body and mind are largely viewed as completely separate entities. She was reprimanded for attempting to incorporate more integrative approaches and for refusing to medicate patients with antipsychotics, opioids, and antidepressants. When she opened her own practice she began to see that there were three overall root causes of mental illness: the standard American diet, trauma, and toxins. In most cases, there was not a true chemical imbalance, and in the absence of a chemical imbalance it is generally unnecessary to use psychiatric medications.

Psychiatrists in the United States are so removed from the rest of the medical community. Mental health is seen as completely separate from the rest of the body, when that could not be further from the truth. The root causes of mental illness are often coming from other areas in the body, so an integrative approach is much more conducive to recovery than simply prescribing antidepressants.