Friday Mar 17, 2023

Psychiatry 2.0 - A New Paradigm for Mental Wellness

“For almost all my patients the common themes that I began to see was standard American diet, trauma, and toxins,” shares Dr. Aruna Tummala, MD. Dr. Aruna is a board certified adult and geriatric psychiatrist and the founder of Psychiatry 2.0 and Trinergy Health. She chose to shift into integrative psychiatry because she was frustrated with the traditional approach which focuses on prescribing medications rather than actually seeking out the root causes of chronic mental illness problems. Today, Dr. Aruna discusses her experiences working in psychiatry in India and how it differs dramatically from the model used in the United States. She also shares her approach to mental wellness and the three root causes of mental illness she has repeatedly seen in her patients.

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.

Quotes

• “We really don't know what causes mental illness. We think it is a chemical imbalance. So the very least that we can do is look for medical neurological causes.” (4:44-4:53 | Dr. Aruna)

• “For almost all my patients the common themes that I began to see was standard American diet, trauma, and toxins.” (23:06-23:14 | Dr. Aruna)

• “If there is no chemical imbalance, why are we keeping these medications?” (32:55-32:58 | Dr. Aruna)

• “It doesn't matter whether you have schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, anxiety, PTSD. Everyone can heal and recover.” (38:39-38:45 | Dr. Aruna)

Links

Connect with Aruna Tummala:

Website: www.trinergyhealth.com and www.Psychiatry2.com

Substack: arunatummala.substack.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/TrinergyHealth; Facebook.com/TrinergyAyurveda

Twitter: https://twitter.com/trinergy_health

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trinergyhealth

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9XRgM7O5H28e8-Ogma-BtA

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