Don’t be overwhelmed by the technical terms that you have seen in the title. For a layman’s knowledge, we would like to simplify integrative psychology in simpler terms.
Definition of integrative psychiatry
Integrative psychiatry is a novel technology that puts both conventional and complementary therapies to use for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. This procedure focuses on personalized treatments to cater to the patient’s lifestyle, his needs, and concerns. The motives behind this treatment are achieved by strengthening his self-awareness surrounding his condition, emphasizing the need to be cautious about self-care.
With every passing hour, there is an increased interest in this aspect, with prescription drugs for treating various disorders on the rise along with a sharp rise of complementary and alternative medicines. Experts claim this to be the green psychiatry that revolves around yoga, meditation, nutritional aspects like supplements, and encouraging the patients to overtake the responsibility for their wellness.
Mental health providers are emphasizing progressively on the topic of addressing a patient as a whole instead of merely addressing his disease which is in it a very noble approach.
The various approaches in integrative psychiatry
Mental health providers are processing approaches in tackling a person’s well being attaching great gravitas to his approach towards to his disease.
- Mental wellness is the optimum solution in integrative psychiatry.
You can’t just tell someone to not be depressed or anxious because that’s the way how the human body responds in conditions of stress and unease, but instead, you can ask them to focus on the happiness of the mind and body, provoking joy in day to day life. Diseases stem from the absence of the above-mentioned features.
- Relationships have a strong power to heal humans.
Not many practitioners have shifted their focus to this aspect. But that does not make this notion unworthy. Relationships whether on a personal level or in the shape and form of social support networks have a sturdy way to work people out of their despair state. They can shift a person’s overall health and well-being to the next level.
Medical care providers need to comprehend that patients need to be cared for emotionally too. Not all ailments can be cured by a pill. The feeling that they have someone to hear them, someone who wants to lend a shoulder to weep on can cause goodness that no words can describe.
- The environment deeply affects every individual.
A practitioner can never treat any symptom without knowing what caused the symptoms to surface in the first case. What causes people to feel anxious? What causes them to be depressed? What is happening in their life, to their mind, to their body? All these questions need to be understood and addressed to bring about a change in a person’s life. The environment that they commute in is either a giver or a taker; giving happiness or taking away happiness.
- Prevention is always better than cure.
You need to nip the evil in the bud, need to take action before the symptoms show. We can put it this way; avoiding injury in the first place is better than placing a band-aid over it later on. The inculcation of a healthy lifestyle (through a balanced diet, physical exercise, meditation, healthy relationships, health supplements etc) is vital to avoid the problems from surfacing.
Adapting this lifestyle will lead patients to have more ways to deal with these symptoms if they ever arise.
- All humans have a default inner healing system.
We are all made in a way to reflect goodness, both mentally and physically. That is good news. This signifies that if you are feeling sick, restless, or tired, you will just need to identify the root cause of your problems that are hampering your happiness and fulfilment and work towards removing them from your life. Its that’s simple.
Your job is to mainly focus on the obstacles, the rest will be looked after by your positive approach to these obstacles.
- Different treatment modalities should be integrated with the medications.
This is what the entire integrative psychiatry mantra is all about. The best of both worlds is integrated for treating the patient. Conventional medicine coupled with diagnostic techniques like reiki, acupuncture, massages, supplements, and others aid in improving them.
- Own your personal happiness.
This is something we all need to work on as we are responsible for our happiness and joy. As humans, we don’t have control over other people’s actions but we are blessed with an ability to shape our actions, whether we loathe ourselves for it or evolve into a better being. A patient needs to understand that happiness, joy, fulfilment is goals for which he has to strive and no psychiatrist can get them for him. These goals will remain unattained if the patient doesn’t let go of his negative traits.
- Every human being has a unique nature.
God didn’t create all men alike and this uniqueness should be honored. This difference is why we see such diversity around us. No two humans think and look alike, every mind and body has a different way of working in the greater scheme of this universe. This should be strategically kept in mind because whatever treatment suits for one patient may not work well with the other. Every persons’ needs need to be addressed for integrating psychiatry.
- The integrative practitioner must lead by example.
There is no use preaching what you do not practice yourself. There’s no worse hypocrisy than this.
- Take all experiences as learning opportunities.
All life experiences should be honoured and appreciated because they teach us valuable lessons for our next phases. There is nothing a failure in life. It’s a lesson to teach you to push your boundaries a little harder the next time.
So you can see clearly that integrative psychiatry is not just about prescribing antidepressants but it embarks upon a whole new approach aiming to target positive mental well-being. If you want to know more about this subject BetterHelp has a great article on this.
