An affair with the inner self : Part 1

” The coming decade will be the decade of psychiatry and psychiatrics.” Somewhere i read or heard this frightening and alarming sentence.

Blame it to the easy and fast life,technology, altered family values, complicated relations, high ambitions, hectic work hours, living more in virtual life, self centered living, lost inner self and a non ending list. But yes psychological diseases are proving as the ongoing increasing bread and butter for the field of psychiatry.

The raised numbers of patients coming for emotional , psychological ailments in OPD along with other chronic diseases is the concern to write this blog.

Very few are blessed to handle the stressful situations, problems and inevitable circumstances in a positive balanced state of mind . Most of the people end up in the imbalanced or disturbed emotional state of psychology or in simple words disturbed mental health.

Being an Ayurveda consultant right from first year of our studies we are trained to see our patient not only a mere physical subject. A body(Kaya , which is a sanskrit word for body)  with a mind (Mana, sanskrit word for mind) is a person that we are going to treat.  The reason for this holistic approch is that the basic principle and goal of all Ayurvedic literature and practises are to achieve the sound state of both , body and psyche( mind).

Any imbalance in any one of the factor that is body or mind is termed as vyadhi ( disease) . That underlines the importance of psychological/ emotional/ mind  health. This clearly suggests that Ayurveda have its own theories on Psychology/ pshycological diseases

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the potential role of Ayurveda in psychology disorders for early detection, treatment and preventive measures.Many readers of my blogs are other than medical field. The write up is presented considering the mixed audiance and also the need of the subject.

This blog will be in more than one parts to make it easily understood.

The foundation of modern pshychology is based upon the personality types and traits like aggressiv, passive ,optimistic pessimistic and traits like openess, extrovert or introvert nature, actions ,attitude and behaviour . Some negative traits like Laziness,Dishonesty,Arrogant,Rude,Quarrelsome,Impulsive,Selfcentered,Unfriendly,Thoughtless,Vulgar,Obnoxious and many more are considered to decide the core personality of a human being .

Ayurvedic literature long before  had already categorised these traits of personalities in the topic Prakriti. The unique body type or prakriti depending upon the Vaata , Pitta and Kafa dosha has a specific role to decide the personality traits of every person. Every dosha has its unique influence on the emotional health of human. Therefore certain prakriti person show some similar behaviour, emotional states in many persons having same prakriti.

That means the prakriti factor has tremendous potential to identify the pshychological aspects, future pathologies and the pshycosomatic profile of the person.

If the person herself/ himself is aware of own prakriti he / she can bring the favourable changes in behaviour, responce ,lifestyle and can also seek the help of the expert in time.

For us consultants the prakriti can be a diagnostic tool to asses the physical as well as psychological health or diseases. The line of treatment is prakriti specific most of the times.

Lets see the influence of  three dosha and three major prakriti on psychological profile of a person.

1.Vaata prakriti: Vaata Dosha stands for constant change, reformation , speed and is responsible  for inconsistency  and mainly higher catabolic reactions.

The Vaata dominat prakrti person has emotional traits  like frequent anger, fear, jealousy  , inferiority complex , self obsessed , greedy and quick tempored responses . Indecesive nature, the prompt reactions without thinking about the consequences can land these persons in severe acute behavioural problems like depression, uncertain and inconsistant expressions of happiness and sadness in behaviour etc. Personalities like  aggressive passive, pessimistic are under the vaat dosha influence .

The imabalnce of Vaat dosha will affect the mind of individual the same way it will create the physcial diseases.

2.Pitta dosha: Pitta dosha stands for Fire element. The agni dominant prakriti. The ambitious , aggresive, dominant , type A personalities are pitta prakriti people. They are goal setters and keen on achieving them . Self pride, self restrictions ,anxiety and self pressure can land these persons in acute stress, hypertension, sudden drastic life changing decesions, destructive behaviours and anxious expressions of day to day work, stressful relations etc. These people cannot tolerate the failure , sudden change and are hard to accomodate in stressful conditions.

Any imbalance or increase in pitta disha will aggrevate these traits too. Simple example if your boss suffering ftom hyperacidity never ask for leave. Apart from joke pitta dosha always cause some acute physical and emotional stress.

3.Kafa dosha: Kafa dosha stands for stability, strenght, composed nature ,trust and thoughtfullness.

The pshychological traits like easy going, slow to anger, forgiveness,  faithfullness make these personality graceful.

Due to soft , calm and slow moving nature of Kafa dosha these people do not suffer from acute behaviour or emotional disorders. But these people hold and posses things for long  in mind which make them prone for heavy oppresive depression.

The increased kafa doasha in assistance with Vaat dosha can affect the rational behaviour of kafa dosha people .

So we have seen that every dosha is responcible to decide the personality traits in every person which is called as prakriti (indivisual body type).The prakriti can be a tool for the prediction pshychological profile.

The take away message from this blog :

Ayurveda has described the different types of prakriti with its physical as well as pshychological significance.

The dominant Dosha in prakriti has key role in deciding the persons physical health and psychological profile.

So the prakriti criteria is the fundamental tool in the psychology and which should be effectly used to treat the psychosomatic ( disorders of both body n mind) diseases.

In next blog we will read about the another behaviour factor of us human which is responcible for both the sound condition of mind or the freaky roller coaster rides of emotions and behaviours .

Please feel free to ask ,suggest and take time out to express your views in comment section.

Keep reading Keep sharing

Dr.Rupali Panse,’Aadyam Ayurveda’

Ph no.9623448798

(The above write up belongs to the author Dr.Rupali Panse.The act of sharing the knowledge with due credit to the blog author will be appreciated. Image source internet)