Are you tired of mental health solutions that
just don't work? What if the future of psychiatry
isn't about more pills, but about a whole new
healing of the mind and body together? Today,
you're about to meet the doctor who's rewriting
the rule book. Welcome back to Keeping It Real
on Purpose. I'm your host, Edna White, and today's
guest is Dr. Paul D. Corona, MD. He's a Southern
California based physician with over 30 years
of experience who's reshaping the future of psychiatry
and family medicine. Dr. Corona isn't your typical
physician. After starting his family medicine,
he transitioned into psychiatry where he developed
his own pioneering method called mind and body
healing. He's the author of the My Mind and Body
Healing series and the latest book, The Corona
Protocol. He breaks down the revolutionary strategies
that challenge conventional treatments and gets
real results. Welcome to the show, Dr. Paul.
Thank you so much. It's great to be on with you.
Oh, I'm so glad you're here. So I want to get
right into it and get the flow going. Dr. Paul,
you talk about mind and body healing. In my work,
I see how trauma gets trapped in the body and
keeps people from living fully. How does your
approach actually free people from that cycle?
Well, when I first got into medical school, I
didn't really know what I wanted to do. I liked
a little of everything. I chose to become a family
doctor because I thought, well, I can do psychiatry.
I can do pediatrics and all this. And during
the 1990s when I started, there were some really
great medications that came out. And one called
Effexor, which was after the first three SSRIs,
like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil. And the difference
is it also balances not just serotonin but norepinephrine.
So I started seeing with my patients, I was giving
it to you saying, you know what, my headaches
are gone, my back pain is better, my neck, my
shoulders, my stomach. So I started seeing this
physical link with, and I started to see this
with emotion that the stress was causing. body,
irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and especially
the neck and upper neck and shoulder area, that
area. So I started seeing this link and realizing
that there was a chemical nature to the link
and that it tied in with stress. So during the
1990s, I was just fascinated by this. And during
that decade, I got more and more interested in
psychiatry. And just basically in about 2000
or so, I phased into giving up my primary care
practice. of psychiatry. I think what happens,
these psychiatrists think about the brain, but
not the body. And I think primary care doctors
think about the body, but not the brain. And
so what I kind of did is put them together. And
that led to my first series of books, which took
me 12 years to complete, called Healing the Mind
and Body. And so I just basically documenting
everything I had learned. And I wrote the books
because, well, I wrote the first, but not knowing
I would. Eventually write six books. Mm -hmm.
So the chronic protocol is my sixth book, but
I didn't realize but I just the but I I knew
that I was seeing something that I wasn't reading
about the textbooks that I was reading types.
I know books They weren't talking about it. So
I I started writing because I realized that this
information wasn't readily available and That's
good. That's good Most of my audience has been
told just manage and their anxiety or depression.
You don't sound like that type of person to say
that. What do you say to people who are tired
of band -aid fixes? Tired of what? Band -aid
fixes. Upstanding prescriptions? Band -aid fixes.
Like the general fixes. About anxiety and depression?
Yes. Well, I mean, I think that people have to
remember everyone's got stress in their lives.
Everyone kind of feels sad off and on. There's
a difference between normal stress and the normal
sadness of time with an actual clinical problem
where with anxiety, an anxiety disorder is more
pervasive, more persistent. Or with the major
depressive disorder, the sadness is more than
just occasional, it's just persistent. When I
hear people tell me, I just don't feel myself
anymore, I used to feel good and this is not
me. That's where I step in and say, OK, that's
my goal with all my patients is to get them back
themselves again. A lot of people feel guilty
and they feel shame like my life is OK. I don't
have any reason to feel this way. And so there's
a lot of guilt and shame around mood issues because
people think psychiatric issues are not are different
than others in medicine. They think it's just
all in your mind. You should be able to be tough
enough. You should be especially men. I think
men get it. Even men get it. because men are
macho things. Men don't like to display signs
of weakness. So it's a difficult area that a
lot of people struggle with. And a lot of people
struggle with the treatment because a lot of
people don't want to take medication. Not that
that's the only option, but it's a very good
option other than counseling and exercise and
all that. Awesome. Why did you stop? going by
that traditional playbook that everybody goes
by and what made you stop doing that? Well, because
I realized it was wrong and I realized a lot
of things I was reading just weren't true. Here's
a typical example. An SSRI. Well, one is the
SSRIs are the best first -line medications. I
disagree. Most doctors will give people Zoloft
or Lexapro. They do. And I think the problem
is SSRIs are, I think, the second best first
line treatment, not the best first line, like
most doctors. There's so many side effects. The
other thing is that, oh, it's going to take four
to six to eight weeks for this medication. Yeah,
I thought it was that. Yes. That's complete nonsense.
That's never been true ever. But somehow that
myth is out there. And so in medications, especially
if you dose them correctly, should take no more
than a week to two with them to work. There's
also a lack of creativity about how to combine
medications together that have different modes
of action that. Yes, yes. There's a lot of there's
a lot of just same old same old out there. I
just don't see a lot of creativity. I don't see,
you know, because the rules, I think the psychiatric
rules are wrong. And so I. things aren't right
here. And so the conventional way to do anything
is boring. It's not exciting. It's not getting
people fully better. My goal is called remission.
Remission means people getting people fully better.
No symptoms at all. That's my goal with everyone.
Where most doctors will get people the better.
Are you better? Yeah, I'm better. But, well,
OK, good. Goodbye. Right. You can leave now.
But it's like, yeah, but I'm still I still not
sleeping well. Well, you know get some exercise
again. Goodbye. So a lot of doctors, you know
blow people off Don't spend enough time with
them, you know customer service is terrible in
medicine usually what I try to do with my patients
is spend really a adequate amount of time with
them and Listen to all their concerns explain
what I'm doing, you know, you know Which is unusual
in medicine that I can actually actually return
every phone call every day same day every email
It takes a lot to keep up with all of it, but
I'm dedicated to my patients and getting them
better and keeping it moving. Right. I love what
you're saying because I've had a client that
actually she had an adverse reaction to it when
she was depressed. She got more depressed. Have
you seen things like that? What's happening is
it's a misdiagnosis. And so if someone is depressed
and antidepressants makes them more depressed,
or it makes them feel suicidal, and you're gonna
see that with like the black box warning, and
that's what scares people. Oh, well, if you hear
what they say, it's gonna cause suicide. It doesn't
do that. If you're depressed, truly depressed,
they don't take lives. What's going on is...
it's a misdiagnosis that the person might have
a subtle case of bipolar disorder. Right, I got
you. Okay, okay. Bipolar disorder doesn't necessarily
mean the mania. You know, the more subtle variation
of bipolar disorder, bipolar depression, which
is not very pretty indistinguishable sometimes
with regular depression, but if you ask the right
question to get the right history, you should
be able to. Right, right. So if I see that happening
with any antidepressant, I pull it away immediately
and go a different direction, saying, OK, we
need to start with a mood stabilizer. We need
to go a whole different direction with this person.
Right, right. Gotcha. Yeah, because I've seen
even they spend a little bit of time with you,
and then they're already prescribing medicines,
and I don't like that. And I'm so glad that you're
talking about this now because it's so important.
Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. Yeah, it's
so important. They just want to dole out the
pills, you know, it's like here you go You know,
and let's talk about like how medications like
you said prior is how they can sometimes Conflict
with either other medications and and you know
not be effective I'm sorry. I had my my volume
is on so can you guys that one more time? I Said
you said something about you know, medications
sometimes don't mix well with other medications
or, you know, kind of, you know, obstruct the
person. What do you mean by that? Well, it's
got to be, I mean, if a medication is causing
side effects with minimal benefit, it's just
the wrong medication. For example, let's take
an SSRI. Okay. Problems with necessary which
is the most common things given most problem
common is apathy feeling flat feeling lack of
emotion. Yes sexual side effects So there you
know, I mean, but if it's working really well
It has a couple side effects, you know, maybe
I add will view trainer to take we take care
of the side effects So there is you know, there's
ways of mixing things together, but I want you
okay If someone's not on the right one, I think
that I think I can do better. I'm not going to
add something to something that's not already
a good medication. A lot of my patients are on
two or three things, but I explain to them why,
if they want to get that really, if they really
want to get to their goal, which is the back
to themselves again. It often takes more than
one, but again, what I do is I draw diagrams,
I explain how the nervous system works. I explain,
here's what this medication does, here's what
that does. do an explanation with every patient.
Here's what I'm doing. Here's why I'm doing it.
So just openly communicating with them and then
listening to them and listening to what are you
concerned? What have you tried in the past that
didn't work? So you just have to really be open
communication with patients. Sure. You're empowering
the patient. That's great. Empower them, exactly.
And my success rate is extremely high because
I've had so much experience doing things the
way I do it. And it's kind of my own methods
in a sense because I learned how to do it on
my own, really, without much guidance. But just
figuring it out on my own. Yeah, that's good.
You help your clients or your patients understand
mental health. And sometimes we want it to work
really quickly. How do you help them? understand
it's not a quick, you know, not a quick fix,
but it's a balance. Well, it's fairly quick.
I mean, the medications should work within a
week or two. So I basically it might take more
than a day or two. But the first week, we're
going to see something positive by the second
week. Okay, something positive. I'm telling them
ahead of time what to expect. And then if you're,
hey, if you're not seeing what I'm just saying
right now, right, call me because if you're not
seeing because I What I do with every patient,
every new patient especially, or every time I
start a new medication, I tell them to call me
in a week. call me in a week and let me know
how the first week goes. I can tell by the first
week of someone taking it if it's the right fit
or not. Okay. Okay. I might after the first week
say, okay, that's good. Let's try increasing
the dose to here before I see you before I talk
to you again. And so I do things very deliberately,
but I work quickly and I don't want people suffering
needlessly when I can fix it super quickly. Usually
within two to three visits, I get almost pretty
much most people better. Okay. Which is within
a month, a month, a month, the most. Well, why
do you think they're saying, you know, it takes
so long to get a result from it? Why do you think
that's being said? Why it takes so long for things
to work? I mean, yeah, like, you know, initially
they said, oh, it takes up to four to four weeks
or something to get into your system. They're
not being aggressive enough. So they, okay, we're
gonna. on this, we'll put you on Zoloft, 25 milligrams
for a month or two, and then 50 for a month or
two, and then 100. It's like, no, 50 for a week,
100 for a week. So what I do is I work quickly
and much more quickly. Most doctors drag their
feet, and then two or three months are passing
and barely anything's happening. The thing is,
a lot of patients are gonna drop out by that
point. They're gonna stay. forget this, it's
not working, I didn't think it would work. So
then all of a sudden you lose that patient and
that patient may never get treated the rest of
their life. Right, exactly. The doctor didn't
tell, wasn't aggressive enough. Right. And then
keep that person in a sufferer needlessly probably
the rest of their life because they don't trust
the doctor anymore. They say, oh well I've tried
that. Well maybe you didn't try the right thing.
or maybe didn't go to the right doctor. But a
lot of time, you know, and again, in this area
of medicine, you know, we, you know, the consequences
can be dire. If someone isn't treated properly,
we got the possibility if someone feels hopeless,
I'm never going to feel better. So what's the
point of being around anymore? So there's a lot
of that, I think, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah.
That's good info. That's good. What he said is
really good info. Listen to what he's saying.
It's really good. Okay, so we're gonna switch
the gears to your new book the corona protocol
Yeah, so what was one insight give us one insight
that will blow the conversation about treating
mental health wrong for decades Before that I
after my first three books before I talk about
that. I wrote I wrote two books for dog I really
realized that my first three books. I really
need to teach I need to teach doctors, especially
primary care doctors. I wrote you put them aside
Well, my new book, one thing is the title and
the subtitle is the part that like blows people
away. So it's called The Corona Protocol, a scientifically
proven medical solution to stop addiction, bullying,
homelessness, school shootings and suicide. years
in the making. So this book, basically, what
I did, I kind of changed directions with this
book, because I've always loved fiction. I'm
a fiction reader. So I wanted to make this more
about storytelling. So basically, the book is
30 original short stories about different people
that have different struggles. And I tell their
stories, and then I tell how I treated them.
And so I talk about anxiety, depression, bipolar
disorder, PTSD. eating disorders. Then I talk
about personality disorders like narcissism and
sociopaths. And then I talk about all those things
on the subtitle I just said. So it's a lot in
this book. I'm really proud of how it came out.
It's done very well. And then after I finished
this book, I completed a month or two ago, I
went back and finished the other two teaching
books. And so those are... those are being manufactured
currently and so then I'll have my finished six
books and then I'm done writing no more and no
more after 23 years and six books is enough and
then I'm sick of writing you like the third author
that said that no more that's it no more that's
enough that's enough yeah yeah but the book you
know what can I you know there's there's so many
the stories in the books, I think people really
love, you know, there's some sad ending, there's
some happy ending. It's just like, just it's
not every, not everything is a happy ending.
And, and so, but yeah, but I think it's an inspiring
book. People said they're very inspired by it.
And then realizing that, you know, I have I sound
like that story, you know, that story sounds
so much like me. So I try to make some of them
are based on real patients. Just change the specifics.
And some of them are based on some patients.
But I try to make each story relevant to people.
So anyone who's struggling with any type of mental
health issue can find at least one story in this
book that's going to be helpful. Okay, all right.
What's one thing that, you know, one, you know,
maybe one conversation or, you know, a chapter
that would be so outstanding that set out for
you, that you, you know, you like the most? I
know you like every bit of it, but just one part.
I like, I guess the first chapter is on anxiety
disorders. Gotcha. I tell a couple stories about
two different people who struggle with it. Why
that chapter? Because Anxiety is the number one
thing I see. Yes, and I hear it everywhere. It's
the number one most common psychiatric illness,
or whether it's social anxiety, or generalized
anxiety, or phobias, or whatnot, or generalized
anxiety, or panic attacks. I mean, it's a miserable
condition to have, and it's the most common.
So that's why I wanted to make that opening chapter
really pop up. And so I think that chapter turned
out really well. And the depression chapter,
the bipolar chapter, I think I like them all.
You know, I really put a lot of time into developing
each story. You know, it took me like, I don't
know, four or five years for me to finish this
book. But I took the time with it to make sure
I got everything right on it. Right, right. Okay.
Good. Good stuff. So you're bringing this message
also to more people with the Dr. Pol show. From
your perspective, why do we need to have these
conversations out loud instead of behind the
doctor's office doors? Well, I got approached
by a patient of mine sent a woman in my book,
my recent book. She owned a TV network through
a Roku, an Amazon fire. Anyway, and she knows
we had a zoom meeting and she said she liked
my book a lot and she said, you know Would you
be interested in doing a reality show based on
what you do? and so I said sure and so we are
in our fourth or fifth season now, but Basically
the show is me most of the show besides the interviews
I do is me sitting with patients So I basically
pick people with really interesting stories who
are willing to come on camera and we sit down
usually about a half hour and and basically they
I they go through their story and then what led
them to see me and I talked about the treatment
and then they usually they're all happy endings
because I wouldn't probably have men otherwise
but they're all like live testimonials and then
after I'm done usually like that's pretty cool
I try to get four people to come in and to make
it my make it worthwhile to get my videographer
to come in and then I after I'm done with all
of them and after when everyone leaves and I
take my whiteboard out and I go through each
patient, okay, here's what I did, and I draw
out the neurons, which are nerve cells, and explain,
okay, here's what this, so I explain on the board
what each medication actually does. Oh, that's
good. But yeah, and see, it's gone really well.
We're up to over seven million views worldwide
on road food. Wow. on our YouTube channel, we're
up to over 140 ,000 views. We're getting over
5 ,000 new views a week on my YouTube channel.
Wow. It's really blowing up. And so if you want
to find it on YouTube, well, it's the Dr. Paul
show on Roku. But if you want to find it on YouTube,
you have to specifically put The the dr paul
show all lowercase and also all stuck together
with no spacing and no period so it's so th e
dr paul sh o w so you put it all like just like
that scrunched together then you can see it get
a free channel and Yeah, but i'm really proud
of the show. It's doing really well. People love
it. Um, we're doing a season right now on ptsd
So I'm having a veteran with a purple heart come
on and I'm attacking, I'm talking about PTSD
with different people, EMT, first responders,
veterans. you know people have gone through really
traumatic experiences and so that's what season
and um but yeah it's it's it's really it's fun
it's been fun to do it it's been very impacting
and so i'm also blowing up on tiktok and instagram
i'm my social media sites are doing really well
um yeah and so it's it's been it's been great
and i and i are selling. And on the first three
books, Healing the Mind and Body series, I've
re -edited them. So they're coming out with new
covers and new content. Oh, that's beautiful.
A relaunch. A relaunch. Everything is getting
relaunched. Yes. Awesome. Yeah. And then now
I want to teach. Like I said, I want to give
back. I really want to give back by talking to
doctors about how to do this and how to do it
correctly. And I think primary care doctors like
myself are really the ones who need this. Yeah,
they need you. They definitely do. Also, psychiatrists,
I mean, not, you know, not to derate psychiatrists,
but they often do things also the same old, same
old way, and they're not really very creative.
And so I want to I'm hoping even to get to the
psychiatrist if they're willing to listen to
me being a family doctor or everything. But I
think I have some insights that, you know, that
I think it would be helpful for them, too. That's
great. Well, this is the last one, and this is
a big one. If someone's listening right now feels
that they tried everything and nothing has worked,
what will you tell them today about not giving
up? Well, they probably really have not tried
everything. They might have, you know. So I have
a lot of patients who come to see me that I've
tried everything and they haven't. So then I
look back at what the previous doctors tried.
They're like, well, they're just doing the same
thing over and over again. They tried five SSRIs.
They tried this. They haven't stepped back. They
haven't gotten the diagnosis correct. So that's
the one thing is to make sure that the diagnosis
is correct and how they try the correct medications.
There's other alternatives. There's psilocybin,
microdosing mushrooms. That seems to be very
hopeful. There's a lot of increasing evidence.
There's ketamine, which has gotten more popular.
There's safety concern, but if you go to someone
who knows what they're doing, and then there's
what we call TMS, where you sit in this chair
and they have these things around your head.
It's not like electric convulsive therapy, but
that's another expensive, but that's when medications
don't work. So not to give up. If you have a
struggle, just... There is an answer out there.
But even if you haven't found it yet, don't give
up. There is. If you're struggling, it's real.
And don't let anybody ever tell you, oh, just
get over it. Just try harder. That's the concept.
If you feel the way you're feeling. And most
of the reasons for it is genetics. Genetics is
the number one reason people go crazy. people
are looking at situations more and thinking like,
well, my situation is okay. Why would I feel,
well, it's not always my situation. I look at
your mom and your dad, your grandparents, your
siblings, you know, I mean, here's an example.
I mean, Robin Williams, and I know you've heard,
you might have known Twitch, you know Twitch?
Yeah, I mean, both of those suicides really blew
me away. I mean, You know, Robin Williams, happy
guy, always funny. Yes, cracking jokes, everything.
Yeah. She's always smiling and dancing and he
had two young kids at home. So you wouldn't expect
and you think, well, someone who was like that,
they were probably doing great with money. They're
at fame. They have all these people who love
them. These things. And well, you know, and why
would my son was really mad. He said, she's mad
at Twitch for doing it. don't be mad at him.
He was miserable and he was super, he was depressed
and he didn't see a way out and he did that.
And so things don't make sense often in this
area of medicine. But there's a reason for I
think things happening and there's typically
really good solutions. That's good. Wow, this
conversation has opened my eyes and I know audience
it's opened your eyes. So if this has done some
you know, something for you in this healing journey,
by all means, stop by and visit the Dr. Paul
show and buy his book today, okay? Don't forget.
One quick thing before we wrap up, my books are
available, my books are available on Amazon,
Barnes Noble, and Walmart, and my newest front
of protocol is also on Audible, and it's on audiobook
on Audible, so. Yes, all right. Yeah, so, you
know, we love to have, like, people on the show
to just be, you know, involved in so many things,
and we're all about mind and body. So, guys,
I want you to check us out, watch this, and then
get the book. You can find it anywhere. Just
look up Dr. Paul. Just do that. Dr. Corona, look
him up, and you'll find all his books, and please
visit his show, The Dr. Paul Show. And if you've
liked this episode, please like, subscribe, and
share the episode with some people that can break
free from the old way of thinking. Join us here
on the YouTube channel, Keeping It Real on Purpose.
And we thank you for visiting us today, Dr. Paul,
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