Unarmored Talk

Breaking the PTSD Narrative: A New Path to Healing (Ep. 1 of 6)

• Mario P. Fields - Sergeant Major (Ret.) • Episode 142

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🎙What if everything you thought you knew about PTSD and trauma was incomplete—or even wrong?

Rethinking PTSD & Trauma – In this Unarmored Talk Podcast episode, Mario P. Fields sits down with Dr. David Rubenstein to shatter the usual narrative around post-traumatic stress disorder and trauma. Forget the clichĂ©s—this is a raw, eye-opening conversation about mental health, recovery, and the game-changing role of self-awareness. 

Whether you’ve faced challenges yourself or want to better understand those who have, this episode will leave you thinking differently about what it truly means to heal.

Link:
https://totalreliefmethod.com/how-it-works/

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Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in the show notes. Media on the parade deck just look in the show notes or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access to my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people Breaking the PTSD narrative. Everyone, welcome to the Unarmored Talk podcast.

Mario P. Fields:

I'm still your host, mario P Fields, and today's guest is an amazing human being. His name is David Rubenstein. He is a doctor, but he is so humble that he doesn't even want to go by that, and I appreciate that. But everyone, before I get you guys to this amazing human that I have been blessed to meet, from Christine Matala out there in California, if this is the first time you are listening or watching on the YouTube channel, welcome. And if you have been supporting me and this show and all the 100 plus guests over the past almost five years coming up this October. We thank you so much. You guys know this podcast for charity, so anytime you watch, subscribe, share, leave a comment, like whatever. Anytime you do any behavioral actions on my platforms. That's audio and video. All the monies go to Still Serving, incorporated. That's wwwstillservinginccom. That's non-profit and we are about to celebrate seven years in august this month, by the way, august 17th um incorporated with that said, david, welcome to the show man.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

Thank you, mario. I'm honored to be here. I'm very excited to have this conversation.

Mario P. Fields:

I am too, and and before we jump right into it, because because everyone, we got some mouthwatering stuff. Yeah, did you ever think I would say mouthwatering in the same framework of PTSD? I just did it. Mario Pierre Fields, can you just tell the listeners and viewers just a little bit about yourself before we get into this? Man, you're brilliant.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

what we got to talk about well, uh, I, I think I'm one of those uh people that, uh, I just I'm a regular guy. God did some extraordinary things with. That's kind of that's my story. Uh and um, I invented and discovered a process that writes the ship in human beings in kind of a total way. That's why we call it the total relief method. So far we've discovered it has 82 applications and still counting, counting, and so what it does is it essentially fixes problems that are in the body, and those problems are usually hidden to the person, and because of that they are experiencing mental, emotional, spiritual suffering, and that suffering goes away and is replaced with extremely high functioning, like going from I can't concentrate to I concentrate deeply for as long as I want without any effort, and so that's just one example. So it's a process, it's physical, that is very gentle and it happens to also be very pleasurable everyone again, total relief method.

Mario P. Fields:

You could put it in the search engine. This is, by the way, we're going to do six um short interviews. This is number one of our six part series and um, again, this one is called breaking the ptsd narrative. But in this episode and David and I had an amazing discussion before the show the way David articulated depression and anxiety, it's just brilliant. So, david, now we're live, we're on the show. Man, can you tell the listeners and viewers a little bit about that depression anxiety component in the brain?

Dr. David Rubenstein:

Sure, let's start with the attention on depression or anxiety. So you're a person experiencing tremendous depression or tremendous anxiety and it turns out they're very, very, very much connected in the brain and it seems to the person that their depression is they're experiencing it in their mind and because they're experiencing it in their mind, they believe wholeheartedly that there's something in the mind, mind something wrong with the mind, causing this problem. Not true? This is not true, because what's underlying that depression is the fact that the body has which is upstream to the problem. So you have depression. What's upstream to the problem? So you have depression.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

What's upstream to the problem is something happening in the body, and almost always this is a breathing problem. And what happens is that the body is not performing correctly and your mind goes into depression and you think that the fix is in the mind. It's not. Um. In 20 years of doing this, virtually 100 of the people that I've worked with that have been medicated for depression or anxiety has gotten off of their meds, and usually about two to four months, somewhere like that. Wow, and they never went back. And so what happens is is is that anxiety is, uh, anxiety is future, obsession of the mind, anticipation of the future, usually bad things that could, which usually never happen. Um, and that's also rooted in the body. So they're both rooted in the body, but we think they're in the mind.

Mario P. Fields:

And so David and I just got off of medication for a major depressive disorder and I was on it for one year. But I love how you mentioned anxiety is in the mind, rooted to future potential events. Depression I'm taking is the past. Your brain is fixated on past, whatever. Is that what I'm hearing?

Dr. David Rubenstein:

A hundred percent, and what happens is the body is the key to getting into the moment. If you are in the moment listen to me, this is very important If you're in the moment, you can't experience depression or anxiety, and here's the payoff. There's no power in future, past. The only power that we have to make something good in our life is in being in the moment. That's when the mind has power. Body is supporting the mind being in the moment. David, where were you at?

Mario P. Fields:

Where were you at in my life at the end of 23? You know cause? I just realized I'm so in the moment and and and I never thought about that A lot of my depression, deep depression, was tied to past events in my personal life, and once for me, once I prayed intentionally and deeply, those past events no longer bothered me and I was no longer depressed, but I never had anyone articulated that way.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

Well, this is in very real sense. This is ancient knowledge, but it's not very well known out in the general public. But you can test this in, you know, talking about those prayers that you were talking about, you know, a lot of times prayer is one of the things that will bring a person in the moment, and, as soon as you're in the moment, that depression lifts. Yes, and you know, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that most of what helps us avoid depression has to do with what's happening in our stomach, our gut. Our gut is where we produce 90% of serotonin. Wow, and chemically speaking, depression is the lack of serotonin. Yeah, that's basically what it is, and so, again, it's another example of that.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

The body is at the core of what's going on.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

Your physical health is the basis of your mental health, and I'm using that term health in a broader term than we usually think of it.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

For example, what is a healthy conversation, what is a healthy outlook, both on yourself, your primary relationships and your life? You know we had a discussion about legacy, and I think of legacy in my life personally, about the work that I do, and it brings me joy, it brings me a sense of purpose and security about what I'm doing. That's it's the right thing for me to do, and so I get lifted spiritually and mentally by the idea of legacy, and and and. Mario, when you were sharing your legacy, it's, like you know, mind expanding because your legacy is going to live on forever, because you're doing podcasts to help people and it's recorded, and and so it's here forever and um, you know, I I always say that a human being without purpose and mission is a depressed person is a depressed person Because the way that we're built is we need mission, we need the sense that what we're doing has meaning and you're gonna find meaning in your health, physically, that whole.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

It's like the container. If you have a container, that's that's going to support meaning, mission and, uh, future happiness, it's got to be a part of it, has to be the container, your body and understanding that you, you have a. You have this ability to bring yourself into the present and wipes out depression and anxiety.

Mario P. Fields:

That's a good start and I love how you you know one, ninety percent of serotonin. I would have never and I'm I'm pretty sure the majority of the listeners and viewers we have, a diverse audience around the world would never go. Yeah, my serotonin levels are off. Well, how's your gut health? Number two a lot of veterans, and that's all branches of services. But I can romantically, if you will I use that word because Marines are romantic in what we do but, uh, ura Marines, but a lot of Marines. When they get out they lose purpose. You know they're in there, they're helping people, they're around the world doing things for those who can't do for themselves. The combat part is like one percent, you know. The other 99 percent is humanitarian, improving societies, and you name it, and then it ends. And I love how you said that if a human and for this you audience if a human wakes up and they don't have purpose, then they're depressed. Wow, wow.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

And probably also have anxiety about, well, what am I going to do? And you know I'm not much in the advice business, but if you know, just a thought from human to human, make the transition from your military life to civilian life. Make it in a compressed amount of time, because the longer that process takes, the more suffering you're probably going to experience. And there's lots of things to do. Here's the key You've got to be oriented to helping other people in some way, because if you're suffering, let's say, with depression, and you start putting your attention on helping other people who need your help, putting your attention on helping other people who need your help, your suffering will not be happening during the time that you're helping other people.

Mario P. Fields:

Right, and I love how you mentioned the compressed time and especially, I did 8 million years and I did 26 years, but I have a lot of colleagues and friends who've done 20, 30. Some folks in my network have done 41 years, some of the generals and I've never heard anyone say that the amount of time that you intentionally design and strategize will make a difference on your probability of depression. David, in our circles when I say our circles, folks who've done two decades plus and I've said it, I'm going to get out and take a year off that strategy, that strategy.

Mario P. Fields:

David's going. Mario, let's take that one to the recycle put that in the recycling bin.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

I want to say from the bottom of my heart that the only reason a civilian like me gets to do what I get to do is because of you guys out there protecting this nation and all of its people to give them the opportunity to do things that like I'm doing. Uh, so I want to. I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to every single person hearing my voice right now, because I'm genuinely deeply appreciative of your work. So thank you, mario.

Mario P. Fields:

Thank you so much and you know it's a volunteer service and we volunteer for it and we can't do it without the support and you know the American people, people around the world, that just support us. So it's folks like you. That's authentic, david, that it really. It really means something. You know and I know it's from your heart and so thank you. You mentioned earlier and I even saw on your Web site and I've got to know you you have done a lot for veterans, a lot for humans. I mean you have a passion for helping humans, but for veterans as well, and you mentioned that you know veterans, the average veteran. If they came to you and did the total relief method, they were off medication within four or five months. Can you just walk me through, like, what's one of the initial things that you potentially would do for that depression?

Dr. David Rubenstein:

Okay, every depression case I've ever seen has something to do with how their body breathes, do with how their body breathes. If you hear only one thing from my words get oxygen to your brain at the right rate. And you cannot do that if your diaphragm muscle this is the main breathing muscle that we have if it's impaired, you will be affected mentally in a deep way. And so what I find is that when a person, a human being, goes through trauma, there's this trauma reflex to breathing that humans go through, and it happens. Even though it's a dramatic event, there's no drama during the event itself as far as how the body is reacting. And so we have this primary breathing muscle called the diaphragm, located at the base of the rib cage, upon which the heart and lungs are actually sutured to. When that muscle stops working, you can no longer bring air into the lower part of the lungs, which is where seven times more oxygen transport happens in the lower lungs than the upper lungs. The lower lungs than the upper lungs. That oxygen that goes to your brain and body is necessary for normal function. Depression is not normal function. When you have a diaphragm that's not working, you can't get enough oxygen. You can't get enough oxygen, you can't get enough air and some, some vets, they'll. They'll say you know, I, I knew there was something off about my breathing. I couldn't I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew there's something off. And what's off is that the diaphragm is not working and the reason why it's not noticed is that we have a secondary backup system and that backup system is muscles that are, um, they cross the neck, um, they're located here. There's one right here, the sternocleidomastoid, that'll be on the test monday morning. Uh, that, those, these muscles, there's five of them.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

When you're using those, without using the diaphragm, you will have several body pains, for example, low back and neck pain. You probably have jaw tension or pain and you'll go to some doctor that's going to help you with your back pain and that doctor doesn't know that the cause is the diaphragm's not working. And you might go to a dentist for the jaw pain and they don't know that it's because your diaphragm's working. The reason they don't know this is that this is a relatively new discovery. I'm certain that at some point it'll be standard of care that people will know.

Dr. David Rubenstein:

And just to let you know what happens in my office as soon as we do the diaphragm treatment. It's the first treatment I do with everybody, veteran or civilian. What happens is their low back pain goes away either 100% or about 90% in the first visit and it does not come back. So we know that the diaphragm is the cause and if you look at it mechanically, you can see the diaphragm mostly connects to the spine and one of the things it does is it makes the spine move, like this, the low back spine and when that stops happening, all the muscles around it contract very strong and there's your low back pain problem. So this is a reflex, it's. It's not something that you get to vote on it. It doesn't matter how strong willed you are. I meet a lot of strong willed people, okay, and I'm one of them but your strong will has zero effect on this problem.

Mario P. Fields:

You guys everyone and I hate to do this to you all, but this is a six part series and this got delicious and we're going to end it. Stay tuned for part two, as we continue to bring on David Rubenstein on the Unarmored Talk podcast for more very mouthwatering things that I know it's already changed my life on our talk fans and I believe it's going to change and save yours until the next episode, which will come out in a week after this one. They all come out weekly. I pray that God bless you. God bless your friends, families and all living beings around you. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.

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