Why Holistic Addiction Treatment Is Crucial
It’s hardly a mystery how when one area of your life is disrupted, the impact can be felt in other areas as well. Complicating any attempts to recover from addiction are a broad range of biological, environmental, and social pressures that addict’s deal with even if they are not immediately apparent or directly associated with the substance abuse and related behaviors.
According to the American Holistic Health Association, “Holistic approaches consider the person who has the illness rather than upon the illness the person has.” Instead of focusing solely on the problems that are relevant to achieving and maintaining abstinence, holistic addiction treatment helps the individual heal in the depths of their inner being.
Consequential Effects of Addiction
Holistic treatments, such as meditation, help with the recovery of physical, spiritual, and mental health.
Addiction propels individuals down the darkest paths regardless of how chaotic and unpredictable things become and despite the best of protection or wills against it. Addicts typically present a variety of physical and mental health problems, may be unemployed for years, homeless, have disconnected relationships with family and loved ones, and are unable to imagine their lives getting any better as they go through the daily cycles of intoxications and withdrawal management.
It can take months for cravings and substance-related sensations to recede and any conditioned behaviors and learned responses associated with the addiction are not easily reversed without specific countering. While the processes of recovery can be painful, holistic addiction treatment is crucial to grounding the person in meaningful and positive changes on the inside so they will be greater equipped to tackle the external issues that perpetuate ongoing substance abuse.
The Importance of Hope
The way you see things is always the way you will experience them. Carrying around burdens of past mistakes, stigma, and other losses can, of themselves, strip away identity, hope, and the perceived value that one has in themselves or their abilities to cope with “triggers” to use or manage stress in daily life routines. If, the recovering addict happens to relapse after months or years of sobriety, chances are, this hopelessness becomes all the more profound.
Between the addiction and the deteriorations in health, home, and purpose, the spirits of addicts are often fraught with misery and hopelessness so they will go on to disconnect from themselves, others, or reality often, to avoid the pain. According to the SAMHSA, “Hope is the catalyst of the recovery process.” It strengthens, energizes, refreshes, and motivates recovery efforts and holistic addiction treatments go far beyond the quick successes of detox and sobriety that does little to ensure any significance in long term recovery.
Benefits of Holistic Addiction Treatment
Holistic addiction treatments help individuals gain insight into what makes them who they are and how they can adapt daily routines to foster resilience and recovery motivations. Just as negativity builds upon itself to make many problems seem much worse than they actually may be, so every positive change can build upon itself as the goals of recovery are achieved in the spiritual, psychological, and physical health of the individual.
Along with traditional addiction treatment approaches, holistic addiction treatment enhances recovery by integrating care for the mind, body, and soul in a simultaneous fashion. Complimentary techniques that reawaken positivity in any one of these areas can have a profound effect on the way the addict perceives themselves, others, and their environment. Finding a healthy balance in one’s health, lifestyle, attitude, and spirit promotes the most influential addiction recovery benefits.
Types of Holistic Addiction Treatments
Holistic addiction treatments offer many different types of settings, programs, and enhanced recovery practices that augment the traditional addiction treatment approaches of counseling, peer support, behavioral therapies, and support services. The most commonly used methods of holistic addiction treatments incorporate nutrition, rest, relaxation, exercise, and natural healing avenues into the treatment protocols to optimize treatment outcomes. Some types of treatments may include the following as part of this healing process:
- Herbal, Aroma, and Dietary Healing – uses the natural healing values of herbs, vitamins, nutrition, or aromas to help heal and relieve a variety of adverse addiction symptoms.
- Meditation -helps improve focus, spiritual insights, physical, psychological, and emotional stability.
- Yoga, Exercise, and Massage – helps reduce stress, pain, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and promotes relaxation, self awareness, inner peace, and acceptance.
- Acupuncture – an Asian remedy that enhances physical and psychological healing, reduces pain, and stimulates “feel-good” endorphins to naturally feel better without having to use chemicals.
- Pet/Animal Therapy – proven to help in the reduction of stress, depression, and anxiety while enhancing sensitivity, patience, trust, and confidence through interactions with animals.
- Equine Therapy – helps in healing emotions and spirit through the interactions with horses who naturally, are powerful and yet, tranquil. Instilling again, patience, trust, and confidence can help addicts to battle adversities within themselves as they deal with other challenges and uncertainty in their recovery.