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Understanding Holistic Addiction Treatment in Substance Abuse Recovery

About 10% of adults in the United States have had some sort of drug use or alcohol use disorder in their lifetime. 

Luckily, many people recover from addiction. When it comes to addiction recovery, there are many ways that you can go about substance abuse recovery. One of those ways is holistic addiction treatment. 

This type of treatment involves treating the entire body and person rather than pinpointing and targeting the addiction only. It incorporates looking at the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being of the person. 

This type of treatment looks at a lot of different components. Let’s dive into this guide to learn more about holistic therapy for substance abuse recovery.

Key Components of Holistic Addiction Treatment

When it comes to holistic addiction treatment, there are key components that the therapy will focus on. They are as follows.

This differs from a typical treatment that would be targeted solely at the addiction or mental therapy such as CBT. Although those may be included in the holistic treatment, it is just a part of it—not all of it. 

Physical Wellness

First and foremost, holistic therapy will focus on getting your body to be more physically well. This means that there will be a focus on exercise, nutrition, and other wellness activities. 

A few examples of this are:

  • Yoga and meditation
  • Moderate exercise (walking, running, swimming, biking, etc.)
  • Diet
  • Massage therapy 
  • Acupuncture 
  • Hydrotherapy 

These different activities will help to rebuild the body from a physical standpoint to regain strength and health in that sense. When the body is healthier, it is easier to help the mind recover as well. 

Mental and Emotional Wellness

Addiction is not usually a stand-alone problem. Typically, it also co-occurs with other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. A holistic therapy program will focus on targeting the comorbidity as well as the addiction itself. This means learning more about why a person is anxious or depressed to deal with all mental health symptoms. 

This can be done with sound therapy, aromatherapy, hypnotherapy, and breathing work. 

Additionally, there can also be music therapy, art therapy, and other creative ways to deal with emotional and mental wellness to learn better and healthier coping mechanisms. Learning these during recovery means that you will have these methods for the rest of your life. 

Social Wellness

Many times, when someone is dealing with substance abuse, they may withdraw from their family and friends. This makes the situation worse for everyone. 

A holistic treatment program will focus on fixing and recovering strained relationships with family and friends. It will re-establish social connections and encourage activities to create more connections rather than social isolation. 

Many treatment centers will focus on group therapies as well as individual therapy to incorporate social wellness into the therapy sessions. From there, they will also encourage social interactions outside of the therapy sessions as well.

Some treatment centers will create social settings to make it easier to interact with others. 

Who Is a Good Candidate for Holistic Treatment?

Holistic treatment is not always for everyone. There are so many different approaches that people can take in order to get better through therapy.

However, it is important to note that there is a range of holistic treatment approaches that can fit the needs of everyone. However, the approach may be different from one person to the net. The best way to figure out what approach would work for you or a loved one is to go through the addiction recovery process with a center to figure it out. 

Keeping an open mind is the best thing to do for recovery treatment.

Effectiveness of Holistic Therapy 

There is not as much research into the effectiveness of holistic therapy; however, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. 

In reality, it is using traditional substance abuse therapy techniques and incorporating more into it. This just means you’re getting broader therapy help rather than just mental therapy. 

Because of this, holistic practices can be a positive complement to the more evidence-based substance abuse therapies that are out there. 

Finding an Addiction Treatment Center That Offers Holistic Treatment

Many addiction treatment programs incorporate holistic treatment into their approach. To figure out if the addiction treatment center that you are looking at offers holistic treatment, you can browse the website.

If you feel that you need more guidance in this process, it is best to reach out the addiction center to talk through this. They would be able to discuss more about the holistic approach that they use and the methods that you would also be using throughout treatment. 

Another great way to go about finding an addiction center is to do a quick Google search. You can just Google “holistic therapies for addiction near me” or your location to figure it out. From there, you can read reviews on each of the locations that pops up on the search engine. 

It May Be Best for You to Get Holistic Addiction Treatment

If you or a loved one are looking for substance abuse treatment, it may be best for you to look into getting holistic addiction therapy.

This is a treatment method that treats the entire body and wellness, rather than just the problem itself.

Do you feel that you or your loved one needs this treatment? You can contact us here at Altitude Recovery Community to talk over how we can help!

Dr. Eric Chaghouri

Dr. Eric Chaghouri is a 2007 graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned his B. A. in Biology with Summa Cum Laude honors. While at UCLA, he helped the men’s varsity volleyball team earn a National Championship in 2006. He was named the UCLA Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2007. He earned his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine in 2011. He completed his internship training in 2008 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the remaining three years of residency in general adult psychiatry at the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center. He served as the Chief Resident in psychiatric emergency services during his fourth year of residency. He also served as Resident Clinical Instructor and Volunteer Faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine. After completing residency, Dr. Chaghouri accepted a fellowship position in forensic psychiatry at the prestigious USC Institute of Psychiatry and Law. His scholarly activities included publishing in Legal Digest and presenting research findings at the Keck School of Medicine annual conference. Since completing his forensic psychiatry fellowship, he has established a successful and thriving practice in Southern California, focusing on treatment of co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders. He has developed a strong clinical team of practitioners who share similar goals and philosophies regarding psychiatric treatment, including providing cutting-edge interventional treatments for psychiatric conditions. He works in an array of capacities with attorneys, courts, and other parties in actual or potential litigation. He also has extensive experience consulting and providing opinions on psychiatric issues for major television networks. Dr. Chaghouri’s interests include addiction medicine, substance use disorders, forensic psychiatry, medical ethics, psychological autopsy, gender wellness, and evidence-based treatment of psychiatric conditions.