Holistic Remediesfor Mental Health and Substance Abuse Cravings
Holistic Therapy for Addiction: eBook
Healing is a unique process for every person, and personalized forms of treatment are sometimes more effective than traditional methods. If you or a loved one struggles with addiction or mental health issues and are looking for alternatives to conventional rehabilitation practices, then holistic therapy may be just the thing for you.
Holistic therapies combine various aspects of your life to help you find and create the balance between your mind, body, and health.
We created our “Holistic Remedies to Help with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Cravings” eBook so you can learn more about using holistic remedies in your journey of recovery.
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What Holistic Remedies Are Covered in the eBook?
Healing is a process that should never be attempted without help and support. Our free eBook provides the basic knowledge of holistic remedies and how to implement them during your recovery to anyone looking for help using alternative approaches. Holistic remedies can aid in a wide range of areas from alleviating anxiety to offsetting feelings of addiction.
Our eBook covers the following holistic therapy methods and more:
Meditation
Meditation is a well-known ancient practice that involves calming and clearing the mind. It is an amazing tool when it comes to combating mental illness and substance abuse. With practice, it can help you overcome negative thoughts by helping you slowly gain control over your mind. By simply taking a little time to yourself each day for a meditation routine, you can help your body and mind to find balance. Meditation helps you find stability, inner peace, and calmness, by steering your attention and focus on the positive things in your life.1
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice that is often confused with meditation. However, mindfulness focuses more on being present in the moment and aware of your thoughts and surroundings. Practicing mindfulness helps you to acknowledge your thoughts, both negative and positive, and embrace them in a way that ultimately makes you comfortable.2 In recovery, mindfulness can be especially helpful in situations of stress or high anxiety. Just simply acknowledging the thoughts you’re having, validating your feelings, and then trying to turn those thoughts in a positive way can help immensely. The most important aspect of mindfulness is just being present—being thankful and aware of the good and being understanding and accepting of the bad.
Yoga
Yoga is an ancient practice from India that combines breathing, concentrating, stretching, and posing to help create an overall stillness of the mind. It is an amazing method of healing because it not only incorporates moving your body, but it helps you establish control over your mind. Yoga has been found to relieve stress and anxiety, depression, improve sleep, improve balance in life, and more.3 It has become an extremely popular practice around the world that is known for its physical and emotional benefits, as well as becoming a popular practice with those who are recovering.
Acupuncture
Based on research from a renowned Chinese neurosurgeon, acupuncture has now become an alternative treatment for people battling addiction, chronic pain, and even neurological disorders. While it may seem unorthodox, there is a strong amount of research that shows acupuncture can help with relieving stress and withdrawal symptoms in recovery. It has also been found to help people relax and get the sleep they need, especially when their mental health is struggling. If you’re looking for an alternative way to fight cravings and stress while also beginning your process of healing, acupuncture might be a great remedy to try.
Fine Arts Therapy
Fine arts therapy is a holistic therapy that involves different art mediums from painting to sewing. By allowing people to engage with their feelings creatively, fine arts therapy creates a space for people to heal in their own way. Art therapy has been found to increase self-esteem, self-confidence, emotional strength, creativity, social skills, and more.4 It is a great way to create healthy ways to express your emotions and work through them when you’re struggling.
Adventure Therapy
Adventure therapy is a type of wilderness therapy that involves nature, self-awareness, and activities that are “adventurous.” These activities can range from long hikes to rock-climbing, depending on where you are and what your group is working on. Adventure therapy focuses on pushing yourself and finding the emotional strength within you that you may not have realized you had. While adventure therapy may not be the best method for some people, others have found that their lives completely changed for the better as a result of this therapy.
Music Therapy
Music therapy is another kind of alternative therapy used in recovery. It uses music and interventions to accomplish goals and change mindsets.5 Music therapy has been found to be beneficial in a wide range of areas from relieving stress to increasing the ability to express one’s feelings and communicate their needs. If you have a love for music and creativity and are looking for help, music therapy might be a valuable holistic remedy for you.
Dance Therapy
Dance therapy incorporates feelings, movement, creativity, and focus all into a practice where someone can work on their mind and body. It helps people to express themselves in new ways while also creating healthier habits with their bodies. It has been found to reduce stress, help with depressive episodes, and even improve communication skills.
Drama Therapy
There are a multitude of unique therapies available for those who are looking to improve themselves. Another one of those alternative remedies is drama therapy. Drama therapy incorporates theater and intentional use of drama to express feelings, find catharsis, build interpersonal relationships, and more. Many have found that drama therapy helps them to express a side of them they didn’t know they had.
What Are the Benefits of Using Holistic Therapy?
Holistic remedies can ease your journey of recovery in a variety of ways.
The benefits of using some of the therapies and remedies mentioned in our holistic mental health eBook include:
1. Developing Healthy Coping Mechanisms
One of the best parts about using holistic remedies and therapies during recovery is that they help create healthy coping mechanisms. Knowing how to cope is essential when dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues, as it can be easy for negative feelings to become overwhelming. Most holistic remedies and therapies are coping mechanisms themselves. Using new holistic techniques can lead you to the methods that are most beneficial to you.
2. Stress Relief
Holistic remedies play a massive role in relieving stress, regardless of the situation you may be in. When dealing with stress, many people rely on something to get them through—whether that’s drugs, alcohol, or a healthy coping mechanism. Because stress has been identified to be one of the leading factors in addiction, having healthy coping mechanisms and stress relief methods are crucial in your healing process.
3. Relapse Prevention
By creating healthy coping mechanisms and ways to deal with stress, it is much easier to fight feelings that could lead to relapse. Holistic therapies, meditation, mindfulness, and other holistic remedies can help you to combat those feelings and overcome them by using the skills and techniques you’ve learned. Alternative holistic treatments have shown amazing, long-term improvements when it comes to recovery and avoiding a relapse.
4. Alternative to Medication Use
One reason many people seek alternative forms of treatment is to avoid medication. Sometimes medication is needed when struggling with mental illness and other issues. However, many people in recovery are looking for holistic ways to heal as naturally as possible while trying to stay away from medication. Treatment methods like yoga, meditation, and acupuncture can help to relieve cravings, stress, and even boost your mood.
5. Increased Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
Substance abuse can take an immense emotional toll on anyone who struggles with it. Because of this, your self-confidence and self-esteem might have taken a large hit during your addiction. With holistic treatments, increased self-esteem and self-confidence are some of the most common results. Helping you to love yourself again, believe in yourself again, and trust in yourself again are only a few goals of therapy. Holistic remedies can also teach you to find a balance between your mind and body where you start to feel like the best version of yourself.
Van Dam, N. T., van Vugt, M. K., Vago, D. R., Schmalzl, L., Saron, C. D., Olendzki, A., Meissner, T., Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C. E., Gorchov, J., Fox, K., Field, B. A., Britton, W. B., Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., & Meyer, D. E. (2018). Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 13(1), 36–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617709589
Prathikanti, S., Rivera, R., Cochran, A., Tungol, J. G., Fayazmanesh, N., & Weinmann, E. (2017). Treating major depression with yoga: A prospective, randomized, controlled pilot trial. PloS one, 12(3), e0173869. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173869
de Witte, M., Orkibi, H., Zarate, R., Karkou, V., Sajnani, N., Malhotra, B., Ho, R., Kaimal, G., Baker, F. A., & Koch, S. C. (2021). From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 678397. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678397
Aalbers, S., Fusar-Poli, L., Freeman, R. E., Spreen, M., Ket, J. C., Vink, A. C., Maratos, A., Crawford, M., Chen, X. J., & Gold, C. (2017). Music therapy for depression. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 11(11), CD004517. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004517.pub3
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