Holistic Treatment
Addiction isn’t merely a problem of not being able to stop drinking or using drugs. It can affect your physical health, your mental health, your social life, and your spiritual wellbeing. In substance use treatment, each of these factors can influence your risk of relapse – and need to be addressed for treatment to be effective. Holistic treatment is just that – a style of addiction treatment that treats the whole person, rather than a single problem in isolation.
What is Holistic Treatment?
Holistic treatment is a style of addiction care that recognizes how wide the effects of living with an addiction can be, and takes measures to treat each aspect of your life that has suffered due to your substance use. At a holistic treatment center, you can expect that your treatment plan caters to each domain of your life that your addiction has affected, including elements such as:
- Physical health and fitness
- Treatment of mental health symptoms, including from co-occurring mental health conditions
- Spiritual health and wellbeing
- Repairing damaged social connections, or helping clients to build new social circles
- Developing interpersonal skills
- Opportunities for recreation and enjoyment
- Creative expression
The goal of holistic treatment isn’t to just treat substance use disorders – but every facet of your life that may contribute to substance use. This is incredibly important for people in addiction recovery, as each small contribution to your overall mental and physical health can contribute to your likelihood of staying sober.
How Holistic Treatment Works
First and foremost, holistic treatment for alcoholism and substance use disorders is always used in tandem with evidence-based treatment methods. It is not meant to replace the therapies and treatments that have decades of scientific research supporting their effectiveness, but used in conjunction with them to help our clients to achieve better outcomes.
Holistic treatment starts with collaboration. Before your treatment plan is put into place, you’ll meet with our team of trained clinicians and mental health specialists to talk about what is most important to you, and what your specific goals are for treatment. This brief interview process helps us to understand which treatments and holistic methods can help you achieve your goals and have a better chance of achieving long-term recovery.
This culminates in a customized treatment plan catered to your specific needs. Holistic treatments are often built around the core elements of our program – such as individual therapy, group therapy, or relapse prevention programming – giving you time to work on every aspect of recovery that’s important to you.
Holistic Treatment Options
Your holistic treatment options can be broadly categorized into three main categories: physical wellness, mental wellness, and spiritual wellness. At our integrative holistic treatment center, each of these domains has several options to help you achieve your goals for recovery.
Physical Wellness
Substance use disorders can place your body under immense stress, and often lead people to neglect their physical health in favor of substance use. But by incorporating targeted practices to help heal the body and build your physical fitness, you can get back on track to feeling your best.
Some of the holistic treatment options for physical wellness include:
- Strength training
- Nutritional counseling
- Massage
- Chiropractic care
- Cardiovascular exercise
These practices can not only help you feel better physically, but can actually help you to maintain your abstinence long-term. A sweeping meta-analysis looking at the impact of exercise during substance use recovery showed that people who exercised regularly had substantially increased likelihood of staying sober, experienced fewer depressive symptoms, and milder substance use withdrawal symptoms.
Mental Wellness
Addiction can cause a cascade of problems with your overall mental health. Research has shown that people with substance use disorders are statistically more likely to experience a mental health disorder compared to the general population, and that people with mental health disorders are more likely to experience addiction.
And while talk therapy and medication-assisted treatment can go a long way towards ameliorating these challenges, holistic mental health practices can have a substantial positive effect as well. This includes options such as:
- Meditation
- Breathwork
- Yoga
- Art or music therapy
Science has shown that these types of holistic interventions can have a number of positive benefits. Breathwork has long been touted as an effective method of coping with the symptoms of anxiety. Mindfulness meditation has been repeatedly linked to reductions in substance use craving. And yoga integrates physical practice with mindfulness techniques, offering a unique way to treat two elements of holistic recovery simultaneously.
Spiritual Wellness
People who have lived with addiction can often struggle with finding purpose and meaning in their new lives in recovery. And while the path to spiritual wellness is inherently personal, treatment at our holistic wellness center encourages people to connect with their inner selves, explore their spiritual needs, and reconnect with a sense of higher purpose and values.
For some people, this means connecting to recovery groups with a spiritual component: such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. For others, it means dedicated time to meditation, prayer, or church. Still others can find meaning and purpose in other areas of their lives, such as within their families, communities, or service work.
Holistic treatment at TN Detox Center helps people to uncover their own spiritual needs, and engage with them in a healthy and productive way.
Starting Holistic Treatment
At TN Detox Center, our comprehensive addiction treatment programs are designed to help people overcome every challenge that stands in the way of a lasting and worthwhile recovery. From treating physical and mental withdrawal at our medical detox center, to holistic and evidence-based recovery at our drug and alcohol rehab, all the way through extensive aftercare programming after you complete treatment.
If you or a loved one is struggling with substance use, our team of addiction experts can help. Reach out to TN Detox Center today by calling 615-488-5311 or by filling out our confidential online contact form for a free, no-obligation consultation. We know how difficult it can be to take the first steps towards sobriety – but recovery from addiction is possible, and TN Detox Center can help show you the way.
