Holistic treatment for opiate addiction focuses on healing the addict’s mind, body, and soul simultaneously. Treating the addict as a whole is most beneficial to recovery because the improvement of each aspect has an influence on the ability to improve the others ensuring reasonable expectations for a successful recovery.
Physical Healing
Holistic treatments help to restore the person to optimal health using various complementary or integrated approaches with medical interventions and other health promoting aspects of nutrition, rest, relaxation techniques, and exercise.
Psychological Healing
Counseling, psychosocial interventions, and cognitive and behavioral therapies are commonly integrated with various holistic treatments for opiate addictions. Improving mental and emotional health involves helping the person to balance their beliefs, attitudes, emotions, and behavioral aspects in positive ways that promote the desire for recovery.
Spiritual Healing
Holistic treatment is a popular alternative form of care for opiate addiction.
Spiritual healing varies by person. It can be faith based or non-faith based. Holistic treatments complement the physical, psychological, and emotional healing of the person with other holistic measures.
Holistic Treatment Options
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Addiction treatment must help the individual stop using drugs, maintain a drug-free lifestyle, and achieve productive functioning in the family, at work, and in society.” Holistic treatment for opiate addiction can be used as a complementary or integrated treatment to enhance the recovery of individuals.
Complementary treatments outside of a conventional opiate treatment program may be useful and beneficial, but, there are many facilities that integrate these treatments within their programs for greater effectiveness.
Acupuncture is an old Asian remedy that stimulates healing through the careful insertion of fine needles in systematic ways to specific areas of the body.
Pet/Animal Therapy has proven to be a successful holistic treatment for opiate addiction by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression while instilling the importance of positive behaviors that promote trust, confidence, and patience through interactions with pets or other animals.
Equine Therapy is another example of animal therapy involving horses. Horses are powerful and yet, tranquil, creatures that can have a positive influence on the person’s emotional health as well as their psychological and spiritual health. Interactions with horses and other animals can help to free up the preoccupation with opiates, encouraging a more satisfying lifestyle.
Meditation helps to; improve focus, reduce stress, relieve pain, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and insomnia which are common co-occurring conditions in people struggling with opiate addictions.
Yoga, Massage and Exercise therapies are complementary holistic treatments that canimprove physical and psychological wellbeing, promote, relaxation, self awareness, inner peace, and acceptance.
Herbal medicine is a holistic treatment for opiate addiction that uses herbs to provide vitamin and nutritional balances as well as relief from a variety of unwanted symptoms. This type of treatment can be used to promote optimal physical health as well as psychological and emotional health.
