Holistic Treatment for Anxiety and Addiction

As our understanding of mental health issues continues to evolve, the array of options for treating co-occurring disorders has correspondingly expanded. Today’s rehab programs are more sophisticated and accessible than ever before, but the sheer number of choices could start to feel overwhelming. As you research inpatient treatment facilities for yourself or a loved one, here are some advantages of holistic treatment to be aware of.

What Is Holistic Treatment?

Your overall well-being includes psychological, physical, social and spiritual components. Traditional rehab programs may include one or two of these facets, but holistic methods involve addressing all these aspects simultaneously. By combining clinically proven treatment modalities with complementary therapies like meditation, acupuncture, massage and yoga, a hybrid approach represents the best of both worlds.

Despite representing an alternative to conventional anxiety and addiction treatment, holistic programs like the one we’ve created provide the full continuum of care, including evidence-based approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy.

Are You a Good Candidate for Holistic Treatment?

If you’re in the early stages of researching qualified treatment centers, you might be pleasantly surprised to learn that addiction recovery isn’t a cookie-cutter process. For best results, it’s worth your time to do your homework to find a facility whose health and wellness philosophy aligns with yours.

Anyone can achieve lifelong sobriety and serenity by following a holistic treatment plan, but the holistic approach might specifically benefit you if you have any of these characteristics.

• You are returning for another round of rehab after experiencing a relapse.
• You prefer to take a secular, non-12-step approach to recovery.
• You have a dual diagnosis of addiction and anxiety or another mental health condition.
• You’re searching for a program that is versatile enough to adapt to your specific needs.
• You struggle with low self-confidence and believe you’d benefit from a program that emphasizes personal empowerment.
• You feel that science-backed treatments would suit your needs better than a mostly faith-based approach.
• You’re interested in uncovering and addressing the underlying causes of your addiction and anxiety with help from a professional counselor.
• You believe you have the inherent ability to overcome anxiety and live a healthy, happy life without relying on maladaptive coping mechanisms.

California’s Leading Holistic Treatment Provider

At Complete Harmony, our professional clinicians will develop your addiction and anxiety treatment program to meet you where you are. For people who would rather rely on secular, research-based methods, we offer supportive substitutes to the 12-step approach. If the idea of surrendering to a higher power in addiction recovery resonates with you, we will guide you through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as the foundation of your recovery. The choice is yours.

We’ve created a hybrid addiction treatment model that fuses proven therapeutic modalities with supplementary amenities like nutrition coaching, yoga, massage, professional counseling and chiropractic care. Here, you’ll heal all aspects of your well-being. Connect with us today to learn more about holistic treatment for a dual diagnosis.

Returning to Rehab After a Relapse: What You Should Know

Like with other chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, relapsing is a common characteristic of addiction. If you’ve returned to drug or alcohol use after a period of sustained sobriety, it does not mean you’ve failed, or that you won’t be able to learn the skills and habits necessary to manage an addiction over the long term. Instead, it indicates that you didn’t fully address the root causes of your disease in treatment, and that you might need to return for a second stint in rehab.

Should You Re-Enter Treatment?

There is no cure for addiction. However, a treatment program can teach you how to take an active role in managing your illness and avoid pitfalls that could trigger a relapse. If you do fall back into your old patterns of addictive behavior for several days or weeks, you might find it increasingly challenging to get your recovery on the right track. Each day you continue using, the goal of long-term sobriety slips further away from you.

As reluctant as you might be to admit you need to go back to rehab, if you relapse, you must seek help as soon as possible. Returning to a controlled environment that removes triggers and provides you with no access to addictive substances will put you back in the driver’s seat.

Round Two of Rehabilitation

Another reason for relapse is that the rehab center you initially chose did not fully meet your needs. For example, perhaps their treatment philosophy didn’t align with your values, or you felt they did not provide you with an adequate amount of structure. Relapse centers vary widely in the approaches they take to putting their clients on a healing path, and what clicks with one person might not necessarily connect the dots for you. Finding a center that takes a different approach than the last one you went to may produce better results.

Cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy, for example, can be extremely effective at treating addictions by changing how you think about and respond to various situations. Over time, these treatment modalities can help you unlearn the habits associated with your addiction as you develop healthy new coping mechanisms.

Combining these evidence-based approaches with holistic therapies such as yoga, massage and meditation will give you a robust foundation for managing any stress and negativity that may enter your life. Knowing that you have a strategy for relaxing and rewarding yourself other than drug and alcohol abuse can be the difference between experiencing a self-destructive relapse and responding with equanimity.

Speak With a Recovery Advisor

If you are exploring your options for addiction rehabilitation, whether for the first time or for follow-up treatment, consider the reasons to add Complete Harmony to your list. Our holistic, non-12-step approach has helped hundreds of men and women from all walks of life break the cycle of addiction and achieve lifelong freedom from drug and alcohol use. If you have not found 12-step treatment successful in the past, or you have struggled with frequent relapse, we invite you to reach out to us today.

Rediscover Your Health With Alternative Therapies

If you’re working on overcoming an addiction, your primary focus is to reclaim your health. Long-term drug and alcohol misuse has left you physically, mentally and spiritually imbalanced, and now you have turned your attention to the quest for wellness. Alternative therapies, including the field of holistic medicine, can be the asset you’ve been looking for.

What Is Holistic Medicine?

Holistic healing is based on the idea that treating the whole person is essential to better health. All living beings are a system of interdependent parts, and if one of those parts is not working properly, it will cause all the other components to suffer.

While traditional Western medicine relies heavily on prescription medications to “cure” illnesses, holistic doctors rely on all forms of available health care to treat their patients. Giving you medication will not be a holistic healer’s first and only recourse. To begin with, they will take into account all the other factors that may be contributing to your imbalance, including sleep habits, stress, diet and exercise. A holistic treatment plan will include lifestyle modifications to realign your overall well-being, rather than addressing only one symptom.

Guiding Principles Behind Alternative Therapies

Holistic medicine draws its effectiveness from the concept that all people are born with self-healing abilities. A physician who specializes in holistic healing takes a person-centered approach. Instead of focusing solely on your ailment, they will address the underlying causes of the condition using a variety of treatment options.

Your practitioner’s goal will be to help you take responsibility for your health and well-being. Depending on their training, they may recommend specific lifestyle changes to help you achieve a better physical, mental and spiritual state of being. These changes may include nutrition, counseling, exercise or modifying your sleeping habits, among others. Some alternative wellness providers also offer therapies such as massage, acupuncture, homeopathy and naturopathy.

How to Find a Holistic Healer

If you are interested in working with a holistic practitioner near you, you can use the search feature on the American Holistic Health Association’s website to connect you with healers in your area. When choosing a doctor, be sure to research their training, experience and background, and make sure the provider is board-certified.

In holistic medicine, you and your health care provider work as a team to heal you physically, mentally and emotionally, so you should be sure to look for a doctor whose treatment philosophy and ideals align with yours. You also want to find someone who makes you feel at ease and respects your goals and beliefs.

Above all else, when researching potential alternative therapies, make sure the treatment options go beyond pills. You want to rediscover whole-person wellness that also takes your unique needs as a recovering addict into account. A doctor whose foremost approach is to send you home with one or more prescriptions is understandably someone you might be wary of working with.

An Alternative Approach to Addiction Recovery

Are you ready to rediscover the joy and confidence in your life? At Complete Harmony, our caring team of specialists is dedicated to helping you conquer your addiction and heal you with our state-of-the-art, non-12-step programs. We will develop an individualized treatment plan that respects your beliefs and boundaries, and you will realize the best in yourself along the way. Call our California addiction treatment center at 866-930-4673, or reach out to our recovery advisors online.

New Study on Yoga and Depression

Yoga and deep (yogic) breathing may be the perfect Rx for major depression disorder (MDD), according to a new study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Perhaps the best part: You don't need to become a yogi to reap the mental health benefits. 

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine found that people with MDD who participate in just two, 90-minute yoga classes per week (plus at-home practice) showed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms. And adding an additional class didn’t make a substantial difference. Many types of yoga likely fit the bill, but study participants took Iyengar yoga, a technique emphasizing various postures and yogic breathing exercises.

“While most pharmacologic treatment for depression target monoamine systems, such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, this intervention targets the parasympathetic and gamma aminobutyric acid system and provides a new avenue for treatment,” explained corresponding author Chris Streeter, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and a psychiatrist at Boston Medical Center.

Yoga for Addiction Recovery

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction and depression, yoga is an excellent complement to traditional treatment. And it can be performed by all ages at all exercise levels. Some of the many benefits include: 

• You’ll find inner peace by aligning the mind, body and spirit
• You’ll reduce stress and anxiety in a healthy way
• You’ll redirect harmful and negative thoughts
• You’ll identify and release cravings
• You’ll clear mental fog, especially common in early recovery 
• You’ll experience a sense of community

Finding Inner and Outer Peace

At Complete Harmony, our yoga practitioners enhance addiction recovery by guiding clients in this ancient healing art. Yoga, along with other alternative treatment methods, is also used to ease the symptoms of a dual diagnosis like depression and addiction. To learn more about our program, call 866-930-4673.

How Does Gardening Help With Addiction Recovery?

Toiling in the soil can do wonders for your mood and for your recovery – and, perhaps the best part, you don’t even have to have a green thumb to experience the many health benefits. 

Firstly, gardening is a great mental workout; it requires patience, planning, foresight, and persistence – all qualities you’ll need to strengthen as you heal from addiction. And it can teach you mindfulness, encouraging you to focus on the task at hand without letting your mind wonder to thoughts about past wrongs or pending recovery tasks. 

Digging in the dirt has also been shown to help fight depression and persistent low mood. Mycobacterium vaccae, a harmless bacteria found in soil, is believed to mimic an antidepressant drug by stimulating the production of the “feel-good” hormone serotonin. 

And, not surprisingly, if you opt to grow a small fruit or veggie garden, you’ll reap nutritional benefits, too. Gardeners have been shown to eat more fruits and vegetables, according to several studies.

Health Benefits of Gardening
Check out some other health benefits linked to gardening: 

• Better mental health
• Boosted self-esteem
• Increased levels of vitamin D
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• A greater sense of control
• A greater ability to achieve goals
• Improved immune response
• Lowered heart rate
• Reduced risk of bone loss
• Increased flexibility
• Weight loss (one hour of gardening is equivalent to roughly 35 minutes of jogging)

So what are you waiting for? Get out in the fresh air and sunshine and get digging today! And consider making it a family affair: Growing a small garden together can be a great way to bond and rebuild relationships. 

Begin Holistic Addiction Treatment Today

Complete Harmony is proud to provide a long list of holistic therapies that help clients detox more comfortably and pursue improved wellness during active rehab. To learn more about our alternative treatment avenues, call our admissions team at 866.930.4673 today.