Including Holistic Modalities In Treatment

The progression of an addiction from its beginning stages to its full power is not something that can necessarily be graphed on paper, but it is plain. They start small and hidden, being barely noticeable to anyone, especially the person who is growing the addiction. But over time, problems begin to become more obvious and the disease starts to emerge.

Problems Start

Early problems might be something like someone getting drunk a little more at parties and bars, or appearing to be high more often. They start to isolate, and friends and family members start to notice that something is different, something is a little off. Maybe they start to show up late to work or are hungover more often. Grades start to slip and their social life start to fade a bit.

Then the problems get worse and more consistent. They are drunk more now, or high more often. Maybe a job gets lost and some failing grades are given. They isolate more and more to the point that relationships start to suffer and people become very worried. Maybe a DUI happens, or a car gets crashed. They are broke more often and can’t seem to manage their money well.

Getting Help

The progression of the disease gets to the point where the person either has to do something about it or they will surely live a life of suffering, or even worse, pass away. People overdose on drugs and drink themselves to death every day, and the whole time they felt that the only thing that wasn’t wrong was their usage. This tends to be the case. Even more tragic is the person who knows that their substance abuse is a problem but either does not want to do something about it or feels that they cannot.

For the person who gets help, the way to go about it is to first get into a detoxification facility, where they will become free of the substances from their system and get a clearer mind about things. After that, it is highly recommended that they get into the care of a treatment facility. In treatment, the emotional and the mental affliction that the disease has brought on will start to get remedied.

Treatment Centers

In treatment centers, one will be met with a variety of other people who have the same experiences and trials that the newly sober person has had. There, the isolation that the disease of addiction has brought on will start to get remedied through social interaction with other people in recovery.

Treatment centers are opening all across the country for pretty much any kind of affliction in which treatment is needed. These problems can include alcohol issues, drug issues, overeating, sex, gambling, and so on. With the growing number of treatment centers, the amount of ways that these places go about their treatment plans is growing as well. There are new and improved ways for delivering effective treatment to clients being developed and discovered all of the time. One of these is what is called a holistic approach to treatment.

What “holistic” essentially means is using natural means to help treat an addiction, and avoiding things like anesthesia and other types of synthetics. These natural means that could be used under the plan of being holistic might include things like massage, chiropractic care, dance, art therapy, meditation, movement therapy, Tai Chi, sports, yoga, spiritual growth and development, education in cultural awareness (when it comes to the spread of addiction problems), other types of education, individual, group and family therapy as well as some type of vocational training.

The jury is still out when it comes to the success of these types of treatment plans versus traditional ones, but there is no disputing the fact that they do work.