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Overcoming addictions may be difficult but not unattainable. If you think you are hopeless, then tell it to the numerous former addicts around the work who now work either as counselors who have dedicated themselves to helping other addicts as well as former drug addicts who now works as productive contributors to society.
Aside from adhering to standard conventional treatments like entering counseling or undergoing rehabilitation in Sierra Tucson treatment center, for instance, there are natural approaches to further help you defeat addictions.
Here are natural ways to overcome addiction which takes one’s commitment and focus, which unfortunately are things that are often difficult for substance abusers to achieve.
The first step to overcoming addiction is to accept your problem. After passing that denial stage, you can better focus on the next steps to achieving a better you.
1. Motivate Yourself
Motivating yourself is one of the toughest parts of starting your journey to fight addiction. Motivation is often stifled by fear of change or failure and of uncertainty. Note that these feelings are normal to an average person. But the key here is to stay focused on your goal to change.
While you will need the support of people and your environment on your journey, you must remember that no one else can overcome your addiction except yourself.
Even if you go to the best drug and alcohol treatment centers in the world, they all become useless if you don’t believe in yourself and that you can change. And it is precisely this thinking that makes victims sojourn back to drug use or alcohol abuse.
So how exactly do you motivate yourself?
This can be achieved by constantly reminding yourself why you want to change. Think about yourself and the need for you to get your life back on track.
Think about the people you love and you have hurt. And let them serve as your inspiration to go on with the challenge to change.
2. Meditate
Meditating is a way to clear and calm your mind. Its primary purpose for one to quiet the mind and achieve mental clarity so that you can reflect on your life or understand yourself as well as your surroundings and the people around you.
Meditation allows not only both your mind and body to relax. Most of the drug and alcohol treatment centers including the Sierra Tucson treatment center include meditation in their programs precisely to achieve this purpose. Meditation is usually conducted in a quiet environment.
Practicing yoga is one way to perform mediation. It usually involves breathing control while doing specific bodily postures. You can do meditation by yourself or engage with the help of a practitioner.
If you plan DIY meditation, it is advisable to go into a different quiet place other than your house such as nature where the ambiance is conducive.
3. Undergo Acupuncture Treatment
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese custom in which needles are inserted through specific parts of your skin designed to relax or stimulate your organs, your body, and your aura.
Although the effectiveness of this strategy remains controversial, some studies substantiate its scientific basis by associating acupuncture with improving levels of endorphin and dopamine which are in turn related to our mood and general condition wellbeing.
While these chemicals are naturally secreted through other means, acupuncture helps in making a person feel good as well as encouraging detoxification and relaxation in order to fight off withdrawal symptoms of substance abuse.
4. Exercise
Exercise helped decrease the possibility of depression and pain endurance which are all in the mind. One’s physical well-being affects one’s psychological health.
It helps to increase the secretion of serotonin which is associated with feelings of well-being and happiness as well as endorphins, the chemical hormones in the brain that accounts for positive mood.
It also helps improve sleep and relaxation which eases tension in our physical body and gives us a way to recover lost energy.
The best drug and alcohol treatment centers including the Sierra Tucson treatment center conduct regular exercise for their patients in a progressive manner.
They do not force the patient to do rigid exercises immediately but start slow and easy until one’s body copes and is then introduced to more strenuous forms of exercise.
Exercise should ideally be part of a person’s routine to be healthy as well as a person struggling to be healthy because it not only takes care of their physical health but keeps them motivated.
5. Get a Massage
Engaging in exercise may be difficult, especially at the start. An alternative way to remove stress and strain in our bodies is to get a Massage. If you are too lazy or indolent to move your body to exercise, an alternative way to improve blood circulation and energize your body is to get a Massage.
In having a massage, another person will essentially do that shaking for your muscles in order to waken them from slumber. It not only helps you to attain a good positive mood, but it also helps decrease withdrawal symptoms associated with substance abuse.
You can either get a massage therapist which is better or get a massaging tool and just have it touch parts of your body.
Massages are convenient because it does not require effort on your part and they can touch areas in the body or muscles that you don’t usually use such as your back, your neck muscles, and other areas that are nerve-rich.
6. Complement massage with Aromatherapy
For better relaxation and to attain a clearer mind, you can undergo Aromatherapy while having a Massage. You can use Anise, basil, black pepper, or a eucalyptus oil scent in order to relax your mind and free yourself from thoughts of temptations. Eucalyptus oil, for instance, is scientifically proven to help dissipate alcohol cravings.
Aromatherapy is important for overcoming the addiction because the scent that one receives drives out the hankering taste of alcohol or appetite for drugs especially those with particular scents such as marijuana. The aroma replaces the substance scent that you thirst for and desire.
7. Avoid former peers that led you to addiction
Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are. If you are trying to overcome addiction, you should prevent opportunities where you can get drugs by avoiding your former friends or colleagues that have supported and promoted your addiction in the first place.
This is precisely why the best drug and alcohol treatment centers including the Sierra Tucson treatment center would remove you from your social circles and get you into a place that is far from your former life.
This is necessary in order to distance you from the bad influences in your life and help you concentrate on your therapy.
8. Get behavioral counseling
Counseling can naturally be achieved by your family and friends. You can perform this by visiting the people you care about, asking forgiveness, and conversing with them in order to facilitate meaningful exchange.
In this way, you can also simultaneously get their much-needed support in your struggle to change.
While possible, this is, however, a bit difficult because some of your family or friends may have lost faith in you or just got tired of you. A better alternative is to obtain behavioral counseling from experts or psychotherapists who have the professional expertise, and knowledge to conduct the counseling.
The Sierra Tucson treatment center and other best drug and alcohol treatment centers in the world have dedicated staff and experts who help provide counseling for patients as part of their healing.
(See also: The Value of a Drug Intervention Program)
9. Get yourself busy
It is difficult to change if your mind is idle because the craving for drugs and alcohol will preoccupy your mind. Because of this, a natural way to combat addiction is to keep yourself busy in order to detach your mind from such thoughts.
This can be achieved by doing voluntary work where you can spend your time productively, getting a pet whom you can also find a companion for your journey, or engaging in a hobby such as photography, gardening, knitting, or cooking.
These hobbies will help you spend your time in productive endeavors that will set your mind free from the thought of drugs or alcohol. Similarly, the other best drug and alcohol treatment centers such as Sierra Tucson treatment center offers their patients numerous hobbies they can choose from as part of their treatment program.
This is also meant for patients to discover their hidden gifts or talents and become more productive citizens of society.
10. Art and Music Therapy
Art and Music Therapy are two alternative natural ways to overcome drug addiction. Art therapy like painting provides you with a channel to release your hidden emotions and repressed thoughts which may have been the unknown reason for your addiction.
The same goes for music. It provides people with an avenue to convey emotions in a creative manner by writing songs or playing musical instruments.
Art naturally provides people with self-expression and emotional release to manage stress and gradually attain recovery. Some people are having difficulty in expressing themselves in words and resort to an addiction to suppress, inhibit and forget their ill feelings even guilt.
Through art, they are not only provided with channels to express and communicate but help them to recognize and accept their emotions to promote a better understanding and awareness of themselves.
It allows patients to know themselves better and eliminate confusion or sense of loss while boosting their confidence levels in producing something beautiful and worthwhile.
About The Author:
Yamini is a content strategist at Bright Bridge Infotech, Addiction Recovery Center and she enjoys learning about the Addiction Recovery field. She specializes in guest blogging, blog publishing, and social media. She is an avid reader and loves writing impeccable content pertaining to Addiction Recovery. She holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce.
