Practicing Yoga For Addiction Recovery

Link Between Yoga & Addiction Recovery

Today, most alcohol and drug rehab facilities now offer a variety of holistic therapies. With mindfulness meditation, yoga is perhaps the most commonly used holistic therapy in drug and alcohol rehab. Meditation is often taught alongside yoga. It helps calm the mind. This can be achieved by focusing on the breath. This helps the individual feel at peace and centered. Performing yoga for addiction recovery is one of the best tools that an individual struggling with alcohol and drugs can use. For just thirty minutes each day, performing yoga will allow the person to relax without feeling negative emotions such as anxiety and stress.

Five Types Of Yoga For Addiction Recovery

Yoga for addiction recovery goes way beyond just stretching. It has long been used to help relieve stress, and scientific evidence has provided a link between practicing yoga and reducing stress by modulation of the stress response. Yoga raises the levels of GABA, which has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. GABA is a kind of natural tranquilizer produced by the brain to help manage anxiety and stress response. For centuries, worshipers of Hinduism have used yoga to relieve physical illnesses, reduce psychological distress and gain spiritual enlightenment.  Various forms of yoga include:

Bikram

Bikram yoga includes a series of 26 physically demanding postures. The goal of this activity, which takes place in a room heated to approximately 100 degrees, is to loosen tension and purify the body through sweating.

Benefits Of Practicing Yoga For Addiction Recovery

Yoga has eight components such as to conduct within society, personal discipline, postures or poses (”asanas”), breathing, concentration, contemplation, meditation, and absorption or stillness. Yoga for addiction recovery and management of drug dependence has been an intriguing area of interest since the last decade. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), yoga is being considered as a holistic intervention inducing dopamine homeostasis leading to long-term benefits in the management of addictive behaviors termed as “Reward Deficiency Syndrome.”

The treatment of substance-use disorders must include a variety of interventions. According to the research from NCBI [1], yoga and related therapies appear to be a promising interventions tool for addiction recovery. A study with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who consume alcohol found a significant reduction in the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) in the yoga group. The following are the benefits of practicing yoga:

Emerging evidence suggests that mindfulness training and yoga can target the neurocognitive mechanisms to produce significant therapeutic effects on SUDs and prevent relapse. It can reduce alcohol and drug dependence and craving, as well as other addiction-related symptoms such as pain, health-related quality of life depression, and anxiety, through improving mood state and emotion dysregulation. This is according to NCBI [2].

Importance Of Yoga In Holistic Treatment

Holistic treatment sees the body as a whole entity rather than separate and unrelated body systems. All parts of the bodywork together as one. Alcohol and drug abuse causes harm and damage to the person in all aspects that is physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and mentally. A holistic alcohol and drug rehab treatment facility includes traditional treatments such as around-the-clock medically assisted detox, individual counseling, and group therapy, along with holistic treatment therapies, which include yoga.

The overall purpose of holistic addiction treatment therapy is to find one’s true sense of self and give the individual a purpose in the outside world. The therapies used are evidence-based and are an alternative treatment route that works well for many people who did not benefit from the traditional approach to recovery; holistic drug rehabs help you process emotions in different ways.  They also teach you healthy practices that can prevent relapse.  Attention to nutrition, exercise, sleep patterns, and stress management are all critical in recovery.  Holistic therapies support these staples of a healthy life by teaching you new coping skills. [3]

6 Benefits Of Holistic Drug & Yoga For Addiction Treatment