6 Ways Mindfulness Helps Addiction Recovery and How to Start

Or we’re distracted by our phones, our attention splintered by the relentless urge to type, tap or swipe. One strength of mindfulness is that you can practice it anywhere and at any time. You don’t have to adopt a particular belief system or invest a great deal of time and energy to take advantage of this expanded awareness. Meditation is ultimately intended to ground you in the moment, and most people report feeling extremely calm afterward (and some even fall asleep during their meditative practices). It brings you back to your body and the present moment, and allows you to live right here, right now. Ready to take your recovery from alcohol and drug addiction to a whole new level?

Find Peace Through Mindfulness in Meditation During Addiction Recovery

• After successfully abstaining from alcohol for over 2 months after realizing the negative impact his drinking had on his family and work, he attends a party with old friends, where he is overcome by craving and has a drinking lapse.
• Recovering addicts who keep in touch with themselves through daily meditation are more likely to recognize early warning signs that they may be headed for relapse.
• The facilitator takes you through a scenario as you use your imagination to feel various states such as happiness, peace, connection, or growth.
• Most of the 34 studies reviewed relied extensively on self-report measures of substance use and other constructs.
• It can help tame your anxiety, provide a greater self-awareness, and help you acknowledge and cope with emotions that may not be rooted in reality.
• In 2014, a randomized control trial (RCT), the gold standard trial for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, was conducted by Bowen and colleagues.
• Here we also provide clinical recommendations about how these therapeutic mechanisms might be applied to intervening in SUDs and preventing relapse.

Comparative effectiveness research or dismantling trials are needed to determine whether such addiction-specific tailoring increases effect sizes. It is appealing to assume that the preliminary positive results in MM studies are direct outcomes of MM interventions; however, such a hypothesis is premature. The theoretical framework behind MM as well as early indirect evidence supports the use of MM for SUDs (8,9,13,14) and suggests unique therapeutic properties of MM. To prevent relapse, individuals may be able to use mindfulness to cultivate an awareness of when substance use habits are triggered by substance cues even after an extended period of abstinence. For instance, monitoring their affective state, and knowing that increased stress, despair, or anger increases relapse risk, the individual may use mindfulness to contemplate the reasons they want to maintain their recovery.

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Meditation can also be difficult as it requires a lot of focus, concentration, and quiet. If you feel uncomfortable or restless with all that silence and introspection, you’re not alone, so keep at it. Simply focus on bringing your thoughts https://ecosoberhouse.com/ back to your breathing to ground yourself. In mantra meditation, you would select a particular word or phrase and repeat it. You can repeat the mantra loudly or quietly, and the repetition allows you to focus on the environment around you.

Elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness as a treatment for addiction

• You’ll want to try relaxation exercises that don’t include controlled breathing, as well as styles that involve mental imagery over a focus on real-life sensations.
• Six months following the intervention, the mindfulness-based program and the traditional relapse-prevention program were more successful at reducing relapse than the 12-step program.
• Furthermore, responder analyses might reveal that individuals classified as non-responders are those who do not meet the minimal therapeutic dose of mindfulness skill practice whereas individuals classified as responders are those who surpass this minimal therapeutic dose of practice.
• A former reading specialist and learning center director, Terry loved her years working with children in the educational field.
• Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a pervasive public health problem with deleterious consequences for individuals, families, and society.
• Through meditation they can acknowledge their addictive thoughts without trying to push them away, yet choose the path of recovery.

This is because stress can make you more susceptible to cravings, which can lead to relapse. Luckily, mindfulness can teach you how to intentionally relax by encouraging you to slow down and sit quietly. Taking a moment to relax can help you become aware of any tension you feel. Slowing down can also prevent you from acting impulsively and compulsively. We all have that voice in our heads that tells us we’re doing things wrong, and that voice can stick around even when we’re trying to meditate.

Mindworks goal is simple—we want to help you discover the transformative power of meditation so that you can live your best life. As a 501c3 nonprofit, your support enables us to bring accessible, authentic meditation guidance to a worldwide community. In fact, philosophers have always known—and addiction meditation kundalini science has more recently confirmed—that there is tremendous value in allowing ourselves to step away from the busyness of daily life and simply be. It is in stillness, not in continual activity, that we are free to discover our own personal truths that give meaning and purpose to our life.

Can mindfulness really help prevent relapse?

Mindfulness as a means of targeting mechanisms of addiction

• Adequately powered, randomized fMRI studies are needed to test basic mechanistic assumptions long held in the field.
• We start a new diet or join a fitness club or enroll in a class, and before we know it our enthusiasm fades and the stress ramps up.
• For example, the positive affirmations and compassion training of Love-Kindness Meditation can be used for more than just making you feel better in the moment.
• Additionally, these techniques may not be for everyone due to previously mentioned challenges.